Posted by Peter H on January 01, 2006 at 17:23:27 from 86.143.231.164 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Bowlderising AR (was Political Correctness was AR v HL) posted by Mike Dennis on January 01, 2006 at 10:46:21:
I share Mike's serious concerns over the matters he raises. However, I am also concerned about the 'delayed action' effect the 'N' word may have on children's access to AR's books. At the moment, I would guess that for children's librarians and teachers AR is among the 'classic' children's authors, and is acceptable as a writer of good 'period' stories. There does not seem (and I am only guessing here) to be a general awareness of the inclusion of 'n*****' in two of his books.
If this fact did become known, I can see AR's books being removed from libraries and put on a black list (no irony intended). Charles Coull has pointed out that parents have a dilemma as well - do you let your child read PD or BS without any explanation by you that 'n*****' is a nasty word and must not be repeated, but that it was OK when that nice Mr Ransome wrote the stories?
I agree that there is no easy answer. For the time being I would always try to steer a child into reading AR's 'Lake' stories, which are safe enough. By the way, this is nothing to do with the various 'period' terms used by AR and often discussed on Tarboard - these may cause puzzlement, but never offence. There is a difference. Meanwhile, I fear there is a time bomb ticking away. (And by the way, Google searches do bring up Tarboard messages, 'n' word and all. We may have let an unpleasant cat out of the bag.)