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    #1

    Atticus, say it ain't so!

    So anyone following the literary world and the Lee Harper sequel To Kill a Mockingbird called Go Set a Watchman?

    No? Lemme give you the deets. Ms Harper released (or maybe her handlers did depending upon who you talk to and her state of mind) a sequel to her amazing book To Kill a Mockingbird. In it our wonderful hero Atticus Finch isn't so wonderful. He's revealed to be a racist! Even attending a Klan meeting.

    An excerpt from the now lifted embargo:
    Now part of me thinks she didn't want to release this story. Part of me thinks why would she make this man a racist? Then part of me thinks about the time in which Atticus (a white man in the South) was living. This would have been pretty normal speak for a real human being I bet.

    Do you want to keep your Atticus hero version and not read the new book?

    Or do you want to see Atticus fleshed out as a real human being during a time in our history where this was the way of the land?

    I'm torn. But I'm older now. And realize I want a complex person as the hero of my book.

    What say you?
    paper sauce
    Satan is my spirit animal
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    #2
    Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

    I also read about this...as the story said "Go Set a Watchman" was what was to become "To Kill a Mockingbird" after the author and her editor did major revisions of the original work.
    I do not remember the editors name from the story,but you will most likely find it in a Google(or other search engine).

    - - - Updated - - -

    Here is a link for the story I read.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/bo...bird.html?_r=0
    MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

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      #3
      Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

      Maybe the true version of Mockingbird just couldn't and wouldn't be released during those times. I don't know. I kinda feel that way though. I can't wait to get a hold of this book.
      Satan is my spirit animal

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        #4
        Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

        It will be interesting to compare the two "Versions" and just how much the editor had to do with the final version. You might be right that the original story would have been very hard to get published in those early days of civil rights and the violence it stirred in many people.
        MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

        all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
        NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
        don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




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        my new page here,let me know what you think.


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          #5
          Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

          Well, since I've wondered, ever since I was forced to read this book in school, just why it's considered a classic. I've tried and tried to reread it as I've grown up since then, and still find it to be a horrid book, and an extremely boring read.

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            #6
            Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

            I think this book got much attention because of the time that it appeared. No one had addressed the whole civil rights idea except perhaps for the person who wrote "Black like me"

            This is a wiki,but just a short description of the book.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Like_Me
            MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

            all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
            NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
            don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




            sigpic

            my new page here,let me know what you think.


            nothing but the shadow of what was

            witchvox
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              #7
              Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

              I'd like to add to that. So many times, books are picked apart, dissected, experimented with, and broken down into a collection of words on a page. Every bit of writing out there is dug into to find out just what it means, or the secret purpose of it, or how the author is trying to make a socio-economic point or some other drivel. As approached by Stephen King in "It", why can't a book just be a book? Why can't a story just be a story? Thought up, written, and read for the sheer enjoyment of it? If you try to analyze something down to the last atom of it's existence, it will cease to be something mysterious and magical. Why does everything need to have an agenda behind it? Just read it and enjoy the damn thing!

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                #8
                Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                I've never read To Kill A Mockingbird. I have seen the movie a long time ago. I have bought the book for my mother and we may pick it up tomorrow. I know she is going to read it. I probably will buy it next month since it is such a popular book and a classic. Racism is such a sensitive topic to talk about. From what I heard this new book is set in an alternative universe. So I guess we'll see what everyone thinks.
                Anubisa

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                  #9
                  Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                  This makes me so sad! Now I'm definitely not reading the new book.... wasn't the whole point that Atticus risked everything to defend Tom?

                  Well don't forget. Go Set A Watchmen was written FIRST, before TKAM- it just wasn't released. So, maybe Atticus originally was quite racist and became more heroic in TKAM.
                  Love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be.

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                    #10
                    Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                    Originally posted by Munin-Hugin View Post
                    I'd like to add to that. So many times, books are picked apart, dissected, experimented with, and broken down into a collection of words on a page. Every bit of writing out there is dug into to find out just what it means, or the secret purpose of it, or how the author is trying to make a socio-economic point or some other drivel. As approached by Stephen King in "It", why can't a book just be a book? Why can't a story just be a story? Thought up, written, and read for the sheer enjoyment of it? If you try to analyze something down to the last atom of it's existence, it will cease to be something mysterious and magical. Why does everything need to have an agenda behind it? Just read it and enjoy the damn thing!
                    Though I would agree on the minuscule analysis being a bit annoying. In this case it's like THE main character. And that character went from White Knight to Klu Klux Atticus. That's not very minute if you ask me.
                    Satan is my spirit animal

