Karan M wrote
People can admire Kiplings verse and yet reject some of his other claims because we have common sense. Any & every individual is not perfect. Common sense dictates that we understand what is what & reject what is clearly dogma or prejudice.
That is the primary question - can you admire Kipling's verse while realizing how he is constructing the role of the "east" as a devoted servant in his "East is is East" verse? Someone who is doing this, is already halfway through accepting or tolerating the very idea of subservience - if it is packaged nicely in golden verse.
I find your repetitive harping on this, somewhat amusing. We are not children who need you to hold our finger & tell us the dangers of British culture and how insidious it is or can be. Enid Blyton was an excellent children's author. She also had "Gollywogs" in her books that were nothing but a completely racist & unacceptable take on black ministrels.
The situation was much the same all around. Take even American authors.
You might find it amusing, and as expected your reaction is more defensive of your justification of separation of enjoyment from content. Did you ever point out the imperialist dogma and degrading model sought to be imposed in the last few lines of the "east is east" verse to anyone else - at school, at home or your next generation - while showing your delight in the "verse" and the pure literary joy of the verse? I do find much greater anger, and a much quicker response against any direct criticism of English literature as text that pushes for acceptance of British/white/Christian supremacy - from supposedly extremely aware Indians - than they are in exposing or pointing out these "insidious" stuff to others in the appreciation societies.
The greatest authority on Lovecraft today - is an Indian. Lovecraft was nothing but a complete racist. Some of the stuff in his books verges on outright fear of the swarthy oriental races. But doesn't make his works anything less than spellbinding when it comes to horror. A couple of his books around the Ctulhu mythos are exceptional.
The same issue occurs across the board.
As it happens, I found both Blyton and Lovecroft, rather poor literature.
In a similar way, Robert Heinlein & his work - Starship Troopers can be & is read as a paean to a militarized state. Doesn't make it anything less than an exceptional book on scifi either.
Again a matter of opinion, and compares nowhere in the genre with Bester, or a Card, or Zamyatin, or Haldeman - if you are looking at scifi in the backdrop of a militarized state.
Conan is supposed to have popularized the sword & sandal genre. Again, an American - the author died young. If you read his books, its often a simplistic paean to some pagan glorious western culture, but he did make an occasional effort to research about other non western cultures (Khitai = China, Vindhyas = India and so forth).
Conan is an epitome of enjoyable literature for you? Of course, its a matter of personal taste.
At a simple level, if we wish to isolate yourself in a hencoop and only read about those who appreciated Indian culture, then we'll be left with 2-3 authors and books. If we are lucky. Otherwise we enjoy what is available, understand where these fellows where way off target. And if you are the serious nationalist kind, understand enough, that despite the enjoyment you can point out the obvious flaws & contradictions, all with a straight face & appreciating the positive as well. That's victory, right there.
No one is asking to be isolated [there goes the subliminal message again - if you are not appreciating and enjoying what English literature dishes out - you are in a hencoop]. What I responded to - was the prompt putting up of the "good English heart" behind an author otherwise openly and viciously imperialist and racist in his texts, and whose that particular side was simply being highlighted by a poster.
One cannot help sensing a sense of identification with the British, a subconscious sympathy for and acceptance of the totality of the identity - helped along by the supposedly brilliant literary flourish.
If folks are serious about this - start a website - not a blog, about deconstructing British authors of the Raj, pointing out the more obvious racist swipes & such like. Thats useful.
People who read these books & miss the subcontext may be helped. People on this website though, are unlikely to be at that level. We crossed that bridge a long time back. We can read Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and appreciate it, while rolling our eyes at some of his fantastical rubbish about the Lost World (masala fantasy at its worst). Bottomline - there's no standard appreciation society here, if that's what you are worried about.
I am not worried. Thankfully - a large number of Indians do miss out - out of necessity, the so-called literary brilliance of the English. Those who are so confident of having crossed the bridge, might be the most vulnerable actually. Those odd pieces of biographical information, or the logic of forgiving an inherently genocidal ideological bias because of literary brilliance - pave the way for softening resistance. That appreciation of literature for literature's sake, often covers for an acceptance of the values and perceptions of the admired sources.
By the way - there has been a lot of work on how the very sense of literary appreciation is constructed, by early or educational conditioning. If you write out the texts you "appreciate", and note where you first encountered them - through whom and in what environment, you will see a pattern of selection, often guided by your school, adult opinion, and so-called "peer reco", which agin takes its cues from other selectors.
I rarely hear appreciations of Quincey's confessions of an English opium eater, for example, or the peculiar ref to India in Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, or George Ade's stories of benevolent assimilation, or Howard Crosby's Swords and plowshares, or Dean Howell's between the dark and the daylight. PS : forgot to add Steinbeck and Grapes of wrath, or even Cranes careful explorations in the red badge of courage. How about Jean Rhys?
A good test for me has always been to ask for the books of Mark Twain that one appreciates, it inevitably shows up the guided nature of most English literary brilliance appreciation tours.
One finds out in the first few seconds whether the other is just a bit naive or whether he is a troll.