Thursday, January 28, 2021

Dionysus


I had weird sinus headaches on Monday night and Tuesday morning, so out of an abundance of caution I didn't go to work yesterday. I wanted to be sure they weren't an early symptom of Covid. But they never turned into anything more substantial, fortunately, and I don't have any of the symptoms that would trigger the need for a Covid test (cough, fever, loss of taste or smell). So it's back in the saddle for me.

I did manage to get some things done yesterday. I finally got our amaryllis bulbs put away for the winter. I mean, winter's already half-over, right? I would have done it sooner but those bulbs just would not go dormant. I stopped watering them weeks ago and they stubbornly held on to a few remaining green leaves until this week. Anyway, I took them out of their pot, treated them for red blotch fungus (with a mild chlorine bleach bath) and put them in a box in the shed. I'll pot them up with fresh soil in a month or so.

I also took a little walk around the neighborhood, just to get outside, but I didn't take the camera. I took these photos on my walk on Tuesday. They show some beautiful old tiles on the outside of a former pub on Cricklewood Lane. Unfortunately the building itself isn't as attractive.


I've been working on a library project, listing all the books that have come under fire for containing racist or otherwise problematic content. I guess the plan is to attach a note in the catalog that will put some of those concerns into context. For example, the extensive use of the N-word in "Huckleberry Finn" -- we could just warn kids that the word is there as an antiquated term typical of the era (in what is otherwise considered to be an anti-slavery novel). Or "Gone With the Wind" -- we could tell the kids that it presents a heavily romanticized view of the Antebellum South, and is historically inaccurate in its depictions of slavery and Reconstruction.

As I've said before, I'm a little uncomfortable holding earlier works to the standards of our modern culture. But I'm also uncomfortable letting such issues go entirely unchallenged. Anyway, we're not quite sure yet what we're going to do with this information, but it's good to put it all in one place. I'm researching the criticisms online and linking back to sources where people can read more about them.

And now, off to get ready for work!

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

I quite like the pub building, and yes the green tiles are quite spesh.

I wouldn't overload children with what may be wrong about a specific book. Perhaps a general warning applied to questionable books. Standards of today won't be the same as standards when a kid is doing your job in forty of fifty years time. "They used to say what? Disabled?"

Moving with Mitchell said...

Beautiful tile work. Any idea how old that pub might have been? I would guess the building must have had its charms at the time, too.

I look foreward to learning how your resolve those old content issues. It would be tempting to simply hide the problems away, but that would be impossible. What a fascinating subject to have to address for the school.

Ursula said...

It's bad enough that films and documentaries come with trigger warnings (ooh, it's a film about war - beware shooting and people blown to bits). To whitewash terms like "nigger" in world literature like "Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyers", and my beloved "Uncle Tom's Cabin" stinks to high heaven. Children and young people aren't idiots. Presumably they will absorb, by osmosis, indeed guided by their own intuition, the historical and social context of their reading. Still, not that long ago I was once slaughtered (on someone's blog) when I related how I had loved the Golliwog my father gave me. A black plastic blow up doll, small, doll size; he was very black, with very white eyes, and a very big smile on his very red lips. He was a caricature of himself. And, at the time, he was called Golliwog. There was nothing derogatory about it. End of. Actually, relating this tale, I could cry with outrage at the narrowmindedness and bigotry of the oh so p(isstaking) correct. To put it another way: If a kid reads a medieval tale of burning women and their black cats I am sure they will realize it's not exactly the done thing now. But then, in a wider context, there are cries for tidying away Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy. Now it's called "lying" (to children). I call it destroying (wilfully) a child's amazing capacity for wonder and the mysterious. What's next? Fairy tales banned because the big bad wolf lies in wait to get his paws on you in your little red coat? I've got to stop now - otherwise I'll be accused once more, by the thought police and word counters, that I am taking over someone's comment box.

Dionysus? He was one of the more benign gods. May the grape be with you, Steve,
U

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I hope that you will remove both "The Bible" and Shakespeare's "Othello" from your library shelves. Come to think of it - remove The Complete Oxford English Dictionary too. How about Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe"? I doubt that that would pass the racism litmus test either. By the way that carved head screams to me - "The Green Man". I hope that it is not racist to refer to a figure from English mythology as "green".

Steve Reed said...

We're not removing anything from the shelves. That is not the plan AT ALL.

Steve Reed said...

I don't think we're "whitewashing," as you put it, so much as explaining and contextualizing. Kids know these are unacceptable words now, but at the same time, letting their use pass unexamined simply because a work is a "classic" perpetuates racist aggression, doesn't it?

Steve Reed said...

Absolutely -- these things change over time. Whatever explanation we use is likely to be just one or two sentences, although we may link to sources that will allow the kids to explore the issues further.

Steve Reed said...

I have no idea on the pub's age. Sometimes they say when they were built but I didn't see that on this one.

The racism question IS fascinating. It's also a bottomless pit. Older works of literature almost always contain questionable language or characterizations -- I was just telling my co-worker this morning that it will be a challenge to know where to draw the line between issues that are severe enough to need clarification and those that are incidental.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I meant perhaps - remove temporarily in order to create tailored disclaimers or explanations.

John Going Gently said...

I adore the face. I’d love to own it or a copy of it

Lynn Marie said...

