Posted by Steven R. Harbin on February 14, 1999 at 20:46:30:
In Reply to: Why I Think Farnham's Freehold Is Racist posted by Terry on February 08, 1999 at 14:32:09:
: GC,
: And it just turned out in _FF_ that all the good guys were white and all the bad guys were black and lording over the poor whites in a future Africa which has escaped anhilation. They weren't just antagonists, but evil and evil in ways that made me think of Jim Crow. Very nasty types - lazy, pushy, unredemebly bad. No respect for the characters at all. In fact as an aside the greatness of literature is the respect an author has for all his/her characters.
Let me get this straight. Farnham's Freehold is racist because it has some good white protagonists and some bad black protagonists? Boy, George Orwell would have loved that kind of thinking. Actually, Heinlein's point was that there is a tendency for those in power (whatever ethnic group that might be) to allow their worst parts of their human natures to gain the upper hand. Heinlein was basically a libertarian who bordered on anarchism at times. He completely agreed with Lord
Acton's comment that "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Acually FF should be loved by that liberal politically correct group who believe that only those have power are capable of racism. As far as The Gray Prince goes, Vance was poking fun at that same group: those who are selectively sensitive and believe that ultimate goodness belongs only to those groups who claim to have some long standing greivance against the descendants of someone who has been dead for a long time. Sort of like the biblical curse about the sins of the fathers being held against the children, grand children, great grand children ad infinitum. I can't think of a more morally bankrupt line of moral thinking than this. Luckily both Heinlein and especially Vance believed in the concept of individual responsibility for one's own actions (and only one's own actions) and not some ambiguous idea that one collective group owes something to another collective group. In Vance's universe, individuals are responsible for their own actions and owe respect and decent treatment to all other humans as individuals. Besides The Gray Prince, see The Blue World, Big Planet, just about any of Vance's books.
: Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but it was personally embarassing to me to read my favorite author writing what, to may mind at least, was the most palpably racist, charicatures of blacks. Some evil daydream of a white racist put on paper in the name of a great author. I thought it quite sad.
: Vance, on the other hand, skates close to racism in _The Grey Prince_ which at least abstracts the problem to another planet and another society. If the prince were black and the country were South Africa, say, I'd lay the charge on Vance as well.
: Vance has always had a Eurocentric viewpoint which is fine by me and especially fine when the villains are Dirdir or other alien races. When villains become humans of a different racial type (but not black) I'm made uneasy by that narrow distinction, but can give credit to a fine author of an earlier sensibility.
: I'm trying to remember black people in Vance and can come up with only a couple - believe in Slaves of the Klau there's a black jazz band (here's what saves Vance from stepping over the line I think, his obvious love of jazz that is rooted in the black soul/experience). Also believe that in Take My Face there is a visit to a Bohemian neighborhood in San Francisco with black jazz musicians there. Anyone care to add to this list of black people in Vance?
: Anyway, I thought that Heinlein's book was indefensible, but I'm willing to cut Vance slack on the subject. You are welcome to your opinion, but I was in pain after finishing _FF_.
: Terry