'Racism' row over Blyton festival plan (From Bucks Free Press)
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'Racism' row over Enid Blyton festival plan
12:58pm Wednesday 13th February 2013 in News By Lawrence Dunhill
'Racism' row over Blyton festival plan
ARCHITECT Anthony Mealing has questioned whether Beaconsfield should be celebrating its Enid Blyton connections – arguing some of the author’s work was ‘racist and offensive’.
Mr Mealing, of Totteridge Road, High Wycombe has urged Beaconsfield residents to “research their subject as they might find things they did not expect”.
He points to an example from a 1952 picture book called Mary Mouse and her Bicycle, which features a robber called ‘Mr Black Samba’ who steals a money box and bicycle.
However, former librarian Kari Dorme says Blyton’s original works should be accepted for the time in which they were written - saying the stories have now been brought into line with modern attitudes.
Concerns were first raised about Blyton's works in the 1960s, when a publisher questioned her ‘old-fashioned xenophobia’ in explaining the motives of thieves simply by the fact they were foreign.
Misgivings around her portrayal of gender and race grew in the 1980s and mischief-making golliwogs who stole Noddy's car were gradually erased.
Kari, who is busy organising an Enid Blyton festival this summer with the Beaconsfield Society, added: “In the early 1990’s some of her publishers made certain text changes – mostly to bring her stories into line with modern thought and sensitivities, particularly with regard to what some construed as snobbish, racist or sexists attitudes.
“Even names were modernised. You have to accept them in the time in which they were written, which was at least 60 years ago.
“Her books still sell at the rate of six to seven million copies a year, in more than 40 languages. Enid Blyton is a marvellous story teller, a real page turner. I feel that recognition should be given to the great contribution that she has made to children’s literacy.”
Blyton, who died in 1968 aged 71, lived much of her adult life in Beaconsfield, in a huge house called Green Hedges which was demolished in the 1970s. The area is now named Blyton Close.
The festival will take place from June 29 - July 7. For details see: www.beaconsfieldsociety.org.uk
Comments(60)
Catflap
says...
1:54pm Wed 13 Feb 13
s6blr
says...
2:13pm Wed 13 Feb 13
What was what it was 50 or 100 years ago can NOT and should NOT be whitewashed away.
I bet he even agrees with the dumb Americans renaming the Dambusters dog Tigger instead of what it was really called.
Mr. Mealing, you're a Whigger -- whitewash racist in my book!
banknote
says...
2:21pm Wed 13 Feb 13
These book were written in a very different world than today and should be looked at as such.
Perhaps he would be better employed exposing the double standards of the Labour front bench?
buser
says...
2:39pm Wed 13 Feb 13
brachyura
says...
2:58pm Wed 13 Feb 13
sai-diva
says...
3:06pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Or the portrayal of 'Fagin', or the Merchant of venice?
I Agree that Blyton's work should be moderated for modern audiences, have you seen Noddy on CBeebies, very P.C.
but the originals should be viewed in context, however embarrassing they are to modern ears.
I feel that articles like this make it harder for real issues surrounding race harder to deal with, and give rise to the much used expression ''political correctness gone mad''
I would be interested in your views on what has been said hear Anthony.
pennman
says...
3:10pm Wed 13 Feb 13
motco
says...
3:14pm Wed 13 Feb 13
ArnyP_HW
says...
3:15pm Wed 13 Feb 13
s6blr wrote:You sure you're allowed to say "whitewashed"? Best check the Mr Mealing handbook ;)
Mr. Mealing should call 0800-Get-A-Life and crawl back into his hole. What was what it was 50 or 100 years ago can NOT and should NOT be whitewashed away. I bet he even agrees with the dumb Americans renaming the Dambusters dog Tigger instead of what it was really called. Mr. Mealing, you're a Whigger -- whitewash racist in my book!
s6blr
says...
3:21pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Voyeur
says...
3:30pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Enid Blyton wrote her books in the language of the times. No need to impose standards of 80 years later on to her books.
Scarletto
says...
3:34pm Wed 13 Feb 13
So, whether she was or wasn't someone in our district worthy of cherishing and remembering, there should be no recoil by some people who now put questions about further memorials to her. Beaconsfield town hall green already has a type of memorial. Maybe that's enough, after all these years.
The topic here is not so much about the content of Enid's popular books, but about her integrity and character.
By the way "pennman", Bomber Harris wouldn't have known anything about the black Lab made a bit famous in the Dambusters story. Guy Gibson was his owner.
