Its never OK to change a writers original words to make it more palatable to the masses. It's a part of our history, what next, sanitizing history books so the kids won't be upset by our mistakes? How then will future generation know not to make the same ones?
SS109 wrote: It does seem wrong to change an author's words without his consent. But considering this great book is very high on the school banned list because of the word "nigger", is it better to let the kids read a sanitized book?
The power of words?
Realistically, no, it is not better to let them read a sanitized version. The reason I say this is that the book is a criticism of the segregation that was occurring at that time and the language used in the book is central to that criticism. We might not always be proud of our history, but like it or not, it is our history and the posterity of the nation should not be sheltered from any aspect of our history, good or bad.
Newspeak is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suits the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim is to make any alternative thinking—"thoughtcrime", or "crimethink
That may be the real reason for the censorship. If you create a new edition with different words, you could copyright it again!
