Atticus and me

[struggle4progress]

Jul 17, 2015 by Emily C. Heath

I read To Kill a Mockingbird the summer between eighth and ninth grade ... I would never forget the idea that standing up for the right thing, even when you know you are going to lose, is noble ... So when I heard about Go Set a Watchman, a sort of sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, being released I was ecstatic ... As I’ve sat with it, though, I wonder if a legion of Atticus Finch fans having to come to terms with his racism isn’t the best possible thing for us all ... My guess is that Atticus Finch, fictional as he is, learned his racism too. I do not say that to excuse it; it is never acceptable. But I say that to say that racism is a social disease, one that spreads easily and infects us long before we realize we are sick ...

http://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2015-07/atticus-and-me

[bvf]

1. I'm still pretty skeptical about the circumstances

surrounding this release.

As an aside:

http://www.theonion.com/article/harper-lee-announces-third-novel-my-excellent-care-50840

[struggle4progress]

2. The Onion is excellent!

The Suspicious Story Behind Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman'
By William Giraldi

When it was announced in February that a “new” Harper Lee novel had been “discovered,” there followed the expected gale of media giddiness, the widespread convulsions of joy, a gyrating and ejaculating all across the Web. Pulling up alongside the jubilant ones were the judicious ones, those who questioned how the publication of Lee’s new-old novel, Go Set a Watchman, came to pass: how the publicity-shyest author on earth, she who vowed never to publish another novel after her spirit was jolted by the galactic success of her debut, she who fled Manhattan for the asylum of her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, how this monastically private writer agreed—in her 89th year, post-stroke, confined to an assisted-living establishment—to bless the reading world with what was the first, failed draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. During the initial sortie of coverage in February, a Newsweek headline bellowed “Friends Say Harper Lee Was Manipulated,” but you didn’t need that deflating headline or any other because you already had those unignorable inner murmurs—they were your conscience saying that something is rotten in Monroeville.

On February 3, HarperCollins posted a press release that relayed how Ms. Lee’s lawyer, Tonja Carter, had recently “discovered the manuscript in a secure place where Ms. Lee keeps her archives.” There’s also a statement attributed to Ms. Lee that reads, in part: “I hadn’t realized it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it. After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”

Those crafty touches—“much thought and hesitation,” “my dear friend,” “people I trust”—are trying a tad too hard, wouldn’t you say? The spotlight-shunning Lee is “amazed” that she will once again be subjected to a freshet of attention, the very soaking she’d organized her life to avoid. The only thing amazing here is the expectation that literate people would be hoodwinked by attributed language that bears hallmarks of subterfuge. Another statement released by Carter in February has Ms. Lee saying: “I’m alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions to Watchman”—and this from an author who was known to turn her back should you be unheeding enough to mention To Kill a Mockingbird in her presence, who at a soiree would rather sit on the rear porch and speak to a child than endure your effusions about her novel ...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122290/suspicious-story-behind-publication-go-set-watchman

[bvf]

3. Thanks for that.

Loved this line from what I've read so far:

"Listening to businessmen hold forth about literature constitutes a rare kind of comedy."

I'd read snippets of it here and there, but have bookmarked it and look forward to all three installments of the account.

Of course, I plan to check Go Set a Watchman out of the library, but anticipate quite a waiting list.

On edit: I missed the NewsGroup/Harper Collins/WSJ connection on first read. Hmmm. Intriguing!