24: Ten Little Indians

Yeah, it's about racism again--there's really no physical limit to the number of these I can do. This is the third of three titles (by appearance order) for this particular book--all of which show how culture attempts to step away from overt racism. The first, and I don't want to even write it out, was Ten Little N-words. yeah the actual title had the real word. They didn't care much about it back when originally published in 1939.

Now, I can't move on without thinking about a comedic bit Louis CK does about inappropriate words including touching on the n-word. To him, and he's right, even using the sorta acceptable substitute just makes you think the original in your mind. Basically, someone has made you think the word aloud in your head without actually saying it themselves--raycess* virus.

The original title was published into the 60s, and by large-shoulda-known-better publishers like Penguin. There were some publishers as far back as 1940 who insisted on a name change, for some reason not universally held obviously, and the title became And Then There Were None which is how the book is generally published today. Ten Little Indians is an alternate title created after the source material was renamed for a movie.

Just the original dust jacket, with raycess name and little raycess caricatures dancing (I'll link here, but have no interest in showing the picture on my blog), costs near fifty dollars itself online. Though, that's not like the only potential racism about. As you can see, my copy names Indians but then adds the perhaps suggestive hanging body--during the 60s, come on! Even the supposed safe title, And Then There Were None can create dark overtones in comparison to the original. Now there's none of them left? Is that your goal, Christie and or publisher?

Regardless, enough people didn't care to the tune of 100 million printed copies--making this the highest selling mystery of all time. I myself own this copy and a more recent And Then There Were None.