Samantha Pierce

Now in all of the fuss about altering Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn so as to not tread on certain people's sensibilities I came across a reading of this bit of text from the book; Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I weren't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a state in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote again. You can listen to, or read the transcript of, this conversation here, Should The N-Word Be Purged From Mark Twain’s Classic? You know what jumped out at me when I heard this? It wasn't the word nigger. It was the image of a man who was too drunk to vote getting all indignant that someone he considered inferior to himself was exercising that particular civic duty. That's a powerful image to me. Changing nigger to slave (as has been done to a recent edition of the book) in this passage makes no sense ...

I've been meaning to share this bit of text ever since I read it several months ago. The following is an exchange between Sergeant Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobs of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch from Thud! ( Wiki with spoilers, Amazon ) by Terry Pratchett. "War, Nobby. Huh! What is it good for?" he said "Dunno, sarge. Freeing slaves, maybe?" "Absol--Well, okay." "Defending yourself from a totalitarian aggressor?" "All right, I'll grant you that, but--" "Saving civilization against a horde of--" "It doesn't do any good in the long run is what I'm saying, Nobby, if you'd listen for five seconds together," said Fred Colon sharply. "Yeah, but in the long run what does, sarge?" The whole book is a good read. Leave it to Terry Pratchett of make ethnic and fundamentalist strife damningly funny.

Cross posted at Say Anything: Reader blogs . This has nothing to do with this post except that it generated the following thought. The Death of Taxes is a Discworld character that I would love to see Terry Pratchett write.

I've learned that laughing with sutures in your mouth is perhaps not the best thing that one can do. I discovered this while ubby was reading Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky to me last night. Pratchett is a very funny writer who crafts great characters and great stories. I've been enjoying his tales since high school. Last night every giggle and guffaw came with a wince. It's hard to laugh without moving your face. Good thing I had an ice pack handy. The antics of the Wee Free men (also known as the Nac Mac Feegle), "the rowdiest, toughest, smelliest bunch of fairies ever," had me in...stitches (sorry, couldn't resist).