The hidden opinions of Harriet Beecher Stowe

A kind of dialog has evolved between Julie Davies of Forgotten Classics and myself. As Julie is reading Uncle Tom's Cabin on her show, we are exchanging thoughts on the issue of racism in this famous novel.

Until chapter 16 both Julie and myself have been struck by sentences that were sticking out of the text that made generalist remarks about blacks and that were quite demeaning. Julie has sort of taken on the position that Stowe, as a woman of her time, could not help herself from thinking along the lines of theories on racial traits and was not intentionally racist. In my previous review I have opposed this idea on account that these generalities neither fit in the story nor in the message of Uncle Tom and therefore take on a nagging racist motif.

Chapter 16 however, decidedly makes this much more complicated. Stowe lets loose a monologue by Marie St. Clare that expresses all the racism you could accuse her of and while this goes on it is so clear the writer makes a mockery of the speaker. In case this had escaped you, she closes off the chapter with explicitly stating her opinion. She positions herself, not just against slavery, but also explicitly against racism. This makes a strong point for Julie's view on the matter that the book is not racist. It makes however the ideas on racial traits rather problematic and especially Stowe's opinion on the issue remains hidden.

Together with great drama and sophisticated character positioning (with Marie, Ophelia and St. Clare) Stowe's novel takes us in and on the subject of race and equality she forces us to think. Even if her own answers are not so clear. Julie's choice to pick this book for her show turns out to be a fantastic one.

Picture: Title-page illustration by Hammatt Billings (wikimedia commons)

More Forgotten Classics:
The racism of Uncle Tom's Cabin,
Uncle Tom's Cabin revisited,
Cooking with Forgotten Classics,
Forgotten Classics - podcast review.

Olga Zuiderhoek en Paul Rosenmoller

Om echt een heel goed interviewprogramma te zijn, zou KRO's voor 1 nacht wat meer lef moeten hebben. Sommige van de vragen die Marc Stakenburg stelt zijn te comfortabel voor de spreker. Regelmatig volgen er antwoorden die niet aangepakt worden. Steeds blijkt wel uit de reacties van Stakenburg dat hij goed geconcentreerd is en heel af en toe prikt hij wel een beetje, maar meer wordt het niet.

Zoals bijvoorbeeld in het gesprek met Olga Zuiderhoek, waarin hij een paar keer haar eigen uitspraken naar haar terugkaatst, of haar verrast met een vergelijking tussen het universum van de film Abel en het Assen waar Zuiderhoek opgegroeid is. Maar al snel verklaart hij: 'daar zal ik je niet langer mee lastig vallen,' en keert terug naar veilig terrein. Het maakt de interviews een beetje zelfgenoegzaam en het wordt gered door goede gasten die zich uit eigen beweging laten zien. Olga Zuiderhoek is er zo een, maar met een wat pittiger interview zouden we toch wat meer de onbekende Olga te zien kunnen krijgen, denk ik. En dan is het een gemiste kans.

Zo'n interviewflauwte is natuurlijk dodelijk met een gast die teveel schermen om zich heen heeft. In deze categorie vallen bij mij de politici en de komieken. Van het interview met Paul Rosenmöller verwachtte ik daarom niet zoveel en het is nogmaals dankzij de gast zelf dat het toch nog wat wordt. Rosenmöller gaat de moeilijkheden niet geheel uit de weg, maar Stakenburg laat hem wel de toon bepalen als het over Fortuin of Rosenmöllers verleden met fanatieke Marxisten gaat. Dat is dan ook een gemiste kans. En dan zwijg ik nog over de obligate muziekjes die in het programma gemonteerd worden en die regelmatig niets met het geprek te maken hebben.

Eerder over KRO's voor 1 nacht:
Gijs Wanders en Adjiedj Bakas,
Arnon Grunberg.

Failed Crusades - History Faculty

Thanks to Jim Mowatt of the podcast Historyzine I found out about the history podcast The History Faculty (feed). Make sure you copy the feed from here, because the site is not giving it away so easily and Jim Mowatt warns in advance that the on site videos are made with a still camera, so that audio is the way to go.

On The History Faculty historians are invited to lecture about their specialism and this results in a list of very varied subjects. Out of this list I took two lectures that are related to the crusades. On both lectures Professor Graham Loud of the University of Leeds speaks. First he lines out the Second Crusade, which, he claims, was better organized and led than the first. The first was actually quite unexpectedly successful at capturing Jerusalem and founding the Latin Kingdom. And so, the second, set out to be even better than that, yet failed. This lecture explains how. Unfortunately, the lecture is cut off by the end rather abruptly, making you feel there may me some crucial stuff missing.

