(Okay, I love Rex Stout's writing with a love that is flaming, but to claim there is no racism or sexism in his books is to claim the Hudson's waters are crystal clear. That's the problem with reading fiction from earlier periods: it has to, by nature, reflect the culture from which it arose.
Mind you, Stout did try on the racism and had the odd moment or three of demonstrating that women could be capable. That's one reason I think his books stay readable. But he also deliberately wrote Archie as a mild racist who needed to be curbed - more earlier than later - as well as something of a sexist and Wolfe as a humongous sexist who Had Issues.
I do wonder how anyone could have argued otherwise with a straight face.)
no subject
(Okay, I love Rex Stout's writing with a love that is flaming, but to claim there is no racism or sexism in his books is to claim the Hudson's waters are crystal clear. That's the problem with reading fiction from earlier periods: it has to, by nature, reflect the culture from which it arose.
Mind you, Stout did try on the racism and had the odd moment or three of demonstrating that women could be capable. That's one reason I think his books stay readable. But he also deliberately wrote Archie as a mild racist who needed to be curbed - more earlier than later - as well as something of a sexist and Wolfe as a humongous sexist who Had Issues.
I do wonder how anyone could have argued otherwise with a straight face.)