Do you read books that make you uncomfortable?

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by maddz

In the second case, yes, I would read it - I’m reading the book for a reason. The idea here is to challenge my assumptions - either what I believed to be true or to educate myself on conditions (historical or present day). If that makes me uncomfortable, then so be it.

I love this. I need my assumptions challenged regularly, since I tend towards the dogmatic. But I'm working on it. And I find that uncomfortable books are one of the best ways to let ideas sink in without feeling like I must defend my assumptions out loud right this minute.

[Kindleing]

Originally Posted by maddz

The idea here is to challenge my assumptions - either what I believed to be true or to educate myself on conditions (historical or present day).

The problem I see is that authors have agendas also; some are extreme and sometimes representations aren't necessarily accurate or complete. An author's personal biases needs to be taken into account, and I don't know how to do that without knowing more about an author's background than I usually do.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Kindleing

The problem I see is that authors have agendas also; some are extreme and sometimes representations aren't necessarily accurate or complete. An author's personal biases needs to be taken into account, and I don't know how to do that without knowing more about an author's background than I usually do.

Sure they do, and this includes the ones we feel comfortable reading. So that's a given. But picking up the unfamiliar and possibly uncomfortable representation can help raise our awareness of other modes of thought - that they exist as something real and heartfelt. And if you doubt something you've read, research and read some more.

From C.S.Lewis - An Experiment in Criticism (1961).

My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. I regret that the brutes connot write books. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or a bee; more gladly still would I perceive the olfactory world charged with all the information and emotion it carries for a dog. Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality... in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.

Here was an author whose views on many subjects do not correspond with mine, and yet I can find common ground in his writings, a way to try and see the world as he sees it, at least for a short time.

[Rumpelteazer]

It depends. I've read books that made me uncomfortable but I knew that from the start and I read the book because the topic interests me (often about racism). I've also read books written in a time where racism is normal (e.g. Gone with the Wind, Robinson Crusoe) and I can place it in a historical context.

However, if I'm reading a book for pleasure and it makes me uncomfortable I will DNF it. I can remember a book by Nicci French with a lot of sexual violence. And the second was an adventure thriller set in Africa, written and set in 1972. In the first couple of chapters one of the main character referred to black people with a very derogatory term and later he threw some coins to a group of children "to see them scramble about". And this was not written as bad behavior of the character. Reading other reviews the racism only gets worse. That one was DNFed quickly, too.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

And the second was an adventure thriller set in Africa, written and set in 1972.

If it was written in 1972, then there was still a lot of racism about at that time, plus you'd get people who had grown up in a colonial setting. So that would be considered normal behaviour for the time.

We see it now for what it is, but at the time there were entrenched racial attitudes. I remember watching The Black and White Minstrel Show on TV, sit-com characters like Alf Garnett were routine, comedy shows like The Benny Hill Show abounded and of course, don't forget politicians like Enoch Powell.