Censoring Poe

Some people find the work of Edgar Allan Poe objectionable. Decapitations, premature burials, wholesale slaughter of thousands, and drunken animal abusers populate Poe's world of madness. It's enough to make some parents complain about the public school curriculum in California, and some do. My own mother wanted to file a complaint against the school when my little sister came home scarred by her first reading of "The Telltale Heart."

It seems that the textbook publishers have taken notice, and they have responded by removing some of the more offensive material. In my very own copy of Prentice Hall Literature Silver Edition (the book cover is chocolate brown; go figure), the editors have made the following changes to "The Telltale Heart."

(spoiler alert)

In the story, a young narrator kills an old man whom he loves, for no other reason than he dislikes his eyeball. He delights in the old man's terror in the moments before he kills him, and then after the deed is done he cuts off his head and dismembers the rest of the corpse. Thankfully, there's not much blood in the story (he catches it all in a tub, the clever rascal).

The editors appear to have little problem with all of this gore. Instead, they remove the word "God," changing the phrase "Oh, God, what could I do!" to "Oh, what could I do."

I think we can all agree that removing the word "God" makes the story much less offensive.

Earlier in the story, the narrator speaks of directing a beam of light precisely upon "the damned spot." The word "damned" is clearly unacceptable, and it is removed so that the text reads "the spot."

To review:

• "Damn" and "God" are not appropriate for a middle school literature curriculum. 
• Premeditated murder, basking in the fear of others, and decapitating those you love: Approved for consumption.