How Do You Go About Reading "The Adventures Of Huck Finn" To Your Kids?

Jack is in the process of reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to his kids and trying to figure out how to go about reading some of the language used in the book. Our great texters chimed in.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I brought up reading Huck Finn to my son and
trying to figure out, how do you deal with the
D bombs in there? It might be slightly different for
me than it is for you, as somebody that's in
the public where I could end up in a situation
where if my son or anybody could claim that I
said the N word, then it becomes a social media thing.

(00:22):
And somebody says he said that little too easily. You
can tell he says that all the time, you know,
that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
He didn't have to read that.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
He could have used a different word, right, And then
I lose my job, and I just don't know. I
don't know. I don't know. And it's kind of weird
to read in a book and then tell your kid,
by the way, this book, this word that I'm going
to read one hundred and fifty times in this book
you can't say out loud or will end your life.
So all right. One person said, just call him a
black dude. Some people said, how about negro? I don't know.

(00:53):
Maybe somebody said, just just say it was the word
of the time and go ahead and read it the
way it is. Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Know, you're absolutely right, that should be the way I can. Yeah,
if somehow, some way, Well, in fact, I want to
make it clear Jack has never read that word aloud
while reading that book, not even once. Don't admit to
ever reading it. Well, I haven't good. That's how scared

(01:19):
I am of it. Excellent reasly the magical incantation.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Absolutely, we got this pretty good. First, you have to
evaluate if your kids are old enough, mature enough. I
think already did that. Then you need to contextualize how
the N word was used during the time it was written.
You need to explore the warning at the beyond the
book and explain irony to your kids. Then, and this
is the important part, point out how the only consistent
moral character at all times in the book is Jim.

(01:46):
Jim is the black guy that is befriend's Huck and
contracts Jim to Huck's pap, which, by the way, just
showed up last night in the chapter Huck's dad is
a worthless drunk and beats him all the time, and
it is a horrible human being. Contrast Jim to Hook's pat,
making clear that Jim is the only real father Huck has,
again pointing out the irony for the novel written at

(02:09):
that time, that Twain makes the slave the moral center
of the book. It's deeply complex novel and maybe not
for your children. Yet I disagree with that.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Um, that's an excellent point, though, I'm beautifully written, Thank
you friend.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah. And how is that loss? Well? I've heard people
make this point many times as this topic comes up
over the years and talk radio. But how is that
lost on so many people that want to ban that
from libraries. Jim's the hero of the book.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
And the discrimination against him, juxtaposed against his goodness makes
a person.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Hate right up, you stupid blinking morons. The fact that
Jim I hate you, I hate you to my soul.
That's hate speech right there. You can tell use the
word I hate you. Yeah. The fact that Jim is
such an obvious, loving, wise character and then gets treated

(03:02):
bad by people like Huck's dad where white people makes
you hate racism. That's the point of the book. But
it gets banned because of the magical word.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Someday, maybe through facial recognition or I don't know how
the technology AI you will be able to see someone's IQ.
Maybe they'll appear above their head in a little halo
or something, and stupid people will not get to run anything.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
WHOA, you don't have to be a genius. You just
don't have. You have to not be aggressively stupid.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yes, stupid morons, I hate you.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Excellent use of wool Michael Ellis