A. Lee Martinez (of all people) has a Palin take (also, censoring Huck Finn)

So I was going through my RSS feeds looking for some non-Palin news. Lee
Martinez is as apolitical as any of the SF writers I follow. But even he has
an opinion on Sarah, and it's kind of fascinating looking at things from his
oblique perspective.

http://www.aleemartinez.com/unforgettable/blog/12012011/

Unforgettable
By A. Lee Martinez
<http://www.aleemartinez.com/author/a-lee-martinez/> | Published:
January 12, 2011

So A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! is upon us once again, and I need to
post something because I know all my loyal fans look forward to whatever
wisdom I can impart on this very special day.

First, a political thing.  Sort of.  Not that you should come to me for
political opinion, but hey, if you’re here, why not?  If you’re a diehard
Sarah Palin fan, skip this.  It’s okay.  I don’t mind.  I’m not really going
to criticize her politics, but I know that some things are hot buttons.  So
no need to offend you.

*SO JUST SKIP THIS AND GO TO THE NEXT BOLD LINE IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE
BOTHERED BY ANY POSSIBLE IMPLICATION THAT SARAH PALIN IS NOT JESUS AND
OPTIMUS PRIME COMBINED.*

The thing that bugs me about Palin isn’t her politics.  Sure, I don’t agree
with them, but I don’t agree with most politicians.  And disagreement isn’t
a bad thing.  It means were talking about stuff, and I am all about talking
about stuff.  The more discussion, the more shared ideas, the better off we
are.  That’s my opinion, and maybe you disagree.  And that just makes me
smile*.*

The thing that bugs me about Palin (and about people like her) is that they
embody nothing less than the sin of hubris, of arrogance, of absolute
certainty.  She lives in a world where she can do no wrong, even
unintentionally.  She is master of fate, queen of circumstances, always
right.  And if you disagree or criticize her than you are clearly an enemy
and not worth listening to.

Seriously <http://www.aleemartinez.com/seriously/blog/09042010/>, Palin
fans.  Has she ever admitted to making a mistake?  Has she ever admitted to
a lapse in judgment?  Even the smallest moment of humanity where she screwed
up or misspoke?  No, because she’s perfect.  Because nothing bad is ever her
fault, but certainly everything good in her life is because of how awesome
she is.  Heck, even when confronted with the very messy world and its
unpredictability despite the best of our intentions (like a pregnant
daughter while preaching the value of abstinence only
education<http://www.aleemartinez.com/tag/abstinence-only-education/>)
she refuses to admit that sometimes, oftentimes, life is muddled and
difficult and the answers aren’t always easy.  When confronted with such
complex dilemmas, Sarah just smiles and winks and spouts some well-worn
catch phrase.  Which is fine.  She’s a politician (sort of), and that’s
partof her job.  But what’s annoying about Palin is that there’s no
indication that she’s playing for the camera, acting certain while
understanding the screwed up mess that is our world.  No Palin believes
this, wholeheartedly.  She lives in a world of absolutes, and when you dare
to suggest that there might be a shade of gray or two in this reality, she
merely shakes her head, covers her ears, and wraps herself in a forcefield
of smug idealism.

To be fair to Palin, this isn’t about her political affiliation.  There are
those like her in all spectrums of society.  They’re the people who make
life harder than it has to be because they’re smarter than you, because they
blind certainty for confidence, and flat dismissal as debate.

I don’t blame Palin for the recent shooting.  That’d be silly.  Crazy people
do crazy stuff, and we who are not crazy are usually obsessed with trying to
understand it when it’s usually impossible to do so.  But I do dislike Palin
for refusing to even consider that it didn’t help to put crosshairs on a map
and that phrases like “Don’t retreat.  Reload” might have some accidental
unpleasant implications behind them.  To blame Palin for the actions of a
lunatic is ridiculous.  To expect her to use it, as so many of us have, to
consider our actions and how they might effect the world, is not.

But that’s not Sarah.  She’s blameless.  She’s perfect.  And the sooner the
rest of us figure that out, the happier she’ll be.

*ENOUGH OF THAT.*

The other thing that’s on my mind is pretty big too.  It’s the changing of *The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* to make it more palatable for our time.

I’m just going to call bullshit on this.