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                      #11
                      Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                      Originally posted by CrystalJackal View Post
                      This makes me so sad! Now I'm definitely not reading the new book.... wasn't the whole point that Atticus risked everything to defend Tom?
                      This isn't actually mutually exclusive with being racist. Prejudice isn't a binary option, it's a continuum. A man that firmly believes that another race should not have equal rights in society can also firmly believe that those rights that are provided should not be taken lightly or he may simply prefer that the guilty be punished instead of getting to skate by while an innocent is made into a scapegoat.
                      life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

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                      "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

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                        #12
                        Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                        Originally posted by Medusa View Post
                        Though I would agree on the minuscule analysis being a bit annoying. In this case it's like THE main character. And that character went from White Knight to Klu Klux Atticus. That's not very minute if you ask me.
                        I'm going to agree with Medusa. This change is so severe that that description first made me think they were talking about Mr. Ewell, not Atticus. That isn't a good thing.
                        Love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be.

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                          #13
                          Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                          Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post
                          This isn't actually mutually exclusive with being racist. Prejudice isn't a binary option, it's a continuum. A man that firmly believes that another race should not have equal rights in society can also firmly believe that those rights that are provided should not be taken lightly or he may simply prefer that the guilty be punished instead of getting to skate by while an innocent is made into a scapegoat.
                          That is true..... ah, well. I'll probably never fully understand, I never could really fathom why other people are treated differently for something the can't control, whether it be race, sex, heck, even eye color..
                          Love me for who I am, not for who you want me to be.

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                            #14
                            Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                            My other grandfather (not the one who was an awesome Christian) is one of the most bigoted people I know. He's racist and uses (what is today considered) racist language, he's sexist, and he doesn't like the idea of "the gays".

                            Having said that, one of his closest friends is a an African American veteran from the Korean War, just as he is (also, he adores my bff from HS) He is the first person I know of his generation to support the repeal of DADT because "I don't care what they do off post if them queers can shoot" and DOMA and the recent SCOTUS decision because "they deserve to be just as miserable as the rest of us". And despite never taking me shooting, hunting, or fishing as a chil because I was a girl, when he talks about me, the first thing he says is that I'm the first woman in our family to join the military.

                            He's a product of his culturegrowing up-a certain time and place (the very rural midwest in the 1930s-1950s, just all of us are a product of a certain time and place. Judging people for being people--for following the mores and custorms of their time is fruitless-----its ethnocentrism, applied to history. You can condemn a system, but judging the people that are part of that system is blaming them for something they can't help either--for being a product of their place and time (sure, you can absolutely look up to the people that overcome it, but most of us never do and unless you are willing to take a long hard look in the mirror in 50 years, its probably best to lay off at the risk of making oneself a hypocrite Yeah, my grandpa is a bigoted sonofab*...but he's remarkably progressive in some ways as well...and at 88, I don't think that is going to change.

                            Bigotry isn't as simple as people think Because people aren't simple. We aren't binary creatures in reality, but we certainly act like we are.
                            Last edited by thalassa; 14 Jul 2015, 00:48.
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                              #15
                              Re: Atticus, say it ain't so!

                              Originally posted by thalassa View Post
                              My other grandfather (not the one who was an awesome Christian) is one of the most bigoted people I know. He's racist and uses (what is today considered) racist language, he's sexist, and he doesn't like the idea of "the gays".

                              Having said that, one of his closest friends is a an African American veteran from the Korean War, just as he is (also, he adores my bff from HS) He is the first person I know of his generation to support the repeal of DADT because "I don't care what they do off post if them queers can shoot" and DOMA and the recent SCOTUS decision because "they deserve to be just as miserable as the rest of us". And despite never taking me shooting, hunting, or fishing as a chil because I was a girl, when he talks about me, the first thing he says is that I'm the first woman in our family to join the military.

                              He's a product of his culturegrowing up-a certain time and place (the very rural midwest in the 1930s-1950s, just all of us are a product of a certain time and place. Judging people for being people--for following the mores and custorms of their time is fruitless-----its ethnocentrism, applied to history. You can condemn a system, but judging the people that are part of that system is blaming them for something they can't help either--for being a product of their place and time (sure, you can absolutely look up to the people that overcome it, but most of us never do and unless you are willing to take a long hard look in the mirror in 50 years, its probably best to lay off at the risk of making oneself a hypocrite Yeah, my grandpa is a bigoted sonofab*...but he's remarkably progressive in some ways as well...and at 88, I don't think that is going to change.

                              Bigotry isn't as simple as people think Because people aren't simple. We aren't binary creatures in reality, but we certainly act like we are.
                              I was kind of thinking along the same lines. i've met plenty of older people who have "same but different" views towards First Nations people (the group that faces the most discrimination where I'm from). I don't think it's so easy to put in black and white terms.

                              I haven't read "To Kill a Mockingbird" since 10th grade, so I definitely want to give it another read. I'd also like to read "To Set a Watchman."

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