Hello all,
I just joined the group and have started the book. First impression. The dialect leads me to think of Huck as dumb and I know that is stereotypical especially with me coming from Texas. I know the book is on the 11th graders reading list but I don't know how often it is actually being taught. Is there any input on its popularity within the schools today and how is it being used? Is it a platform for time period literature or an example of american lit.?

WildCityWoman wrote:There's also a type of fishcake called 'faggots'.

My mother used to buy them years ago - they were done up in cone shapes - I really liked them.

I guess if faggots become popular again, they'll have to be called something else - ha ha! But they'll taste good just the same.

I know I should let this rather 'tasteless' conversation die a natural death, but weirdly I ran across another food called 'faggot', a british one no less, so i thought Penelope might weigh in on this:


" faggots are a type of meatball dish served in a rich gravy. Originating in Wales, a typical recipe includes:

•minced pork
•pig's heart, lites (lungs) and liver
•whatever other offal you can get, including spleen
•onions, herbs, salt and pepper, and breadcrumbs.
As if this weren't enough, they are then wrapped in part of the pig's stomach lining (caul) - this gives them the appearance of having been covered in a fatty net. " .....

I'm not squeamish but I won't eat anything wrapped in a stomach!

giselle:

I'm not squeamish but I won't eat anything wrapped in a stomach!

Well then, I hope you don't eat MacDonalds burgers because they contain a lot more objectionable bits than stomach.

Actually, it's Burn's Night next week. Everyone must eat Haggis and Bashed Neeps ( mashed Turnips). I haggis is like a very large faggot. You need the whiskey to wash it down with. It has to be piped in by a man playing the bagpipes. We don't have a piper but we always buy a haggis (even though we don't like it) and celebrate Burn's Night. Any excuse for a bit of fun and a celebration at this time of year, Well, at any time of year.....at our house, it's any excuse to party.

Hello Maloma. I borrowed my copy of Huck Finn from my daughter who is an English teacher at secondary school. It isn't on the syllabus, but it is used to give an example of American literature, along with Steinbeck, here in the UK.

Welcome to Booktalk.....

Penelope wrote:
Well then, I hope you don't eat MacDonalds burgers because they contain a lot more objectionable bits than stomach.

Actually, it's Burn's Night next week. Everyone must eat Haggis and Bashed Neeps ( mashed Turnips). I haggis is like a very large faggot. You need the whiskey to wash it down with. It has to be piped in by a man playing the bagpipes. We don't have a piper but we always buy a haggis (even though we don't like it) and celebrate Burn's Night. Any excuse for a bit of fun and a celebration at this time of year, Well, at any time of year.....at our house, it's any excuse to party.

Excellent point. I don't eat MacDonalds burgers out of disgust so this would be a tough choice .. burger .. haggis .. faggot ..? In any case, think I'd go for the whiskey first.

In any case, think I'd go for the whiskey first.

Yes a nice single malt can make anything taste more palatable!

I read recently that they don't allow the export of Scottish Haggis to the USA - because of the offal content, I think. So the Scots in the US who want one must seek other sources of supply.


Honestly - and we have the unspeakable MacDonalds.

Still, they did give us Mark Twain - and I am loving Huckleberry Finn - I haven't read it before, it must have been the Tom Sawyer ones I have read as I remember some of the references Huck makes to their adventures.

I love the accent and idioms in which it is written. I can hear his voice as I read it. And the word 'nigger' seems perfectly natural and inoffensive because it is not meant offensively, since Huck obviously doesn't rate himself higher.

I often hate it when dialect and accents are reproduced in novels. I love this one with a passion.

Has anyone mentioned the 'Notice by Order of the Author'?

It says:

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

It is just pure entertainment. I am smitten.

Well, I don't have occasion to get faggots - never see them anywhere anyway - and I haven't a clue how to make them.

But if I did, I certainly wouldn't stop calling them faggots - that's what they are and that's what I'll call them.

I don't let people 'steal words' from me - if I have occasion to use the word 'gay', to describe a festival, parade or something, I use the word - some people will not use the word, so as not to offend.

And BTW - I know gay men who actually refer to each other as 'faggots' . . . so I think as a society, we can lighten up on these words.

The 'nigger' word - I never use that though - never did. Even though some adults in my life, when I was a kid in grade school used the word, I did not - it's just simply a 'non-polite' word to use.

But there are people who go so far as to object to the word 'niggardly' . . . and it doesn't even mean 'negroe'. It means somebody cheap and petty.

Whaddya' gonna' do - can't please everybody, eh?

wCw - wrote:

And BTW - I know gay men who actually refer to each other as 'faggots' . . . so I think as a society, we can lighten up on these words.

And I know black people who call themselves niggers, but I wouldn't call them it...because it would probably offend them. The same with gay men....I wouldn't call them faggots, no matter what they call themselves.

I actually refer to myself as an interfering old busybody....but I'd be a bit miffed if somebody else called me that.

Penelope wrote:
I actually refer to myself as an interfering old busybody....but I'd be a bit miffed if somebody else called me that.

Yah, but by this logic, if the person calling you that were an interfering old busybody him/herself then that would be ok, right?

Yes, it's Ok giselle, you interfering young busybody!!