It seems everybody here loves "To Kill a Mockingbird". To me, it's a well written but ultimately shallow novel. Finch is your typical woman's fantasy man: great at fatherhood, great at his work, morally upright, totally scrupulous, and yes, best shot in the county. The black people in the novel rarely get a voice, except one of platitudes, and the race relations stuff is totally black and white (excuse the pun), with no particular insight. It counts as literature only because of its propitious timing around the Civil Rights movement. It's a fine school reading list book but that is all it is.
Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
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Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm trying to understand why you brought Leviathan Wakes into this. One of the authors of The Expanse is GMMR's assistant, as I understand it, but I'm not clear how either GMMR would affect The Expanse or how The Expanse would affect Game of Thrones. I ask as a fan of The Expanse who has not jumped into GoT, and who wouldn't like to see The Expanse side-tracked because of it. Is there some piece of this relationship…
The other author of the Expanse is Daniel Abraham who is BFF with GRRM. And since the Expanse is an awesome series, they are more than capable of continuing his work in GoT if something nasty happens.
I'm pretty sure he has said that he does not want his work continued in the event of his death.
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/11/george-rr-martin-no-more-ga...
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#63It seems everybody here loves "To Kill a Mockingbird". To me, it's a well written but ultimately shallow novel. Finch is your typical woman's fantasy man: great at fatherhood, great at his work, morally upright, totally scrupulous, and yes, best shot in the county. The black people in the novel rarely get a voice, except one of platitudes, and the race relations stuff is totally black and white (excuse the pun), with…
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Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#64To Kill a Mockingbird perpetuates the idea that women make false rape accusations. We shouldn't celebrate such a hurtful topic.
Your post perpetuates the idea that some women don't make false rape accusations, which is demonstrably false.
You put the negation in the wrong place.
"Some women don't make false rape accusations" -- true. My mother is a woman who has never made a false rape accusation. So is my wife. That's some women who don't make false rape accusations.
"No women make false rape accusations" is what you probably meant to say. That's demonstrably false -- some women do.
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#65To Kill a Mockingbird perpetuates the idea that women make false rape accusations. We shouldn't celebrate such a hurtful topic.
Rape is a problem. However false rape accusations are also a real problem and not just an imaginary one.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/09/false...
It varies by country but in the US, it's estimated that 8% of rape cases are false accusations.
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#66It seems everybody here loves "To Kill a Mockingbird". To me, it's a well written but ultimately shallow novel. Finch is your typical woman's fantasy man: great at fatherhood, great at his work, morally upright, totally scrupulous, and yes, best shot in the county. The black people in the novel rarely get a voice, except one of platitudes, and the race relations stuff is totally black and white (excuse the pun), with…
> a fine school reading list book
I'm pretty sure a book can't get on those lists any more without a theme of oppression or alienation. I'm not joking. Almost everything they make kids read any more is somehow about injustice or bigotry.
Apropos Southern Gothic lit, I'm chuckling at the thought of a typical 9th grade english teacher trying to tackle a much better book like Flannery Oconnor's "The Violent Bear it Away." Doesn't quite fit the essay templates they raise the kids on.
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#67It seems everybody here loves "To Kill a Mockingbird". To me, it's a well written but ultimately shallow novel. Finch is your typical woman's fantasy man: great at fatherhood, great at his work, morally upright, totally scrupulous, and yes, best shot in the county. The black people in the novel rarely get a voice, except one of platitudes, and the race relations stuff is totally black and white (excuse the pun), with…
I think you missed the point. The brilliance in To Kill a Mockingbird is the way it makes us feel the confusion felt by a six year old looking at an adult world.
At the time, many people did see race relations as 'black or white', and people thought there was a perfectly legitimate debate to be had about whether someone that was black was 'less of a man' that someone that was white. What Scout really shows us is that children are not born with this pre-conceived notion, and are generally confused by it... and we should be too.
To address your specific points: the black people were not supposed to have much of a voice in the novel, because black people didn't have much of a voice back then. There wasn't much insight (in terms of speeches or things said) around race relations, because to a six year old girl the insight doesn't matter. All that matters is one of fairness - that a child cannot fathom how crazy adults must be to not give black people a voice or to treat them differently, just because of their skin.
PS: In response to your comment about Finch, you're right. Finch is perfect - because he's Scout's father - and most six year old girls do think of their father as perfect; if Scout hadn't been written that way then her character would have seemed shallow and wrong.
PPS: I've clearly thought about this too much and what I've wrote seems a bit preachy - as with any book, it all comes down to personal taste.
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#68I was incredibly excited to see this news upon seeing the headline in the New York Times, and surprised, because Harper Lee has been a recluse for almost her entire life since writing To Kill a Mockingbird , and has repeatedly insisted that she had no desire to publish another book ("I wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said…
This is a more thorough report, and covers that aspect of the story: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/03/harper-lee-new-...
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#69I was incredibly excited to see this news upon seeing the headline in the New York Times, and surprised, because Harper Lee has been a recluse for almost her entire life since writing To Kill a Mockingbird , and has repeatedly insisted that she had no desire to publish another book ("I wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said…
link to Jezebel article: http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-the-new-harper-lee-novel...
Re: Harper Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
#70To Kill a Mockingbird perpetuates the idea that women make false rape accusations. We shouldn't celebrate such a hurtful topic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law ? Actually, To Kill a Mockingbird perpetuates the idea that racist drunken white dads in the deep south in that era made false accusations and beat their daughters when their daughters hit on black men. Which is something that, you know, actually happened sometimes.
Yep, just trolling. I agree with your analysis though.