Quote:
Originally Posted by graycyn
To be honest, no. I quite enjoy older books, they are a step back into completely different times. Sometimes simpler times, but mostly tougher times. The world is a different place today than it was then. Frankly, I think people worry too much about the political correctness of books today. An author's writing can be enjoyable even when some bits are a sensitive topic.
I grew up reading my father's childhood books by Leo Edwards because I was an insatiable reader from the get go and no one could keep me in books, and oh my, they are like the total antithesis of political correctness. Stereotypes everywhere, the 'n' word, gangs and fights (frequently with rotten eggs or fruit) villains who were often overweight, you name it. I suppose in some ways they might even have been a bit progressive, I can remember several instances of one of the boys dressing as a girl to fool someone, LOL! They were funny and silly as heck though and all were mysteries and I still love them today.
Long live Jerry Todd and Poppy Ott! And long live laughter and not taking ourselves too seriously!
Mind you, I'd have loved to read more books with girl characters back then, I distinctly felt the lack between my father's Leo Edward books and his Hardy Boys, but I don't think it hurt me any....
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
|
Agreed. I grew up reading everything from the Maida books to Nancy Drew, to the Hardy Boys to ESG's Masons, and I've managed to avoid talking myself or Correctness so seriously that I'd deprive myself of the richness that they can bring. How can I possibly hold what Sayers wrote against her, given her time, her age, her upbringing? Would I be better off, had I never read DLS? Or Twain? I hardly think so.
Am I offended by racism, sexism, etc.? Sure, but not by people who lived 100 years ago. I'm more offended by implicit sexism in stuff made today--for example, watch ANY cop show or movie, with a scene with a screaming infant, child, or whacked-out woman. You ever see them hand the screaming brat to a male cop? Nooooooooooooooooo. They instantly turn to a woman, no matter how senior, etc. It's tooth-grindingly offensive. If somebody tried to hand that kid to me, they'd best be prepared to be thinking about prosthetics for their hands.
It's that sort of crap that gets me--not what ESG wrote to reference a black man in 1930's. Who am I to be such a patronized asshat that I'd tell ESG or Dickens or DLS what they "should have" thought and written in their day?
Hitch