Re: Mutual of Omaha's Wild FortyhumansmitejenJune 30 2008, 13:53:23 UTC
Well I did read him when I was 15, and I DID think he was racist--the protagonist's cat in Rats in the Walls is named 'Nigger-Man,' after all!
There are LOADS of references to islanders and other 'remote' people being lower in their evolutionary development, and the sense that such people are 'backward' for it. And in some of his letters to friends I recall mention here and there that could definitely be chalked up to both the overall times they lived in and a more personal belief. You could make the similiar claim that he was sexist, when really it was just his very Victorian upbringing and personal neuroses concerning the opposite sex.
I don't know about the UK but I know that I tend to be very sensitive and paranoid regarding any mention of eugenics--I have my own reasons, most of which are irrational --'He just mentioned X thing related to eugenics, OH GOD! What if someone sees me reading this and things I am a proponent!' kind of reactions come to mind. It comes as a result of growing up in the working-class south, and also being the only white kid in a lot of my classes in middle school. The one thing you did NOT want to be thought of was racist when two kids in your class were in Latin Kings and such.
There are LOADS of references to islanders and other 'remote' people being lower in their evolutionary development, and the sense that such people are 'backward' for it. And in some of his letters to friends I recall mention here and there that could definitely be chalked up to both the overall times they lived in and a more personal belief. You could make the similiar claim that he was sexist, when really it was just his very Victorian upbringing and personal neuroses concerning the opposite sex.
I don't know about the UK but I know that I tend to be very sensitive and paranoid regarding any mention of eugenics--I have my own reasons, most of which are irrational --'He just mentioned X thing related to eugenics, OH GOD! What if someone sees me reading this and things I am a proponent!' kind of reactions come to mind. It comes as a result of growing up in the working-class south, and also being the only white kid in a lot of my classes in middle school. The one thing you did NOT want to be thought of was racist when two kids in your class were in Latin Kings and such.
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