Then, after this crusade, in 1187, there is the battle of Hattin (or Chitin as Israelis such as myself know it). During this battle Saladin thoroughly defeated the Christians and even if the Latin Kingdom continued the exist for a bit more, but it was effectively done for. Saladin's victory was predictable and yet the Christians engaged. Loud explains why this was so. Militarily it was foolish, but politically there were enough reasons to take Saladin on.

The feed is not systematically organized, which is makes it not straightforward to find the subject to your liking, but there is much to find.

Mizrachim - Thinking Allowed

The last episode of Thinking Allowed had an item about the Mizrahi Jews of Israel. For Laurie Taylor and possibly for the overwhelming majority of his listeners there was a lot of news to be learned here.

I have experienced myself in many exchanges with people outside Israel that they are not aware of the division between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews and especially not of the implications this has in Israeli society. The Sephardi Jews, literally, are the Spanish Jews. They are the Jews that have a different liturgy from the Ashkenazi, that is literally German Jews. The Ashkenazim are the Jews of European origin and the Sephardi have found their diaspora from the Iberian peninsula, throughout North Africa, the near East until deep into Asia. This is why they are also called: Mizrachim, easterners.

The original zionists were Ashkenazim and they were the founders of the state of Israel. Yet, the mizrachim joined early on and in large numbers immediately after the foundation of the state. In spite of the fact they became 2nd rate citizens in many ways, they came to make up a majority of the population and became quite the political power to reckon with. Here is where Thinking Allowed more or less stops and the modern Israeli may want to add that this has been true until recently but the division between Ashkenazim and Mizrachim in Israel is less pronounced and less important today.

More Thinking Allowed:
The weekly social science stop,
Substance and Sociology,
Hole in the Wall,
Moral relativism,
Male Immaturity.

Freek de Jonge - Simek 's Nachts (Elsevier)

Zoals ik in mijn vorige recensie al schreef: ik heb weinig vertrouwen in interviews met komieken. En ik heb Freek de Jonge expliciet genoemd als iemand die mij altijd tegenvalt. Daar is trouwens wel een uitzondering op. Ergens in de jaren tachtig werd hij geinterviewd in Vrij Nederland door Bibeb. Maar toen was ik nog zo jong en zo idolaat van hem.

Niettemin haastte ik me om het interview dat Simek gisteravond met hem had zo snel mogelijk te horen. Met Simek weet je het nooit en bovendien, hoe heeft hij toch al die coryfeeen naar Elseviers versie van zijn programma gekregen? De reeks die hij tot nu toe heeft neergezet is indrukwekkend. Is iedereen bezig om dit programma terug op de radio te krijgen? Dat zou meer dan terecht zijn. Simek is een uniek geluid in de wereld van interviewers, ook al heeft hij naast pieken behoorlijke dalen (ik vond het gesprek met Ab Osterhaus na een goed begin vervelend worden), het blijft top.

Met Freek de Jonge heeft Simek al mijn verwachtingen overtroffen. Dit werd een buitengewoon programma. Freek was ontspannen en Simek maakte een goede connectie en op die moment stroomt Simek 's Nachts als de Amazone. Groots, heftig en gevarieerd. En Freek wist een brug te leggen naar mijn bewondering van vroeger.

Meer Simek 's Nachts:
Kees van Kooten (Elsevier),
Connie Palmen (Elsevier),
Dhyan Sutorius (RVU),
Louis Tas (RVU),
Piet Hein Eek (RVU).

Adoration by Egoyan - Mighty Movie Podcast

I knew Atom Egoyan from The Sweet Hereafter in which Ian Holm plays a sad lawyer who needs to deal with a pretty sad law suit while simultaneously he is scrambling to help his daughter who is slipping in a destructive life style. A good movie, but no cheery one to easily let you loose afterwards.

In the Mighty Movie Podcast host Dan Persons interviews Atom Egoyan about his latest movie Adoration. The theme is as tough as with the other movie. A young boy who has lost his parents in a car accident engages in spreading a lie about his parents. Although this may be seen as a part of mourning or of search for identity, the lie in itself comes with certain consequences.

Apart from the fact that this may be a good movie, if tough, like the other one I knew, the podcast does everything to prepare you for viewing and in addition allows a peek into the thoughts Egoyan has about this film and its plot. Persons has created in this way a very valuable and I think exceptional rubric about film and we can consider ourselves very lucky this is available on podcast.

More Mighty Movie Podcast:
Nursery University.