Damn! I have to admit with varying degrees of shame, horror and surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed reading
The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. Never heard of it, you might think. Well, you'd be wrong. You have heard of it—at least in one of its incarnations. It's the novel upon which the movie
The Birth of a Nation was based. So how dare I enjoy such a racist piece of writing? I will grant it is racist. "One such man (a Confederate soldier) is worth more to this Nation than every negro that ever set his flat foot upon this continent!" (page 8) So what was there to like? I'll start with language. I love seeing how it changes. In the quoted sentence Nation is capitalized; negro is not? Apparently acceptable in 1905. And then what does that say about the importance of each word?
But what fascinated me most were descriptions of our government then when compared and/or contrasted to that of today.
1) About Lincoln: "Many a night he had paced back and forth in the telegraph office of the War Department, read its awful news of defeat, and alone sat down and cried over the list of the dead." (page 73) Doesn't Bush pride himself on retiring at ten? Has he ever acknowledged "news of defeat"?
2) A bit of complimentary dialogue: "You're a born politician. You're what I call a natural liar, just as a horse is a pacer, a dog a setter. You lie without effort, with an ease and grace that excels all art." (pages 92-93) And some things are remarkably the same.
3) The same character later says, "… because, in spite of all our beautiful lies, self is the centre of all human action." (page 97) A twofer in this quote: an example of changes in "correct" spelling and an insight into a timeless motive of human behavior.
4) After the Civil War: "Public opinion, however, had as yet no power of adjustment. It was an hour of lapse to tribal insanity. Things had gone wrong. … The Government could do anything as yet, and the people would applaud." (pages 103-104) After 9-11 as well?
5) Partisanship is/was alive and well. "The supremacy of our party's life is at stake. The man who dares palter with such a measure is a rebel, a traitor to his party and his people." (page 134) Oh, BTW, that was a Republican speaking. And later from the same character: "'The life of a political party, gentlemen,' he growled in conclusion, 'is maintained by a scheme of subterfuge in which the moral law cuts no figure. As your leader I know but one law—success.'" (page 143) Carl Rove dressed in funny clothes?
6) "She began to understand why the war, which had seemed to her a wicked, cruel, and causeless rebellion, was the one inevitable thing in our growth from a loose group of sovereign states to a United Nation." (page 149) Things that make me go hmmm.
7) The great manipulator is again speaking.
"But the Constitution—" broke in the chairman.
"There are higher laws than paper contracts." (page 160)
The more things change, etc.
8) And even more from him: "When we proclaim equality, social, political, and economic for the Negro, we mean always to enforce it in the South. The Negro will never be treated as an equal in the North." (page 182) Busing in Boston? This book was such fun to read.
The best (most fun) parts of the novel, however, ended about half way through. The formation of the Klan was racist, completely based on fear. But we can find comfort there. After all, we're an advanced and modern society. No one today would stoop to motivating by fear. Or would we? Just asking.
