I run a small book club in Portland, and last month we read a novel from the 1980s that casually used a slur for a marginalized group. Half of us wanted to discuss it as a historical artifact, while the other half insisted the word was unacceptable no matter the context. We nearly split the club over it. When we edit or censor older cultural works, do we lose the ability to see how far we've come, or do we just sanitize the past to make ourselves feel better?