Words that are bad in a book or play/script

[keithy_19]

In my english 102 class we are reading the play 'Blues For Mr. Charlie" by James Baldwin. The play for those of you who don't know takes place in the segregated south and is about the murder of a black teen by a white man. Throughout the book words are used that are racist (ie: peckerwood, charlie, nigger, ect...). So while reading this play we as a class take selected parts and read as that character. We say peckerwood, we say charlie, but we can't say nigger. Instead we say N or N's if it is in a plural context.

Now, I have nothing wrong with us saying the words that white people found offensive back then, and i suppose some find today. I jsut think taking away the word nigger from our reading stifles the creative intent of the author. I'm well aware that everyone in the class knows the history of that word and the negative context it leaves behind, or did leave behind before it was made mainstream. It's jsut my feeling that no one in that class will be offended if we simply read the story as it was/is written.

Am I off base here?

[PapaBear]

I don't think you're off base. This controversy has been around at least since Huck Finn. I know it's touchy to a lot of people, but the original works shouldn't be changed, so long as the intent of the work wasn't to be racist, but to accurately portray the times.

[ChrisTheCop]

To me, art is art, and no one should mess with it; to remove or add anything to it is blasphemy.

If your teacher, or the powers that be, deem certain parts of Mr Baldwin's work to be too offensive, they should not present it at all.

What if the current offensive term was "black"... Would they make you say "B word" like me?
Ridiculous.

If an art class decided to study Manet, would they have to black out 'certain' parts of "Blond Woman With Bare Breasts"?

This kind of thing always bothers me.

[keithy_19]

I don't think you're off base. This controversy has been around at least since Huck Finn. I know it's touchy to a lot of people, but the original works shouldn't be changed, so long as the intent of the work wasn't to be racist, but to accurately portray the times.

The playis meant to show racism, but show it in a negative way. It works borth ways too. Hatred is bad. That's the moral. Hatred is bad and it poisons you.

I guess I'm also viewing it as someone who is a lover of the tehater who has acted on stage since I was six. When they go into a script and change the script because of words, it takes away the effect of a scene and is a lot harder on the actor.

It also orks the same way because I'm an aspiring writer. If someone were to take a story I had written and changed it so it would be PC, I would be pissed. There's a reason for the way it's done.

[keithy_19]

To me, art is art, and no one should mess with it; to remove or add anything to it is blasphemy.


:clap:

[PapaBear]

The playis meant to show racism, but show it in a negative way. It works borth ways too. Hatred is bad. That's the moral. Hatred is bad and it poisons you.
In that case, it's absolutely INSANE to take the word out! Geez!!!!

On a side note... I've never understood how it's wrong to say Negro or Colored (not that I ever have), but there is still a United Negro College Fund, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

[patsopinion]

thats all fine and dandy until someone really gets into the part and pulls an anthony/cramer and over enunciates it, puts the hate into it

then the class ends and you have to retake it and that fucking awful book about the witch trails again

[keithy_19]

In that case, it's absolutely INSANE to take the word out! Geez!!!!

On a side note... I've never understood how it's wrong to say Negro or Colored (not that I ever have), but there is still a United Negro College Fund, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

We were able to say colored which kind of confused me.

[keithy_19]

thats all fine and dandy until someone really gets into the part and pulls an anthony/cramer and over enunciates it, puts the hate into it


That's what being an actor is all about. You put yourself into the characters shoes. I'm reading for the part of the killer. He hates black people. Therefore, I read the part like I hate black people because thats how the character feels and thats how the author intended it. It doesn't make me a racist, it makes me a method actor.

[Yerdaddy]

In my english 102 class we are reading the play 'Blues For Mr. Charlie" by James Baldwin. The play for those of you who don't know takes place in the segregated south and is about the murder of a black teen by a white man. Throughout the book words are used that are racist (ie: peckerwood, charlie, nigger, ect...). So while reading this play we as a class take selected parts and read as that character. We say peckerwood, we say charlie, but we can't say nigger. Instead we say N or N's if it is in a plural context.

Now, I have nothing wrong with us saying the words that white people found offensive back then, and i suppose some find today. I jsut think taking away the word nigger from our reading stifles the creative intent of the author. I'm well aware that everyone in the class knows the history of that word and the negative context it leaves behind, or did leave behind before it was made mainstream. It's jsut my feeling that no one in that class will be offended if we simply read the story as it was/is written.

