March 2, 2018

"Heavily peppered with racial slurs and featuring a white lawyer trying to exonerate a poor black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman..."

"... Harper’s book subjects students of color required to read it to racial insult, the Kameetas said, while its white-savior motif portrays black characters 'as mere spectators and bystanders in the struggle against their own exploitation and oppression.' A more modern novel could be chosen that deals with the same racial issues in a more contemporary way, rather than one 'reinforcing the systemic racism embedded in the school culture and society,' the Kameetas said."

From "Monona Grove parents' request to remove Harper Lee book denied" (Wisconsin State Journal). Don't let the headline confuse you: The request was to remove the book as a required reading in a 9th-grade class, not to remove it from the library.

I think the argument against selecting this book — of all books — as the go-to reading about race discrimination is, in fact, very strong. I understand that schools defend their own choices and are dug in here, but the Kameetas made an excellent argument (as far as I can tell from this summary). The black characters are basically "spectators and bystanders." I think the book is also a problem because:

1. It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape. Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?

2. Rape is a complex subject, difficult for 9th graders to understand, and yet this rape story is cartoonish, in which the man is absolutely, unquestionably innocent. Why present a book as literature when it deals with this important subject in an absurdly unsubtle way, thoroughly subordinated to another subject the author is bent on telling (the outrageous accusation against an innocent man)?

3. Racial discrimination is also a complex subject, especially as it persists today, but the racial injustice shown in the book is so exaggerated that it allows a present-day reader to feel smugly distanced. Nobody we know is that over-the-top racist, so weren't those people back then terrible? That's not how high-quality literature is supposed to work on readers. They should need to question their own simplistic preconceptions.

4. It's not a subtle telling of the story of how courts work and how they might carry racial prejudice forward. The evidence of the man's innocence is so utterly obvious that you have a complete breakdown of justice. That doesn't begin to enlighten students about how there could be racial disparities in the justice system today. It invites them to sit back and think people in the past were crazy.

5. There is blatant stereotyping of the poor white family, and their problems are not treated as perhaps a consequence of poverty. They're treated as genetically deficient. They are truly the irredeemable deplorables.

6. There is great sentimentality about this book in the older generation. Having reread this book very carefully and written about it (in the Michigan Law Review, here), I hold the informed opinion that it is not a very good book and the practice of imposing on the younger generations — with endless pressure to regard it as a great classic — deserves serious, vigorous questioning.

220 comments:

1 – 200 of 220   Newer›   Newest»
Jupiter said...

"1. It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape. Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?"

The first thing for children to learn is that black counts for more victim points than female.

Freder Frederson said...

Nobody we know is that over-the-top racist, so weren't those people back then terrible.

Have you forgotten Cedarford already?

wholelottasplainin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann Althouse said...

@Freder

When is the last time you read TKAM carefully and addressed the questions I am raising? If you don't answer that, I will just presume that you do not remember how cartoonish the characterizations in the book are.

Ann Althouse said...

At least read my Michigan Law Review piece.

BarrySanders20 said...

The warm smell of Kameetas rising up through the air . . .

You can check out any book you like
But you can never read

Bob Boyd said...

There are good lessons in the book for kids in this age of group think and social media mobs.

Do you have any alternatives in mind?

wholelottasplainin said...



Harper Lee could have saved all of us a lot of trouble by making the falsely-accused "rapist" a wealthy white man, the woman a poor black, and titling the book, "Believe the Women."

Yeah, *that* would have been a classic.

Ralph L said...

"Peppered?" I'm triggered.

Would people still read it if there hadn't been the movie?
The ham outfit was worth the price of admission.

Ann Althouse said...

"Harper Lee could have saved all of us a lot of trouble by making the accused rapist a wealthy white man, the woman a poor black, and titling the book, "Believe the Women." Yeah, *that* would have been a classic."

A book like that would be the same kind of book as TKAM, just with a different social-justice agenda. I am recommending that students read something that is either serious literature or a high-quality young adult book that connects to their lives in present-day America.

TKAM is a young adult book. It is waaaay overrated when put into the serious literature category.

Mark said...

its white-savior motif portrays black characters 'as mere spectators and bystanders . . .'

OK, let's just abolish the legal profession then. Let defendants fend for themselves instead of having to endure the indignity of an attorney to save them.

tds said...

Other points aside, subject of rape and a woman lying about it seems important for 2 reasons:

- black man - white woman relations, including even only visually assessing a woman, was a major source of racial tensions
- awareness that a woman can lie about rape will come really handy in a modern college

Freder Frederson said...

If you don't answer that, I will just presume that you do not remember how cartoonish the characterizations in the book are.


I agree with you 100%. But to claim that that kind of blatant, over the top, racism has completely disappeared is ridiculous. You need to go no further than some of your regular commenters to see that. Or Google "Christian Identity" or "white supremacy" if you think some of your fans are not that racist.

wild chicken said...

Ninth graders would learn more from Bonfire of the Vanities, or Black Mischief.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Several questions:

Why can't it be read historically, and discussed within the framework of the mindset of 1960 America?

Do you insist on this level of scrutiny for all the bullshit "literature" books that kids in 2018 progressive Wisconsin are required to read? Are you aware of what the reading list is for your local middle or high school?

Anyone who insists on the 'white savior' trope paid little attention to the moral agency and complicated social sophistication of the various white AND black characters. Calpurnia might have been black, but she was clearly presented as better read (Blackstone's Commentaries) and better mannered ("He's your guest and if he wants to eat up the tablecloth you let him, do you understand me?!") than the poor whites like the Ewells and Cunninghams.

It's not about black and white, anyway. It's about a complicated network of moral obligations that involve both color AND status.

Why did Mayella lie about her rape? If you think the book says "because she's a woman" you are the one who needs to re-read it.

MikeR said...

"But to claim that that kind of blatant, over the top, racism has completely disappeared is ridiculous. You need to go no further than some of your regular commenters to see that." I don't think any of the regular commenters here ever display over the top racism. Unless you can show an example, this speaks to me more about your own inability to make obvious distinctions.

Fernandinande said...

the go-to reading about race discrimination

If there is, or should be, "go-to reading about race discrimination"...

Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?

...there should also be "go-to reading" about women making false sex-related charges, an activity which is probably more common nowadays than actual "race discrimination" (except anti-white discrimination, which is almost ubiquitous but, of course, doesn't count).

Mark said...

I think the book is also a problem because:
1. It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape.


OK, so the central theme of the book is RACISM against a BLACK MAN -- and you make the first point about a WHITE WOMAN??

Let's just reduce Black people and their concerns to second-class status even while purporting to support them.

Why not start the vigorous questioning with your own misplaced priorities?

Sebastian said...

"The black characters are basically "spectators and bystanders."" So what? Boys and girls, literature is not about making you feel good. We are not here to peddle sweet morality tales.

"1. It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape." Boys and girls, the world is a complicated place. Things are not always what they seem. Check your sympathies and prejudices at the door. Stay critical.

"2. Rape is a complex subject, difficult for 9th graders to understand, and yet this rape story is cartoonish, in which the man is absolutely, unquestionable innocent." Boys and girls, do you see how this is a completely cartoonish way to present the subject? Why do you think the author does it that way?

"3. Racial discrimination is also a complex subject, especially as it persists today, but the racial injustice shown in the book is so exaggerated that it allows a present-day reader to feel smugly distanced. Nobody we know is that over-the-top racist, so weren't those people back then terrible." Racial discrimination is a complex subject, but part of it is also simple and understandable. Why do you think the author make the racists so over-the-top?

"4. It's not a subtle telling of the story of how courts work and might carry forward racial prejudice." Now, boys and girls, in a real case, what do you think might happen? What other books and news stories make complicated issues seem obvious? Have you heard of the term propaganda?

"5. There is blatant stereotyping of the poor white family, and their problems are not treated as perhaps a consequence of poverty. They're treated as genetically deficient. They are truly the irredeemable deplorables." Now, boys and girls, have you encountered this kind of prejudice today? Do you know the term "deplorable"? Are these people redeemable at all? If not, how does that square with our assumption that all people are sinners and deserve second chances?

6. "it is not a very good book and the practice of imposing on the younger generations — with endless pressure to regard it as a great classic — deserves serious, vigorous questioning" Now, boys and girls, lots of people used to think this was a very good book. Why might they have thought that? Why might you disagree today?

(Of course, I agree the book is not very good, and I doubt that any literature is taught in a wholly critical manner--but that goes for the usual prog propaganda usually inflicted on students as well.)

Ralph L said...

Cartoons are probably the best way to reach 9th graders, and it's good they see how bad things were.

I can't remember my parents' reaction to the movie. They were the same age and similar situation (on Tobacco Road), except dad's family was rising and not broke like mom's lawyer dad.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

It is waaaay overrated when put into the serious literature category.

