Reading Wednesday
Apr. 2nd, 2014 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhat did you just finish?
Nothing, whoops!
What are you currently reading?
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz. Ah, this is so good! An in-depth look at a fascinating/tragic/horrifying piece of American history that I didn't know very well at all. It keeps making me think of rebuttals to that annoying dude who was on the Daily Show a few weeks ago, as though I'm ever likely to encounter him on the street and start discussing the Civil War.
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. So, I was afraid this book would be colonialist, and it turns out I was right! D: As well as being terrible in all sorts of ways. Rather than detail them all, I think I'll just excerpt this bit for your enjoyment (the context is that Anjuli, an Indian princess because of course she is, has snuck out alone to meet privately with Ash, a British dude):
"If it is for yourself that you are afraid," said Anjuli sweetly, "you have no cause to be, for I sleep alone and therefore no one will miss me. And if I feared for myself, I would not be here."
Her voice was still barely more than a whisper, but there was so much scorn in it that the blood came up into Ash's face and for a fraction of a second his fingers tightened cruelly about her wrist.
"Why, you little bitch," said Ash softly and in English.
OUR HERO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. And no, why her not being afraid should make her a 'bitch' makes no more sense in context. If anything, it's more shocking because the rest of the book treats swearing much as 19th-century literature would– that is, avoids it nearly entirely.
There's also plenty of narrative discourse expounding upon the foreign ways of the East (crafty, prone to lying, intricate) and how they differ from the ways of the West (straightforward, honest, fair) and how impossible it is that ever the twain should meet. However, Our Hero Ash was raised as an Indian for most of his childhood and thus can cross the lines. The example given for this is whenever he's asked a general polite question ("What's your opinion?" or "How are you?") he answers honestly, even when one is expected to tell a white lie. And this shows how foreign he is from those straightforward British! I don't know why it bothers me that the author can't keep her racism straight, BUT IT DOES.
I'm going to read the next 800 pages anyway, because I have a Thing about finishing books I've started, but it's totally going to be a hate read.
Nothing, whoops!
What are you currently reading?
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz. Ah, this is so good! An in-depth look at a fascinating/tragic/horrifying piece of American history that I didn't know very well at all. It keeps making me think of rebuttals to that annoying dude who was on the Daily Show a few weeks ago, as though I'm ever likely to encounter him on the street and start discussing the Civil War.
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. So, I was afraid this book would be colonialist, and it turns out I was right! D: As well as being terrible in all sorts of ways. Rather than detail them all, I think I'll just excerpt this bit for your enjoyment (the context is that Anjuli, an Indian princess because of course she is, has snuck out alone to meet privately with Ash, a British dude):
"If it is for yourself that you are afraid," said Anjuli sweetly, "you have no cause to be, for I sleep alone and therefore no one will miss me. And if I feared for myself, I would not be here."
Her voice was still barely more than a whisper, but there was so much scorn in it that the blood came up into Ash's face and for a fraction of a second his fingers tightened cruelly about her wrist.
"Why, you little bitch," said Ash softly and in English.
OUR HERO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. And no, why her not being afraid should make her a 'bitch' makes no more sense in context. If anything, it's more shocking because the rest of the book treats swearing much as 19th-century literature would– that is, avoids it nearly entirely.
There's also plenty of narrative discourse expounding upon the foreign ways of the East (crafty, prone to lying, intricate) and how they differ from the ways of the West (straightforward, honest, fair) and how impossible it is that ever the twain should meet. However, Our Hero Ash was raised as an Indian for most of his childhood and thus can cross the lines. The example given for this is whenever he's asked a general polite question ("What's your opinion?" or "How are you?") he answers honestly, even when one is expected to tell a white lie. And this shows how foreign he is from those straightforward British! I don't know why it bothers me that the author can't keep her racism straight, BUT IT DOES.
I'm going to read the next 800 pages anyway, because I have a Thing about finishing books I've started, but it's totally going to be a hate read.
