h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"I wrestled with this one liong and hard at Poly when we were studying Faulkner, a fairly unashamed fan of the days before slavery was abolished, for a number of reasons.

in the end, I decided I didn't give a damn - his writing is still amongst the greatest of the 20th century, and his viewpoint intelligently, thoughtfully and cogently expressed."

Well said. One of the most absurd and authoritarian agendas amongst what is left of those who pursue the ideology of "political correctness" is that an artists politics and sometimes gender/race dictate the worth of his/her work, as well as it's "suitability" (see the ridiculous dismissing of Shakespeare for the crimes of being a Dead White European Male).

I am an enormous fan of George Orwell. Some of his writing is homophobic. In a modern context, some of it is racist. This doesn't detract from the fact that his writing is infinitely more open-minded, intelligent and humanist than any of the thinking deployed by the "politically correct".

I also like Edgar Allan Poe (a racist) and agree with Blues Shark about Herge's stuff which I liked as a kid. Funnily, reading both has not made me a Nazi.

The point is 1) It is absurd to judge people from different periods based on the morality of the current period and 2) an artists Art and his politics should be kept separate (see WC Fields "Birth of a Nation" - regarded as a masterpiece despite depicting the KKK sypathetically).

T'is a little different with organisations such as the KKK, who don't just do it on a Sunday for the picnic weather. As far as I understand, there is a great deal of old traditional (and Bible based) values - loyalty, pride, that kind of thing. Which comes alongside a great amount of fervent energy. You have to remember that when you deal with extremes, you deal with extreme behaviour. The university thing is not related to a belief structure...but the Catholic thing is. Was it a re-inforced belief? A 24/7 thing like Nazi Germany was? Like some religion is? Probably not. But for children born into *that* kind of enviroment - where what is good/evil is constantly being reinforced, it is not hard to use the word *pre-destined*...

However, todays society is a little different. At least, in the Western world...but even elsewhere, where people have a knowledge of the outside world as being different. That kind of thing is unlikely to happen (although it obviously does) because of the range of influences.

I have no idea what I meant to say in theis post...

Poe was racist? Ok. Seems like half my bookshelf is from a *prejudiced* source. How interesting...!

"Poe was racist? Ok. Seems like half my bookshelf is from a *prejudiced* source. How interesting...!"

He was, certainly in the modern sense (I don't think he was quite a racist in the Nazi sense). However he was a white American living in the 19th century so this is hardly a surprise.

Is it evident in ihs writing? "The Gold Bug" story suddenly springs to mind... Which is my favorite. I always thought he was just preoccupied with death, and sick girls...

Oh, could we get onto Roald Dahl? I need to know exactly how/if he was racist? I had this accusation thrown at me by someone who wasn't allowed to read his books as a child...and has not ever done so in her life. Apparently there are books on it, but she wouldn't lend them to me...

"Oh, could we get onto Roald Dahl? I need to know exactly how/if he was racist? I had this accusation thrown at me by someone who wasn't allowed to read his books as a child...and has not ever done so in her life. Apparently there are books on it, but she wouldn't lend them to me..."

I read a lot of Dahl as a kid. There was nothing in them to suggest he was racist that I remember. Certainly there is stuff the PC people wouldn't like (The Witches seems to intend to make children afraid of a certain type of woman (large nostrils, long gloves) and contains a phrase that goes something like "there is something quite unnatural about a bald woman" - that's probably the "worst" stuff of his I can remember). I liked his books, they were enormously imaginative and remarkably dark for childrens books (see the BFG and the reference to "bones on the window sills")

I'm firm to the belief that you can read anything into art/writing/music...excapt for the stuff meant to be completely non-offensive, but then, that's not really very interesting is it?

My favourite remains George's Marvellous Medicine, which would probably cause 'Ban this sick, irresponsible trash' headlines today, along with a picture of Young Jimmy and the grandmother he almost poisoned.

But I can't think of anything racist, unless the Oompah-Loompahs (from Africa of South America, as I recall) were hideously stereotyped.

I don't think the Oompa Loompahs had racist connotations...certainly a comparison could be made, but then Roald Dahl was more for equal rights of the races as far as I can see. He had the obliging black servants in Africa, but he taught the boy-servant that he had how to read - which was going against the social climate. Maybe it was more based on that experience? At least, thats whow it feels...

"Matilda" is my favorite childrens book of his...I have been told that it is "demeaning to the working class" and "promotes the middle class as the ideal way to live"...

""Matilda" is my favorite childrens book of his...I have been told that it is "demeaning to the working class" and "promotes the middle class as the ideal way to live"..."

Did the person who said this have no sense of humour and a red arm-band?

Ummm...without giving too much away, she's fundamentalist-gay, wears anti-nazi league t-shirts, and was brought up that way. Apparently she was open-minded and I was a facist...so go figure.

But then, some people are like that!

I like the idea of a 'fundamentalist gay'.

"Ummm...without giving too much away, she's fundamentalist-gay, wears anti-nazi league t-shirts, and was brought up that way. Apparently she was open-minded and I was a facist...so go figure."

Tsk, sounds like a PC-drone. I wouldn't worry, they're a dying breed.

Oh, it gets boring after a while. She had a crush on this girl who blatently wasn't even bi...and was one of those quiet, shy, slightly unstable but in a loveable way kinda people. She spent a year forcing herself on this poor girl...quite upset her too.

And then you have the incessant drone about how everyone in Hollywood is gay...blah blah blah...how gay is cool...

You choke on it after a while. More than once I said to her "there is more than life than being gay"...

*more than* was meant to be *more to*

"I like the idea of a 'fundamentalist gay'."

Which would entail "gay fundamentals"

Oh, I don't worry. It's annoying, but then they are so easy to provoke, it's not even funny... I told her (quite seriously) that I was going to have a tattoo of a swastika put onto the back of my neck. She hit the roof...

And what any does with their fundaments is entirely their choice, and not for me to judge.

"how everyone in Hollywood is gay..."

such as Big Gay Arnie

*Arnie Voice* "Let me show you how Real Men feel. Let me! Let me now!"