Gone with the Wind

[queerbychoice]

Since The Book of Salt by Monique Truong brought me back into reading mode, I spent the entire past 48 hours reading Gone with the Wind, which was a gift from legolastn. And I do mean the entire past 48 hours, interrupted only by sleep and enough time to prepare about two bowls of pasta-roni (other than that, I avoided eating anything that would have required any food preparation, because I didn't want to put the book down for that long).

Lots of people had warned me that this book was racist, and a smaller number of people had warned me that it was sexist. So I was expecting it to make me very angry for both reasons, and it did. But I wasn't expecting it to be so interesting as well - so well-written and so emotionally involving, so that having to hate the book anyway actually hurts. And unlike everyone else in the United States, I've never seen the movie, so I had no idea how the book was going to end. I knew the famous line from it, of course, but I had no idea whatsoever of the context for it.

The book is blatantly racist from the very first page, although it does get worse as it goes along. I think that with some helpful un-racist footnotes added to correct unrealistic perceptions, though, it could actually be a very useful book for making people less racist. The racism in it is so unashamedly blatant that it's hard to imagine anyone being nearly as racist as this book nowadays, so making people read it would force them to recognize the existence - even just the past existence - of racism in a way that (white) people often don't. By which I mean: racism not just as an abstract thing done by abstract unfathomable people, but as a thing done by real three-dimensional people who actually think of themselves as nice people, who actually think of themselves as doing the right thing. There's really nothing quite like reading nearly a thousand pages about people's lives, getting to know them, sympathizing - even grudgingly, even just a little bit - with their problems, and then finding out that they're not only unrepentant ex-slaveowners (but they were nice slaveowners, they keep assuring you!) but Ku Klux Klan members who murder black people regularly and are proud of it.

The book did not seem sexist at all, though, for the first two thirds of it. On the contrary, it seemed quite impressively feminist. Scarlett had no education and expected to be able to get anything she wanted just by being pretty, but her beloved Ashley wasn't taken in by it and instead married a more educated woman who actually knew about most of the same things he did. Rhett Butler convincingly argued that the then-American traditions in which women were supposed to spend three years isolated and in mourning when they had been widowed, and nine months isolated when pregnant, were sexist and unfair and should be ended immediately. He also made a pretty good case for the broader revolutionary attitude that one's actions should not be dictated by other people's opinions but rather by one's own opinions (although considering what his and Scarlett's own opinions led them to do, I suppose having him as a spokesperson for this attitude may have been a disservice to it). Most impressively, Scarlett took a traditionally male job running a sawmill, and made more money at it than any of the men in town who had tried their hands at it had ever managed to do.

But then it all started falling apart. Scarlett couldn't run her (now plural) sawmills while she was pregnant. Since this had a great deal to do with society's shock about a woman being visibly pregnant in public, it didn't speak badly of her by itself. But she displayed an appalling lack of her former business skills when she hired her beloved but incompetent Ashley to run one of her mills, and a brutally violent overseer to run the other. It would have been perfectly in character for her to hire brutally violent overseers if this had been the most financially profitable thing for her to do; she never did have any moral scruples about anything. But when she realized the brutality was extreme enough that if she were caught employing such a person she could be prosecuted and financially penalized for it - well, that just makes her look too stupid to succeed in a man's career after all. There's no reason she should suddenly lose all her business sense like that. she had all the makings of a successful evil capitalist exploiter who cared about absolutely nothing but money, but then she had to go and ruin it and make the silly men she'd initially been beating at their own trade look like smarter evil capitalists than she was.

And then there's her goddessawful romance with Rhett Butler. I have no idea why he married her in the first place, when he'd previously consistently declared himself not to be a marrying man, and had shown every sign of always meaning everything he ever said, and already knew that Scarlett could easily be bought as a prostitute instead of a wife for the right price - since she'd offered herself to him once before on those grounds - and he was supposedly still furious with her for having broken her word to him by hiring Ashley to run her sawmill. The only sense I could make out of his sudden marriage proposal was to suppose he was lying, tricking her into thinking he was marrying her but not actually marrying her, just socially ruining her by having out-of-wedlock sex with her, as his way of taking revenge for her having broken her word to him, by him breaking his word to her in return, to show her what it felt like. This would have been far more in character for him than what he actually did, which was to suddenly and inexplicably actually marry her. I realize that the fact that he (almost but not quite as inexplicably) actually loved her is supposed to explain it. But I, as a citizen of the 21st century, am not really naive enough to believe that a committed "non-marrying man" would suddenly feel a need to get married just because he fell in love. It has been my observation that non-marrying men do not tend to magically transform into marrying men just because they fell in love. But then, it's also been my observation that men who are ultra-devoted fathers do not tend to fall in love with women who they can see for themselves are the most appallingly awful mothers on the face of the Earth. So I guess there just isn't very much about Rhett Butler's character that's believable at all.

