Posted by Jock on December 28, 2005 at 01:52:42 from 84.64.131.122 user Jock.
In Reply to: Political Correctness (was AR vrs L) posted by Ross Cossar on December 27, 2005 at 16:31:04:
I'm okay with reading Ransome's words as he put them down and explaining the changes to the youth within earshot.
Do you mean that you're OK with the text as it is, or do you mean that you're OK with changing the text, or that you're OK with both?
I've thought a lot about this since this thread appeared on Tarboard. This is what I've concluded.
On one hand, Ransome writings are refreshingly 'inclusive': girls as well as boys are heroes, working class characters are presented positively, cultural differences are treated with respect. Ransome, if he was alive today would probably: (a) confirm that in the context that he used the 'n word' it was not originally insulting or offensive; (b) agree to the change so as not to give offence today.
On the other, Ransome was writing to at a time when cultural, political, technological and economic norms were rather different to those we have now. AR's views were quite modern (some might say revolutionary) with the result his books can still be enjoyed by children today. (There's a previous post somewhere down the board that argues that only now, because of recent advances in technology, AR's technical solutions are becoming quaint to modern children.) However, I would argue strongly that to fully appreciate Ransome it's necessary to do a little 'homework' on what his England was really like between 1929 and 1934. By bowlderising the stories we remove the little clues in the text that The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
My other concern is that once we start moving down the 'road of political correctness' where do we stop. If we remove the 'n word' then shouldn't we rename Titty at the same time. What about Nancy's note about gunboats on the endpapers of ML? Isn't that provocatively political? Surely that should go as well?
No, dear literary executors, please do not bowlderise AR's writings. Restore misprints that crept in when the type was reset, but leave the text as per AR's corrected proofs. Add, by all means, a note explaining that certain words used by AR could be used at that time without any racial or sexual overtones and that in the context that they were used by AR they were not meant to offend anyone.