Hey, remember the “Robotic Edition” of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? That was the project of Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine to release a version of Mark Twain’s classic that replaces “n-word” Jim with Robot Jim, a response to a publisher’s intention to publish a version of the book that revised literary history by simply editing out the offending word. We reported on it in February, when Gabe and Etta were raising money for the publication through Kickstarter. And now, the book is available, complete with lovingly redrawn versions by Denise Devine of the original E.W. Kimble illustrations that include everyone’s new favorite character, Robot Jim. A boy, a robot, a classic.
Click here for all the details, including a free sample for downloading. The book is available as an eBook in ePub/PDF and Kindle versions for $5.99 each as well as in a deluxe hardcover edition that comes with the ePub/PDF version; you can get that package here, and it’ll start shipping December 10th, they say. And you can also get illustration prints, “ROBOT” necklaces, and handmade Robot Jim sculptures, each solo or in bundles with the hardback book. Again, all the details you need are at this link.
Please join Diani & Devine for the official launch party of Robot Edition Huck Finn at NerdMelt in LA, December 19th @ 7p!
Also, we learned the title is “Adventures of..” and not “THE Adventures of…” as it is often referred to (including our original project video on Kickstarter). Cliff’s Notes even calls it “The!”
Okay, THAT’S interesting.
And I stand corrected.
Twain also technically never referred to Jim as … uh … that name you said it was okay for us to call him. Apparently, Albert Bigelow Paine first coined the term. Just one of the things we learned on this project!
Three reasons to write it that way:
1.The authors referred to it as the “n-word” in their original proposal and we quoted them in the original item that way; It didn’t strike me that we needed to address that differently now.
2. The point of the project isn’t to advocate the use of that word. It’s to drive home the idea that the original should be left as it was written, in its proper literary and historical context.
3. I didn’t think it was necessary. I don’t use that word and didn’t see a need to make an exception here. No outside pressure, just my own judgement and writing style.
No, I got that, obviously. And hooray robots! I just didn’t know whether there was an outside reason for “N-word Jim”, written exactly like that, to appear above that I was unaware of. And if not, censoring yourself in a post about the silliness of censorship is ironic.
…Was my point. 🙂
Yes, it is a meta-joke that you are missing. These people are comedians. This was a satirical reaction to those schools trying to pull/change Huck Finn. This edition of the book is 100% real and wonderful, however.
“N-Word Jim”? You don’t see a teensy bit of irony in self-censoring that name considering the context? Twain called the character “Nigger Jim.” So can you. It’s really okay.
Or is there some other meta-joke about this I’m missing?