At least it's not that pantload The Help or any of the earnest popular This Unjust Yet Inspiring World In Which We Live bestsellers that mediocre English teachers are insisting on. The Kite Runner or Three Cups of Tea which was all the rage a decade or so ago.

Kids these days read garbage, Althouse. This is the problem. A young lady of my acquaintance read The Hunger Games for a fecking junior level class, for the love of God.

Freder Frederson said...

I don't think any of the regular commenters here ever display over the top racism.

Well you can start with the comment immediately after yours.

And you were around when Cedarford was a regular commenter here. He was a flat out racist and anti-Semite.

AllenS said...

Someone needs to ax Freder who the racists be.

Jupiter said...

MikeR said...
"I don't think any of the regular commenters here ever display over the top racism."

That just proves that you're an over the top racist.

MikeR said...

I kind of liked the book, though I was annoyed that the ending was so incomprehensible to teenage me; I really couldn't tell then who killed Bob Ewell. Especially since Atticus Finch, who was supposed to be very bright, seemed to be sure it was his son for no reason I could understand.
But the book sure is full of brain-dead idiots; it makes it difficult to place oneself in that world. There are basically two disjoint sets of characters: wise enlightened non-racists and brain-dead idiot racists. It would have been a better book if there were some people more in transition.

Lyssa said...

Interesting. I say this as someone who has never actually read TKAMB, but I do think that there's value to us having some number of books that are basically part of our general cultural lexicon - that most people have read and are familiar with. Maybe TKAMB shouldn't be on it (like I said, I haven't even read it, so it's not on that list for me), but any of those books are going to have some faults, but still may be valuable.

It seems like we're giving up a lot of what we as a nation and culture had in common lately, and I don't think that bodes well for us.

Fernandinande said...

John Tuffnell said...
The warm smell of Kameetas rising up through the air . . .
You can check out any book you like
But you can never read


L and OL.

Also chickelit's "Black Histrionics Month".

mockturtle said...

American Lit never used to be such a minefield.

Matt Sablan said...

"Why did Mayella lie about her rape?"

-- Because she's the victim of abuse and threatened with even more abuse if she didn't. She's also a victim in this.

iowan2 said...

TKAM is a young adult book. It is waaaay overrated when put into the serious literature category.

I did not put it in the category of serious literature. My intellectual betters did that, I'm just along for the ride. Now you tell me, my intellectual betters are miffed by my previous intellectual betters. I don't know, but I'm guessing that the literature, what ever is the best PC today, will also fall from favor, because, reasons.
My 'give a shit' emotion is way past a functioning thing. I am a irredeemable deplorable. Racist,(because I'm white) and murdered those kids in Florida. (because I support ALL of the constituion), and a whole slew of other character defects. Guilty as charged.

Jupiter said...

Actually, Althouse, your article does not seem particularly critical of the book.

Matt Sablan said...

I honestly think TKAM is good because it is so simple; I think the real problem is we expect kids who should be reading way more complex stuff to be reading it.

The scene talking about the woman giving up drugs to live free of them is a powerful story, that probably could have been its own story entirely instead of getting stuck in the middle to show us that Jem is growing up.

Virgil Hilts said...

What about I know why the Caged Bird Sings. We had to read that pretty early in school.
"Eight-year-old Maya is sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. He is found guilty during the trial, but escapes jail time and is murdered, presumably by Maya's uncles." "During Maya's final year of high school, she worries that she might be a lesbian (which she equates with being a hermaphrodite), and initiates sexual intercourse with a teenage boy. She becomes pregnant, which on the advice of her brother, she hides from her family until her eighth month of pregnancy in order to graduate from high school. Maya gives birth at the end of the book."
At the end of reading TKAM as a young child I felt sad for black people and felt a lot more empathy. At the end of reading IKWTCBS as a young child I felt sad that so many people in the book (and Maya's world) were utter barbarians.

Jay said...

>I hold the informed opinion that it is not a very good book and the practice of imposing on the younger generations — with endless pressure to regard it as a great classic — deserves serious, vigorous questioning.

I would tend to agree with "the informed opinion that it is not a very good book", but what about reading the novel as an artifact of an important period in American cultural history? Perhaps if the readers approached the book as a fossil from a previous epoch?

Ralph L said...

They told my grandmother that the black man (former employee) who burned down her mother's hotel when she was 6 died in jail. I've long assumed his death wasn't accidental, but lately I've heard from the town's unofficial historian that he had a trial and died several years later.

Fernandinande said...

La Raza gcochran9
"How different from some other population do they have to be in order to be called a race? Different enough that someone gives a shit."

Matt Sablan said...

(Also: It is a way better book than Go Set a Watchman.)

sparrow said...

They should read the Autobiography of Malcolm X, very memorable

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

I read the book as child when I was going through my tomboy phase. Naturally, all I took away from it was I was okay as a tomboy. Young and single-minded.

The very next book I read was an Arthur Hailey book called Airport. Yeah, I know, if my parents knew what I was taking from their bookshelves back then and reading under the covers, they would have tanned my hide.

Anyway, after reading Airport I decided that tomboys were overrated and I needed high heels and lipstick. Eventually I settled into my weird self but I never stopped reading.

I won't even go into what I did after reading "The Womens Room" and "Fear of Flying."

Written Lives Matter.

MikeR said...

"Well you can start with the comment immediately after yours." Thank you for proving my point. Sorry, but that's pathetic. Thank God our world has progressed to the point where comments like that are your examples of "overt racism". Too bad that some can't tell the difference. It would be a happier country.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Interesting analysis by you and the Kameetas. But let's fill in the context a little bit.

What are the other required books now? What are the suggested replacements for the book?

A conversation in a vacuum is not a conversation but a lecture.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“3. Racial discrimination is also a complex subject, especially as it persists today, but the racial injustice shown in the book is so exaggerated that it allows a present-day reader to feel smugly distanced.”

You’ve come a long way, Baby. So, the argument against the book is the argument of the book? Further, the racism portrayed in the book, typical of the time and place (unless you’re saying it isn’t, in which case, hoo boy!), is apparently such a thing of the past, that Blacks as well as Whites ban feel smugly distanced?
You’re right. It’s a young adult book with an unsubtle lesson (like Animal Farm or Night or many other Freshman English staples). That’s the whole point. If you think White 9th graders are going to find fretting over micro aggressions anything other than ridiculous, you’ve completely forgotten your adolescence.

Mark said...

Whatever the conclusion regarding To Kill a Mockingbird, what deserves serious, vigorous questioning is how much people ought to be subjected to this situation of having to wonder --

(1) Does she really believe the absurd thing she wrote? or
(2) She really doesn't believe this nonsense, but is merely being provocative and contrarian to brilliantly lead people to think and comment on things.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

My impression of Mayella's actions, from the time I first read it at 12 and other times over the years, always centered on her loneliness and desire to connect with another person, and how sad and monstrously selfish that was at the same time. Remember she seduced upright and happily married Tom, who shat a brick when she did so because he was well aware of the danger that placed him in regardless of who had initiated the encounter, which really if you want to peel another layer back here was a sexual assault perpetrated by her onto him.

MikeR said...

https://sarahpowley.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/who-killed-bob-ewell/
"Students rarely understand exactly what happens at the end of To Kill a Mockingbird." As I said.

buster said...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is great literature. It too has been banned. After that, banning TKAM is no big deal.

Henry said...

Still required reading in my kids' school. My daughter loved it. I think what she loved more than the book was the character of Harper Lee. Around the time she read that book she asked for a typewriter for Christmas.

She loved that Harper Lee was friends with Truman Capote. She was furious that Capote failed to give Lee credit for her help with In Cold Blood.

Henry said...

I've never read it myself.

mockturtle said...

Maybe John Grisham's A Time to Kill would be more appropriate.

PoNyman said...

I completely agree with Althouse here. I loved TKAM as a kid. Now I realize as an adult that part of my love was that it was describing something as it was and it was crazy, but we as a society are not crazy now on the race issue. It was probably about five years ago that I learned that most of us have us vs them tendencies and race is an easy marker. Systemic issues still exist. Racism can still exist without racists. (Though there are plenty of those, too.)

YoungHegelian said...

They should boot "Mockingbird" & go with another classic of Southern literature, like Mandingo.

Jupiter said...

From Althouse's article;

"Of course, what she is hiding – her father’s violence – she is intimidated into
hiding. She should not have been the object of contempt, and this incident should have
been resolved by rescuing her from her abusive home."

See, to Althouse, this is a feminism thing. And also a happy ending thing. Justice was not served.

chickelit said...

The most damning thing about TKAM is that a white male Southerner comes off as a hero. A much better role model for our young people of color about would be Johnny Cochran and his trials and tribulations in the OJ saga. I'm sure Althouse would agree.

rhhardin said...

I never read the book. Apparently social justice agendas hadn't come in yet.

