What Are You Reading 4

[ThinkingFox]

She doesn't even like me reading Asterix to them

I heard recently that older versions of Asterix are now frowned upon for various cultural references and stereotypes that were in common usage at the time of publication but now would be considered gobsmackingly insensitive if not blatantly racist (one of the pirates is depicted in a way that wouldn't get into print these days).

Of course, it's far worse with other authors of that period including Enid Blyton and even Richard Scarry.

Wiki shows this for Richard Scarry's books:

Books by Richard Scarry changed over the course of their several editions, often to make them conform to changing social values.

His Best Word Book Ever, which first appeared in 1963, was issued in 1980 as a "new revised edition" which altered images and text to remove material which could be perceived as offensive due to gender, racial, or religious misconceptions. Characters in "cowboy" or "Indian" costumes were either removed or given nondescript clothing. Moral and religious elements and depictions of gender roles were altered or removed (for instance, a menorah was added into a Christmas scene, and the words "he comes promptly when he is called to breakfast", referring to a father bear, were changed to "he goes to the kitchen to eat his breakfast"). Characters engaged in activities reflecting traditional gender roles were altered so as to make the scenes more gender-neutral (e.g., a male character was added into a kitchen scene, a cowboy was replaced with a female gardener and a female scientist, the phrase "pretty stewardess" was changed to "flight attendant", and male characters engaged in traditionally masculine activities such as driving a steamroller were altered into female characters by the addition of hair ribbons or pink flowers, etc.). In some cases these changes necessitated removing whole sections altogether, including the "Out West" section, the "buildings" section (which had depicted a church, a cathedral, and a French Foreign Legion fortress), and sections on painting and music making

Here's wiki's entry for Enid Blyton dealing with the same issue: linky

I grew up with Jock of the Bushveld and my father still has my old copy in his study. I wouldn't let anyone read my old copy, let alone my kids...

 

[Dotsie]

Whilst I get the reasons for editing, in some ways I think it's worse to pretend that no one was ever racist, sexist or homophobic. It's sanitising the history of popular culture.

That being said, I would personally also remove outrageous stereotypes. I would leave religious references as they are - are we pretending that we've always been as multicultural as we now are? - and don't see the need to put ribbons in the hair of steamroller drivers - the very few women in this role probably don't go to work in ribbons any more than the men are likely to.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Yes, well. Obviously, these are all products of a period long before the political correctness of today ... some things have changed for the better. Others, arguably, haven't.

Many of the stereotypes in Asterix might have been true during the era that Goscinny and Uderzo are portraying (i.e. the time of Julius Caesar). For instance, the ancient Greeks are famous for viewing everyone else as a barbarian, and the Romans (or at least their leaders) are famous for bragging and bullying the rest of the Mediterranean.

Of course, Goscinny and Uderzo take poetic license with many stereotypes: for instance, I don't really think that ancient Britons stopped a battle to have afternoon tea. But it is generally accepted that in WW2, and possibly earlier, the British soldiers had improvised tea breaks - frequent or infrequent, as the case may be.

There's even a story that, to boost morale, the British army created the art of brewing tea inside an armoured personnel carrier. Here's the story.

True? Who knows. But the Italians have a wonderful expression: Se non è vero, è ben trovato - i.e. "Even if it is not true, it is well-imagined/a good story."

And isn't that what Pterry also said in The Truth? "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on"?

Compared to other lies we can all think of, I think that the stereotypes in Asterix are rather mild - although the stereotype of black people (or at least the drummer on the pirate ship) isn't - well, it was the 60s. *shrug*

It's very dangerous to judge novels from 50 or 60 or even 100 years ago by our own viewpoints and prejudices. If we did, then Oliver Twist and The Merchant of Venice would instantly be banned on the grounds of anti-Semitism, and The Mikado would be banned because it's "anti-Japanese" (oh, please). And there are loads of other examples, I'm sure ...

 

[=Tamar]

Frazz says it here:

https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2019/03/24

 

[=Tamar]

Rereading Pride and Prejudice (annotated version), and wondering whether to start a David Brin series next.

 

[Dotsie]

I'm re-reading Interworld (Neil Gaiman & someone else). I read this and the second book a while ago, but I waited so long for the third in the trilogy to be released that I forgot what was in the first two.

I've just finished the first in a trilogy (A lovely way to burn - plague times trilogy), so hopefully I won't make the same mistake again. It was OK, the beginning of an apocalypse-level pandemic set in London mixed in with a murder mystery, but tiny things careless bugged me - why would a British author refer to a surgeon as Dr? Also, the end of the world seemed to be a minor inconvenience to the heroine compared to the suspicious death of a new boyfriend that she didn't know very well and didn't seem all that fussed about. She's scrambling over piles of smelly corpses to get answers from some big pharma type, before the rats take over (no exaggeration).