J B Blackett
says...
3:41pm Wed 13 Feb 13
.
Are they to be banned too ? Or is it only in the home for the Seriously Sanctimonious Hypocrite ?
rjpastaw
says...
3:51pm Wed 13 Feb 13
yet more PC nonsense....
Robert.M
says...
4:08pm Wed 13 Feb 13
marlowbucks
says...
4:22pm Wed 13 Feb 13
brachyura
says...
5:14pm Wed 13 Feb 13
J B Blackett
says...
5:54pm Wed 13 Feb 13
marlowbucks wrote:Is self-flagellation only for white Anglo Saxons ?
Fun to drop words such as: ragtop, niggardly and chink into the conversation to wind up self flagellating, hair shirt wearing white Anglo Saxons. You know, the sort of people who turn up in a baying mob at a paediatrician's house because they think her profession means paedophile.
.
Isn't that discriminatory ?
.
All the self-flagellants we have seen on recent BBC TV series have not not been of that type.
.
Can we have some parades of AS self-floggers broadcast ,please - to correct the balance ? It makes us think that someone else has got the whip hand at the moment ?
pennman
says...
9:08pm Wed 13 Feb 13
banknote
says...
9:21pm Wed 13 Feb 13
pennman wrote:There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
11:37pm Wed 13 Feb 13
s6blr wrote:
Is Mr. Mealing any relation to Ivor or one in the same?
Concerns were first raised about Blyton's works in the 1960s, when a publisher questioned her ‘old-fashioned xenophobia’ in explaining the motives of thieves simply by the fact they were foreign.
UntilI read this (by s6blr) I was going to write an ironic post here saying that ivor was right when he recently said our society had been rotted by political correctness and this was shown by the fact that English people were no longer allowed to acknowledge the undeniable fact that being foreign was a complete explanation for being a thief.
I cannot see the similarity between the views of Mr Mealing and those of ivor - surely Mr Mealing is an example of what ivor would solemnly condemn as ‘political correctness’.
I would say times change and I can think of a lot of popular writers from the past - Ian Fleming, Leslie Charteris, G.K. Chesterton or Mark Twain - whose works still sell and defend themselves by having something people still want to read but some of whose expressed views about race are no longer acceptable - we read their works now in spite of not because of their contemporary racism.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
11:42pm Wed 13 Feb 13
J B Blackett wrote:There is a blogger on this very site who is flogged by Lucifer his trusty family Flogging Butler.
marlowbucks wrote:Is self-flagellation only for white Anglo Saxons ?
Fun to drop words such as: ragtop, niggardly and chink into the conversation to wind up self flagellating, hair shirt wearing white Anglo Saxons. You know, the sort of people who turn up in a baying mob at a paediatrician's house because they think her profession means paedophile.
.
Isn't that discriminatory ?
.
All the self-flagellants we have seen on recent BBC TV series have not not been of that type.
.
Can we have some parades of AS self-floggers broadcast ,please - to correct the balance ? It makes us think that someone else has got the whip hand at the moment ?
The reading of S&M magazines in bed keeps him awake and he imagines foxes having SEX in the garden next door with howls of delight.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
11:42pm Wed 13 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
11:50pm Wed 13 Feb 13
Scarletto wrote:.
For years there have been persistent rumours, based on recollections by some now elderly folk, that Enid B wasn't a very nice lady. One of her daughters also had a lot to say, criticising her too. Two TV documentaries about her also cast doubt about her character.
So, whether she was or wasn't someone in our district worthy of cherishing and remembering, there should be no recoil by some people who now put questions about further memorials to her. Beaconsfield town hall green already has a type of memorial. Maybe that's enough, after all these years.
The topic here is not so much about the content of Enid's popular books, but about her integrity and character.
By the way "pennman", Bomber Harris wouldn't have known anything about the black Lab made a bit famous in the Dambusters story. Guy Gibson was his owner.
So, whether she was or wasn't someone in our district worthy of cherishing and remembering, there should be no recoil by some people who now put questions about further memorials to her.
Why don’t you elaborate on this a little?
By the way "pennman", Bomber Harris wouldn't have known anything about the black Lab made a bit famous in the Dambusters story. Guy Gibson was his owner.
If you read Paul Brickhill's book 'The Dam Busters' or 'Breaking the Dams' by Charles Foster you will see that Harris might well have been on patting terms with dog N i g g e r through the contacts he had with 617 Squadron.