What's good for kids is the ability to do good readings, not to learn agendas or doubtful cases.

The seven lean years are the Chinese restaurant.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“They should boot "Mockingbird" & go with another classic of Southern literature, like Mandingo.”

That, young YH, was hilarious.

rhhardin said...

The Hallmark movies have the same problem. B plots come in with flashing lights and hard cliches.

Ann Althouse said...

"OK, let's just abolish the legal profession then. Let defendants fend for themselves instead of having to endure the indignity of an attorney to save them."

Spoiler alert. Atticus Finch didn't save Tom Robinson.

mockturtle said...

Per YH: They should boot "Mockingbird" & go with another classic of Southern literature, like Mandingo. ;-D

becauseIdbefired said...

I haven't read the book recently, and in that way it's good because what's left is my impression.

My take-away was the book was about the evil of group-think against an individual, but there are good people in the world.

Addressing Ann's point one, Wikipedia says:

"According to the data provided by the FBI, about 5000 allegations of rape every year corresponding to an average 5.55% of the allegations of rape were deemed false or baseless after investigation. That was at least five times higher than for most other offence types. Cases of disputed consent were not included in the results as they were subject to judicial review in court"

Using a favorite tactic from the press, I prove the above by anecdote, in particular by responding to

jay@8:33:

"Harper Lee could have saved all of us a lot of trouble by making the falsely-accused "rapist" a wealthy white man, the woman a poor black, and titling the book, "Believe the Women."

We already had something very much like that book, in the false accusations of Crystal Mangum against 3 white wealthy men. The country was treated to a year long drama as the press dragged these innocent people through the mud, the police were granted group DNA tests against 46 of the Duke Lacrosse players, and the complete results from the DNA testing withheld from the defense. The Group of 88, professors at Duke wrote a lengthy article about racism and sexism, when it was clearly understood to be condemning the Duke Lacrosse players. None of the 87 signatories has apologized. The students lived lives disrupted in horrifying ways.

Group think again: it's bad.

M Jordan said...

I disagree that the blacks in the novel are bystanders and spectators. Calpurnia is the Finch family surrogate mother. She’s a well-developed character and a sophisticated one, especially linguistically. Her explanation of why she talks White Folk talk at the Finch home and Black Folk talk at church is illuminating and shrewd.

Also, Tom Robinson, the black man accused of rape, is a nuanced character and very noble. His trying to escape jail and being shot because, as Atticus put it, he was tired of taking White Man’s chances, added to his depth.

It is true that, superficially, the Ewell family is portrayed as a Hillary Irredeemable family. But Mayella, the 19-year-old daughter who makes the rape allegations, has many redeemable traits. She is caught in the terrible web her father has spun. A close reading shows she is raped by him, not Tom Robinson.

The book is a classic and will survive today’s revisionism. There are many heroes in the story besides the peerless Atticus: Boo Radley, the Sheriif Heck Tate, the newspaper publisher, and even the racist Mrs. Dubose. My main complaint about teaching this novel to ninth graders is they’re too young to appreciate it fully.

dustbunny said...

I agree it’s a kids book. However I’m curious as to Althouse’s reaction to the removal of Huckleberry Finn (along with TKAM) from reading lists in the Duluth public schools.

chickelit said...

There are other terrible, terrible aspects of Lee's unfortunate book: one is that Finch is apparently a good shot with a rifle; no modern attorney worthy of praise should appear so gun friendly. The second point is that he shoots a dog. People don't shot dogs these days; we revere dogs as ersatz children and grandchildren. Ban the book!!

Ann Althouse said...

Sebastian, I love your questions, including the obvious implication that the teachers are not going to encourage that kind of critical thinking.

"Now, boys and girls, lots of people used to think this was a very good book. Why might they have thought that? Why might you disagree today?"

And one more question: Why do you think the school district has chosen to require you to read this book?

Possible answers: Because they don't want to take responsibility for the kind of racism that might exist in this very school today. Because they want to instill in you the belief that a traditional white male really could be our salvation. Because they actually do think women are liars and need to tip you off about their underhanded tricks. Because they want you to love the professional class of white people and to hold poor whites in contempt.

Henry said...

Does anyone read Invisible Man anymore? I think my junior or senior year we read the Battle Royale excerpt. Later, when I read the whole book, I was kind of blown away -- this book is way trippier than I thought, I thought.

* * *

My own opinion? Students are asked to read way too much fusty old literature. Give them some non-fiction for once.

Don't have them read "1984" or "Animal Farm" but "The Road to Wigan Pier" instead.

Unknown said...

I'd agree with Lyssa when she talks about our "general cultural lexicon". I guess I see this as part of the idea of our shared American culture. Most people of my generation read TKAM. We've also pretty much all seen It's a Wonderful Life and The Sound of Music. Regardless of the quality of the work there's something valuable about having generally common cultural touchstones.

Jupiter said...

chickelit said...
"A much better role model for our young people of color about would be Johnny Cochran and his trials and tribulations in the OJ saga."

Heh. "To Kill A Ditzy White Chick"*.

* and some dumb-ass cracker who tries to stop you.

Fernandinande said...

"The male does most of the work, while the female perches on the shrub or tree where the nest is being built to watch for predators."

chickelit said...

Harper Lee basically stole a gay man's authority with TKAM (though he may have been complicit). That's another reason to ban it.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

So, Ann, we can't introduce the topic of rape without admitting that sometimes women lie? How did you, as a law professor, treat the Scottsboro Boys? How did you treat lynchings? These are real things that really happened, and real men were imprisoned and died for them. "We are in the business of believing women's stories." Er, not all of them. Not all the time. Women, if anything, lie better than men do. Which makes "He said/she said" extra-problematical.

I haven't read TKAM, or its super-controversial sequel. But I couldn't help but notice that in this long post you never once mentioned the title of the book. Why is that?

Mark said...

Spoiler alert. Atticus Finch didn't save Tom Robinson.

Please alert the people who referred to him as a "white-savior."

Birkel said...

Oooh! A law review article? Wow!

As the 18th person in the history of the world to pretend to read your law review article, let me just say it changed the entire way I view the world about everything. Like every other law review article, I was moved by the elegant prose and penetrating analysis. Let me be clear: law review articles are "Totes Important".

You may as well have buried your manuscript in a coffee can in your back yard for all the influence law review articles have.

MikeR said...

Huck Finn, on the other hand, is still awesome. I read some of it again a couple of months ago.

Big Mike said...

It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape. Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?

Because it’s very often true? If they learn a little skepticism regarding a woman’s testimony that she was raped, that’s a very good thing.

Your points #3 and #4 strike me as true, but not germane. People really were that way back then, and comparing and contrasting with fifty years later electing a black president created the teachable moment.

the 4chan Guy who reads Althouse said...

This could be seen in context with the controversy over the current film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri".

From Vox:

"...“It is asking a lot of people to watch a story in which we root for a racist and abusive police officer in the name of his own redemption, but it is asking even more of the audience if Dixon himself does no actual work in the name of earning that redemption,” Hanif Abdurraqib wrote at Pacific Standard.

“McDonagh painstakingly humanizes a character who we find has unapologetically tortured a black man in police custody ... and then Three Billboards seems to ask audiences to forgive and forget wrongs like police violence, domestic abuse, and sexual assault without demonstrating a full understanding of the centuries-long toll these crimes have taken on victims in real life,” April Wolfe wrote at the Village Voice. “In some ways, watching this film is like reading those alt-right fashion profiles of Richard Spencer that insisted we overlook his campaign of quiet terror and find common ground with him. Nope.”

"These opinions, and many others, saw Dixon’s turn toward a more just cause and recoiled: It was unearned, it felt trite, and most of all, it denigrated the experience of the film’s few black characters, particularly the unseen ones Dixon had tortured — as if their lives really didn’t matter except as props for a white man’s redemption."


Sounds like many of the same criticisms of "Mockingbird".

The problem is not with black people or white people: it is about having them interact in any way that is meant as drama.

I'm not sure there IS a story that would satisfy a spectrum of today's readers (and critics). Any story of black/white interaction must navigate a minefield of triggers. Old stereotypes must be replaced with new stereotypes: someone will always find artifice in the attempt.

Perhaps the only way to handle black/white relations is to replace the characters with Japanese and Korean protagonists. Their complex relationship is distant enough to handle heavy-handed morality. Because Asian Lives Don't Really Matter.

The Germans have a word for this.

Birkel said...

I wish to offer my thanks to Freder Frederson for taking a stand against La Raza.

If only other Leftist Collectivists were so bold.

Ann Althouse said...

"I agree with you 100%. But to claim that that kind of blatant, over the top, racism has completely disappeared is ridiculous. You need to go no further than some of your regular commenters to see that. Or Google "Christian Identity" or "white supremacy" if you think some of your fans are not that racist."