I think the plan to attach text with context and explanation is good. There is value in understanding how we arrived at where we are. Taking it to the next level: how to introduce the concept that in 50 years, these kids' descendants will be equally shocked and dismayed at our unexamined crudeness and cruelty while we are under the illusion we are the truly enlightened ones.

Bob said...

While the N-word is my most hated word, i do believe we need to keep it, and the books it appears in, as a reminder of what life used to be like. And GWTW should also remain and people should know it is NOT s history book, but a work of fiction.

Funny that you brought this topic up today, because the other night we watched an old movie from the 1950s, Witness to Murder. There was a minor, unnamed character played by a black actress and while watching the credits I saw that she was listed as 'Negress.' In the 50s they were still using those terms!

Ms. Moon said...

Well, that's an interesting building and I do love the tiles. Beautiful photos.
Your quest for what to do about the books with outdated words and ideas is a familiar one to me as I read books to my grandchildren or recommend them. Frankly, I'm on the side of an explanation and then to carry on. BUT I can see both sides of the situation. It's a conundrum, isn't it? I think the idea of flagging and having notes is a good one.

gz said...

Love those tiles..possibly Doulton Lambeth?
Sinus problems? Mine go hand in hand with the pollution levels

Anonymous said...

Love those tiles. They are quite beautiful.
About those books... they capture a moment of our national history. As horrific and racist as it was, it was/is our history. Sometimes it is good to remember how we got here, what it was like before an awakened consciousness. I am reminded of the words used often about the Holocaust... NEVER AGAIN. I would add NEVER FORGET.

Sharon said...

Those tiles are beautiful! That quite a project you are working on. Not an easy challenge, I'm sure.
I've had two or three times when I didn't feel well or had a minor ailment. I immediately got worried that it might be something far worse. It's so easy to do with this pandemic craziness going on.

Marty said...

Yes, Huckleberry Finn was required reading in our high school, but I never taught than particular grade and so didn't have to deal with it. Although I do remember teaching other texts for which I did the "awareness of the era and the context".

Steve Reed said...

Absolutely! It would be interesting to see how future readers treat our current literature.

Steve Reed said...

I agree -- I would never want to remove the books entirely. GWTW did win a Pulitzer Prize and like it or not, it's an American classic. We just need to point out its flaws.

When I was young I liked the word "negress" -- to me it sounded very regal. Some people used to say "Jewess," too. Astonishing nowadays. On a recent episode of Perry Mason we were amused to see someone credited as a "janitress"!

Steve Reed said...

I think your approach is exactly the one to take. Read the book, but explain. That's kind of what we're trying to do, given that many parents may NOT be available to explain things.

Steve Reed said...

I didn't see any signs of who made the tiles, but that guess is as good as any! I wish I'd photographed some of the other faces -- Dionysus was only one of many.

Steve Reed said...

Absolutely -- we don't want to erase the past. That would be a huge disservice.

Steve Reed said...

It's true! Every time I clear my throat I think, "COVID!" (Well, it's not that bad, but almost.)

Steve Reed said...

I am embarrassed to say I have NEVER read "Huckleberry Finn"! I've read excerpts but never the whole thing. I should do that sometime.

Ellen D. said...

Good library project. Hard to know where to stop as so many older books have outdated thinking. Good luck!

Margaret said...

I agree that giving context is important, really for any work, but especially those that include language and situations that are disturbing. It's part of any literary education. I remember sitting in high school (and college) English classes, discussing these very points.

Red said...

I thing many people become alarmed when they have a headache , ache or whatever.

Steve Reed said...

Exactly -- it's hard to know where to draw the line. As one of my co-workers said today, basically EVERYTHING published before 1960 was sexist, and often racist too!

Steve Reed said...

Yes, you're right -- it's part of reading, appreciating and understanding the work.

Steve Reed said...

Well, I'd read that headaches can be an early warning sign -- but fortunately not in this case!

Angelicastar said...

Something to think about. Just add a new section to your history section and call it the history of racism. That is if the school will let you. You never want to delete history because if we don't know where we have been there's no direction for us to go. I can remember on a social media site(can't remember which one) they were talking about racism and this young black lady made a statement that everyone should stop talking about it. I told her if she never knew where she have been that she had no direction on where to go. "you will know history was wrong and correct it and move forward without the hatred for each other.

Michael said...

I had a horrible headache last night and I got that sinking feeling that I might have Covid. I took some aspirin and went to bed, and this morning, voilà, no headache. I think this whole Covid nightmare has made some of us question a simple headache whereas pre-Covid we wouldn't have thought a thing about it! Glad you are feeling better.

Debby said...

When I was reading Little House on the Prairie to my grandson, he was intrigued as to why the Indians were on the warpath. We had a discussion about what happens when a culture is simply disregarded. By the time we got to the end of the book, he felt that Pa's bitterness at having to leave his homestead was unjustified. He figured it out for himself. When we read Mark Twain, he was shocked by the 'n-word'. He thought it was a swear word. We explained how the world has changed, how it used to be. He decided that it was a good change. Kids are capable of putting things into proper context.

Steve Reed said...

We absolutely don't want to "delete" it or pretend that it didn't happen. "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," as Churchill wrote.

Steve Reed said...

Definitely! We're all being super-vigilant! I'm glad your headache went away.

Steve Reed said...

They are, but I think the key is that you TALKED about it. Your explanations helped build the context. Kids can put things in context but they need a framework to do so.