J B Blackett
says...
12:02am Thu 14 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:We are talking self-flagellation by Anglo-Saxons here.
J B Blackett wrote:There is a blogger on this very site who is flogged by Lucifer his trusty family Flogging Butler.
marlowbucks wrote:Is self-flagellation only for white Anglo Saxons ?
Fun to drop words such as: ragtop, niggardly and chink into the conversation to wind up self flagellating, hair shirt wearing white Anglo Saxons. You know, the sort of people who turn up in a baying mob at a paediatrician's house because they think her profession means paedophile.
.
Isn't that discriminatory ?
.
All the self-flagellants we have seen on recent BBC TV series have not not been of that type.
.
Can we have some parades of AS self-floggers broadcast ,please - to correct the balance ? It makes us think that someone else has got the whip hand at the moment ?
The reading of S&M magazines in bed keeps him awake and he imagines foxes having SEX in the garden next door with howls of delight.
.
Not S and M by some prurient devil-worshipping M and S Windows abuser. .
Have some sense of propriety, please
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
12:12am Thu 14 Feb 13
Scarletto
says...
10:49am Thu 14 Feb 13
As kids we enjoyed her books which now, held to the light of 2013, have a few questionable racist etc. aspects.
pennman
says...
11:21am Thu 14 Feb 13
banknote wrote:You really should get a life, along with Mr Mealing and Scarletto.
pennman wrote:There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?
Cressex Offender
says...
1:36pm Thu 14 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
1:47pm Thu 14 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:12pm Thu 14 Feb 13
Scarletto wrote:Does anyone understand what Scumletto meant when s/he said:
Does anyone understand what I. Lawrence is writing about when we simply are referring to possible doubts whether Beaconsfield should celebrate the life and works of Enid Blyton?
As kids we enjoyed her books which now, held to the light of 2013, have a few questionable racist etc. aspects.
?
So, whether she was or wasn't someone in our district worthy of cherishing and remembering, there should be no recoil by some people who now put questions about further memorials to her.’
The reason I said above that you needed to elaborate a little on your cryptic remark: was that it does not yield its meaning easily – in fact I don’t feel sure you understand it either – so why didn’t you explain it a little further?
Instead of explaining it you wrote:
Does anyone understand what I. Lawrence is writing about when we simply are referring to …
Scumletto is making it clear with this that he is ‘talking on behalf of the group’ – ‘ we simply are referring to …’ and that horrible outsider Lawrence is interrupting our conversation – grrr!
One poster here has responded to my comments and another has suggested you get a life.
The second part of your post echoes some of the things I have said above (though not so eloquently and elegantly.)
Have you read either of the books I wrote about or do you have just the one Killer Fact – that Guy Gibson’s dog, the mascot for 617 Squadron, was not the property of Air Marshall Harris?
Have you got a life or any sense?
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:25pm Thu 14 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:32pm Thu 14 Feb 13
banknote wrote:I realise 'Neighbours' was not to everyone's taste but surely it takes more than association with the famed Aussie soap to 'tarnish' the reputation of a brave Englishman.
pennman wrote:There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:33pm Thu 14 Feb 13
Scarletto
says...
5:57pm Thu 14 Feb 13
I'm just one bod who wants fairly sensible comments on this site on various topics along with more sensible people, of which it seems you're sometimes not among them. Not your irrelevant and apparentlu insulting references to sex matters, Lucifer, foxes, beds, floggings etc etc.
All nothing to do with Our Enid.
Re your comments about the other books from yesteryear: Yes of course they've perhaps got "non PC" descriptions in them but who cares? All I'm saying is that Enid already has an elaborate and costly memorial on Beaconsfield's town hall green, and there have been umpteen critical comments about her in recent years - as well as rosy praise.
Maybe not the lovely lady some people think she was. (Research it, I suggest, as it makes a good subject to study).
Her books were enjoyed by millions including me but I was sometimes worried about the odd reclusive Uncle Quentin in the Famous Five books.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
10:45pm Thu 14 Feb 13
Scarletto wrote:Hello S. letto:
Hello I. Lawrence....Re your comment about me using the word "we" in one of my contributions, I want to make it clear I'm not writing as a member of any group.
I'm just one bod who wants fairly sensible comments on this site on various topics along with more sensible people, of which it seems you're sometimes not among them. Not your irrelevant and apparentlu insulting references to sex matters, Lucifer, foxes, beds, floggings etc etc.