Straw man. i don't make that claim.

But it's so easy to otherize and distance yourself from racists. They are those people over there. It's exactly what you are doing. It's more important for students -- *when they are forced to read what is held out as literature* -- to see the shortcomings in the themselves and in the people they know and love. There's plenty of hardcore good-versus-evil comic book material in the movies and TV shows the kids see. No point learning to read fiction if it's just more comic books.

Mrs. X said...

Ann, I completely agree about its being overrated. The writing just isn’t that good. I teach a college course on literature for young people. Never assigned TKAM, never plan to.

Shouting Thomas said...

Thank God Althouse doesn’t attempt to write novels.

When I want a sermon, I generally go to Mass.

Birkel said...

Further thanks to Freder Frederson for calling out Louis Farrakhan and all the politicians who associate with racists and anti-Semites.

Well done, Freder Frederson. Your support is appreciated.

M Jordan said...

Sorry folks, but this is NOT a Young Adult novel. Anyone who thinks that doesn’t understand that genre. TKAM is a complex novel that asks difficult questions like, when is it okay to shoot things? Sparrows, jays, rabid dogs ... yes, says Atticus, pull the trigger. But mockingbirds? That’s a sin. So the question is, Who’s a mockingbird?

There’s nothing simple or “young adult” about exploring that question.

traditionalguy said...

The story is told by a child observing a small southern town society. Ergo: it is perfect.

The publisher should forbid it to be read by sophisticated northerners. Problem solved.

As a southerner, we too see it as a cartoon told about 1920 sharecroppers portraying us as barely literate.

Fernandinande said...

Three out of four Women’s March leaders suck up to anti-Semitic loon Louis Farrakhan

Mark said...

I completely agree about its being overrated. The writing just isn’t that good. I teach a college course on literature for young people. Never assigned TKAM, never plan to.

I gotta tell you -- in most of the "literature" that I was required to read in school, the writing wasn't that good. Meanwhile, a lot of quite readable books with engaging writing and good stories would never be deemed to be "literature."

mockturtle said...

Always loved the name Boo Radley. Southern writers are good at names.

Fernandinande said...

So the question is, Who’s a mockingbird?

I self-identify as a Chalk-browed mockingbird because of that incident in 2nd grade.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Again, I haven't read TKAM, but I think I agree with M Jordan. "Young Adult" is S. E. Hinton's Rumble Fish. Or Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev. Both of which I got in 8th grade, along with other YA favorites like, say, Romeo and Juliet.

Marc said...

Two words:

Gregory Peck







[ps -- Hi Michelle!]

rhhardin said...

I watched Three Billboards last night and it was pretty good. If there's a social justice element intended it doesn't come through.

It funny, if anything good mockery of PC and amusing characters, and then just characters changing.

If there's any larger point it's forgiveness.

Not as good but as what gets chosen.

mockturtle said...

Funny how little I remember about my American Lit class in high school and how much I remember about my English Lit class.

Birkel said...

Shakespeare is good literature. It's amazing how much of those stories I missed when I read them in middle and high school. When I returned to them as an adult I realized just how talented The Bard was.

I'm relatively certain there's some stuff in there that is triggering.

Matt Sablan said...

"Of course, what she is hiding – her father’s violence – she is intimidated into
hiding. She should not have been the object of contempt, and this incident should have
been resolved by rescuing her from her abusive home."

-- I mean, technically, her abusive dad DOES die.

"Spoiler alert. Atticus Finch didn't save Tom Robinson."

-- In Go Set a Watchman -- he does!

buwaya said...

Its a past favorite of the bien-pensants.
It satisfied the liberal intelligentsias image of themselves, and their views of the structure of society, as to everyone's proper role, heroes, villains, victims.
And addressed problems of the day as they thought they should be, and those problems, besides, that particularly interested them.
And taught the virtues they wanted to emphasize.

As a school book for this level, it also benefits from being short and uncomplicated.

But there are other views of society and humanity, other breakdowns of roles, other conflicts and problems, and other virtues.

Personally, I think that the influence of the class that thought TKAM was so interesting was vastly excessive, pernicious. Before TKAM there were books commonly used for this level in schools that emphasized more universal questions. "The Red Badge of Courage" for one.

I have, and many others have also, put together school reading lists that are more appropriate, more exciting for boys, more universal, than the usual hopeless relationship pap schools like to inflict on their charges.

Ralph L said...

How many "professionals" even know Calpurnias and Ewells these days? Nannies are usually ferrin, at least on TV.

Shouting Thomas said...

This is one of the professor’s most bafflingly pedantic and humorless posts, ever.

It’s sort of funny in its bizarrely perverse view of literature as a platform for social engineering, moralizing, boring sermons, and tedious Soviet Realism.

Who in the hell would want to read the shit that Althouse thinks writers should produce? I can’t think of a better way to kill high school kids’ interest in ever reading a book again than to base classes on Althouse’s theory of literary criticism.

A semester of Althouse literary theory would send a whole mess of teenagers out for a Mohawk haircut, a snort of meth, risky back alley sex and regular attendance at head banging speed metal concerts.

On the other hand, if you do write novels, the Althouse school will sell books... to schools and libraries. Those institutions are devoted to spreading the boring, awful Diversity credo. Write a preachy book, advertise yourself as some sort of Diversity minority victim, and the institutional sales are locked in. Nobody but the most ass kissing kids read this shit, but the institutional buyers are all over it.

buwaya said...

Michelle, you (and much worse, the boys in your schools) did not get Dodson's "Away All Boats", or Foresters "Beat to Quarters" (or any other C.S. Forester), or any Heinlein.

Thats the problem.

Ken B said...

The issue is never the book, it is about who gets to demand the book be removed. I was never a fan of the book but I am less a fan of letting crybullies dictate.

buwaya said...

English schoolboys of the late 19th century read Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome", for fun.

I wonder what would happen if someone tried that in modern US schools ...

rhhardin said...

High school lit courses lacked enough stories involving airplanes.

tim in vermont said...

Mark Twain, as a child, lived among enslaved children. Still his book is hidden where you have to seek it out. TKAM, was Harper Lee's mature understanding of the original Go Set a Watchman, which she never published. Nobody is allowed to learn and grow when identity is everything.

rhhardin said...

There are cheat sheets for Catch-22. Apparently it's taught somewhere and people don't want to read it.

I read it for fun.

I'd guess they're teaching it as about the military.

Mrs. X said...

Mark @ 9:24, I’d need an example to respond, but are readable and engaging your only criteria? Shakespeare isn’t perceived as readable these days (if by readable you mean easy to read) and my students have a hard time with the writing in Huckleberry Finn, which I do teach (style, not content, though the content bugs some). I want them to read books that I believe are well-written. I’m willing to put up with some complaining.

Caligula said...

The downside to this reasoning is that it promotes a relentless Presentism. Students simply cannot imagine themselves being human in a different time and place, let alone as someone of a different race or ethnicity. Shall I be excoriated for saying they're poorer for it?

Regarding the environment of To Kill a Mockingbird, it's certainly true that black organizations such as NAACP did much of the heavy lifting in the civil rights struggle. BUT, in the old "seg South" in which blacks were mostly locked out of positions of power, a successful struggle would inevitably have had to engage whites who could work in environments from which blacks were mostly locked out.

To which that latter-day student, infected with an impenetrable Presentism that is unable (unwilling?) to see the past as it was, can see only white heroes eclipsing the light of the black heroes they wish to see.


The Short Version: the lens of contemporary political correctness has become so narrow that nothing written more than a few decades ago can be considered suitable for classroom instruction.


""Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume. I exaggerate, of course. The dictionaries were for reference. But many were
those whose sole knowledge of Hamlet (you know the title certainly, Montag; it is probably only a faint rumor of a title to you, Mrs. Montag) whose sole knowledge, as I say, of Hamlet was a one-page digest in a book that claimed:
now at least you can read all the classics; keep up with your neighbors. Do you see? Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more."

Mildred arose and began to move around the room, picking things up and putting them down. Beatty ignored her and continued "Speed up the film, Montag, quick. Click? Pic, Look, Eye, Now, Flick, Here, There, Swift, Pace, Up, Down, In, Out, Why,
How, Who, What, Where, Eh? Uh! Bang! Smack! Wallop, Bing, Bong, Boom! Digest-digests, digest-digest-digests.

Politics? One column, two sentences, a headline! Then, in mid-air, all vanishes! Whirl man's mind around about so fast under the pumping hands of publishers, exploiters, broadcasters, that the centrifuge flings off all unnecessary,
time-wasting thought!"

Mildred smoothed the bedclothes. Montag felt his heart jump and jump again as she patted his pillow. Right now she was pulling at his shoulder to try to get him to move so she could take the pillow out and fix it nicely and put it back.
And perhaps cry out and stare or simply reach down her hand and say, "What's this?" and hold up the hidden book with touching innocence.

