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> I suspect that its omitted because of the use of contemporary language and attitudes to colonialism that would shock those of a twitter "pile on" persuasion.
by JadeNB 6y ago
> I suspect that its omitted because of the use of contemporary language and attitudes to colonialism that would shock those of a twitter "pile on" persuasion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashman_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashman_(novel) ? (I ask because it's from 1969, which I, perhaps wrongly, don't think of as terribly contemporary.)
> However unlike the vast majority of the novels mentioned, Flashman has a rich bibliography and good footnotes. This means that if you don't believe the story, you can check the first hand sources yourself.
Without meaning to deny the importance of a rich bibliography and good references, I would point out that you can (and ideally should) check sources yourself even if—especially if—the author hasn't identified them for you.
- triceratops 6y agoI think they mean contemporary with the period the novels are set in. I've read a couple of the Flashman books and while they're quite fun, the stuff happening in them in and the language is decidedly un-PC (and that's a massive understatement). This is by design - Flashman is an amoral, despicable, and cowardly character, and colonialism was all of those things. We're meant to be horrified by the stuff Flash and the people around him do and say so casually.
- JadeNB 6y ago> I think they mean contemporary with the period the novels are set in. That makes much more sense, thanks! Accusations of Twitter hysteria can be slung so easily against any side of a divide that I wasn't sure whether the claim was of modern attitudes that would draw ire for undue social activism, or of older attitudes that would draw ire for insensitivity.
- tptacek 6y agoThe allusion to Twitter culture did not help that comment; it would have been better --- both shorter and clearer --- without it.