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
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I reviewed it last year
- 22/05/2011 07:45:48 PM
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Huh. I seem to have missed that.
- 22/05/2011 11:17:11 PM
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As you noted, though, it's a fuller depiction of the South than "racist people."
- 23/05/2011 12:00:01 AM
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It's a beautiful, incredible book.
- 22/05/2011 08:21:48 PM
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Also
- 22/05/2011 11:33:27 PM
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Don't you think that, you know, too many people have read it already?
- 23/05/2011 09:55:52 PM
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Re: Don't you think that, you know, too many people have read it already?
- 24/05/2011 12:05:11 AM
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Does that disqualify it?
- 24/05/2011 01:49:54 PM
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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
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Bah. This seems like a lame book. It will never catch on.
- 23/05/2011 01:31:10 AM
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Um, there's already a rfilm version of this.
- 23/05/2011 01:11:36 PM
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Suspect he knows that. 
*NM*
- 23/05/2011 01:15:46 PM
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*NM*
- 23/05/2011 01:15:46 PM
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Boy, that sarcastic subtext can be so hard to grasp in this virtual madness. *NM*
- 25/05/2011 06:49:03 AM
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I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like this book. *NM*
- 23/05/2011 09:37:52 AM
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I've met some, but it was a casualty of middle school English. *NM*
- 23/05/2011 07:40:27 PM
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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
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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
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*NM*
Let me ask the politically incorrect questions, since no one else has.
- 24/05/2011 03:14:50 AM
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I don't understand why having a guilty black man would have made it more powerful.
- 24/05/2011 05:59:17 AM
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Hmm
- 24/05/2011 10:22:50 AM
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I could see your argument if Tolkien were writing about feminism.
- 24/05/2011 02:15:42 PM
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I think that's a fair point.
- 24/05/2011 07:00:04 PM
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Calpurnia is a stereotype too.
- 24/05/2011 11:54:26 PM
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The difference, at least in my recollection, is that Calpurnia is well-educated.
- 25/05/2011 08:09:58 PM
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Re: The difference, at least in my recollection, is that Calpurnia is well-educated.
- 25/05/2011 10:59:26 PM
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I think there was at least once incident showing a racist black person
- 24/05/2011 07:33:09 PM
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I think it was written to accomplish a goal and it did that very well
- 25/05/2011 04:08:17 PM
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Given your introductory portion
- 11/06/2011 01:28:40 AM
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I have read both
- 11/06/2011 11:35:11 AM
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All of Twain's stuff is great
- 13/06/2011 02:27:55 AM
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Re: All of Twain's stuff is great
- 13/06/2011 08:17:05 AM
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And some poets - Tennyson and Yeats come to mind. *NM*
- 13/06/2011 10:11:31 AM
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