The Celebrated Jumping [chat] of Calaveras County
Psycho Internet Hawk
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Wikipedia wrote:"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1865 short story by Mark Twain, his first great success as a writer, bringing him national attention. The story has also been published as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" (its original title) and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. Twain describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to—to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."
A 2011 edition of the story, published by NewSouth Books, replaced the word "frog" with "amphibian." The initiative to update the story was led by Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben, who said the change was made to better express Twain's ideas in the 21st century.Gribben said he hoped the edition, which does not replace other uncensored versions of the story, would be more friendly for use in classrooms, rather than have the work banned outright from classroom reading lists due to its language. Another scholar, Thomas Wortham, criticized the changes, saying they did not adequately convey the connotations of the original story's harsh language.
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YOU GAT DANG RACIST
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
I also don't have numbers, and if you're right I'll change my tune.
my new tune would be 'this is disturbingly prevalent so even if I think any given case makes sense (within the narrative, I mean) I don't like the trend'
I have no trouble with that at all, I just don't actually know that it's the case.
but I haven't seen every movie obviously, and this is an issue I never even heard of until Avatar came out, something I'm ignorant on.
I'm a guy who enjoyed dances with wolves, you know? I'm on of them.
Hmm Alan Gribben spear headed this change and he looks surpringly not black at all.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Fucking awesome.
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Wait, nevermind. It glorifies the heteronormative "traditional" nuclear family dynamic while encouraging the capture and incarceration of wild animals for human amusement. No unedited books remain.
I mean it's not an enduring classic and frequently cited favorite novel or anything
nope
that shit is L'Étranger levels of owned-but-never-read
But.. what makes it bad when Hollywood does it?
Hollywood is after-all an American thing where the majority of the population is white.
I had a whole thing typed up about people reacting to Avatar more for the trope it seems to fit in rather than its specifics, but I lost it when the thread closed
I finished reading it. And read Tom Sawyer on my own.
I also read The Stranger.
For context, I immensely enjoyed blue Avatar, even in spite of it being indicative of what I see as not necessarily a problem, but definitely an uncomfortable trend
I have. I really enjoy Twain and while Huck Finn isn't my favorite of his novels I have read it multiple times.
I own and have read l'etranger
It depends, if its an original story, sure go ahead white it up. But if its originally a story with minorities (hello airbender) and you white wash it, then its retarded.
This also can be stupid when you turn a character like I dunno Jim West into a black man.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Almost got fired from my last job for heating up pad thai once. not Indian food, but true story bro.
but any damsel thats in dress be outta dat dress when they meet jim west!
I probably should have included a sarcasm tag
Wasn't thunderheart based on a real story? And I'm pretty sure that Kilmer was supposed to be part native american right?
pleasepaypreacher.net
I agree with this.
The Last Airbender was especially terrible about it because they had source material that was already in a visual form. Though I found the "white main characters" thing mostly annoying because it just looked terrible.
That movie was a complete wreck though. Horrible horrible thing to watch.
After I finished reading it my response was "Wut"
true story bro
pad thai is one of my favorite things and it really bugs me that a lot of places still use fish sauce in it
it was a happy day when I went to a noodle place here and they were all "well since you got tofu I need to let you know the normal pad thai sauce has fish in it, but we have another we use that is just as good for vegetarians/vegans"
To me it's not really "bad" or anything. It's an easy way to make money, by assuming the majority of the movie-going public is a) mostly white, and/or b) used to seeing whites in leading roles. Catering to the demographic, and all that.
However, you can see why people would get upset about it when it's a white person taking the lead role of "The Last of the Mohicans" or "The Last Samurai". While it does appeal to the correct demographics, it sacrifices quite a few things such as realism, historical accuracy, blah blah blah political correctness.
But I understand why Hollywood does it. Visuals are much more impacting than reading a novel since you can go an entire book without ever thinking about the protagonist's face, whereas in a movie you see it like 100% of screentime. People can identify with a book protagonist pretty easily regardless of race, but when it's like, Ludacris in the main role of a movie, even if he's playing a respectable CEO businessman, people are like ehhh
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Might have allergies.
it's kind of loosely based on a real incident
and yeah, his character is supposed to be half-indian and discovering his roots, IIRC
*sniff sniff*
Looks alright.
yeah I thought that might happen
that's good though, I'm glad you were going to say that.
I see your point though. I'm not exactly about to count movies but I'll be more aware of it from here on, sort of took talking about it to see at what point/in what way it would bother me.
Not to completely disagree, but an appeal to the market doesn't make something "good".
I mean your entire post is pretty much accurate, I disagree that it isn't "bad".
I mean this isn't a binary though- it may not be "bad" per se, but it is certainly not good
So its more about Hollywood using Kilmer in the role? Or I'm at a loss why you pointed it out?
pleasepaypreacher.net
That's what Grenadiers threw.
Ya know, these guys.
well
joking
Welcome to the wild world of literary theory
Careful you don't step in the bullllllshit
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin