Granted that racism, sexism, and most other nasty 'isms' are
terrible things, if you sanitize the speech, attitudes and
behavior of the people who existed in the 1800s, early 1900s
or even the 1950s, are you really giving a true
representation of the time at all?
I must admit I am bothered by the attitude that somehow
racism, sexism, or homophobia expressed in historically
accurate terms are much worse than violence, sexual license
or any other sort of non-socially-acceptable thing. I cringe
when I think of someone saying, "Oh, did you see? That person
put the word 'nigger' in a book! How awful!!" But that same
person will say nothing about the rape scene, or about
political corruption in the novel, or about the villain
strangling a woman to death with her own stockings - any of
which is just as morally repugnant.
Why are so many in our society worried more about those
things that seem to have politically-incorrect overtones?
Granted, I find the use of the word "queer" used in a
pejorative sense to be repugnant, but is it any more damaging
to society for someone to say that to another person, that it
is for a senator to be on the take from commercial oil
interests? I would argue that, in the grand scheme of things,
that comment about a person's sexual preferences has a pretty
small bearing on life, even for the person against whom it is
addressed, compared to the possible impact of the dishonest
senator's corruption.
In other words, why is it OK to write about some morally
offensive behaviors, but not OK to write about others?
<pant, pant, pant> OK - off my soapbox.
Tony Burton Editor, Crime and Suspense ezine http://www.crimeandsuspense.com
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@w... wrote:
>Mark wrote:
>
> To varying degrees, I can put those traits in
vintage books into
> context. What really gets to me are contemporary
writers who set their
> books in the past and use it as an excuse to revel
in racial, ethnic and
> homophobic slurs. It too often seems like an excuse
to spew those vile
> sentiments, whether because they agree with them or
just to shock, while
> retaining the easy out of saying, Hey, it's not me,
it was the times. I
> found that excuse less and less compelling from
Ellroy, finally had to
> stop reading him, well, that and his increasingly
slack writing.
>
> Mark
>
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