Image via WikipediaI am unable to sleep off this cold, so I thought I would take this opportunity of repose to write to you, and keep you updated on my small world.
I'd also love to set up a time to chat about this Mark Twain business. When is good for you? I don't want to get you sick, so I was thinking sometime next week?
You'll notice that I added the Twitter gadget to my blog. I do feel a little silly, yes, but it's all in the name of connecting to as many people as I can! I'm still trying to get the hang of it.
I had my first podcast interview with my friend Katie Davis on Monday. It should be available after 6pm tonight. I got a HUGE surprise that I thought you would get a kick out of. What is it? Well, Rocco Staino from the Empire State Book Festival called in to let me know that my Gran, Madeleine L'Engle, will be inducted into the Empire State Hall of Fame on April first! Not only that, but he asked if I would be willing to accept on her behalf, and then participate in the Book Festival the following day to promote Edges! I am so excited!
Maybe we should talk about the Mark Twain affair right now, seeing as I've brought up my Gran, who was very much against censorship of any kind and would bah humbug the notion of changing a book published over 100 years ago in the name of political correctness, because then it would not be the book that Twain wrote. The "n" word is being censored, and replaced with a more palatable word. The UK Guardian posted an excellent editorial here. As Twain himself said: "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
However, I understand how painful "words" can be, don't you? Can't we have a teaching moment here? My kids haven't read it yet, but I plan on reading it to them, (as our middle child is named after Huckleberry Finn) and having a very nuanced discussion.
A country in Northern Europe was translating A Wrinkle in Time, and asked my grandmother if they could delete a section of the book! Remember the scene with Mrs. Whatsit, where the kids are asking who their "fighters", their "lights" in the world could be? And they come up with Buddha, and Einstein and Michelangelo as well as Jesus? This publisher wanted to censor everything but Jesus! You know what my Gran said, don't you? Absolutely not!
