Talk:The Swoop!

Writer
The writer Carrionluggage had the book removed from the regularly accessible children's reading stacks of the Menlo Park (CA) library in 1975 and put under lock and key in the back. It could be damaging to black children. Of course, historically, racist humor is worth looking at, as history, but the book does not belong with children's amusements. Carrionluggage 23:12, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I would agree with Carrionluggage on this, the book is rather racist; however, I'm not sure his paragraph is entirely accurate - from a brief skim through of the text (I've not read it fully in years I'm afraid), I see no mention of Vikings, and most of the other invaders are also rather crudely stereotyped. The "Africans" he refers to, who are indeed the most unpleasantly treated, are described as being from a "distant isle", and seem to combine contemporary stereotypes of Native Americans, islanders of the Southern Pacific as well as sub-Saharan Africans, while other African nations are also amongst the invaders; the Morrocans are implied to be thieves and conmen, while the Muslim party from Somaliland are led by the "Mad Mullah". The European nations receive much milder satire, and Wodehouse seems to be at least slightly aware of the pervasive racism of his era from the following passage:

"After the fashion of the moment, the Russian and German generals decided to draw the Colour Line. That meant that the troops of China, Somaliland, Bollygolla, as well as Raisuli and the Young Turks, were ruled out." (my italics)

Hopefully I'll get a chance to reread the book fully sometime soon, in which case I may tweak the paragraph slightly, unless someone else is in a better position to do so... JohnnyZen 12:10, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

I removed this paragraph from the article
As with much literature of the period (such as the novels of John Buchan), the book has been criticised for racism; it is considered unsuitable for a youthful audience, and has in some cases been withdrawn from general availability in public libraries. The early part of the story displays an infantile racism typical for the time, with almost all the invading nations subjected to crude stereotyping. This varies in severity considerably - the Young Turks are depicted as playful student types, the invaders from Monaco are keen gamblers, constantly suggesting card games or other games of chance, and the Chinese are scholarly and flawlessly polite but utterly incomprehensible; meanwhile the group from Somaliland are headed by a "Mad Mullah" (a reference to Somali leader Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, but here mad in a very Wodehousian, I-think-I'm-a-teapot way), and the Morrocans are thieving brigands led by Raisuli (the character played by Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion). Most offensively, the force from the (fictitious) "distant isle of Bollygolla" are depicted as dark-skinned savages with poor table manners, and combine aspects of the period's racial archetypes usually applied to Native Americans (particularly scalping) with those associated with inhabitants of the Pacific Islands and Sub-Saharan Africa; on their arrival, they are mistaken for an attempt by theatrical producer Charles Frohman to revive the then almost defunct and now generally reprobated practice of blackface minstrelsy.

The first sentence is unsourced, and the rest seems rather POV. Is Wodehouse being offensively racist, or mocking the racism of contemporary thrillers? I haven't read the book, but based on this description, it seems like the latter. Akiyama (talk) 18:31, 7 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I added this para in response to comments from Carrionluggage (above) - also the only source for the info about being removed from public library shelves. I'd certainly agree on rereading that it's not very NPOV, and also that Wodehouse was probably also satirising rather than being offensive (although there's a whole can of worms about meaning to offend versus taking offense). I'll try to find some more concrete info in the bios etc over the holidays... JohnnyZen (talk) 10:22, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * You might start with Benny Green's P G Wodehouse: A Literary Biography, pp 44-51, or Robert McCrum's P G Wodehouse: A Life, pp 86-8. Green in particular spells out in great detail just how The Swoop! relates to the fashion for invasion literature at that time.


 * As for Wodehouse "probably" satirising, there's no doubt about it, as a quick skim through the book will confirm. He manages to poke fun at just about everybody (including, in his short foreword, himself).


 * I hope, in a day or two, to have completed a thorough rewrite of this article, which is at present little more than a stub. Jimmy Pitt (talk) 23:33, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou, Jimmy Pitt!
The article is much improved! Akiyama (talk) 01:37, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

1st edition cover image
The image shows the book being repriced from 1/- to 1/6, a 6d. (or 50%) increase.

Is there a story there? Was it ever issued at a one-shilling price? 99.237.143.219 (talk) 04:08, 12 May 2013 (UTC)