Anyway, the sexism reaches its most disgusting in the descriptions of the rare moments when Scarlett is attracted to her husband. Invariably, these moments come only when he terrifies her into submission with hints of his potential for violence.

She sprang to her feet with a cry and he lunged from his seat, laughing that soft laugh that made her blood cold. he pressed her back in her chair with large brown hands and leaned over her.

"Observe my hands, my dear," he said, flexing them before her eyes. "I could tear you to pieces with them with no trouble whatsoever and I would do it if it would take Ashley out of your mind. But it wouldn't. So I think I'll remove him from your mind forever, this way. I'll put my hands, so, on each side of your head and I'll smash your skull between them like a walnut and that will blot him out."

His hands were on her head, under her flowing hair, caressing, hard, turning her face up to his. She was looking into the face of a stranger, a drunken drawling-voiced stranger. She had never lacked animal courage and in the face of danger it flooded back hotly into her veins, stiffening her spine, narrowing her eyes.

"You drunken fool," she said. "Take your hands off me."

To her surprise, he did so and seating himself on the edge of the table he poured himself another drink.

"I have always admired your spirit, my dear. Never more so than now when you are cornered."

And a few minutes later, after Rhett has reminded Scarlett that she has been refusing to sleep with him for months while she has been longing for Ashley instead of for him, and revealed that he had known even when she used to sleep with him that she was pretending he was Ashley, which felt to him "like having three in a bed where there ought to be just two":

She ran swiftly into the dark hall, fleeing as though demons were upon her. Oh, if only she could reach her room! She turned her ankle and the slipper fell half off. As she stopped to kick it loose frantically, Rhett, running lightly as an Indian, was beside her in the dark. His breath was hot on her face and his hands went around her roughly, under the wrapper, against her bare skin.

"You turned me out on the town while you chased him. By God, this is one night when there are only going to be two in my bed."

He swung her off her feet into his arms and started up the stairs. Her head was crushed against his chest and she heard the hard hammering of his heart beneath her ears. He hurt her and she cried out, muffled, frightened. Up the stairs, he went in the darkness, and she was wild with fear. He was a mad stranger and this was a black darkness she did not know, darker than death. He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. She screamed, stifled against him and he stopped suddenly on the landing and, turning her swiftly in his arms, bent over and kissed her with a savagery and a completeness that wiped out everything from her mind but the dark into which she was sinking and the lips on hers. . . . She tried to speak and his mouth was over hers again. Suddenly she had a wild thrill such as she had never known; joy, fear, madness, excitement, surrender to arms that were too strong, lips too bruising, fate that moved too fast. For the first time in her life she had met someone, something stronger than she, someone she could neither bully nor break, someone who was bullying and breaking her.

Yes, there's nothing like threats of spousal murder and marital rape to turn women on. Being in terror of one's life or physical health really puts one in the mood to have sex with one's prospective executioner.

Also, funny how whenever he turns violent, he immediately starts doing everything "as an Indian," "with a savagery," in such a very "black darkness." The rest of the time, he's white and of tremendous assistance to the Ku Klux Klan.

But all the disgustingness in the book wouldn't upset me so much if I could just hate the entire book consistently and without exception. Then my resolution would be simple: Throw the creepy book in the trash and hope it eventually fades into such complete obscurity that nobody reads it ever again. But my resolution isn't that simple, because this book doesn't only contain more disgusting offensiveness than almost any other book I've ever read in my life. Inconveniently, it also happens to contain, within the same 1,024 pages of badly underproofread text printed in ink that rubbed off on my fingers with every page that I turned, some really unusually worthwhile writing, with significant insights into human nature and food for thought of a kind that one probably couldn't get from any book that wasn't horribly offensive. So I'm glad that I read it, and I'd even like to encourage more people to read it - provided that they're people who are sufficiently well-informed from other sources to avoid falling for any of the book's offensive propaganda. I think every well-read person should read this book, but I can't really blame any of my teachers or professors for not having dared to teach it - if I were a teacher, I'm not sure I'd dare teach this book either, even to college students, in our current society. I'm rather disturbed by the idea that schools in the South, according to legolastn (who would know, having attended them) very commonly do teach it, because I can envision way more possibilities for that to go horribly wrong than for it to ever go right. Yet, at the same time, ideally, if only it could be done right, I would want this book to be taught. And it has so much to do with the South that it would be so bizarre for schools there not to teach it. I just . . . have all sorts of misgivings about exactly how teachers might go about teaching it.

