On 14-07-2012 11:35, John Sundman wrote: > I wonder what you-all think of Kipling's Just So Stories? > > Do you find them innocent & lyrical & funny & potent as I do, or do you find > them obnoxious and all of the same cloth as his other "white man's burden" > imperialist writings? > In the entire collection, the story of The Crab Who Played with the Sea and its 'your people are lazy so they will be called Malazy' leaves me with a bad taste in the mouth compared to the rest of the stories, which are quite delightful.
I think much of Kipling's writing is racist in that race is used to explain a character's motivations or behaviour; but Kipling's racism is not exactly the same racism as a lot of the other writing coming out at the time. The chief theme in his writing seems to be anti-bureaucratism or a love of the frontier. So white characters are "good guys" as long as they operate where civilisation ends, while people sitting in Shimla or Calcutta are bureaucrats or disconnected from the wild or the frontier, and so the wrong sort of white people. Indians are also treated with affection in his writing because they are seen as beyond civilisation and closer to nature. The assumption that Indians aren't civilised is a racist one, but the conclusion that Kipling actually draws out of this assumption is quite different from other racists of his era: it's that his white characters need to learn and acquire these uncivilised characteristics and deal with Indians on their own terms, not that Indians need to be brought to civilisation. That blunts the impact of the racism. The most obnoxiously racist fiction I have read is Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu stories. -- Regards, Aadisht Mailing address for lists: li...@aadisht.net Personal mailing address: aadi...@aadisht.net Phone: 96000 23067
