I met a professional woman screenwriter back in the early 70's when those were as rare as hen's teeth, and she said something along the lines of, "As a kid, I read all the boys adventure books, and, of course, I saw myself as the protagonist. I write mostly male characters because I find men's problems more interesting than women's problems."
I remember Bob Kane lamenting DC's insistence on creating he character of Robin because the readers of Batman were mostly kids and they needed someone to identify with. He asked the audience, "When you read Batman as a kid, did you identify with Robin or Batman?"
"Batman!" was the thunderous response. The evil, idiotic idea that people only read novels about characters that look and act like them has caused immense harm in this world. People read fiction to imagine things beyond their grasp, and, just maybe, to inspire them to become those things in their own unique way.
One of these eons I have to find my round tuit and read some Tom Swift.
My father spoke fondly of the ones he'd read.
Yes, he was a Boomer...But it was for WWI. He was born in 1919.
Kinda impressive in retrospect tho, he was born into a family of leased land contract tomato farmers & by stereotype, not the type you'd expect to be out buying books.
I watched The Booksellers on youtube about a week ago (https://youtu.be/fi2neuXN9xA?si=VNIxdv_AaEHVD43Y), therein noted that in 1950s there were 368 bookstores in NYC, in 2020, when the documentary first aired, there were only 79 left.
Living there, on the lower east side as a latter day card carrying beatnik in the early '60s, it would often take me three or four hours to walk across the island stopping at used bookstores along the way.
& yes I've still 6 or 8 Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective novels (Including Reeve's first one The Silent Bullet, published 1910.) on my shelves that I bought cheaply on those cross town walks. ;-)
Kipling's lack of racism really comes through in this poem:
"I wish that I might see them,
My Brethren black an' brown,
With the trichies smellin' pleasant
An' the hog-darn passin' down;
An' the old khansamah snorin'
On the bottle-khana floor,
Like a Master in good standing
With my Mother-Lodge once more.
Outside–Sergeant! Sir! Salute! Salaam!'
Inside–Brother," an' it doesn't do no 'arm.
We met upon the Level an' we parted on the Square,
An' I was Junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there! "
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_motherlodge.htm
Revisionism and the concept of moral relativism are two side of the cultural suicide coin.
That's a terrible challenge coin. 0/10 do not want to collect.
I met a professional woman screenwriter back in the early 70's when those were as rare as hen's teeth, and she said something along the lines of, "As a kid, I read all the boys adventure books, and, of course, I saw myself as the protagonist. I write mostly male characters because I find men's problems more interesting than women's problems."
I remember Bob Kane lamenting DC's insistence on creating he character of Robin because the readers of Batman were mostly kids and they needed someone to identify with. He asked the audience, "When you read Batman as a kid, did you identify with Robin or Batman?"
"Batman!" was the thunderous response. The evil, idiotic idea that people only read novels about characters that look and act like them has caused immense harm in this world. People read fiction to imagine things beyond their grasp, and, just maybe, to inspire them to become those things in their own unique way.
One of these eons I have to find my round tuit and read some Tom Swift.
My father spoke fondly of the ones he'd read.
Yes, he was a Boomer...But it was for WWI. He was born in 1919.
Kinda impressive in retrospect tho, he was born into a family of leased land contract tomato farmers & by stereotype, not the type you'd expect to be out buying books.
Just as when I read Mark Twain, as long as I note the context of when it was written, it need not offend.
I watched The Booksellers on youtube about a week ago (https://youtu.be/fi2neuXN9xA?si=VNIxdv_AaEHVD43Y), therein noted that in 1950s there were 368 bookstores in NYC, in 2020, when the documentary first aired, there were only 79 left.
Living there, on the lower east side as a latter day card carrying beatnik in the early '60s, it would often take me three or four hours to walk across the island stopping at used bookstores along the way.
& yes I've still 6 or 8 Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective novels (Including Reeve's first one The Silent Bullet, published 1910.) on my shelves that I bought cheaply on those cross town walks. ;-)