re Re: NP "racist" Tolkien?

[pynchonoid]

Why not read the texts and discuss what's in them --
as Shapiro appears to have done -- looking deep enough
to understand how they might be working on a reader in
ways that may not be immediately obvious?  And perhaps
also turn to other readers -- Pynchon, for example,
who seems to pay particular attention to black/white,
good/evil binaries-- who provide other perspectives on
the media (movies, fairy tales, adventure fiction for
children, etc.) that shape so much of culture.


Date:	Fri, 27 Dec 2002 11:22:26 -0800 (PST)
From:	 "Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>:
>[...] But nobody save
>maybe Shapiro has so far said taht either Tolkien or
>his texts are racist through and through.  

I'm still assuming nobody here has read Shapiro's
work, but instead is reacting to a press release.

"Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>:
>He, they,
>did, do inscribe, reproduce, produce, maybe, even, I
>don't know, certain "racemes" or whatever.  Again,
>notice, discuss, critique ...

Yes, see above.

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>As if transmitting these
> allegedly "racist" values and attitudes to
> impressionable young people isn't something which
> is important enough to care about?

Not having read Shapiro, this may be part of his
concern, to point out ways that Tolkien's texts may be
reproducing some ideas and practices that aren't
particularly healthy for all God's children.  All the
more reason to read AND discuss the texts, to try to
understand them more deeply and, yes, to take
seriously the critical proposals that more may be
going on in such popular texts that may appear on the
surface. 

Why not apply to Tolkien the same sorts of
literary-citical approaches that work with other
texts?  Why not deconstruct them, too?  (Which is what
I suspect that somebody would be doing if somebody
else hadn't brought up the idea first -- more of those
sour grapes....)

-Doug



=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

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