Quote:
Originally Posted by astrangerhere
This is not hard. When the native Africans are referred to as "primitives" as well as the entire theme of the white saviors of Europe coming to "improve" the natives are obviously racist, even if they were the status quo of the time.
Did Haggard hold racist views? Almost certainly. He was involved in colonialism in South Africa, which was a whole bag of issues all on its own. Nevermind that modern African scholars deplore his work and others like it. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, a Kenyan scholar of race and literature, refers to Haggard as one of the "geniuses of racism" in his book Decolonizing the Mind.
He's dead and his works cannot profit anyone anymore, but I would still not enjoy reading them. However, as a member of a minority who had my private life subject to criminal law at one point, I am certainly not telling anyone what they can and can't read - only to be informed about it and not try to pretend that it is something that it isn't.
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Of course he was a racist by modern standards. No one has disputed that. The point is, was he a racist by the standards of his time? Personally I don't think so. Of course there are many people who cannot stand any standards or viewpoints more backward than the 21st century ones and have even accused authors of historical or fantasy fiction for creating characters who don't think like modern people. Now that's what I find ridiculous. If you want modern values, read fiction taking place in the modern world. It's perfectly understandable that someone who has been hurt by ignorant or reactionary beliefs doesn't want to read anything even faintly smelling of such views. But it's pretty ridiculous to accuse
historical authors of holding the general views of their time.