But then again, even at the time it didn't miss me that the majority of fellow American tourists were perfectly happy with what they got handed, because it matched their expectations.
I had similar impressions in Ireland several years ago, though I met multiple Irish people who found non-Irish views of Ireland not only stifling but infuriating, quite understandably.
I'd agree with you about M/M fiction, too. I've been thinking about the natures of yaoi and of slash recently, due to rereading Legal Drug.
I should reread your whole post, though, and then try to formulate actual comments. One question, though, that I wondered: to what extent was antebellum Southern society oriented toward the kernel of upper-crust society that became the basis for the postwar myth of the Old South? To what extent, if any, were postwar Northern writers seeing what they had been conditioned to see? It's my (possibly completely mistaken) impression that a lot of the famous Southerners and pro-slavery advocates of the immediate prewar were at least well-to-do, and I wonder to what extent their acting as mouthpieces for the region shaped perceptions of the region outside the South.
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Date: 1 Dec 2009 03:26 am (UTC)I had similar impressions in Ireland several years ago, though I met multiple Irish people who found non-Irish views of Ireland not only stifling but infuriating, quite understandably.
I'd agree with you about M/M fiction, too. I've been thinking about the natures of yaoi and of slash recently, due to rereading Legal Drug.
I should reread your whole post, though, and then try to formulate actual comments. One question, though, that I wondered: to what extent was antebellum Southern society oriented toward the kernel of upper-crust society that became the basis for the postwar myth of the Old South? To what extent, if any, were postwar Northern writers seeing what they had been conditioned to see? It's my (possibly completely mistaken) impression that a lot of the famous Southerners and pro-slavery advocates of the immediate prewar were at least well-to-do, and I wonder to what extent their acting as mouthpieces for the region shaped perceptions of the region outside the South.