RESPONSE to Dan's post: A History of Violence

       Dan, you raised an interesting point about the violence that is in the Brothers Grimm stories and the fact that the reason why violence is in the media is because it is accepted to a certain degree. I want to expand on this point and look at the fact that the kind of violence in the media reflect the violent actions (or reactions to these actions) occurring in a specific time period.

       The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain recently made another appearance in popular culture. The book is often taught in school systems as it greatly contributes to the history of American Literature. Written in the vernacular of its time, the book was brought in the limelight again because of its use of the word "nigger." This caused an uproar in today's popular culture because people were outraged that the word "nigger" was still being tossed around in the classroom and that it made students uncomfortable. I completely understand the reason why people would be angered by this. The slavery and racism that existed in the 19th century does not exist in the 21st century. It would be correct and indeed reflect our modern age to remove the word from Twain's novel. However, even though the word has terrible connotations to it, removing the word and replacing it with a censored version would mean removing history from the book. Mark Twain was not necessarily a racist, but he was representing the kind of violence that was going on in that time, and even though they were immoral acts of violence, does not mean that it should be forgotten.
         In conclusion, this print media explicitly represents the violence that was occurring during the 19th century. The fact that it was brought up again in popular culture today and reassessed, represents the changed attitudes toward violence. It is wonderful that racism does not exist as much as it did.