Posted by Ed Kiser on August 18, 2003 at -1:23:05 from 64.12.96.103 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Conservation of Environment : Another tack posted by John Nichols on August 17, 2003 at 18:47:19:
John has said:
"It is very easy to fall into the habit of thinking that people's actions in the past should be measured against our modern standards, when in reality they were judged acceptable at the time."
The concept of "political correctness" is one that is a concept that definitely reflects the rules of the current day, rules that in other times would be quite differently interpreted.
It is good to read of events that are based on another time, that are written in another time, all according to the rules of that time, which may indeed conflict with what we consider to be correct today. With Ransome, we see the early thirties. For example, we see the smoking chimney pots belching their black sooty smoke early in the morning as people get up to prepare their breakfasts. Today as one looks out across the cities, the chimney pots may still be visible, but with much less smoke pouring forth. Today with different air polution standards, the smoke of the thirties had to go. Ransome gave us that view of that time, now all gone, now all different.
The writings of Mark Twain ("Tom Sawyer", et al) by today's standards are also found to be unacceptable, yet he wrote of conditions as they were at that time. There are those that consider "Tom Sawyer" to be on the BANNED BOOK list because Twain actually used the infamous "N-word" quite freely, because back in 1848 (or whenever he was doing his writing) such usage was quite commonly accepted, yet today, such usage is objectionable. It is unfortunate to have to throw the baby out with its bath water, and discard "Tom Sawyer" because the rules of social acceptability have changed in the intervening 150 years.
Let us hope that Ransome's wonderful stories don't become likewise BANNED because his characters seemed to support the concept of capturing of wild monkeys for use as pets, a practice that may be considered to be by some as totally unacceptable, and any writing that tends to make such seem to be OK must therefore be considered evil and needing to be banned.
Rules change. Times change. It all just goes to make revisiting those early thirties with Ransome that much more of a wonderful way to travel back in time.
Ed Kiser, South Florida