[Dystopian Update] Is it time to burn books now? Really? (suspect, wisdom)

[vkhmini]

Originally Posted by Spartacus713

Well, if you really think you will want to read these great novels, you might want to go out and pick up a copy, even if it is for later. While you still can.

It is not at all clear that either one of these books are on the "Progressive" approved "anti-racist" reading list.

Good suggestions. There are so many books that I need to get while they're still available.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Dane_in_LA

<reads article>
<looks for encouragement to get rid of books>
<doesn't find it>

The author speaks about adding books, as far as I can tell.

But have your drama.



Someone got out the Jump To Conclusions mat.

I agree. The article is encouraging people to listen to (read) different voices than their own. To expand their literary diet to authors of color.

On that note, I googled the term mentioned, anti-racist books, and found a recent list. I've read a number of them, but found "White Fragility" - why white people are so uncomfortable with the topic of racism - to look interesting.

Checked whether my library has it. They have 5 copies, with 405 holds. So apparently the message is getting out.

[vkhmini]

Wow, I wonder what's up. I could never find any of Frank Yerby's books on Amazon and I just went and looked and found many! I purchased "The Girl From Storyville", one of my old favorites. I've always loved books about the American South and guess what -- "Gone With The Wind" is one of my favorites, as is "Beulah Land". Will go looking for copies of those as well.


PS -- I also loved "When The Fire Reaches Us" by Barbara Wilson Tinker, and "Native Son" by Richard Wright, in case anyone's wondering. Good literature is good literature.

[Spartacus713]

Originally Posted by vkhmini

Wow, I wonder what's up. I could never find any of Frank Yerby's books on Amazon and I just went and looked and found many! I purchased "The Girl From Storyville", one of my old favorites. I've always loved books about the American South and guess what -- "Gone With The Wind" is one of my favorites, as is "Beulah Land". Will go looking for copies of those as well.

Bwahaha.

I wonder if the "Progressive" allowed anti-racist reading list will include "Gone with the Wind". Remember the character "Mamy"?

No, this on will almost certainly be consigned to the flames.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Spartacus713

Bwahaha.

I wonder if the "Progressive" allowed anti-racist reading list will include "Gone with the Wind". Remember the character "Mamy"?

No, this on will almost certainly be consigned to the flames.

I haven't seen a list, supported by NPR of books you should burn or at the very least shouldn't read.

Have you seen one? NPR appears to be promoting diversity and suggesting you step outside your habitual choices of authors and dip your toe into literature from a different voice.

What could be wrong with that?

[ncguy50]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

I agree. The article is encouraging people to listen to (read) different voices than their own. To expand their literary diet to authors of color.

On that note, I googled the term mentioned, anti-racist books, and found a recent list. I've read a number of them, but found "White Fragility" - why white people are so uncomfortable with the topic of racism - to look interesting.

Checked whether my library has it. They have 5 copies, with 405 holds. So apparently the message is getting out.

Not people. Just white people. The article suggests that white people have arrived at their current state of wrong-think because they haven't been exposed to the ideas that would encourage them to internalize guilt for the crime of being white.

[Travelassie]

Originally Posted by Spartacus713

Bwahaha.

I wonder if the "Progressive" allowed anti-racist reading list will include "Gone with the Wind". Remember the character "Mamy"?

No, this on will almost certainly be consigned to the flames.

Of course. Despite the strength of character, wisdom, and love shown by the "Mammy" character in Gone With The Wind.

[vkhmini]

Originally Posted by Travelassie

Of course. Despite the strength of character, wisdom, and love shown by the "Mammy" character in Gone With The Wind.

Right?

[swagger]

I've been anticipating this. I started buying books on US history about a year and a half ago, specifically to make sure they remained available and untainted. The revisionists are in turbo mode right now, having been emboldened by the takeover of the Democrat party by the extremist left.

[ClaraC]

Originally Posted by Travelassie

Of course. Despite the strength of character, wisdom, and love shown by the "Mammy" character in Gone With The Wind.

MMMMMmmmmm.

GWTW is one of my favorite books and movies of all time, and in fact, I quoted Mammy on this forum today.

I'm still uncomfortable with the stereotype and the message. Mammy, Pork and Big Sam are portrayed as slaves who loved their masters very deeply.

That's a bit of a slap in the face. They had to behave that way, as if they loved their masters and put them first (as Big Sam did during Reconstruction when he risked his life to defend Scarlett in "shantytown" as they called it).

To portray them, as Mammy was portrayed, rejecting Reconstruction and bad mouthing reformers who had set up information booths for Freemen, preferring the old way of slavery to these "white trash". Where was Mammy's family? Pork's family? Big Sam's family?

To portray a slave as being happy in that role and rejecting freedom, is not reality. (although some slaves were unable to just leave the plantation and start a free life due to having no money, and stayed in the role of a sharecropper, where they were returned basically to slavery, the thought of freed slaves who chose to reject the right to freedom and preferred to be a slave is just disingenuous.)