Am I off base here?

You're 100% right here. As well as being one of the greatest pure writers America has ever produced, nobody has ever expressed better the intimate details of what it was like to be a black man in America in the middle of the 20th century than James Baldwin.

Your professor doesn't know what he's doing. Blues for Mister Charlie was meant as much to say that racism was hurting whites as well as blacks and to try to tone down the way Baldwin chose to express the racism of his time. He's trying, for some backwards attempt at sensitivity, to change the perception of our history and culturte. Baldwin's judgement to use those loaded terms should not be questioned by contemporary college professors who think they know better than him what should and should not be said in his art.

You should have a discussion on whether to change the script and the original language should be restored.

[realmenhatelife]

I'll bet this has alot to do with it being a 100 level course and probably has alot of non english/theater majors in it- censoring a work in class is pretty rediculous. Either that or your teacher/board has no balls at all.

You definately negate the artistic impact of using racist words, and set up that double standard by using the white slurs. James Baldwin, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, August Wilson etc were not using slurs for shock value, and its insane that we let people second guess that. 'Woah woah woah you may have a nobel prize, but I have an MBA from Penn State, buddy, and I don't like that kind of talk.'

On a minor note, in high school we were talking about Huck Finn and noone wanted to say the N word, and we were all these suburban white kids skirting around it and talking about it's use without saying it, and then the hottest girl in the district just busts out 'nigger' and I got a hard on like you wouldnt believe. That don't make you a bad person.

[keithy_19]

I like my professor, I jsut think it's silly to say N and N's instead of Nigger or Niggers like the script reads.

[SatCam]

If I were reading it in class, i would just say it anyway


you kno, the n word

[keithy_19]

If I were reading it in class, i would just say it anyway


you kno, the n word

I say we should say nigger and then say, ya know the country in africa after every time we say. Even though the country is pronounced differently and spelt different. Whatever.

[IamPixie]

I say we should say nigger and then say, ya know the country in africa after every time we say. Even though the country is pronounced differently and spelt different. Whatever.

good one. douche.

[IamPixie]

I think this whole thread is an elaborate excuse for keithy to say nigger.

[Bulldogcakes]

I say we should say nigger and then say, ya know the country in africa after every time we say. Even though the country is pronounced differently and spelt different. Whatever.

http://www.teevblogger.com/images/richards1106.jpg

"GREAT CAREER MOVE! I'VE USED IT MYSELF!!"

[keithy_19]

I think this whole thread is an elaborate excuse for keithy to say nigger.

What can I say? This girl gets me. :dry:

[IamPixie]

i'll slap the shit out of you dude.

[keithy_19]

http://www.teevblogger.com/images/richards1106.jpg

"GREAT CAREER MOVE! I'VE USED IT MYSELF!!"

Well, I guess he's happy to be known as something other than Kramer...

[Bulldogcakes]

I think this whole thread is an elaborate excuse for keithy to say nigger.

What do you expect from a dumb Polack like him?

[keithy_19]

i'll slap the shit of you dude.

I don't deny it. But I'm not saying anything bad. The one comment was a comment on satcams post. It wasn't to be taken seriously.

[keithy_19]

What do you expect from a dumb Polack like him?

A drunken polack at that.

[IamPixie]

so was mine. but your :dry: face sent me over the edge.

[keithy_19]

so was mine. but your :dry: face sent me over the edge.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it.

[IamPixie]

this e thuggery is working out well for me.

[Bulldogcakes]

A drunken polack at that.

Way to combat those stereotypes, Krzysztof.

[keithy_19]

this e thuggery is working out well for me.

:surrender:
:smile:

[IamPixie]

I can't stay mad at you-
http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/hug006.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

[TheGameHHH]

this e thuggery is working out well for me.

its all the muscle youve been building up in the work it out thread

[keithy_19]

I can't stay mad at you-
http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/hug006.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

:wub:

[Recyclerz]

... nobody has ever expressed better the intimate details of what it was like to be a black man in America in the middle of the 20th century than James Baldwin.

Ron voice: Jeez, I'll have to dig up Ralph Ellison and tell him the bad news.


:wink: