Talk:Sixth Column
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[edit] POV
This article needs NPOV revision - at the moment, there is a strong element of defending the book against charges of racism The Anome
From the article:
- However, any hatred directed at the invaders seems to be a response to their activities rather than their race. For example, they crushed an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment. Also, in the end, Major Ardmore permits the invaders all to return to their home overseas without retribution -- hardly the act of a racist. It's more likely that the Pan-Asians are the racists, based on their justification of enslaving subject nations of their empire.
This is an argument defending characters in a book against racism - not sure how this plays in the NPOV stakes.
I (clarka) pulled this paragraph because it's untrue. Heinlein did his homework on Asiatic cultures and pulled together strong common themes.
- Although the Panasian invaders are specified in the novel as not being Japanese, some of their characteristics are bound to provoke just such an association, particularly to readers in the World War II era. The book emphasizes the idea of "face" among the colonial forces and their resort to "honorable suicide" after losing face; the use of brush writing; the elimination of the written native language in the occupied territory, as Japan did when it colonized Korea from 1910-1945; and so on.
[edit] Date of publication
The Robert A. Heinlein article claims the publication date of this novel is 1949, however this article says 1948. Obviously these two references need to be consistified by someone who knows. -- Ellmist
- My paperback copy says: "Copyright © 1949 by Robert A. Heinlein. Reprinted from Astounding Science Fiction, © 1941 by Street and Smith Publications Inc." --Brion 06:06 Mar 31, 2003 (UTC)
[edit] Fifth Column
Is the title an allusion to Fifth Column (disambiguation)?
Yes, it is such an allusion. The idea is of these characters as a response to them, I think.
I know of an off-site review of this page at http://srehn.com/books/rh_sixthcolumn.html but I feel it would be dishonest for me to link to it because it's on my site.
If anybody else feels it's appropriate to put that link there, do so, but I won't.
- Self-published reviews like that generally aren't linked from Wikipedia. If you ever get it published somewhere besides your own web site, feel free to bring it up again. IPSOS (talk) 04:09, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Racist Text Edits?
I don't have access to my copies of the book, but I've been discussing it with friends, and I suspect that some of the most racist text may have been removed from later editions (just as later editions of The Story of Doctor Dolittle are universally expurgated).
Specifically, after Japanese-American Frank Mitsui is coagulated to death while saving the heroes from the mad Calhoun, one of them says as a tribute: "He may have been a yellow man, but he was white inside".
That line is apparently missing from later editions. I realize that this is original research, and therefore shouldn't be added to the main article, but it's a point that I thought deserves some future examination.
It also has always struck me as an (unintentionally?) macabre line, since the coagulated Mitsui was (in my recollection) compared to a hard-boiled egg - which is, of course, white inside (albeit with a yellow center). PMaranci 14:54, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
- But any future examination will need references, so someone would need to find an original edition. — Val42 04:09, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
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- Actually, wouldn't looking it up in the original edition be considered original research? To discuss a work of art, wouldn't we need to reference secondary sources instead of the work itself? Applejuicefool (talk) 20:31, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