"School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. "

-- Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451"

Rob said...

There is a seventh reason the book should be removed from the reading list. A nickel to bust up a chiffarobe is outrageous. Mayella should have given Tom at least a dime.

tim in vermont said...

I guess I will have to read the article to see how you deal with the impossible position that the accuser was in.

buwaya said...

I suggest that black/hispanic/Asian kids in the US get literature involving absolutely no "racial" issues, as a way of breaking into a universal state of mind, and not a racialized one, where all that matters is race, one way or another. This obsession with race is a great evil, it puts these kids into ghettos of the mind, it keeps them from bigger questions and bigger problems.

Its the difference between Thomas Sowell and Ta Nehisi Coates.
One can examine alien peoples, understand the dynamics of conflict in Malaya, or Turkey. The other is stuck in his old neighborhood. T. Sowell, however, according to his own account, was educated the old fashioned way.

If someone had bothered to educate Coates in the classics of Western Civ, or even the Chinese classics, he would be more interesting. But probably not as wealthy.

Eleanor said...

"Young Adult Literature" is a class of books written for a preteen and teenage audience. Most of it lacks depth. Characters are shallow, the plots predictable, and the theme hits you in the face. Most of them aren't significant enough to waste time teaching them in class. See the Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Twilight series. There are books written for adult audiences whose reading level puts them into the accessible to teens category that are worth time. Those books are rare. The average reading ability for today's ninth graders isn't very high. A lot of them have never finished a book in their lives. Since we've become more egalitarian in our approach to assigning kids to class, the entire school English curriculum has been dumbed down because every class has several kids who just don't read. Teachers are faced with choosing books worth the time it takes to teach a novel, which is several weeks in ninth grade, and will interest the kids enough that at least 25% of the class will actually read the book. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a book more than half the class actually reads, and the other half is at least willing to watch the movie. "The Outsiders" by SE Hinton is another. Toni Morrison's books are not. Charles Dickens used to be, but now is not. Most kids only read short stories by Mark Twain. Excerpts from Shakespeare, but not a whole play. Before we decide whether "To Kill a Mockingbird" is "good literature" for high school we need to think about what will replace it? Will the kids read it?

tim in vermont said...

It's a fantastic book stylistically, but I guess that the preaching falls short of that required of art in the US.

rhhardin said...

Teach Winnie the Pooh.

Birches said...

Pants is right on. The book that would replace TKAM would be way worse.

In the context of the time period
, who else can save Tom but a white man? I find that criticism wholly unsatisfying.

buwaya said...

"High school lit courses lacked enough stories involving airplanes"

True, isn't it? Modern schools lack stories of external focus, or adventure, or simply the cool. No planes, no ships, no spacecraft, no armaments.

In the early grades our class (a class of 50 little Asians, and me) had a full set of "Biggles". Or Catholic Reader included "High Flight". And our optional reading in HS included "Bridges of Toko-Ri".

Lucien said...

So Ann, what do you think about “A Passage to India “?

TKAM also seems to be about dealing with Others by recognizing their individuality: whether they’re members of a lynch mob or Arthur Ridley or Tom Robinson.

And Atticus is asked to shoot the mad dog because he is most likely to kill it with one shot, saving it needless suffering. Everyone in the book seems to understand that’s what you do with mad dogs. How about that as a lesson for today’s youth?

Amadeus 48 said...

James Baldwin: "I want to be a good writer and an honest man."

Beauty is truth, truth beauty--that is all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

sean said...

I imagine with horror the gender-sensitive, politically correct fiction Prof. Althouse would shove down the throats of ninth graders if she could. Hasn't she done enough in her career to destroy American education? Her students are an embarrassment, unable to confront a single challenging or unpleasant thought or idea, and she wants to double down on failure.

robother said...

The final phase of Reconstruction: in the 1950s, upwardly aspiring Southern authors following in the steps of Faulkner had to portray the white folks back home in increasingly cartoonish ways, as irredeemable racist inbred retarded thugs. TKAM, Deliverance, every Willie Morris short story, Forrest Gump. (Tom Wolf is the only notable exception holding out against this ritual self-abnegation.)

Mike Sylwester said...

YoungHegelian at 8:57 AM
They should boot "Mockingbird" & go with another classic of Southern literature, like Mandingo.

I have read Mandingo, which is not like any other book.

However, it's not for high-school students.

* It's too long

* The dialect is very hard to read.

mockturtle said...

Caligula observes: The Short Version: the lens of contemporary political correctness has become so narrow that nothing written more than a few decades ago can be considered suitable for classroom instruction.

The goal of literature in today's educational system is social engineering, not appreciation of great writing. Alas.

Amadeus 48 said...

TKAM was the inaugural book in the Chicago "One Book, One Chicago" program of the Chicago Public Library in 2001. Looking at the selections over the years, OBOC has selected a wide range of fiction and nonfiction books, including some really great authors from Austen to Bellow to Baldwin to Solzhenitsyn to Wiesel to Zusek.
I think they have done well.

William said...

I wonder what the Trojans thought of the Iliad?........Shakespeare is extremely unfair to the French in Henry IV and whitewashes a war crime. And what's up with only allowing the well born to speak in iambic pentameter? The low born are present strictly for comic relief. Classism at its most basic and pernicious level........And don't get me started on Tolstoy. I've read a military historian who points out that the general who came up with the winning strategy against Napoleon was a Baltic German and not the Russian whom Tolstoy extols. I wonder if War and Peace would have endured with a German savior. You have to give props to the proper people in both propaganda and literature.

MadisonMan said...

I've never read the book. Somehow I dodged it all through High School.

Rather than ban a book with objectionable phrases, why not incorporate that into the discussion as a history lesson? Would that be too much learning?

tim in vermont said...

How do we write about Emmett Till?

William said...

I read GWTW and TKAM at about the same time. I can still recall vividly many of the scenes in GWTW, but TKAM has gone down the memory hole. That may be because the movie version was in technicolor, but perhaps GWTW was the better book.......Margaret Mitchell was a stone racist, but she gives all her characters agency and vividness, including the black ones and the poor whites. I think in a hundred years, hers will be the novel that survives.

tcrosse said...

One sure sign that a literary character is a plaster saint is if they cast Gregory Peck to play him in the movie.

tim in vermont said...

I guess false rape accusations against black men never happened because it's inconvenient to feminism.

Henry said...

"High school lit courses lacked enough stories involving airplanes"

Roald Dahl Going Solo.

Airplanes. And snakes. Though not at the same time.

M Jordan said...

I think the reason some think TKAM is Young Adult fiction is because it has a child narrator. This is wrong on several levels. Anyone ever read “The Painted Bird” by Jerzy Kosinski? The narrator is younger than Scout but nobody would consider that book a candidate for the Newberry Award. It’s scene after scene of unspeakable violence, seen through the eyes of a mute, innocent narrator.

There is a grand misunderstanding, IMHO, of the quality of literature based on the readability level. If it’s easy to read superficially, it isn’t deep. Wrong again. “Of Mice and Men” is short abpnd extremely accessible ... but it is anything but a superficial novel.

buwaya said...

GWTW is a vastly more entertaining book.

Your educational problem is not that you don't provide the opportunity to learn, you certainly do. With the internet this has become a trivial problem, so much material is online for every sort of education and even technical training.

Where US education fails is that it does not inspire kids to learn. The thing is perfectly summed up as "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".

Literary qualities are irrelevant if you bore kids to death.
Or if you so beat them over the head with a hostile ideology that they reject education as an enemy concept.

Gahrie said...

The biggest problem with TKAM is that all the antagonists aren't straight White men.

Flowers said...

As a woman who recently defended a black immigrant against false charges of rape I think this book is a classic, fair description of the evil things people do to hurt others. And sorry, this criticism of To Kill A Mockingbird is so 21st century PC shallow

Rick said...

but we as a society are not crazy now on the race issue.

You should learn more about the Duke Lacrosse Rape case.

Phil Beck said...

It seems to me Prof. Althouse is criticizing the book because it isn't a different book. The story is about how a white lawyer in the South deals with racial prejudice. It isn't about other subjects, such as whether most rape allegations are true.

William said...

GWTW was banned by both Hitler and the Japanese. The subtext of GWTW was that life goes on after conquest by the Yankees. After the war, the book became a huge bestseller in both countries. It had a hopeful message to those conquered peoples........There's the book the writer writes, the book the teacher assigns, and the book the reader reads........I haven't read TKAM in years, but apparently there are a lot of people who have taken it to heart and reread it frequently. I don't think that they feel that the book's big message is that women lie about rape.

Henry said...

buwaya wrote: What in your opinion is the epitome of 19th century American literature? Of all books, the greatest? I have read all the usual choices, but my choice is none of them. Can you guess it?