I get where this desire comes from.  Let’s remove an unpleasant word because
it is unpleasant, because it carries a terrible history that we would all
rather forget.  But that’s exactly why it should stay there.  Because once
you alter a piece of history, you destroy its relevance forever.

Let’s face it.  Humans have lousy memories.  It’s why politicians can say
they don’t remember integration being hard, or why, after two months with a
new piece of technology, we immediately start to complain about its
limitations.  We forget.  Not because we want to forget, but because it’s so
easy to do.  Our brains are not recording devices.  They are imagination
devices, and that’s all our memories are.  Bits of imagination cobbled
together from half-formed bits of the past.  That’s why you can convince
someone they saw a Bugs Bunny costume at Disneyland.  All it takes is a
doctored photo, a few people they trust reinforcing the idea, and they’ll
remember.

This is why we have to write things down, preserve art, and carry the actual
recollections of the past with us.  Because if we just trust we’ll remember,
we’re sure to forget.

For *Huckleberry Finn*, inserting *Slave* might seem like a good idea.  But
if you do it, then what happens in fifteen years when the word *Slave *might
be deemed offensive?  Do you change that too?  Perhaps to *Servant*.  And,
heck, while we’re at it, let’s take out any references to smoking.  Kids
shouldn’t smoke.  And why have any reference to skin color at all?  Why not
leave it undescribed so that everyone can enjoy Huck and Jim’s adventure
without feeling left out? And does he have to run away?  Can’t Huck and
Servant Jim just go and have a little adventure before returning home for
dinner?

Ridiculous?  Maybe.  But why not?  Why not change everything, one step at a
time?  If a book is only a thing meant to reflect our current attitudes and
beliefs, then who really cares?  Let’s rewrite the whole damn thing and just
ignore it.

The problem is one of memory.  We need to remember our imperfections, our
faults.  We need to remember that not so long ago, as civilizations measure
things, black people were slaves, women couldn’t vote, and even if you were
a white guy, life still wasn’t perfect.  It’s all too easy to pine for a
glorious golden yesterday that never existed, which is why we occasionally
need a hard slap in the face to remind us that it didn’t.

It’s watching *A Day at the Races* and seeing the Marx Brothers in
blackface.  It’s unsettling, but it’s also necessary.  It’s reading the
Constitution.  ALL of the Constitution.  Even the bad parts.  *Especially *the
bad parts because the bad parts show us how far we’ve come and how far we
have to go.  They remind us that even the most sacred document was created
by flawed human beings who were just doing the best they could.  And perhaps
it’s wrong to judge them for their failings, but to acknowledge those
failings is a good thing.

The second reason I hate the idea of changing a classic novel (a book I
haven’t even read by the way) is that it renders all art vulnerable,
transitory, meaningless.  Once we decide to rewrite history itself, then we
are guilty of denying the flaws in ourselves.  We become obsessed with
covering them up and then, you might as well call it a day as a
civlization.  Because it takes a lot of effort to continually rework the
past into something you aren’t embarrassed by.

Take *Star Wars*.  I really don’t care if Lucas wants to play with his
creation until the end of time.  Special Edition, Extended Edition, Edition
with More Sound FX.  It’s his thing.  Let him do what he wants with it.  But
that’s not enough for Lucas, who, if he had his way, would erase the
originals from existence in favor of his new versions.  I’m not going to
argue that the originals are better than the new versions (though, let’s be
honest, they are), but I am going to argue that a cultural event such as the
original *Star Wars* deserves to be preserved, warts and all.  Lucas isn’t
just indulging in creative masturbation, but that he’s guilty of something
much worse.  He’s destroying a sacred artifact, one re-release at a time.

And that’s why we can’t allow anyone, not even artists, to go back and
change things in their work.  Once anyone starts down that road, once they
start seeing history as optional, they will begin erasing it.  Because it’s
not human nature to reconcile different versions of the same thing.  We like
things neat and tidy.  We want one version of *Star Wars*, one version of *Huck
Finn*.  And if you give many of us the option of taking the original or the
new version that edits out unpleasantness or is just more readily available,
we’ll go for it.  We’ll erase the past.

And the ultimate irony is we won’t even remember doing it.

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |

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