I tell you, the first words you want to read in the morning seldom are :
'Fear of the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that there is some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor,
as though they were two different races, like Negroes and white men.'
Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
I am a little bit baffled that there is no preface or afterword... this is a well respected author that most students will read with 1984 or Animal Farm (Hello? Anybody out there that bought another book from an author they enjoyed?). And there's just nothing to say anything about either the vocabulary used nor the bluntly racists views held in it. Wow. Ok. WHAAAATTTT???
The 'n word' had been used in the book before, but I thought 'hhhmm, written in 1933, ok, maybe,...'. I haven't finished the book nor looked at any article on it, especially at how I am guessing he was just totally focussing on one battle (the social classes one) and absolutely oblivious to anything else going on, but I will finish and read about it, though it made me feel a little sick to read that half awake.
But anyways, yesterday I had a small chat with pickachu so I was in a good mood. I went to dance on the mountain (I did, see the video below), fell asleep in the sun (yes! this is how warm it got, and how tired I am), and totally got put in my place (not) by the family's grand-ma, who doesn't know what an au-pair is and used to be a servant (I won't even go there).
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Below a video in French for my family and friends. If you don't speak french, well... I don't know. Learn it.
'N' words! Many of them!
ReplyDelete"But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition" [...]