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Originally Posted by gmw
I do know what you mean, and even agree to a certain extent. It is, after all, too late to punish long-dead authors for their mistakes,
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How do you mean mistakes? Are they mistakes because we have different opinions now and disagree with their opinions? I wonder how many of our cherished opinions will be considered mistakes in 150 years time. A lot I bet. All we can say is whether ideas/opinions/ in a book are typical of society when it was written and whether the book actively promotes the ideas or treats them as just normal and everyday. We can also say such ideas are not acceptable today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
I But, aside from instances where such criticism is handled poorly, in general I think it is a very good thing to have problems highlighted. Prejudice can be quite insidious and so it can be very helpful to get other people's perspectives and see where the problems lie.
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As I have said elsewhere only if you get such information from a source you know you and can trust. Even then it can skew your perception due to confirmation bias.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Also, it can be interesting to try and assess whether a work is better or worse than we might expect for the time, and maybe guess at what that tells us about the author.
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Intereesting and informative. It is also something that is often ignored.