Items
from the papers in the last week or so ...
The
London Guardian reports that most Americans oppose the new version of Mark
Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--new because the publisher replaced
the n-word and other offensive terms with PG versions considered more
acceptable to modern readers.
A
Harris Poll found that 77 percent were against the changes, with liberals, conservatives and moderates equally opposed. The
publisher, NewSouth Books, says were made to provide an “"alternative for
teachers who want to use the books in their classrooms, but are unable to
present them in their original form because of pressure from parents or
administrators to exclude the books.”
• • •
The
New York Times ran a Style-section piece on the newly fashionable typewriter, which is
attracting a growing subculture of young revivalists who are “fetishizing old
Underwoods, Smith Coronas and Remingtons, recognizing them as well designed,
functional and beautiful machines, swapping them and showing them off to
friends. At a series of events called ‘type-ins,’ they’ve been gathering in
bars and bookstores to flaunt a sort of post-digital style and gravitas,
tapping out letters to send via snail mail and competing to see who can bang
away the fastest.”
Here's a key quote: “You
type so much quicker than you can think on a computer,” says Brandi Kowalski,
33. “On a typewriter, you have to think.”
Trivia: The typewriter was invented in 1864 by Christopher Latham Sholes of Milwaukee. The site of his workshop, which is identified by a historical marker, is located just 15 miles from The Writer offices.
• • •
The
Times also ran a profile of the Windies, a group of die-hard fans of Gone
With the Wind who meet periodically to celebrate “all things G.W.T.W.” This
year, the 75th anniversary of Margaret Mitchell’s book, makes for an
extra-special celebration.
“Connie
Sutherland, director of the Marietta [Ga.] Gone With the Wind Museum, is a student of
the Windies. She says they are mostly middle-aged straight women and gay men,
and usually white. But a new crop of younger, more diverse Windies is popping
up at high schools and colleges, she and veteran Windies said.
“
‘They just didn’t know there are others who feel that way about it, too,’ Ms.
Sutherland said. ‘It becomes a whole social network.’ ”