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JULY READING NOTES: RECAP

As July ended my reading notes for the Month.

I am almost done with Gone With The Wind. Thoughts so far: it is an artifact of the time. Truly racist in its view of history and race in America. It reflects most of the thinking of a majority of Americans in the 1930's I am sure.

Good Points: Scarlett O'Hara was one of the first real feminine Anti-Heroes. It is a surprisingly feminist novel that did not have a lot of good things to say about men. Good story over a period of time.

Bad Points: Racist with slaves portrayed as childlike, sub human (lots of monkey references) and either loyal "darkies" or free issue "N******". Theory from this woman who knew no more about slavery in 1930's than she did about moon landings is that slaves were treated well, more like honored servants than property, never really sold, never sexually abused and never murdered unless they were "uppity". Klan was a group of patriots who defended women from the uncontrolled lust of the Darkies. And large amounts of it was just silly.

Preliminary opinion: no "civilization" in the history of mankind deserved to be destroyed more than the ante bellum south. A society built on slavery, ruled by pretentious plutocrats who aped the manners of the English aristocracy with a vulgarity rarely matched. Belles were all that is awful in a certain kind of woman and the obsession with Beaus is worthy of the worst of 50's women's magazines. Their insipid morality and moralizing is truly loathsome. Scarlett as the New Woman is refreshing as is Rhett. Good book though and just needs to be read as a artifact of Jim Crow.

Reading Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball. Refreshing counterpoint to GWTW. The touchiness of the old guard about talking about race. The lie that the Civil War was not about race and that slavery was a benign institution put to the test.

I am on the last volume of Gibbon's Decline and Fall. Read in honor of the debasement of America by Trump and Trump supporters. More on the final thoughts of this monumental work later. For now lets say that my impressions are:

  •  The corrupting influence of Power. How it drives us to destruction. Why would anyone want to be emperor? 
  • The movement of peoples. Pressed on by other people and lured by the idea of wealth and land and a place to settle. Immigration has been the norm for humans throughout history. 
  • Gibbon the standard of the Gentleman Scholar who sits in his book lined study and dives deep not to fulfill some academic requirement but for the love of the subject. How puny the Professors appear next to him.
  • Religion is a force of evil thought history. The history of the early church, of hersy and schism, of war and persecution. Christians outdid Nero in their destructive evil and along with Islam set the world aflame. Any good?
  • A million stories worthy of Game of Thrones. So many ancedotes of adventurers and daring women and desperate flights and gambles. 
Almost done with Acceptance. Great Sci Fi. I want to read them all again to really get the feel for this trilogy. More later.





















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