NP "racist" Tolkien?

[Dave Monroe]

Well, which way do you want it, then?  "Racist"--or,
more accurately, reproducisng racisms--or no? 
"Insidiously."  Word choice.  Again ... no, my point
all along has been, point these things out, be aware
of them, keep them in mind, discuss them, critique
them, whatever.  But don't stop reading.  Excise all
the racism and sexism and classism and homophobia and
xenophobia and ... and ... and, well, I don't know
what would even be left.  Face up to yr legacy.  We
should have learned that by now here.  But nobody save
maybe Shapiro has so far said taht either Tolkien or
his texts are racist through and through.  He, they,
did, do inscribe, reproduce, produce, maybe, even, I
don't know, certain "racemes" or whatever.  Again,
notice, discuss, critique ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> And another thing. I don't get this part of the
> argument that says that even though _TLOTR_
> is "racist", insidiously evoking and 
> promoting "racist" values or whatever, that that
> doesn't really matter anyway, you can still be
> a fan, and it's quite OK to let the kiddies along to
> see it and not worry that they are going to absorb
> (i.e., that "*Rezeptionsaesthetik*" thang) all
> this negative ideology. As if transmitting these
> allegedly "racist" values and attitudes to
> impressionable young people isn't something which
> is important enough to care about?

"But what about the children?" goes up the shrill
soccer-mom (my own classism/sexism there ...) cry.
Me, I'm more worried about uncritical adults these
days than "impressionable" children ...

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