Me, I'd be stockpiling food & water. But maybe the heroine doesn't need to do this, as over the course of several days she neither eats nor drinks

 

[Dotsie]

Rereading Pride and Prejudice

Just finished the audible version, love this book!

 

[Tiffany]

I am re-reading Anne McCaffrey books about Pern, in chronological order.

 

[Tonyblack]

I am re-reading Anne McCaffrey books about Pern, in chronological order.

I loved those books - have fun.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I'm a few stories into
Swords & Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery Anthology by Jonathan Strahan,written by some of the most respected, bestselling fantasy writers working today--from Joe Abercrombie to Gene Wolfe. An all-new Elric novella from the legendary Michael Moorcock and a new visit to Majipoor courtesy of the inimitable Robert Silverberg.

 

[Tonyblack]

I'm currently reading Nailed: Ten Christian myths that show Jesus never existed at all. By David Fitzgerald. It's a really interesting look at what the New Testament says, how it contradicts itself and how the historical evidence points to a lack of Jesus.

.

 

[hnorwood]

Being a sucker for whodunnits, I have read the (so far) three books by a fellow narrow-gauge railway modeller, Chris O'Donoghue, "Blood on the Tide", "Blood on the Shrine" and "Blood on the Strand" (nice titles!). They are set on the South coast in the Rye/Hastings area in the 1950's. He's improving as he goes along.

 

[RathDarkblade]

My next read is "The High Window" by Raymond Chandler.

I listened to the BBC dramatisations before, but I never read Chandler until, a few weeks ago, I picked up - and couldn't put down - "The Big Sleep". Now I'm looking forward to "The High Window".

 

[hnorwood]

I picked up a second-hand copy of "Lamentation" by CJ Samson at the weekend; it's the last/latest in his series of Tudor whodunnits with Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn. This one is set at the end of Henry VIII's life.

 

[Catch-up]

I'm on my fourth book by Tana French. I don't always like the way they end, but they are page turners and they keep you guessing!

 

[=Tamar]

I just read Warlock Holmes (book 1) A Study in Brimstone, by G.S.Denning. I also read part of book 2, The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles. I have to say, it's not for me, though it came very close indeed. I loved book one right up until the last page, when I said oh [expletive deleted], and looked at book two in the hope that it might be improved.
It almost was, but unfortunately, I would have preferred to read about the action that was quickly shoved into the blank space between the two novels, because I disliked the first third of what was actually written. I'm just not into zombie stories, not even silly ones. I never got to the part with the Hound.

I'm really rather annoyed, because I was laughing out loud in the bookstore on almost every page - that last page just blew it for me, and even the hints that things were improving during book two weren't enough to get me past the first third of book two.
But give it a try - it might be just the thing for you! (I reserve the right to try book two again; if it grabs me then, I might revise this review.)

To give some comparisons: I can say that elements of it reminded me of Ritter's Jackaby character, other elements reminded me of what Doyle originally wanted to write instead of Sherlock, and some actually was reminiscent of early Pratchett. Of course, it also is very much a parody of Doyle's Holmes stories.

 

[Tonyblack]

I just finished "50 reasons people give for believing in a god" by Guy P Harrison, which was very good and have now started "The god virus" by Darrel Rey, which also promises to be a good read.

 

[=Tamar]

"Footsteps in the Dark" by Georgette Heyer, 1932, one of her mysteries. It has not aged well, and, like Dorothy Sayers, Heyer has the embedded assumption that any reasonably well-off middleclass family will have at least one servant, which is mind-boggling to me as an American. But it has one amusing character whom I am certain is a spy in a story that happened entirely off the page, and - SPOILER - it has a wonderfully complicated set of tunnels and hidden stairways. It's too bad that an architectural plan would have spoiled the book because I really want to see one.

 

[Tonyblack]

It's funny - Charlene was a big fan of mysteries and read all the old one (she particularly liked Dorothy Sayers). I read a lot of them but found that I would often predict the solution due to the standard tropes they tended to follow.

And in regard to that other thread Do You Ever Feel . . . How long has "tropes" been a word?

 

[=Tamar]

That depends on the meaning you intend. Trope is derived from ancient Greek, and originally meant "turning" or "altering" something, that is, turning a word to mean something else in a non-literal way, by using it as a metaphor, or making a pun. It survives in the description of someone "turning a phrase." In Latin it became "tropus", a figure of speech. The use of tropes was a mainstay of classical rhetoric, and they are still studied today.
However, in modern casual usage "trope" has come to mean a common situation or plot element that we recognize because it is standard. So instead of meaning "twisted into something new", it now is used to mean "a pattern or a cliche, the same old thing", although it can be a magnificent thing used well.
stackexchange says the new usage seems to have begun around 1980, when use of the word began to increase dramatically.