Born this day, 1876, Jack London. The story Love of Life made a deep impression on me when I was maybe seventeen.
In my Google travels on the London topic, I came across the Jack London Literary Prize, which 'is intended to promote the timeless values of Western civilization.' The prize committee seems to be comprised of people who prefer to be called European-American separatists rather than white supremacists. I don't know enough about London but I associate him with socialism, not white supremacy. Can anyone enlighten me?
Posted by Bobby Farouk at January 12, 2005 12:05 PMWhite supremacists are just part of a range now Bobby boy: you got your female supremacists (feminsists), your... oh, you get it.
Posted by: ROBBIE at January 12, 2005 02:46 PMI'm afraid Jack London was very much of a Nietzschean and far too much of a racist. And his close friend and Glen Ellen neighbor was Luther Burbank, a famed breeder of plants who extended his ideas about fruits and vegetables into definite advocacy of human eugenics.
I can't find my copy of Joan Didion's Where I was From, but in it she notes just one aspect of the multifarious nastiness in a chapter from London's The Valley of the Moon. The part Didion mentions is that a character significantly named "Saxon" is proud to discover that she and her new boyfriend are both of "pioneer stock." But the chapter as a whole is pretty steadily awful.
I'm just trying to work out "European-American". Does that mean they embrace those of Hispanic, Latino, Celtic and Arabic, or just, y'know, Anglo-Saxon/Germanic?
I suspect it's a euphemism for "white." This usually boils down to probably Greek but not Turkish, Spanish but not Arabic, Cajun but not Mexican, Russian but not Indian. And judging by the acceptance speech of this year's prizewinner, definitely not Jewish.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at January 13, 2005 08:34 AMI'm not sure it's fair to judge London on one chapter in The Valley of the Moon. On the other hand, it does come pretty late in the novel, which indicates the main characters aren't on the road to enlightenment. The anti-foreigner sentiments might be brushed off as those of Saxon and Billy, not London, but I can't escape the sense they are London's heros. And the business of the white man in his white boat whisking them away from the shore soiled with immigrants is, well, too much.
After the little research I've done the last couple days, it seems any attempt to defend London from the white supremacist charge is at best the act of an apologist. That won't work.
Posted by: Bobby Farouk at January 13, 2005 11:01 AM'I'm afraid Jack London was very much of a Nietzschean and far too much of a racist.'
Heh, I *knew* that was Martha from second word.
Posted by: ROBBIE at January 14, 2005 01:47 AMAll of the above notwithstanding, _The People of the Abyss_ reads very well alongside DAOIPAL and _The Iron Heel_, while a lesser literary work than _Nineteen Eighty-four_, is just as scary.
cheers,
Henry
Posted by: Henry Larsen at January 14, 2005 08:15 AMAll of the above notwithstanding...
That's a good point. There no reason why we can't say London was a good writer and a racist, and then enjoy the work that can be enjoyed.
I started reading The Valley of the Moon from the beginning and it got me thinking about Frank Norris which got me kind of nostalgic for a certain literature class and a happy time of life.
Posted by: Bobby Farouk at January 14, 2005 09:14 AM'I'm just trying to work out "European-American". Does that mean they embrace those of Hispanic, Latino, Celtic and Arabic, or just, y'know, Anglo-Saxon/Germanic?'
It's usually all europeans except for, mexicans, hispanics, and turks, I think.
But all mediterraneans and slavs as well as anglo-saxon/germanic, and celtic of course since celts are nordic and (racially) identical to germanic peoples.