So I guess Moby Dick is out.

Death Comes for the Archbishop was written in 1927.

I give up.

mockturtle said...

William, I read GWTW five times and have a quite different perspective. To me, it wasn't about the South surviving after defeat. It was about ability of the ruthless and unprincipled [pragmatic, if you prefer] to survive in any environment while the graceful way of life and honor that was the Old South aristocracy was forever gone.

Mark said...

If people have a hard time reading it, it is not well-written.

Look -- writing, like all communication, is first and foremost is meant to be utilitarian. It's supposed to be about communicating ideas, thoughts, etc. If you cannot successfully and easily communicate, then it is not communication. It is not good writing. It is failed writing.

Other considerations are secondary to getting the idea across, whether it is the beauty of the language or whether it is about just being pretentious.

As for the storytelling aspect of writing, the first and most important aspect is that the story be interesting. To put it in movie context, I've seen a lot of films with spectacular cinematography that are lousy because the story is lousy.

narayanan said...

"My main complaint about teaching this novel to ninth graders is they’re too young to appreciate it fully."

My question is do we have wise enough teachers to bring that appreciation to the kids?
Are these books just read and reported on and graded or do they explain and discuss in class?

Rick said...

2. Rape is a complex subject, difficult for 9th graders to understand, and yet this rape story is cartoonish, in which the man is absolutely, unquestionably innocent. Why present a book as literature when it deals with this important subject in an absurdly unsubtle way,

I think this criticism would equally apply to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Neither are great books using the standards we apply today. But they were great social / political treatises.

Freder Frederson said...

Straw man. i don't make that claim.

Actually that is exactly what you said: " Nobody we know is that over-the-top racist, so weren't those people back then terrible?"

And I realize you were putting words in the mouth of a hypothetical student, but you were still making the claim.

buwaya said...

Francis Parkmans "Conspiracy of Pontiac"
I am a great fan of Parkman. We had a full set in the school library.

mockturtle said...

I think this criticism would equally apply to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Neither are great books using the standards we apply today. But they were great social / political treatises.

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very well written novel in addition to being a social treatise.

Bad Lieutenant said...

That's Althouse's objection. Black v woman, black won. In fact her true beef is that either had to lose. Nobody should have problems except white men, and if they do, white men should fix them.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Isn't entering deeply into the world of the Other, cultural appropriation nowadays? I thought we were supposed to stick to our own cultures.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Shhh, Howard doesn't like picking on weak sisters.

Henry said...

Interesting. I read Parkman's France and England in North America at a time when I was reading all the old histories. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of Peru was another one of those.

I'd vote for Moby Dick, personally.

Mark said...

Make Dr. Martin Luther King's letter from the jail required reading too, I say.

The thing about Letter from Birmingham Jail is that it makes it abundantly clear that the motivating factor for Rev. King -- and his whole view, approach and strategy -- was precisely and specifically the Christian faith, including that part about loving your persecutors.

Static Ping said...

I liked the book. I liked the movie. It is not one of the greatest things ever done in human history, but it is easy to read, it is entertaining, and it provides useful insight into a variety of topics, not just racism.

TKAM has the advantage of being set in a bygone era with some black & white (no pun intended) characters. It allows the reader to experience something that really did exist but is mostly gone now, reflecting how far we have come. It takes a very hard heart to equate the over-the-top but not inauthentic racist characters with modern white people. It should be a book that non-extremists of all stripes can approve and learn from. It is highly unlikely that you could find a replacement of the same quality that would not be intentionally inflammatory and divisive.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I won't even go into what I did after reading "The Womens Room" and "Fear of Flying."

I could stand to hear more. .

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


"That's Althouse's objection. Black v woman, black won"

You must be joking. Black men have been ground to dust in the service of White female privilege. Black women have been reduced to a whining, dependent, joke to ensure they never offer any serious competition to the needs and demands of White women. Crack was irritatingly single-minded but he was right about that.

Mark said...

Rather than ban a book with objectionable phrases, why not incorporate that into the discussion as a history lesson? Would that be too much learning?

In a culture where everyone implicitly knows that of course Uncle Tom was a weak character -- a traitor and embarrassment to his people who eagerly and happily bowed down to lick the white man's boot -- you will not get a fruitful discussion about whether Finch was just one more oppressor or whether he was a heroic figure who rose above what he was raised to believe and stood up to the malignant hate of the mob.

Ann Althouse said...

NOTE: If you respond to the commenter we always delete, we have to delete you too.

Mark said...

There is a grand misunderstanding, IMHO, of the quality of literature based on the readability level.

There is also a grand misunderstanding in those lowbrow simpletons who simply cannot appreciate how a urinal on the wall is great art.

Ann Althouse said...

"Actually, Althouse, your article does not seem particularly critical of the book."

I'm responding to Lubet, who trashed Atticus Finch from a feminist perspective, so much of what you're seeing is a discussion of him as a character. If you read my piece closely, you'll see that I don't regard the book as high-quality literature.

rcocean said...

If the primary purpose of American Lit is to brainwash kids to "think correctly", just give them "Animal Farm" or "1984".

My 9th grade class got stuck with "Watership Down". The dumbing-down of books in HS Lit never works. The sophisticated kids hate it, and the other kids don't care, because they don't care about ANY novels/Literature.

rcocean said...

YA books are usually crappy books full of PC left-wing nonsense.

We didn't give our daughter any of it, but gave her real books to read.

rcocean said...

TO kill a mOckingbird is a mediocre book.

Its on the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

Boomer nostalgia.

readering said...

The great thing about law school is you learn anything can be criticized.

Rick said...

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very well written novel

The criticism of TKAM was it being "absurdly unsubtle". I don't know what you mean by UTC being well written. Maybe you mean the characters fit and are appropriately motivated or this is a reference the language. If so I don't disagree.

But I found the plot heavy handed blundering from one coincidence to another which just happens to make the political point the author intends. Judged by current standards it comes off as Dickens meets Michael Moore.

My point is though that this evaluation is with the benefit of hindsight. If circumstances played out more subtly in UTC would it have been as effective? For example Tom's original owner had had financial troubles and was forced to sell him. This plot element was a specific rebuttal to the argument that while some slaves were mistreated that was because of a minority bad owners and most slaves were not. The outcome in the story was both obviously contrived and highly effective. Judging the book by current standards focuses on the obviously contrived but ignores the highly effective because the current evaluation has no place for an argument won a century and a half ago. We need to consider that when rendering judgment about whether the book is "good". It should not be judged as literature but by its purpose. Revealingly this is how the left judges everything today - except the things that should be so judged.

Similarly Althouse et al criticize TKAM because the accused is obviously innocent and the hero is a white man. Would the book show the depravity of the legal system if the accused were arguably guilty? Of course not, the obviousness of his innocence is what demonstrates the system corruption.

Further of course the hero is a white man - that's who needed to be convinced to change the system. Who would a book with a black outsider hero to satisfy current political preferences have influenced in the 1960 power structure? Do we think blacks in 1960 needed to be shown how unfair the system was? To call this book racist you have to ignore what it was.

These aren't YA novels lacking nuance, they're something completely different.

readering said...

I have never recovered from learning that my favorite children's series, Dr Doolittle by Hugh Lofting, is now considered unacceptable.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The black characters are not just spectators and bystanders. Tom takes direct action, admittedly it does not turn out well for him. It’s not a rape story, the central story is about a young girl who faces down a lynch mob. Atticus “unquestionably” proves only that Tom didn’t beat Mayella. And you’re putting aside the disconnect between what actually happened and what can be proved in court as an important theme for literature. That you think the book is about irredeemable deplorables proves that what it is talking about still matters.

narayanan said...

Isn't a lot of this pushed by the book industry + teacher INERTIA.

Parents of the children in that particular class should be ASKED to create a list (for the children to choose from) and hash out their adult issues.

We need to keep out the cliffnotes and flash cards industry.

narayanan said...

Looks like concern for the children has been taken over by adults preening, flaunting and flouting and pouting om this thread.

mandrewa said...

Whatever the faults of "To Kill a Mockingbird" it is still a very well written book and it has an authenticity to it -- possibly because someone remembered her childhood and how she thought pretty clearly -- that relatively few of all the millions of books that have been written have. My guess is that the book or books it will be replaced with will in contrast be sad and impoverished texts, relatively speaking, although of course extremely politically correct.

Ann Althouse said...

1. "So Ann, what do you think about “A Passage to India “?" I read it about 30 years ago, and couldn't give an opinion offhand about whether I'd give it to 9th graders as required reading. Probably not. It seemed like high-quality literature of the British kind. I can't go into detail on the law-and-rape subject. There's a lot about a repressed woman getting overemotional in the presence of art, if I remember.