All nothing to do with Our Enid.
Re your comments about the other books from yesteryear: Yes of course they've perhaps got "non PC" descriptions in them but who cares? All I'm saying is that Enid already has an elaborate and costly memorial on Beaconsfield's town hall green, and there have been umpteen critical comments about her in recent years - as well as rosy praise.
Maybe not the lovely lady some people think she was. (Research it, I suggest, as it makes a good subject to study).
Her books were enjoyed by millions including me but I was sometimes worried about the odd reclusive Uncle Quentin in the Famous Five books.
Re your comment about me using the word "we" in one of my contributions, I want to make it clear I'm not writing as a member of any group. I'm just one bod who wants fairly sensible comments
Then why did you say ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ as if you were the spokesman for the reasonable majority?
I'm just one bod who wants fairly sensible comments on this site on various topics along with more sensible people, of which it seems you're sometimes not among them.
Oh so you ARE the voice of the reasonable majority and the comments you want have to be what you regard as ‘fairly sensible comments’ and in your judgement that’s not like mine.
Not your irrelevant and apparentlu insulting references to sex matters, Lucifer, foxes, beds, floggings etc etc. All nothing to do with Our Enid.
A great to deal to do with our ivor though and it was ‘s6blr’ who brought up the subject of ivor and a completely back to front association between Mr Mealing and Mr ivor. (And only 'apparentlu' insulting?)
Re your comments about the other books from yesteryear: Yes of course they've perhaps got "non PC" descriptions in them but who cares?
You seem incapable of understanding when people are agreeing with you – I am saying almost the same thing we read their works now in spite of not because of their contemporary racism.
All I'm saying is that Enid already has an elaborate and costly memorial on Beaconsfield's town hall green, and there have been umpteen critical comments about her in recent years - as well as rosy praise.
Noddy and Big Ears are features on such a memorial and as you say she is rediscovered in print and on film every few years as a villainess – apparently she was not such a nice wife and mum and neighbour in personal life and I have heard this from people who were acquainted with her - though how accurate this is I don't know.
Maybe not the lovely lady some people think she was. (Research it, I suggest, as it makes a good subject to study).
Thank you for suggesting I research her – I am a bit old to be reading children’s literature and there are more important things I can research however I have watched I think all the TV documentaries about her. I have read some of the biographies of her and can actually remember her (just) in her big house in the Penn Road and at one time I considered buying her former house at Coldmoorholme Lane near Well End.
My personal favourite Beaconsfield children’s author is Alison Utley whose house is still standing (I think) in Ellwood Road not far from the site of Enid Blyton’s house. Whenever I read ‘Tales of Brock the Badger’ and threading the rain drops I hear my mother’s voice speaking from the 1950’s.
Her books were enjoyed by millions including me but I was sometimes worried about the odd reclusive Uncle Quentin in the Famous Five books.
Glad you mentioned Quentin – he brings me back to ivor and S&M – do you think Quentin was reclusive because he secretly enjoyed some kind of unorthodox sexual practice with the curtains drawn – like a certain blogger we can think of - or was there an innocent explanation – was he just a reclusive eccentric bachelor?
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
10:51pm Thu 14 Feb 13
PS:
My remarks about flagellation were a thoughtful, helpfully-intended and well-considered response to a comment by J.B. Blackett who first brought up the subject of flagellation in a post at 5:54pm on Wednesday.
J B Blackett
says...
11:56pm Thu 14 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:Please don't embroil me in your Famous 2 dialogue / saga.
Hello S. letto:
PS:
My remarks about flagellation were a thoughtful, helpfully-intended and well-considered response to a comment by J.B. Blackett who first brought up the subject of flagellation in a post at 5:54pm on Wednesday.
.
My remark was occasioned by 'marlowbucks' (see above) who also thought fit to mention paedophiles in passing.
.
I am innocent I tell you.
.
PS btw I think that Bigun is a quite recent immigrant from Gitland ( known as Gits) - they may have been distantly related to the Jutes from Jutland , but were so lazy , slobbish , backward-looking and reactionary that it took about 1200 years actually emigrate.
.
Why the family chose the Wycombe area , God knows. The people of Wycombe must have been very naughty to have become so afflicted by such a dreadful whinging self-pitying hypocritical pestilence
banknote
says...
12:03am Fri 15 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:You're right.
banknote wrote:I realise 'Neighbours' was not to everyone's taste but surely it takes more than association with the famed Aussie soap to 'tarnish' the reputation of a brave Englishman.
pennman wrote:There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?
It was just that I was relying to the stupid remark from pennman.
banknote
says...
12:09am Fri 15 Feb 13
pennman wrote:Why??
banknote wrote:You really should get a life, along with Mr Mealing and Scarletto.
pennman wrote:There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?
You made a silly remark about a man who is acknowledged as hero and a VC holder. What on earth is that to do with me getting a life?
You have gone far off topic, try getting back to the original story?
Graveyard
says...
6:48am Fri 15 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
10:15am Fri 15 Feb 13
J B Blackett
says...
4:43pm Fri 15 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
9:43pm Fri 15 Feb 13
J B Blackett wrote:That would make his eyes water!
Perhaps a plaque could be put up Mr Mealing.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
9:43pm Fri 15 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
9:44pm Fri 15 Feb 13
J B Blackett
says...
11:46pm Fri 15 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:All sensitivities should be catered for.
J B Blackett wrote:That would make his eyes water!
Perhaps a plaque could be put up Mr Mealing.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:11pm Sat 16 Feb 13
J B Blackett wrote:Water with pleasure!
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:All sensitivities should be catered for.
J B Blackett wrote:That would make his eyes water!
Perhaps a plaque could be put up Mr Mealing.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:12pm Sat 16 Feb 13
banknote wrote:Fair enough.
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:You're right.
banknote wrote:I realise 'Neighbours' was not to everyone's taste but surely it takes more than association with the famed Aussie soap to 'tarnish' the reputation of a brave Englishman.
pennman wrote:There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?
It was just that I was relying to the stupid remark from pennman.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:28pm Sat 16 Feb 13
marlowbucks wrote:'Niggard' has nothing to do with n i g g e r - the 'N word' - it means miserly or parsimonious according to the OED it comes from:
Fun to drop words such as: ragtop, niggardly and chink into the conversation to wind up self flagellating, hair shirt wearing white Anglo Saxons. You know, the sort of people who turn up in a baying mob at a paediatrician's house because they think her profession means paedophile.
Etymology: Origin uncertain; probably < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic hnøggr (Icelandic hnöggur ), Norwegian (Nynorsk) nøgg , Swedish njugg , Swedish regional nägg , nagg , early modern Danish nygger , adjectives, in sense ‘parsimonious, stingy’, cognate with Old English hnēaw stingy, Middle Dutch nauwe narrow, stingy (Dutch nauw narrow), Middle Low German nouwe narrow, scanty, Middle High German nou , nouwe narrow, exact, careful (German genau exact), probably ultimately related to the Indo-European base of classical Greek κνύειν to scratch.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:28pm Sat 16 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:40pm Sat 16 Feb 13
****, n. and adj.
Etymology: Probably an alteration of neger n., after classical Latin niger (see niger n.1)
And for 'niger n.1' the OED says just:
† niger, n.1
Etymology: < classical Latin niger (adjective) black, of unknown origin.
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:42pm Sat 16 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:43pm Sat 16 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
2:44pm Sat 16 Feb 13
J B Blackett
says...
4:17pm Sat 16 Feb 13
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:CI might be required. But only in extremis - when in a jam (jamb ? , jamm ? geom ? geum ? ge ... etc )
J B Blackett wrote:Water with pleasure!
ImpeturbableLawrence wrote:All sensitivities should be catered for.
J B Blackett wrote:That would make his eyes water!
Perhaps a plaque could be put up Mr Mealing.
Peter Cyprus
says...
1:55pm Sun 17 Feb 13
pennman
says...
9:14am Tue 19 Feb 13
banknote wrote:Actually, I don't care and it's a big conspiracy to honour Enid Blyton by a secret group of Beaconsfield, golly wog waving racists.
pennman wrote:Why?? You made a silly remark about a man who is acknowledged as hero and a VC holder. What on earth is that to do with me getting a life? You have gone far off topic, try getting back to the original story?banknote wrote:You really should get a life, along with Mr Mealing and Scarletto.pennman wrote: Scarletto- wasn't Guy Gibson in Neighbours?There is no need to tarnish the memory of a WW2 hero, who died for his country - or don't you just care?
ImpeturbableLawrence
says...
1:57pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Bill Taxpayer says...
1:46pm Wed 13 Feb 13
By all means edit the stories to bring them up to date, but don’t condemn one of this country’s greatest story writers without understanding they were written according to acceptable attitudes at the time.