Found an interesting link on Lit Hub today and decided to put it up here. Has to do with how to evaluate a book and its writer with more objectivity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/books/review/edith-wharton-house-of-mirth-anti-semitism.html
Why put this here? Several forums I visit consistently have comments as to the position a writer from say 100 years ago portrays in their work, judging both writer and work by the current standards of acceptability. We all know very well how ideas change over time. Some of that is for the better.
Change has occurred and we can celebrate in some instances that it it has. Yes, I'm thinking race, religion, gender, and that whole host of norms that separate one person from another. That limits some and privileges others. It is good to remember our past. Old books are part of that past. And they remind us of the struggle to move beyond limitations (and privileges) into a better place.
By the way, what was the Dreyfus Affair?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/books/review/edith-wharton-house-of-mirth-anti-semitism.html
Why put this here? Several forums I visit consistently have comments as to the position a writer from say 100 years ago portrays in their work, judging both writer and work by the current standards of acceptability. We all know very well how ideas change over time. Some of that is for the better.
Change has occurred and we can celebrate in some instances that it it has. Yes, I'm thinking race, religion, gender, and that whole host of norms that separate one person from another. That limits some and privileges others. It is good to remember our past. Old books are part of that past. And they remind us of the struggle to move beyond limitations (and privileges) into a better place.
By the way, what was the Dreyfus Affair?
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