Comments

[kejlina.livejournal.com]

It's too bad you don't live close enough that we could hang out sometime. I do love reading, but for whatever reason, it's hard for me to read when I'm alone. Much more fun to curl up and read next to someone else who's also reading!

[lilerthkwake.livejournal.com]

Gone with the Wing is one of the books that made me want to be a writer... maybe THE book. I've seen the movie dozens of times and read the book probably two or three times, the first time when I was 11 years old. I LOVED it then, but as I've gotten older, it's bothered me more & more, that the book (and movie moreso) so completely glorifies a lifestyle that includes enslaving and abusing another race of people. It's been so long since I've read the book, though, and I only recently became a feminist, that the sexism had not quite occurred to me. I know that the movie's difficult for me to watch simply because I know what's going to happen at the end and I get mad at Rhett and Scarlett for being so fucking dumb that watching everything unfold just upsets me. I guess reading it all those years ago, over and over, and seeing the movie so many times... it kind of made the characters into REAL PEOPLE in my mind. And I just get so sad, because their pain is truly avoidable if they'd just make better choices, the dumb fucks!

BUUUT I agree with you that the book could be helpful to people if it's read with open eyes and a good teacher alongside, to point out the blatant and sneaky racist and sexist parts, to discuss the insights into human nature, etc. I think that sweeping drama of the book is dizzyingly beautiful, the descriptive prose. It's not a snapshot into history, it's a scrapbook with page after page of photos of what life was really like back then. It's lovely, and terrible, at the same time. The characters are so true to life, you can really imagine meeting someone like Scarlett--yes, even a woman who is aroused by her husband's violent threats, because truthfully, some women in terrible relationships are in a sick way aroused by their husbands or boyfriends "putting their foot down". (That is not an assertion that means "battered women want to be beaten," or "all women like to be threatened with bodily harm, it makes them hot and bothered." I mean that SOME women, who are already in GROSSLY dysfunctional relationships, are attracted to violent men because in their GROSS misunderstandings of what love and power are, they feel that being "put in their place" is a good thing. Etc.)

Save yourself the time, trouble, and expense, though, of EVER reading the sequel that was published... um, maybe in 1995-ish? It's serviceable, but nothing like the original. NOTHING.

[lilerthkwake.livejournal.com]

I'm such a dork. I OBVIOUSLY didn't proofread my comment. Gone with the WING, indeed. *facepalm*

[rhekarid.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I've never seen the movie either...

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Yes, but you're even more of a space alien than I am. I'm not sure either one of us even counts at all in the statistics about what real Americans have seen or done in their lives. We're probably disqualified.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

Although the movie follows the plot of the book fairly closely, it's actually more racist than the book is -- except for Mammy, the more intelligent and respectable black characters are left out entirely, and the movie focuses more on the stupidity of Prissy and Pork. The movie also has a different purpose -- it's a strongly anit-war movie, meant to convince viewers that entering World War II would be a huge mistake. Because of this focus, it lacks much of the subtleties and insights you note from the book. I don't think you'd like it much, despite some impressive cinematography.

The movie and book were initially presented to me to show me the way racist people think, and I agree with you: I think Jim Crow laws become much easier to understand after you read a book that thinks that characters who join the Klu Klux Klan are finally following the correct path, and a book that assumes that blacks are inferior people, although more trustworthy than the Irish. (A scene in the book that always threw me, frankly.)

I felt that Scarlett's punishments at the end of the book came because the author felt a need to punish Scarlett for all of the feminist thinking earlier in the book -- a need promptly contradicted when nice ladylike Melanie dies in the very act that -- by the book's standards -- should define her as a woman: giving birth.

And Rhett Butler? For the most part, we are seeing him only through Scarlett's not overly insightful viewpoint, and I sense that Mitchell wanted us to question his motivations, or at least to suggest that he had pretty deep set emotional issues that led him to make some awful personal choices. I've seen some men make equally inexplicable choices in partners -- although Scarlett is pretty god-awful -- but still. I also thought that perhaps Rhett was telling the truth -- he figured that if he didn't marry Scarlett, someone else would, and in that case, forget sex. And since he certainly didn't marry Scarlett for the conversation....

