Changing the word changes the book. The word has a definition and a context, and it was used correctly in each instance by Twain, satirizing a society that existed 20 years before the book was published. It's like we've forgotten that it was offensive even in Twain's time. Do you think he didn't know the baggage it carried when he wrote it? What has changed since Twain's time is our sensitivity to the word, not the meaning, offensiveness, or use of it. We have the problem. Not the book.
The word has a definition and a context, and it was used correctly in each instance by Twain, satirizing a society that existed 20 years before the book was published.
It's like we've forgotten that it was offensive even in Twain's time. Do you think he didn't know the baggage it carried when he wrote it?
What has changed since Twain's time is our sensitivity to the word, not the meaning, offensiveness, or use of it. We have the problem. Not the book.