2. "How do we write about Emmett Till?" Non-fictionally, I hope. And that's part of my point here. If you're going to make kids read novels, they'd better have literary value that furthers education. If the reading is pleasure reading, let them do that on their own time. I strongly prefer non-fiction for schools. It think the topics of race and law and history are better done -- for required reading -- as non-fiction.

3. "I think the reason some think TKAM is Young Adult fiction is because it has a child narrator." That's not my reason. "This is wrong on several levels." I would agree, but it's not what I'm doing.

4. "'Rape is a complex subject, difficult for 9th graders to understand, and yet this rape story is cartoonish, in which the man is absolutely, unquestionably innocent. Why present a book as literature when it deals with this important subject in an absurdly unsubtle way...' I think this criticism would equally apply to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Neither are great books using the standards we apply today. But they were great social / political treatises." I agree and was just talking with Meade about that. You don't read UTC as a work of literature, but as an historical artifact, which had a big impact as a polemic in its time. It shouldn't be taught in an English class but in an advanced history class, mixed with nonfictional historical material.

5. "Actually that is exactly what you said: 'Nobody we know is that over-the-top racist, so weren't those people back then terrible?'" Oh, I'm embarrassed for you that you're playing dumb like that. You know very well that those words were written as what someone who is achieving distance would think. Give me a break. "And I realize you were putting words in the mouth of a hypothetical student, but you were still making the claim." Ahem. In other words, you know you're full of shit. You should have been embarrassed to publish that. Ridiculous.

6. "That's Althouse's objection. Black v woman, black won. In fact her true beef is that either had to lose. Nobody should have problems except white men, and if they do, white men should fix them." That's utter nonsense. Are you even familiar with the book? You sound like a lunatic.

7. "I liked the book. I liked the movie. It is not one of the greatest things ever done in human history, but it is easy to read, it is entertaining..." Hell of a thing to find entertaining.

mandrewa said...

To Kill A Mockingbird is primarily a story about how a young girl perceived the world at a certain age. That girl only barely knew what rape meant. She is also not part of the black community, although she probably knows far more about black perspectives than most white people today because the woman hired to care for her was black.

I assumed when I read it a long time ago that this is all rooted in the author's own experience. And that the story she tells overlaps in some significant sense with her own childhood.

Mark said...

Uncle Tom's Cabin is a very well written novel
The criticism of TKAM was it being "absurdly unsubtle". I don't know what you mean by UTC being well written.

It bears remembering that Uncle Tom's Cabin was not written or published as a single completed book. It was first published as a serial in a periodical over a period of several months. Only later was it compiled into a single work, and then with additional material.

If it had first been envisioned as a single work, it would likely have been written and edited differently.

rcocean said...

Emmett Till

Why the hell should we be "writing about" E. Till?

He died 65 years ago! 15,000 people were murdered last year. Lets write about THEM.

Do people like being brainwashed or what?

David said...

."It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape. Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?"

Ok, but when do you introduce this? Is there ever a good time, if your concern is too much emphasis on false claims? Seems to me that the concept that charges are not necessarily accurate needs to be in the discussion from the beginning. I can see the objection to making a false claim the center of the discussion in the "introductory" text, but who actually dares question the alleged victims these days. I was never involved in a "rape" dispute but my experience was that, like men, women lie about sex regularly.

The notion that To Kill a Mockingbird will be the first introduction these days to a child's appreciation or rape is kind of quaint anyway.

tim in vermont said...

Non-fictionally, I hope.

Yes, let’s not deal with important American historical events using art if that art puts any women in a bad light because there are no bad women. There are only bad white men, you know, like the father in TKAM who subjected his isolated and helpless daughter to insurmountable social pressure to make the rape accusation. It seems like everybody could be happy if the blame ends up there, and not in the accuser’s lap, but that idea gets wiped away, like with a cloth, by dismissing the whole portrayal of the girl’s family.

Whatever we do, the idea that false rape accusations like that Rolling Stone story, most recently, happen, must not be dealt with in art! Animal House would have been a great place to put a fake rape accusation, if we are dragooning art into our politics.

tim in vermont said...

I thought that the news media did a pretty good job in the ‘90s up to now making it really clear that women are always lying about rape when it comes to accusations against powerful Democrats, anyway. Why shouldn’t TKAM be used as an introduction into this strange fact about women?

Maybe a cautionary tale about lying about rape is a good thing?

David said...

Emmitt Till?

You have to start with the coffin photo. Then the mother's decision to publish it. Then the story and then the context and the whole sad disgusting mess.

The Emmitt Till matter was shocking. Shocking to white America, at least. It's hard not to appreciate how difficult it was for a parent of a black child, let along the child himself.

Gahrie said...

Animal House would have been a great place to put a fake rape accusation

There kind of was.

"Pinto: Before we go any further, there's something I have to tell you. I lied to you. I've never done this before.
Clorette De Pasto: You've never made out with a girl before?
Pinto: No. No, I mean, I've never done what I think we're gonna do. I sort of did once, but i was...
Clorette De Pasto: That's okay, Larry. Neither have I. And besides, I lied to you, too.
Pinto: Oh, yeah? What about?
Clorette De Pasto: I'm only 13.



Dad! Mom, Dad, this is Larry Kroger. The boy who molested me last month. We have to get married.

Mark said...

One of my current work duties is to manage a co-worker's blog, which gets a fairly large about of traffic in his field. In addition to formatting the posting the drafts, I also moderate comments (moderation is always on).

Anyway, there is this guy who was banned a while back. Every now and then, like at the New Year, I'll give him another chance and post some of his comments on a probationary basis.

But then, sure enough, after a few nice comments, he'll go back to his abusive, annoying ways. And the ban will be back on, with all of the many, many comments he tries to post going right into the trash folder whether they are nice or not.

Richard Dillman said...

I tend to agree with Ann. Having taught literature for some 45 years, I have never rally seen the benefits of the one required book approach to reading or discussion. It should be up to the teachers to select books that best
fit their situations and goals. I'm not against having a specific author requirement, say, for English majors. A good course in Shakespeare should be part of any rigorous English major, but every English major should not have to study the same play or plays. There are many ways to design a Shakespeare course, for example. Should every high school student read "Huckleberry Finn," "Moby Dick," or "The Great Gatsby"? No, no, and no. It would be nice it they did read these books, but there are other great choices out there. When I realized that it was no longer viable to teach "Huckleberry Finn" in the modern PC university environment, I switched my Twain requirements to a collection of his best short works plus "The Mysterious Stranger." These selections were actually more fun for me to teach than "Huck Finn," and the students also seemed to enjoy them.

I am pretty skeptical of the modern fad for each university to have one required book for each year, largely because the selections usually have a left-wing slant. My former university required "Hillbilly Elegy" this year. It was a reasonable selection, but they are not all this unpolitical. I did enjoy "Hillbilly Elegy," which was a rather easy read.

Henry said...

Looks like comment moderation needs to come back on.

Birkel said...

Althouse: "Hell of a thing to find entertaining."

Men in shorts: Hell of a thing, about which to care.

Tastes. Preferences.

The bounds are relatively wide.

YMMV and that's a good thing. Embrace difference.

Mark said...

Looks like comment moderation needs to come back on.

Actually it's less annoying than the usual suspects who come and piss all over the discussion and then others respond to their rabid ravings.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Really, one is unable even to get upset.

Bad Lieutenant said...

So, why try?

Robinson didn't do himself much good either, did he?

Henry said...

@Mark. There's a history.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Marc Lowenstein! For real!

OMG, Marc, how the heck are you? (Where the heck are you? George and I are now in Salem, OR and have been for several years.)

Please email and catch up! I'm still at michelledulak -at- aol.com. I know AOL is for sissies, but, hey, it's also free :-)

(To everyone else, Marc was a classmate of mine at the UC/Berkeley Department of Music, a composition student, a fine conductor, and a marvelous tenor. Sang in The Turn of the Screw, The Rake's Progress, and Pelleas et Melisande, among many other things.)

Anonymous said...

Your comments, my responses:

1. It's a rape story where the woman lies about rape. Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?

Because lots of women do lie about rape, and everyone lies about sex, and everyone should be aware of that


2. Rape is a complex subject, difficult for 9th graders to understand, and yet this rape story is cartoonish, in which the man is absolutely, unquestionably innocent. Why present a book as literature when it deals with this important subject in an absurdly unsubtle way, thoroughly subordinated to another subject the author is bent on telling (the outrageous accusation against an innocent man)?

Because with the Obama Admin / University abuse of Title IX to deny men due process when accused of a sexual violation, this books is entirely relevant to today. Of course, now it's all men, not just black men, who are convicted despite being "absolutely, unquestionably innocent". But that doesn't make the story any less relevant

3. Racial discrimination is also a complex subject, especially as it persists today, but the racial injustice shown in the book is so exaggerated that it allows a present-day reader to feel smugly distanced. Nobody we know is that over-the-top racist, so weren't those people back then terrible?

