English books

[Jancsi]

Zitat von Tony_Iommi

But I just happened to glace through your posting and another old classic just struck my mind :"Uncle Tom's Cabin". That one might be slightly more popular, even though it was written in the 1850s and therefore likely be considered "outdated" nowadays as well. Nevertheless, if my memory serves me correctly, I must have been around 13 back than - and yet, it still left some impression on me after over two decades later I had read it for the first time.

Nice book indeed

Best regards,

Jancsi

[KÖNIGSBLAU04]

I'm going to read "The Rainmaker" from John Grisham

[Tony_Iommi]

Since I haven't finished it, yet:

"Medici Money" by Tim Parks.

[serti]

Zitat von Jancsi

Nice book indeed

Best regards,

Jancsi

If you read racist books your racist too?
I dunno what you can find about this book, its full ofstereotypes and prejudices

[Jancsi]

Zitat von serti

If you read racist books your racist too?
I dunno what you can find about this book, its full ofstereotypes and prejudices

The book is against racism, mister. You have to improve your English knowledge.

Yours sincerely,

Jancsi

[serti]

The book might be against slavery- but definitely not against racism.
I would recommend you to read it again.
It´s still full of stereotypes about african americans, american visitors in Berlin are sometimes really surprised that there is even a colony called like the book.
It´s definitely highly criticized in the US.

yours sincerly

ben from Omagh County Tyrone

[Tony_Iommi]

Bullshit!

The fact of the matter is that in recent years, people's stupidity, or call it naïvety if you prefer rather moderate language, has flip-floped the initial message of the book - which was undeniably seen as a "vital antislavery tool" (Wikipedia) for decades every since it was published.

You cannot hold the book accountable for what the people like to interpret or conclude over the course of time. Further to that, you statement "...it is still full of stereotypes..." doesn't make any sense to me. What do you want poor Harriet to do? Arise from the dead, revise her writing and turn it more into a nowadays, state of the art, hypocritical and wannabe political manifesto?

And by the way, does the quote in your signature make Hans Krankl a racist? And what about yourself since it's attached to all your postings here?

[Bollermann]

Hey all,

I recommend reading the book "the strangler" by William Landay.

Short summary:
Boston, 1963. A city on the edge. A mysterious killer has claimed a dozen victims - already his name is indelibly linked to the city: the Boston Strangler.

Has anybody already read the book "world without end" by Ken Folett?
I read the first book. I was really fascinated.

Best regards, Kenan

[Florian L.]

This week I remembered to research "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in a reliable source (Kindlers Neues Literatur Lexikon; I wished I could gice the article here but I do not have the necessary access to the University's CDs to put on my own laptop). Indeed the perception of this very book changed in recent years.

The actual intention of this book was to criticise the slavery and due to the fact that slaves were black the description of the African-Americans was a literary technique rather than the real aim of the author. It is interesting to keep in mind that it was firstly published in anti-slavery journal as a string of stories. Some academics even claim that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" caused the American Civil War continueing. For a fairly long time this book was a prototypical example of pleading of human rights for blacks and whites equally due to the fact that they were, one of the first time in history, described as actual human beings.

Today's perception is totally different. Organisations of African-Americans detest this book and try to abolish it from the curriculum. Basically criticism is based on the, above mentioned, extensively applied stereotypes about black people.

To summarize the discussion there is to state that both aspects can be interpreted and are absolutly acceptable although current academcis tend to classify "Uncle Tom's CAbin" as less important for the black movement. Perhaps this tendency developed since this work became more a children's book than adult literature. In this respect it is apparent that it bears more potential than being a mere children's book.

[Against All Odds]

At the moment I'm slogging through Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Read the German translation several years ago and I'm really kind of impressed with the translator's performance. People pay too less homage to interpreters...