I could see your argument if Tolkien were writing about feminism.
Tom Send a noteboard - 24/05/2011 02:15:42 PM
My complaint is not that all books should address all issues. My complaint is that if a book addresses an issue and makes it as central to the reading experience as Lee's book does, it should at least not be guilty of the same sins it accuses others of. While Lee's soft racism in the form of helpless, innocent, childlike blacks is a fairly benign form of racism, the point is that she still makes them an enigmatic "other" rather than show them as complex individuals who are no different from whites.
In legal parlance, Lee "opened the door" to this scrutiny by her choice of subject matter. If she had written about the South in such a way that the racism angle was completely tangential to her real story, then I wouldn't care if she engaged in this sort of idealization of the "other".
In legal parlance, Lee "opened the door" to this scrutiny by her choice of subject matter. If she had written about the South in such a way that the racism angle was completely tangential to her real story, then I wouldn't care if she engaged in this sort of idealization of the "other".
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
To Kill a Mockingbird by Nelle Harper Lee
- 22/05/2011 06:28:11 PM
19969 Views
I reviewed it last year
- 22/05/2011 07:45:48 PM
2441 Views
Huh. I seem to have missed that.
- 22/05/2011 11:17:11 PM
2350 Views
As you noted, though, it's a fuller depiction of the South than "racist people."
- 23/05/2011 12:00:01 AM
2350 Views
It's a beautiful, incredible book.
- 22/05/2011 08:21:48 PM
2272 Views
Also
- 22/05/2011 11:33:27 PM
2224 Views
Don't you think that, you know, too many people have read it already?
- 23/05/2011 09:55:52 PM
2289 Views
Re: Don't you think that, you know, too many people have read it already?
- 24/05/2011 12:05:11 AM
2406 Views
Does that disqualify it?
- 24/05/2011 01:49:54 PM
2223 Views
I don't know, if a lot of people want to have this book in a Book Club, I have no objections.
- 24/05/2011 07:01:38 PM
2286 Views
Bah. This seems like a lame book. It will never catch on.
- 23/05/2011 01:31:10 AM
2400 Views
Um, there's already a rfilm version of this.
- 23/05/2011 01:11:36 PM
2118 Views
Suspect he knows that. 
*NM*
- 23/05/2011 01:15:46 PM
1146 Views
*NM*
- 23/05/2011 01:15:46 PM
1146 Views
Boy, that sarcastic subtext can be so hard to grasp in this virtual madness. *NM*
- 25/05/2011 06:49:03 AM
1171 Views
I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like this book. *NM*
- 23/05/2011 09:37:52 AM
1148 Views
I've met some, but it was a casualty of middle school English. *NM*
- 23/05/2011 07:40:27 PM
1101 Views
One of my nieces didn't like it. I think it was because she was forced to read it for school.
- 24/05/2011 02:33:23 AM
2467 Views
Re: One of my nieces didn't like it. I think it was because she was forced to read it for school.
- 24/05/2011 10:15:45 AM
2429 Views
*NM*
Let me ask the politically incorrect questions, since no one else has.
- 24/05/2011 03:14:50 AM
2449 Views
I don't understand why having a guilty black man would have made it more powerful.
- 24/05/2011 05:59:17 AM
2432 Views
Hmm
- 24/05/2011 10:22:50 AM
2339 Views
I could see your argument if Tolkien were writing about feminism.
- 24/05/2011 02:15:42 PM
2364 Views
I think that's a fair point.
- 24/05/2011 07:00:04 PM
2382 Views
Calpurnia is a stereotype too.
- 24/05/2011 11:54:26 PM
2245 Views
The difference, at least in my recollection, is that Calpurnia is well-educated.
- 25/05/2011 08:09:58 PM
2226 Views
Re: The difference, at least in my recollection, is that Calpurnia is well-educated.
- 25/05/2011 10:59:26 PM
2324 Views
I think there was at least once incident showing a racist black person
- 24/05/2011 07:33:09 PM
2494 Views
I think it was written to accomplish a goal and it did that very well
- 25/05/2011 04:08:17 PM
2299 Views
Given your introductory portion
- 11/06/2011 01:28:40 AM
2300 Views
I have read both
- 11/06/2011 11:35:11 AM
2128 Views
All of Twain's stuff is great
- 13/06/2011 02:27:55 AM
2388 Views
Re: All of Twain's stuff is great
- 13/06/2011 08:17:05 AM
2218 Views
And some poets - Tennyson and Yeats come to mind. *NM*
- 13/06/2011 10:11:31 AM
1055 Views