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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8499831" data-attributes="member: 42582">It is a simple matter of fact that many people have a certain default response to people of colour, especially Black people. Therefore one shortcut for "lazy worldbuilding" is to trade on that default response.This doesn't show that such worldbuilding is not racist. In fact it seems to admit the point!Of course it can perpetuate that function. Ideologies don't spontaneously emerge in individual's minds. They are generated via social processes, primarily the sharing of certain ideas in certain normatively-shaped ways.If someone's only, or primary, exposure to Black people was their representation in REH or HPL stories, and if those were presented with an imprimatur of "approval" or normalcy, then that might well contribute to the perpetuation of racist ideology and hence subordination.This is a complex question of fact. But it might be a reason, for instance, for a public library to catalogue some works under something like a "historical literature" category than, say, a "juvenile fiction" category, on the premise - that even if false as a matter of fact is hard to deny as an organising principle in a democracy - that discerning adults are better able to control their idea formation than impressionable children.I haven't used the word "problematic" and given that it can carry various connotations I'm not sure that I want to use it. I will stick to "racist".I read REH Conan stories, but don't share the general view that Queen of the Black Coast is one of the best. I have told my children that they should only read the stories that I permit them to. I wouldn't want them to be hurt by encountering REH's racism, let alone HPL's references to "mongrels" and the like. I think it was [USER=82106]@AbdulAlhazred[/USER] upthread who said that people don't need this stuff ("microaggressions" is one word for it, though REH and HPL maybe don't fit the "micro" label) in their lives.JRRT is less horrible at the surface level - but my partner and I did notice that the only people of colour in Peter Jackson's LotR films are baddies. It stands out.</blockquote>

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