[News] Enid Blyton, classed as xenophobic.

[KeegansHairPiece]

But you'll probably find that well over 50% of people employed in adverts nowadays are not white which is hardly representative of the general population; and it's certainly way, way more than 20%. But if it's really what companies want, and they're not being obligated by targets/other pressures, that's fine.

Better contact Lloyds and tell them their research needs updating.https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/who-we-are/responsible-business/inclusion-and-diversity/ethnicity-in-advertising.html

 

[Bakero]

It's a place Daily Mail readers go to relax and unwind.

That's what they were in the good old days but now they're full of disabled Afghan lesbians.

 

[Sorrel]

This gets brought up every few years or so. It's true - really easy to prove, if that's what you are looking for. Her books are also sometimes wonderful things too.

I guess it depends how much we want to damn everything someone does for some of the things they do. Sometimes that makes sense - but probably not for artists and writers, with some caveats.

Also you can re-write parts of books, as has already been done with many Blyton books: there is no more Dame Slap's School in The Enchanted Wood, for example.

 

[Zebedee]

Better contact Lloyds and tell them their research needs updating.https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/who-we-are/responsible-business/inclusion-and-diversity/ethnicity-in-advertising.html

It does as it's dated from 2018! Try doing a count this evening when you're comfortably sitting in your armchair. The figure is almost certainly now well over 50%.

 

[Boys 9d]

I assume everyone is happy with English Heritage's updating of information about Rudyard Kipling in highlighting his "racist and imperialist sentiments"?

 

[KeegansHairPiece]

It does as it's dated from 2018! Try doing a count this evening when you're comfortably sitting in your armchair. The figure is almost certainly now well over 50%.

You've got to be on a wind up. Okay okay, I've been had, ha ha ha.

 

[Bakero]

I'm not sure if I've missed this amidst the outrage, but here's the link to the English Heritage website-

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/enid-blyton/

 

[AmexRuislip]

I assume everyone is happy with English Heritage's updating of information about Rudyard Kipling in highlighting his "racist and imperialist sentiments"?

The pitchforks will be out in Burwash tonight

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

How how do you explain using a male actor from an ethnic group that traditionally doesn't shave, to advertise shaving products? Hardly a policy that would boost sales I would have thought. Thanks for the free lecture by the way

Political correctness gone mad?

#prayforthemillionsofoutofworkwhitemiddleclassactors

 

[Zebedee]

You've got to be on a wind up. Okay okay, I've been had, ha ha ha.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

That's the travelogue that probably got him his job with The Daily Express

 

[Sorrel]

I assume everyone is happy with English Heritage's updating of information about Rudyard Kipling in highlighting his "racist and imperialist sentiments"?

There is no problem with being honest - and Kipling, though often a great writer was of his time and of course also very much a friend of Sussex. The point is not whether we mention their views, because we clearly should - but whether we should bin them entirely for having typical views of the time, which we should not.

Giving people information is fine, though. Things that are obvious to us will not be so obvious to future generations. These sort of issues are because people who are younger, mostly, are finding out things that we have known for ages but thought less important.

A more extreme example of this process was what happened in (West) Germany in the 70s and 80s when the younger generation realised that lots of the people in power in the 1950s and 60s had been ex-Nazis and thought the previous generations had at best turned a blind eye to it. In the UK younger people see figures from the time of the British Empire and see them as being complicit in what they see as a great crime (colonialism) and can't understand why the older generation didn't and doesn't share their horror of it and reject these figures.

 

[Zebedee]

At least this thread hasn't been consigned to the bear pit...yet.

 

[Eeyore]

I'm not sure if I've missed this amidst the outrage, but here's the link to the English Heritage website-

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/enid-blyton/

Is that really what it's all about ?

 

[Baker lite]

I assume everyone is happy with English Heritage's updating of information about Rudyard Kipling in highlighting his "racist and imperialist sentiments"?

I’m going to boycott his cakes now...might even take a knee...


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[Zebedee]

I’m going to boycott his cakes now...might even take a knee...


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And I'll wear a hairshirt for a week.

 

[Boys 9d]

There is no problem with being honest - and Kipling, though often a great writer was of his time and of course also very much a friend of Sussex. The point is not whether we mention their views, because we clearly should - but whether we should bin them entirely for having typical views of the time, which we should not.

Giving people information is fine, though. Things that are obvious to us will not be so obvious to future generations. These sort of issues are because people who are younger, mostly, are finding out things that we have known for ages but thought less important. /QUOTE]

As I was the person mentioning Kipling, I must declare that I agree with the above even though I have reservations about many of his political views.

Perhaps I should have posted the link to his poem about our County yesterday. Let's call it Sussex Day +1.

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/sussex.html

Also remember that before he moved to Burwash he lived at 2 addresses in Rottingdean (but not at the same time).

 

[Guinness Boy]

It’s political correctness gone mad. You can’t even say you’re English these days


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[GT49er]

I would disagree that Rowling's later books were well written.

OK then, to be specific, the Harry Potter books. Excellently written, one of the first things we noticed when The Philosopher's Stone came out. Haven't read any of her other output - irrational maybe, but fear it would be a let down. Like reading The Hobbit and LOTR and then heading for The Silmarillion and other Tolkien stuff ................ that didn't go well!

By 10 years old you would be getting to a stage where Famous Five would probably be a bit so-so anyway.

OK, 9 years old ............... yes I know they were popular, but I never went looking for them - I read a couple or so, but only when there wasn't much else available (our library didn't have a great number of books, and fiction was strictly rationed at the time!) They never thrilled or inspired me; some other books did.
The casual underlying racism and xenophobia can be recognised and categorised as 'of their time', but the literary merit level is still pretty sh*t!

 

[Bakero]

I assume everyone is happy with English Heritage's updating of information about Rudyard Kipling in highlighting his "racist and imperialist sentiments"?

I imagine most people don't care but a fair few will be apoplectic.