I've never, ever thought that Kipling's works revealed that he was an Imperialist, but the recent correspondence has made me sit up and wonder. I must have another blitz on his wonderful books, and may perhaps be able to come to a conclusion. But even if I do find examples of imperialism on his part, I shall just shrug and go on reading..! LIFE'S TOO SHORT ... (or as I rread in the cookery column of one of our newspapers, "Life's too short to stuff a mushroom!") But ,to be serious, condemning the behaviour of people from previous centuries is not really helpful. Authors of previous centuries were people of their time, and to-day's morals simply cannot be brought to bear. We goody--goody 21st century wallahs just have to take a deep breath and say, "What disgusting behaviour, but then that was then, and thank goodness it is not now!" And to go even further back, we of the 21st century love to read or to go and see Shakespeare's works in the theatre ; .but whilst reading or watching some of his wilder fancies we register that THAT WAS THEN and THIS IS NOW, THANK THE LORD. Same with some of Kipling's works. Hazel Craig.

Civilised values have inspired and guided mankind since the inception of life itself.If some of these values were given the by in some eras It is not acceptable to endorse them as the values of that period.Colonialism and racism cannot be condoned by referring to them as the guiding lights of a bygone era. Mandeep On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 9:18 PM, <Haztwin@aol.com> wrote: > I've never, ever thought that Kipling's works revealed that he was an > Imperialist, but the recent correspondence has made me sit up and wonder. > I must > have another blitz on his wonderful books, and may perhaps be able to come > to > a conclusion. But even if I do find examples of imperialism on his part, > I > shall just shrug and go on reading..! LIFE'S TOO SHORT ... (or as I > rread in the cookery column of one of our newspapers, "Life's too short to > stuff > a mushroom!") > > But ,to be serious, condemning the behaviour of people from previous > centuries is not really helpful. Authors of previous centuries were > people of > their time, and to-day's morals simply cannot be brought to bear. We > goody--goody 21st century wallahs just have to take a deep breath and say, > "What > disgusting behaviour, but then that was then, and thank goodness it is not > now!" > And to go even further back, we of the 21st century love to read or to > go and see Shakespeare's works in the theatre ; .but whilst reading or > watching some of his wilder fancies we register that THAT WAS THEN and > THIS IS > NOW, THANK THE LORD. Same with some of Kipling's works. > Hazel Craig. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >