tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5739588130392043394.post3442209617932255800..comments2024-03-02T23:44:06.835+00:00Comments on Buck Theorem's Hide-out: The Jungle BookBuck Theoremhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15229297104282779341noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5739588130392043394.post-16613873478374948562016-12-24T20:09:34.023+00:002016-12-24T20:09:34.023+00:00Oh, I didn't read that as you writing him off....Oh, I didn't read that as you writing him off.<br /><br />Yes, I'm aware that "multi-cultural" isn't really apt since it's a pretty recent concept; I guess I was using this as shorthand whilst aware the term wasn't really appropriate. I think your summary of Kipling's opinions sounds correct and what I suspected. It was just that I have a hard time reconciling critics labelling him racist with examples such Kim being a white privileged boy but preferring his identity to be mistaken for an Indian street urchin, or Mowgli preferring the multi-faceted realm of the animal kingdom to man. Even so, I would be hesitant to suggest that this also extends to a dismissal of colonialism, just that these characters certainly complicate matters. Mowgli and Kim are also privileged too, being in positions to pick-and-choose and move between identities and cultures at will. I also read all the meetings of the animals in "the Jungle Book" as pro-democratic. So, yes, I find Kipling quite complex. But to say again: I think you are probably right on his standpoint.Buck Theoremhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03292288553637554092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5739588130392043394.post-91654690853591609202016-12-24T18:19:49.457+00:002016-12-24T18:19:49.457+00:00Oh, I certainly don't mean to write him off. I...Oh, I certainly don't mean to write him off. It's always difficult with political terms, but I meant only that he believed Britain should retain the Empire, rather than letting it go. He certainly wasn't a gung-ho militarist or a racist in the sense his critics probably mean it (<i>Just So Stories</i>, the only work of his I know at all well, includes among its resourceful human protagonists an Irishman, a Parsi and an Ethiopian). <br /><br />"Multi-cultural" is an interesting term to apply to him; I think it has to be qualified by the fact that the English are always considered superior. <i>Kim</i> doesn't condemn or patronise the Indian peoples for being Indians, but its hero is, after all, white and British, and is eventually persuaded to use his time among the natives in the service of their masters. I may be wrong at this distance, but I think even in the <i>Jungle Books</i> there's a bit about the English as the supreme and benign moral arbiters. I definitely think he believed some cultures are more multi than others.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5739588130392043394.post-56845189302759031712016-12-24T17:58:39.236+00:002016-12-24T17:58:39.236+00:00Yes, thanks for clarifying, Philip. I often get su...Yes, thanks for clarifying, Philip. I often get such terms mixed up. If only there was some way to look these things up. <br /><br />...but I always had an issue with calling Kipling a racist when "Kim" and, through using fable, "The Jungle Book" seemed to offer clearly multi-cultural agendas. But I am no Kipling expert so this is just based on those texts. And if I recall correctly, even the most vivid tale in "Stalky and co" was the one most critical of militarism, so that too contributed to my wariness at simply writing him off - or at least his work - as imperialist.Buck Theoremhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03292288553637554092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5739588130392043394.post-46971039926398882842016-12-24T16:58:07.645+00:002016-12-24T16:58:07.645+00:00I don't think anyone would call Kipling a Litt...I don't think anyone would call Kipling a Little Englander, i.e. an isolationist; he does have a reputation as an imperialist, which is something quite different, and as a racist. He does seem to have believed in a moral hierarchy of races, with the English at the top; but in my limited experience his attitude to non-whites appears rather cordial for the times.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.com