I read the fatalism this reviewer criticises to be a fair reaction to the decades of denial, cover-ups, and institutional support for the rape gangs. Why shouldn't the evil be mythologised since it is hard to see it ever being confronted?
It is entirely reasonable to be horrified by the crimes and the complete failure of the British state to respond to them. The mythologisation of atrocity historically has stirred, on entirely subjective grounds, both positive and negative reaction (you could think of both the Bastille and Holocaust as mythologised manifestations of evil). Like Hannah Arendt, the contributor's view is that a 'satanic' understanding of evil removes the very human agency underlying it and therefore diminishes our ability to hold perpetrators accountable. We do know why the Rape Gangs acted in the way they did, and we know what should be done.
If you mythologise this then you are lessening it’s gravity and horror and making the perpetrators unaccountable for their crimes, for the absolutely gross crimes that they are. What is shameful is that it excuses the the behaviour of these misogynistic Pakistani men who commit these abominable crimes and get away with it.
The notion that rape of a child is justified as racial reparations is probably the most disgusting thing I have heard so far this year.
Also during Bangladesh's independence war the Pakistani government had institutionalised rape camps and mullahs had issued a fatwa saying that Bengali women are property of the Pakistani state. So any Bangladeshi origin guys who are supporting the Pakistanis should be reminded of this fact.
Evil. But not inexplicable as it seems to be standard practice amongst the Murani lot. Even better, we then imported them by the hundreds of thousands.
I think this review misses the point. This is probably the first sectarian novel published in our current era of hardening ethnic identities and political polarisation. It is a novel for "us" as opposed to "them". It is the White British talking to each other about what has been done to them. When our government covers up grooming gangs and seeks to erase our identity, this novel is an act of resistance. As such we should cherish it and promote it. It is a significant waypoint in the emerging struggle against our tyrannical state.
I read the fatalism this reviewer criticises to be a fair reaction to the decades of denial, cover-ups, and institutional support for the rape gangs. Why shouldn't the evil be mythologised since it is hard to see it ever being confronted?
It is entirely reasonable to be horrified by the crimes and the complete failure of the British state to respond to them. The mythologisation of atrocity historically has stirred, on entirely subjective grounds, both positive and negative reaction (you could think of both the Bastille and Holocaust as mythologised manifestations of evil). Like Hannah Arendt, the contributor's view is that a 'satanic' understanding of evil removes the very human agency underlying it and therefore diminishes our ability to hold perpetrators accountable. We do know why the Rape Gangs acted in the way they did, and we know what should be done.
If you mythologise this then you are lessening it’s gravity and horror and making the perpetrators unaccountable for their crimes, for the absolutely gross crimes that they are. What is shameful is that it excuses the the behaviour of these misogynistic Pakistani men who commit these abominable crimes and get away with it.
The notion that rape of a child is justified as racial reparations is probably the most disgusting thing I have heard so far this year.
Also during Bangladesh's independence war the Pakistani government had institutionalised rape camps and mullahs had issued a fatwa saying that Bengali women are property of the Pakistani state. So any Bangladeshi origin guys who are supporting the Pakistanis should be reminded of this fact.
Evil. But not inexplicable as it seems to be standard practice amongst the Murani lot. Even better, we then imported them by the hundreds of thousands.
I think this review misses the point. This is probably the first sectarian novel published in our current era of hardening ethnic identities and political polarisation. It is a novel for "us" as opposed to "them". It is the White British talking to each other about what has been done to them. When our government covers up grooming gangs and seeks to erase our identity, this novel is an act of resistance. As such we should cherish it and promote it. It is a significant waypoint in the emerging struggle against our tyrannical state.
This feels like a misreading, I don't think the author was trying to be exculpatory