I have again reread this novel to the point where download Guthrie:
describes terms like "insensitive reactionary," "racist" and "sexist" as mere swear words;
states that such terms were applied to writers like Kipling and Heinlein because these writers "'...dealt with things that mattered.'" (p. 59)
I don't think so. I commented on this passage over six years ago here.
I am now rereading the same text but posting more often while focusing on finer details.
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But the writers Download Guthrie listed did deal with real matters, as can be seen from reading their works. And they were great enough writers to defiantly do so in ways at odds with current shibboleths and fads and Politically Correct nonsense.
Sean
Sean,
Of course they did but what I don't think is that they were described with "swear words" because they addressed real matters.
Racism exists and opposition to it is not nonsense.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I'm sorry, but I still disagree. Writers like Kipling and Heinlein WERE indeed vilified and slandered and falsely accused of things they did not believe. BECAUSE they refused to bow down to mostly foolish left wing shibboleths and fads.
See, for example, the article about Kipling that Poul Anderson wrote. It can be found, I think, in ALL ONE UNIVERSE.
Sean
Sean,
But they were not vilified because they wrote about things that mattered.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Granted. They were vilified for things they did not believe, that were falsely attributed to them.
Sean
Sean,
In Heinlein's case, what?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I thought you would immediately recall the furor and fuss over Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPER. Vicious people accused RAH of all kinds of bad things, such as him being a "fascist," because of that book.
Sean
Sean,
Oh yes, the word "fascist" gets misused, unfortunately. It is possible to disagree with a lot in STARSHIP TROOPERS without having to misrepresent it in the process.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And that is exactly what happened with STARSHIP TROOPERS, the book and its author was vilified and slandered and misrepresented.
Sean
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