CharlieSimmons

You’re on point with the parallels between Oompa-Loompas and post-emancipation indentured labourers. In the first edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa-Loompas were depicted as a tribe of African pygmies from “the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before.”

Apparently, the book’s initial publishers didn’t consider the racist undertones because they considered this portrayal part of a “very English fantasy.” Make of that what you will.

I don’t think it’s polytheistic religions. If Debs is counting a lack of salvation is a defining feature of his idea of “paganism”, that doesn’t exactly match with Hinduism-a polytheistic religion which promises the possibility of achieving a higher purpose if you do the right things.

I totally agree with what you said about no such thing as a politically correct history. Just because a work of fiction has blind spots in its approach to groups or issues-obvious or implicit biases, a lack of equanimity in how compassion is extended, and the way that certain characters are utilised-doesn’t mean that we should shield future generations from them. If it weren’t for modern writers being aware of the problems you’ve described with BSC, we most likely would not have had the attempts at inclusion and diversity that are reported to be in the upcoming Netflix show. Still, I suppose we can’t let nostalgia blind us to those faults in works from the past either. It’s good to ask questions.

PS This article makes me want to check out The Babysitter’s Club as 21-year-old zoomer. Maybe I’ll track down the movie or one of the graphic novels sometime 🙂

You have made some very good examinations about how Tarantino self-conciously emphasises an aestheticised kind of violence in his films. The references to pulp stories and pastiches of existing film genres definitely add a new layer to films that supposedly “glorify” violence.

I do think your argument could have been more well-strucutred, however. You say that Reservoir Dogs reveals how violence is an escape from the pressures of modern society by grafting typically negative examples of black criminality onto a white cast. But then you never bring up black criminality again during that part of the essay.

I know this essay is two years old, but I wanted to join in because I do love Tarantino.