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Mel Mudkiper posted:As I said before, your critique misses the point so much that I am not sure how to respond to it without taking you back to the basics of critical theory, but hey, I will try it seems to me as though one could make the point that effectively communicating the nastiness of racism is most valuable when it communicates to racists, at least those that may be driven to reconsider such as the likely audience for your typical dixieland novel
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Jan 10, 2019 16:50
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 01:26 |
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uh, getting the feeling that you're being a little all-or-nothing about this i put it to you that minimising reactionary opposition to such empowering makes it easier to accomplish
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Jan 10, 2019 17:43
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Certainly, but that is missing the point. The reason why I am framing my criticism so harshly is because the trope has been normalized and must be de-centered from the cultural conversation. The issue is not that appeals to white guilt cannot be even marginally effective, its that the white guilt appeal has been fossilized as the norm of racial narratives. The problem is that we have raised the "white person learns racism is bad" narrative as the central narrative of racial reconciliation and primarily because it is the narrative which least endangers white hegemony. but this doesn't seem like a critique of the book as it stands, it seems like a sort of meta-critique of the society which values such books idk it feels a little unfair to say "the premise of this book is bad" when it's really, well, not, it's just not what one might justifiably prefer Ben Nevis posted:I'm not sure that anyone reads TKaM or other similar books and thinks about how they're part of a large system of institutional racism. I mean, "Maybe I should be nicer to the valet" or whatever is a beneficial realization, but not really the sort that drives any change. iirc TKaM specifically is occasionally credited with opening people's eyes to how hosed up the american legal system is re: racism but i cannot find any quotes to back this up so eh
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Jan 10, 2019 19:04
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still not convinced that a novel whose project is admitted to be legitimate can be accused of being bad because its project is not better like, i get the point that it's feeding into a doctrine of anti-racism which you see as misguided, but that seems to be a matter, more or less of fashion it seems to me as though the realistic choice here is not this book or a better book, it's this book or nothing - lee's overarching project and framing devices rely so much on the white perspective that i can't really see any way to do what mel wants, and i very much doubt that lee could have written anything else than that white perspective at this point one could say ok then read someone else, but that again makes little sense because people have certain preferences/imo it's a good enough novel for reasons of prose and structure and other elements that it's not really immediately replacable effectively the end point of that critique would be simply delegitimising white objections to racism because of what amounts to indelible racial loyalties, which is really iffy, even before really going into the sheer weirdness that is american racial ideology
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Jan 12, 2019 14:12
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i do not agree that the moral case against racism is irrelevant e. to elaborate: i accept and agree that the republican party is much worse than the kkk re: racism even though they are personally much less racist. discrediting the kkk is still a worthy cause V. Illych L. fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Jan 12, 2019 |
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Jan 12, 2019 22:14
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 01:26 |
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SilkyP posted:Is literature and hence critical analysis of literature less important now than in times past? its all literature op
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May 8, 2019 19:37
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