--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Patrick King
<abrasax93@...> wrote:
> I think a lot of "great literature" from the
United
> States in any case, is condemned or at least
assigned
> warning label at this juncture. Antisemitism
and
> racist stereotypes abound in Hemingway, Fitzgerald
and
> Henry Miller (who was, himself, Jewish). Writers
from
> this era seem to take it as a given that
certian
> people by dint of what they are, not who they are,
are
> naturally inferior. Mark Twain, who is often
singled
> out as racist, is, as I read it, misunderstood.
His
> racism is always ironic and more critical of
the
> character making the comment than the one
commented
> on. His novel, PUDD'NHEAD WILSON, states as clearly
as
> we could wish how absurd he thought segregation was
in
> 1894. Twain was also a champion of the openly gay
Walt
> Whitman.
I agree. Twain was clearly antiracist and a notorious
defender of the equality of all people. That he has become
associated with racism is an outrageous perversion of the
facts. Reading Twain dispels that stupid notion. I think this
myth and subsequent censorship started with the word "nigger"
by Twain's characters in Huckleberry Finn, which is written
in Southern and reflects the usage at the time.
Isn't political correctness one of the worst diseases to
afflict society in the past couple of decades or so?
Especially as regards words... and even more so if it's a
work of literature. There's some kind of superstition going
on. George Carlin has spoken eloquently on this
subject.
Best,
mrt
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