Umm... Hi.
I just realized how long it's been since I posted anything here. I've been reading, and commenting sometimes, but... yeah, not so much with the posting.
I've had a number of conversations recently with different people, in different contexts, in which the phrase 'it's a period piece' featured prominently as a description of a piece of writing or art. I'm starting to have a really twitchy reaction to that phrase, and I haven't been able to articulate why that is in the moment. So I'm going to tease it out here and see if I can explain it to myself. And maybe explain it to other people if it comes up again.
I'll start by saying that I understand that literature and art are the products of the cultural norms and assumptions of their time. And I know that we can't judge literature and art of the past by the cultural norms of our own time. But when I read 'classic literature' that contains appallingly sexist (or racist, or homophobic, or whatever) attitudes presented as the norm and the default, it bothers me. And the understanding that the literature reflects the cultural norms of a different time doesn't make it bother me any less. And very often the phrase 'it's a period piece' is what people say when I express my dissatisfaction with those aspects of a piece of writing or art.
And I think the problem I'm having with it is that it often (not always, but often) seems to me like it's used to excuse or diminish the hatefulness of the sexism (or racism, or homophobia, or whatever) that's presented in the work. I'm okay with saying that a piece of literature reflects the cultural norms and assumptions of another time if there's acknowledgment that those cultural norms and assumptions were wrong, hateful, and damaging in some cases. But when people just stop with 'it's a period piece', and use it to avoid critically examining the implications of whatever -ism is represented in the literature or art in question, it makes me twitch.
And I think maybe I'm getting programmed to hear it that way all the time, whether that's what a person means by it or not, because it gets used that way so often. But now maybe I can tamp down the instinctive reaction enough to think about it in the context of the conversation I'm having and determine whether that's what the person really means or not.
ETA a tangential anecdote:
I'm not sure this connection will make sense to anybody but me, but here goes:
My grandfather used to tell these really horrific stories about what it was like to work in the coal mines when they were being integrated, and he'd describe these awful, nasty, hateful things the white miners used to do to their minority coworkers. And always, at the end of those stories, he'd stop, stare off into the distance with a wistful expression on his face, and say, "Nobody could get away with that now."
The first time I exploded at him and said, "And rightly so! That was a really awful thing to do to another human being!", he was shocked. He really thought that just because society told him it was 'okay' to do those things when he was young, that it was. He was pretty offended that I told him he'd been wrong, and we had a huge argument about it. And his attitude is not at all unusual, in my experience. That wistful expression of desire to go back to the 'good old days' is pretty universal where I come from, and somehow my feelings about that have gotten tangled up with my reaction to the phrase 'it's a period piece', I think.
In more mundane news: Work is busy. Baseball season is about to start. Life is full.
I've had a number of conversations recently with different people, in different contexts, in which the phrase 'it's a period piece' featured prominently as a description of a piece of writing or art. I'm starting to have a really twitchy reaction to that phrase, and I haven't been able to articulate why that is in the moment. So I'm going to tease it out here and see if I can explain it to myself. And maybe explain it to other people if it comes up again.
I'll start by saying that I understand that literature and art are the products of the cultural norms and assumptions of their time. And I know that we can't judge literature and art of the past by the cultural norms of our own time. But when I read 'classic literature' that contains appallingly sexist (or racist, or homophobic, or whatever) attitudes presented as the norm and the default, it bothers me. And the understanding that the literature reflects the cultural norms of a different time doesn't make it bother me any less. And very often the phrase 'it's a period piece' is what people say when I express my dissatisfaction with those aspects of a piece of writing or art.
And I think the problem I'm having with it is that it often (not always, but often) seems to me like it's used to excuse or diminish the hatefulness of the sexism (or racism, or homophobia, or whatever) that's presented in the work. I'm okay with saying that a piece of literature reflects the cultural norms and assumptions of another time if there's acknowledgment that those cultural norms and assumptions were wrong, hateful, and damaging in some cases. But when people just stop with 'it's a period piece', and use it to avoid critically examining the implications of whatever -ism is represented in the literature or art in question, it makes me twitch.
And I think maybe I'm getting programmed to hear it that way all the time, whether that's what a person means by it or not, because it gets used that way so often. But now maybe I can tamp down the instinctive reaction enough to think about it in the context of the conversation I'm having and determine whether that's what the person really means or not.
ETA a tangential anecdote:
I'm not sure this connection will make sense to anybody but me, but here goes:
My grandfather used to tell these really horrific stories about what it was like to work in the coal mines when they were being integrated, and he'd describe these awful, nasty, hateful things the white miners used to do to their minority coworkers. And always, at the end of those stories, he'd stop, stare off into the distance with a wistful expression on his face, and say, "Nobody could get away with that now."
The first time I exploded at him and said, "And rightly so! That was a really awful thing to do to another human being!", he was shocked. He really thought that just because society told him it was 'okay' to do those things when he was young, that it was. He was pretty offended that I told him he'd been wrong, and we had a huge argument about it. And his attitude is not at all unusual, in my experience. That wistful expression of desire to go back to the 'good old days' is pretty universal where I come from, and somehow my feelings about that have gotten tangled up with my reaction to the phrase 'it's a period piece', I think.
In more mundane news: Work is busy. Baseball season is about to start. Life is full.