Publisher FAIL
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/01/11/the-n-word-of-the-narcissus
Since I'm the one who posted Heart of Darkness, it's time for a reverse sentiment.
Joseph Conrad's writing is about the malevolent form of imperialism, its negligence, its destruction of landscapes and native peoples, its passionless or at worse lack of acknowledgment of the basic human rights of subjected cultures. Both sides of the argument in this article are incorrect: being politically correct and switching all instances of "nigger" with "n-word" is not helping draw more appreciative attention to a book about these themes, it is showing we still are unable to be confronted with it. The only attention it draws to the book is that our society is so wimpy it cannot face its own prejudices, and that this is ingrained even in publishers too afraid to stand up for what a book actually says. However, the other side of the article sums it up as being ironic because the book is about "white guilt." Please. What a weak and effortless synopsis of what Conrad was trying to reveal. The "n-word" publishers get closer to the fact than that.
FAIL, fails all around!
--PolarisDiB
Since I'm the one who posted Heart of Darkness, it's time for a reverse sentiment.
Joseph Conrad's writing is about the malevolent form of imperialism, its negligence, its destruction of landscapes and native peoples, its passionless or at worse lack of acknowledgment of the basic human rights of subjected cultures. Both sides of the argument in this article are incorrect: being politically correct and switching all instances of "nigger" with "n-word" is not helping draw more appreciative attention to a book about these themes, it is showing we still are unable to be confronted with it. The only attention it draws to the book is that our society is so wimpy it cannot face its own prejudices, and that this is ingrained even in publishers too afraid to stand up for what a book actually says. However, the other side of the article sums it up as being ironic because the book is about "white guilt." Please. What a weak and effortless synopsis of what Conrad was trying to reveal. The "n-word" publishers get closer to the fact than that.
FAIL, fails all around!
--PolarisDiB