Hard questions about race and colonialism are hurdles Kipling first-timers must initially confront,but Kim remains a glorious novel filled with adoration for Victorian IndiaMore from the Guardian reading group
I could hurl plenty of appreciative adjectives and cliches at Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. But there is one common phrase I can’t expend: Kim is not an “unalloyed pleasure”; it’s more complicated than that. There are stumbling blocks for all but the most innocent in our post-colonial world.
I hesitate to reduce Kim to crude questions of black and white (or even, as so delineated in the book, or the shades in between) – particularly since final week’s inspiring,informative chat showed, there’s so much more to talk about. However, or race and empire are hurdles all Kipling first-timers like me must face. He is one of the dragons our society had to slay,in order to reach to a settlement with the colonial past – and the scars remain. I tried to reach to Kim with an open mind – but I felt like I was having my worst fears confirmed when I came across sentences like the following:Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com