I think what's scariest about it is that Tolkien may not even have thought to himself "I'll make my evil people look like Asian or black people!" but instead picked those physical characteristics because he thought they would communicate "shifty and untrustworthy and suspicious" to his readers. Gaaah.
This is undoubtedly the case. Ingrained, unconscious prejudice may not be as outwardly scary as outward, violent prejudice, but it's more insidious, and in many cases, harder to dispel because one isn't aware of it.
I'm still enjoying reading it, thankfully, even though I can see it has problems.
I think recognizing and acknowledging the problems are half the battle. You don't have to feel guilty about enjoying things (or at least I think so) as long as you can view them with your eyes open, and not view many of their problematic issues with dismissal or excuses. It's kind of called, "Focusing on the positive", I guess.
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Date: 2010-08-24 02:22 pm (UTC)This is undoubtedly the case. Ingrained, unconscious prejudice may not be as outwardly scary as outward, violent prejudice, but it's more insidious, and in many cases, harder to dispel because one isn't aware of it.
I'm still enjoying reading it, thankfully, even though I can see it has problems.
I think recognizing and acknowledging the problems are half the battle. You don't have to feel guilty about enjoying things (or at least I think so) as long as you can view them with your eyes open, and not view many of their problematic issues with dismissal or excuses. It's kind of called, "Focusing on the positive", I guess.