SLSL: 'Lowlands' racism? / Nerissa & Hyacinth

[jbor]

on 16/1/03 1:45 AM, The Great Quail at quail at libyrinth.com wrote:

>> The crack about it occurring to Flange that he might discuss "the Midget
>> Problem" with Nerissa is pretty supercilious though, patronising and
>> offensive to both minorities it alludes to.
> 
> Rob, I don't know what to say about your above statement, my friend. I find
> it so PC it borders on the humorless. I though Flange's half-awake,
> smart-ass comment was actually rather funny, an honest bit of edgy humor.

Mm. That whole notion of "the Negro Problem" was ass-about-face to begin
with, laying the blame, or "The Problem", onto the victim and all, as it
did. Segregation sure wasn't dem boys' doing, nor was the rest of the
manifest discrimination against them. And that's even before we get into the
implicit comparisons between "Negroes", "Midgets" and gypsies which are
being made. (Think about it in terms of what was happening in the late 50s.
Or, to bring it to a more current context, you might substitute, say,
"Muslims", "Conjoined Twins" and terrorists and see how that sits.)

And it isn't Flange who's being the smart-ass, it's the narrator who's
angling for comedic mileage with the put-down. Flange doesn't know what to
say to Nerissa, and the idea pops "insanely" into his head. Flange gets some
credit for not saying it, I guess. Not so the narrative voice I'm afraid.

And while I really do like the analysis of Dennis's psyche and Al's weave on
the story's symbolic elements, I'd say the probability of it being a fantasy
of Flange's - the knock on the head from the avalanche of snow tires being
the most probable cause if it is just delirium - is pitched at about 50%
rather than 90%. Thus, I'm not so sure about his Freudian take on Hyacinth
either, which seems a tad harsh. Rats cop a bad rap, or so the story would
like us to believe.

best