An Abstract of an Essay

[aquaeri]

ETA: Please read this before this post. Note that this is not a post about RaceFail.

My head is full of thoughts and ideas, partly based on my RaceFail readings, particularly thrown up by

Comments

[heleninwales]

Thanks. That was very interesting. Re your comment that: I can't really see how I am in a group and what's happening to it. I think that's at least partly because we don't belong in just one group. Most people have multiple roles and multiple allegiances. I actually get annoyed when people try to put me in one little box and slap a label on it, because it's always more complicated than that.

I think you made a good point about JA and LHoTP. I remember books that I really enjoyed as a child, like the Biggles series, that are now condemned as racist and chauvenistic, but they were books of their time and, to be honest, probably better than many contemporary stories when considered in context. What would be wrong, however, would be to write pale copies that failed to avoid the bad features and lacked the freshness and real period detail of the originals.

Lack of solid detail struck me forcibly regarding TC. For example in my notes I wrote: Lack of depth in the setting. What chores does Eff actually do? Some detail and sensory detail would be good. Lack of any mention of religion.

[aquaeri]

I think the issues of belonging to lots of different groups, and being sometimes the only overlap between groups, is a really interesting point. Thanks for raising it.

And yes, your analysis of TC is exactly why I'd rather let children read the original books. At least they're based on the complexity of real experience. I think if you expose children to lots of different stories from different backgrounds and time periods, including some Biggles and LHotP will work out fine.