I was thinking about answering here a few days ago, and suddenly the thread had grown with half a dozen pages...
You're right, escwharts, I should have been more specific than "you people" when I accused people of not reading the article. I was thinking of comments such as
this from HarryT and
this from haydnfan, which seem to address easy strawmen instead of what the article actually says.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash
I've had favorite books / movies / etc that were "products of their time", so to speak. The fact that times have changed doesn't reduce their value to me. Should I stop loving old tv shows and movies that portray the expectation that women should be stay-at-home wives just because we've moved away from that?
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Um, no? Of course not? You should love, or dislike, books, for any reason you want. So should I. So should Lutgendorff. But just because a work is loved doesn't mean it should be immune from criticism.
I used to love Gone With the Wind when I was a teenager, and still have a soft spot for it, despite its huge problems. It definitively belongs on a list of my 100 favourite historical novels -- maybe even in my top ten. But if lots of people voted for their favourite historical novel, and blatantly racist apologies for slavery like Gone With the Wind dominated the list, I'd hardly be surprised if somebody wrote that they were disappointed in the results, and took the time to mention problems with some of the winners.
(And now I'll catch up with the thread and maybe comment on some of the newer posts.)