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Prissy comes across as plenty stupid and annoying in the book, but Pork not so much. I'd say he's presented as one of the most "likable" slaves, although the book doesn't exactly make any of them look really good.

Nice ladylike Melanie had to die for the book to end, of course, and childbirth is the easiest way to kill off a woman who's only 29 years old and never does anything that isn't perfect. But it would have been interesting for Mitchell to try to find a different way of killing her. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to kill off a woman who lets a man sleep in her basement who's been convicted of murdering his wife. But of course, if Archie murdered her, that would ever-so-falsely imply that there was something unwise about Melanie letting him sleep there!

[mariness.livejournal.com]

Prissy is not half as stupid in the book as she is in the movie. Every scene with Prissy in it makes me want to cringe. It's nauseating. Dilcey -- the competent half-Indian slave -- isn't in the movie at all, and Pork is mostly portrayed as an idiotic, helpless clown. The only black that comes off in the film as marginally competent is Mammy, and it's a pretty racist portrayal as well. And, oddly enough, for a film that glorifies plantation culture, it actually doesn't show that many actual blacks; background scenes are generally filled with white characters. I admit to not knowing that much about Civil War Atlanta, but I kept thinking, while watching the film, that surely more blacks must have been running around trying to flee the burning city as well?

The problem wasn't just that Melanie had to die: she had to die in a way that would allow her to have a nice long talkative death scene, which left consumption -- which would not have had all the nice sexual/feminine connotations -- or childbirth. So murder, although considerably more interesting and a good way to finally let Melanie know that she's a total twit, wouldn't have served that function.

[woo2step.livejournal.com]

You actually just convinced me to read the book. I'm not sure whether to thank you or not (on one hand, several people have recommended it to me in the past; on the other, it's horribly sexist/racist, and I don't really look for that in my leisure reading, as a general rule).

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

You can let me know after you've read it whether you feel like thanking me or not. ;-)

[she-evolves.livejournal.com]

I saw the movie once and vowed never to see it again. It makes me sick and angry. If I remember correctly, the scene where he threatens rape is actually made into a rape scene in the movie - he throws her over his shoulder like an inanimate object and runs up the stairs with her into the bedroom and then it goes to the next scene, insinuating that he raped, I mean "made love", to her.

Depressingly, I know someone who's obsessed with that movie and with all things "Southern belle", and it's creepy and sad and I try to introduce liberal feminist concepts into her head whenever she brings it all up.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

What I find creepy and sad about that is that the movie and book suggest that being a Southern belle totally sucked -- I mean, your lovers get killed, you have to dig for turnips in plantation fields, your kids fall off horses and die, and in the end, your husband takes off. Why would you want that?

[she-evolves.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, because being a Southern belle means you have integrity and endurance and can respond to a crisis with fortitude and creativity (curtain dress?) all while being stylish and beautiful and well-mannered (i.e. gender-conformist and under the rule of the patriarchy). Good times.

[mariness.livejournal.com]

I'll grant the fortitude and creativity, but integrity? What integrity? Ok, granted, Melanie had integrity, but she died because of it. The lesson seems more that integrity will kill you. Which makes its own statements about Southern belles....

[she-evolves.livejournal.com]

Who the hell knows ;)

[erdbeermund.livejournal.com]

I guess it's kind of like watching Birth of a Nation, which is a well-made movie if you can detach yourself from the message and view it as a historical document. It's hard not to feel guilty though when you're rooting for the KKK...

[legolastn.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the book was a satisfying experience.

What you describe is the sort of relationship I have with the book (and movie) as well.

My mother has read the book...37 times.

I'm NAKED, so you may choose to ignore me.

[ruthieblacknude.livejournal.com]

Ah, glad you looked!
People say I imitate SCARLETT O'HARA, since we're both bitches. But I'm as genuine as she was, since we were from the same neck of the Georgia woods, and we both were stars of novels.
I saw MARGARET MITCHELL meet her tragic death on the sidewalk outside the Fox theater in 1949. (The theater in Atlanta where the movie GONE WITH THE WIND had premiered). A taxi hit her as she was crossing the street, looking up at the theater's marquee where her name was displayed prominently. I tried to warm her of the taxi, but she didn't seem to hear me.
www.ruthieblacknaked.blogspot.co