G
Friday, June 19, 2009
1/2 way
Okay I am half way through, and the pretension has lessened. I am intrigued by the small nuanced flavor to the authors view of the world living as a "white minority". He is able to see choices available only to the whites where normally the thought of choice would never cross my mind in these commonplace life interactions.
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Interesting..... I don't know that I like the title of the book though. I think it feeds into possible stereotyping and racial slurs. I personally do not get offended by the term, but I still don't believe it it necessarily appropriate. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think he chose Honky as the title for the purpose of inflaming. It is a bit ironic too in that the author is rarely the victim of racism himself. In fact it is just the opposite. He often feels like he gets special treatment because he is the only white kid among all his classmates. The black teachers will often smack his black classmates but wil lnever smack him.
ReplyDeleteinteresting example. Do you feel that the text would be looked at differently if the situation was reversed? Do you think that, for example, it would be different for a black student to be in his shoes, or a woman in a group of men?
ReplyDeleteThat is a great question. We all know that racial dynamics are so complicated, and evolve rapidly. This complication is compounded by the fact that the race relations he describes are from a period in the early 70s, and in New York. Dalton's story would have been very different had he been in Alabama in the 70s or even New York in the 90s.
ReplyDeleteSo to try to reflect on the opposite situation and then filter through a 1970s Manhattan lens makes my head hurt.
I think many of the same issues would have been present, but to say how they would have been different may be impossible for me.
Gender relations and racial relations have so many differences that I think it might be like trying to compare apples to the proverbial oranges here. Speaking only about myself, men really are simple creatures, and the relationships they have as young boys are not complicated. Adding a female to this story as a protagonist would be a completely different book.
Greg