Just about all Democrats are just that "over-the-top racist", they just target a different group ("white" people). Seeing that kind of racism, and how evil it is, might cause some readers to wake up and understand the world around them.

Howard said...

Thanks Ann. I always felt like a slacker for not reading the classic story of rape racism and redemption. Now I can say that it's a POS to justify my ignorance.

Brian said...

Is it a rape story? Yes there is a rape story contained in the pages, but its not primarily about rape or that story.

It's about a child learning about good and evil and how humanity's perceptions of good and evil are not always correct.

You may think killing a mockingbird is harmless but they do no harm and provide beauty in the world through their singing. The key is to recognize that.

If it were a rape story I would expect it to be told from Tom or Mayella's point of view....

Brian said...

Is it a rape story? Yes there is a rape story contained in the pages, but its not primarily about rape or that story.

It's about a child learning about good and evil and how humanity's perceptions of good and evil are not always correct.

You may think killing a mockingbird is harmless but they do no harm and provide beauty in the world through their singing. The key is to recognize that.

If it were a rape story I would expect it to be told from Tom or Mayella's point of view....

William said...

TKAM washed over me without making much of an impression, but it's clear that a lot of people love it. Maybe it has more hooks if you grew up in a small southern town. Kids who love books will find their way to it, but perhaps its moment has passed. Not all good books are for the ages. I'm very fond of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but I don't think anyone reads it anymore......Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty are still read, but I can't imagine any kid stumbling onto their books and finding much solace and adventure in them.

langford peel said...

Atticus Finch was one of the first social justice warriors.

He should know that they would turn on him. After all he is the worst thing you can be.

A straight white man.

By all means stop teaching this book. In fact ban it and take it out of the library.

It is the liberal thing to do.

Static Ping said...

Ann: Hell of a thing to find entertaining.

The only true requirement of entertainment is that I desire to spend time consuming it, as opposed to being so bored that I'd rather do something else or being so offended that I'd rather do something else. I was very entertained by Murder, She Wrote. It featured murders just about every episode. It's a hell of a thing to find entertaining.

William said...

Are the best loved books the greatest books the greatest works of literature?. .....Flannery O'Connor is a more accomplished writer than Harper Lee but I can't imagine any kid stumbling upon her books and finding solace and adventure in their pages.

mikeski said...

Why should the first thing children learn about rape be about the woman lying?

Well, our public-education system is basically college prep, right?

Less-pithily: In 9th grade? I would hope that someone told these kids about the possibility by then, and it won't be "the first thing they learn about" it. 10th-graders/16-year-olds can be "consenting adults" in more states than not (my Minnesota included.) Exactly how much are we coddling "kids" these days?

Ralph L said...

Friday afternoon and everyone is leaving work early?

RI Red said...

As a (published) novelist, some thoughts:

1. What is this crap about "connecting with their lives in present day America?" How does Hamlet connect with their life in present day America? A novel is a STORY, with characters and a plot and hopefully an overarching theme, designed to entertain, amuse, outrage, tear-jerk or otherwise engender an emotional response, which can then be intellectually explained and examined for relevance to ourselves and our life experiences. As the writer, I'm only trying for the entertain part. The rest is up to you.

2. Harper Lee did not ask to be put in the young adult nor the great literature box. She just wrote a story.

3. I assume that TKAM is assigned, in the course of a term or a year, with other books. So one should not expect one single book in the course to cover all the bases of the subject matter. This book presents one POV on race relations, rape, criminal justice etc. The Color Purple presents another. Don't ban either one...read them both! Then discuss.

RI Red said...

As a (published) novelist, some thoughts:

1. What is this crap about "connecting with their lives in present day America?" How does Hamlet connect with their life in present day America? A novel is a STORY, with characters and a plot and hopefully an overarching theme, designed to entertain, amuse, outrage, tear-jerk or otherwise engender an emotional response, which can then be intellectually explained and examined for relevance to ourselves and our life experiences. As the writer, I'm only trying for the entertain part. The rest is up to you.

2. Harper Lee did not ask to be put in the young adult nor the great literature box. She just wrote a story.

3. I assume that TKAM is assigned, in the course of a term or a year, with other books. So one should not expect one single book in the course to cover all the bases of the subject matter. This book presents one POV on race relations, rape, criminal justice etc. The Color Purple presents another. Don't ban either one...read them both! Then discuss.

RI Red said...

As a (published) novelist, some thoughts:

1. What is this crap about "connecting with their lives in present day America?" How does Hamlet connect with their life in present day America? A novel is a STORY, with characters and a plot and hopefully an overarching theme, designed to entertain, amuse, outrage, tear-jerk or otherwise engender an emotional response, which can then be intellectually explained and examined for relevance to ourselves and our life experiences. As the writer, I'm only trying for the entertain part. The rest is up to you.

2. Harper Lee did not ask to be put in the young adult nor the great literature box. She just wrote a story.

3. I assume that TKAM is assigned, in the course of a term or a year, with other books. So one should not expect one single book in the course to cover all the bases of the subject matter. This book presents one POV on race relations, rape, criminal justice etc. The Color Purple presents another. Don't ban either one...read them both! Then discuss.

RI Red said...

As a (published) novelist, some thoughts:

1. What is this crap about "connecting with their lives in present day America?" How does Hamlet connect with their life in present day America? A novel is a STORY, with characters and a plot and hopefully an overarching theme, designed to entertain, amuse, outrage, tear-jerk or otherwise engender an emotional response, which can then be intellectually explained and examined for relevance to ourselves and our life experiences. As the writer, I'm only trying for the entertain part. The rest is up to you.

2. Harper Lee did not ask to be put in the young adult nor the great literature box. She just wrote a story.

3. I assume that TKAM is assigned, in the course of a term or a year, with other books. So one should not expect one single book in the course to cover all the bases of the subject matter. This book presents one POV on race relations, rape, criminal justice etc. The Color Purple presents another. Don't ban either one...read them both! Then discuss.

mockturtle said...

Some consider Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men a great novel but, IIRC, only every other chapter was well written--the ones dealing with Huey Long, er, Willie Stark. The other chapters were a dull mishmash of the narrater's romantic life.

langford peel said...

Most of the books selected these days are garbage.

Viewed through a prism of feminism, multiculturalism and liberalism.

They need to go back to the classics.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" is a Stanley Kramer classic. Bullshit liberal piety at its worst. The woke generations great grandmother. No wonder that they hate her.

mockturtle said...

PS: Alice Walker did the same in The Color Purple, alternating chapters between Celie and her sister in Africa. While it may have seemed like an effective ploy, to her, it wasn't. Spielberg had the good sense to throw out the chaff and stick to the wheat for the excellent movie.

langford peel said...

Shakespeare. Jack London. Emily Bronte. Jane Austen. Dickens. Steinbeck. Edgar Allen Poe.

You know English and American dead white writers.

Nobody darker than Edgar Winter.

buwaya said...

"Some consider Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men a great novel but, IIRC, only every other chapter was well written"

Mark Twain's "The Gilded Age" is just like that - every other chapter was written by some other chap, who was into melodrama and had no capacity for humor. Some of Twain's stuff there is worthwhile, because it is Twain.

"If you inquire around a little, you will find that there are more
boardinghouses to the square acre in Washington than there are in any
other city in the land, perhaps. If you apply for a home in one of them,
it will seem odd to you to have the landlady inspect you with a severe
eye and then ask you if you are a member of Congress. Perhaps, just as
a pleasantry, you will say yes. And then she will tell you that she is
“full.” Then you show her her advertisement in the morning paper, and
there she stands, convicted and ashamed. She will try to blush, and it
will be only polite in you to take the effort for the deed. She shows
you her rooms, now, and lets you take one--but she makes you pay in
advance for it. That is what you will get for pretending to be a member
of Congress. If you had been content to be merely a private citizen,
your trunk would have been sufficient security for your board. If you
are curious and inquire into this thing, the chances are that your
landlady will be ill-natured enough to say that the person and property
of a Congressman are exempt from arrest or detention, and that with the
tears in her eyes she has seen several of the people's representatives
walk off to their several States and Territories carrying her
unreceipted board bills in their pockets for keepsakes. And before you
have been in Washington many weeks you will be mean enough to believe
her, too."

buwaya said...

What should be required reading re Twain, for the amusement of youth, is "Journalism in Tennessee"

"They then talked about the elections and the crops while they reloaded, and I fell to tying up my wounds. But presently they opened fire again with animation, and every shot took effect–but it is proper to remark that five out of the six fell to my share. The sixth one mortally wounded the Colonel, who remarked, with fine humor, that he would have to say good morning now, as he had business uptown. He then inquired the way to the undertaker’s and left."

mockturtle said...

Good excerpt, buwaya. While I'm not a big fan of Twain, I always admired the way he blended humor with cynicism.

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