This is an incredible essay -- some of my favourite books, the ones that bring me joy and comfort and such beauty of language, come from the 1980 or before (looking at Eva Ibbotson romances and Borges Fictions), and as I've gotten older and wiser I've been confronting some of the racist/imperialist/problematic romance scenes in them. It's been difficult, and there is such a dangerous ease of dismissing all problems as being of a different time or being in character POVs (and going, 'well, Eva had to flee the nazis and absolutely wrote plot lines that showed nazis as evil'), but you are so right. Confronting it head on is the way to stop the slippage from excuses to agreement. Thank you for this.
(Also all of the being said, The Secret Countess lives in me where other people have hearts, and with heavy caveats, I will always recommend it)
I love your thoughtful take on this! I agree about not supporting living authors/creators who haven’t engaged with the harm their work has done. By the way, have you read Will Eisner’s Fagin the Jew? It’s a little heavy handed, even for Eisner (who I love, but he’s never been a subtle man), but does manage to give insight into how a Jew in Dickens’ time would have wound up running a gang of pickpockets and thieves.
"It’s frightening to me that no matter what the state of the world is, antisemitism is always able to twist itself into a new shape." This is the scariest thing for me, as well. But you tackle this fraught topic with such warmth and good humor; I found myself laughing repeatedly.
This was a wonderful, thoughtful essay.
This is an incredible essay -- some of my favourite books, the ones that bring me joy and comfort and such beauty of language, come from the 1980 or before (looking at Eva Ibbotson romances and Borges Fictions), and as I've gotten older and wiser I've been confronting some of the racist/imperialist/problematic romance scenes in them. It's been difficult, and there is such a dangerous ease of dismissing all problems as being of a different time or being in character POVs (and going, 'well, Eva had to flee the nazis and absolutely wrote plot lines that showed nazis as evil'), but you are so right. Confronting it head on is the way to stop the slippage from excuses to agreement. Thank you for this.
(Also all of the being said, The Secret Countess lives in me where other people have hearts, and with heavy caveats, I will always recommend it)
I love your thoughtful take on this! I agree about not supporting living authors/creators who haven’t engaged with the harm their work has done. By the way, have you read Will Eisner’s Fagin the Jew? It’s a little heavy handed, even for Eisner (who I love, but he’s never been a subtle man), but does manage to give insight into how a Jew in Dickens’ time would have wound up running a gang of pickpockets and thieves.
"It’s frightening to me that no matter what the state of the world is, antisemitism is always able to twist itself into a new shape." This is the scariest thing for me, as well. But you tackle this fraught topic with such warmth and good humor; I found myself laughing repeatedly.