Dave Wegner answers “Was Nevil Shute, author of 'A Town like...”

Lina asked this question about A Town Like Alice:

Was Nevil Shute, author of 'A Town like Alice' a racist, or was he just recording the attitudes of the time? I did not enjoy reading this book because of the disrespectful attitude towards the aborigines. There was not one positive thing mentioned about them as far as I could see, but so much glorification of the heroine and her man. Not my cup of tea.

Dave Wegner The book is racist and it isn't simply because it was written in 1950. In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' In that novel she fles…moreThe book is racist and it isn't simply because it was written in 1950. In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' In that novel she fleshed out Black characters like no one before her had done. In 1937 Zora Neale Hurston wrote 'Their Eyes Were Watching God,' in 1940 Richard Wright wrote 'Native Son,' in 1952 Ralph Ellison wrote 'Invisible Man.' All of these novels explored the concept of racial injustice and the impact that racism was having on the lives of complex, well developed Black characters. In 1950, one hundred years after Stowe's 'Uncle Tom,' and contemporaneously with Hurston's, Wright's and Ellison's writings (to name just a few), Nevil Shute wrote 'A Town Called Alice' and couldn't be bothered to flesh out a single Black character beyond the level of whatever racist tropes existed in Australia at the time. In his novel Shute accepted if not condoned racism wholly without comment, judgement or regret. In fact, in my view, the nonchalance with which it is depicted can only be described as tacit approval. At one point the characters are talking about how many people live in Willstown. "There's about 450 people living in Willstown. That's not counting boongs..." says Joe Harman, one of the main protagonists of the novel, without so much as a second thought. Oh, the apologists say, you have to judge this novel in the context of the times in which it was written, and not by today's more refined sensibilities. That argument ignores entirely the fact that in 1950 (and even before then) there were many many people condemning (as opposed to accepting) the rampant racism that existed at the time. Shute knew, or should have known, that racism was a social evil because other authors, good authors (see above), were actively telling him so, plenty of them. Nevertheless, Nevil Shute incorporated racism into his novel not as social commentary aimed at exposing a wrong, but because he didn't see an issue with it. It just was something to include...like the weather. This novel is not simply a product of the racism that was rampant at the time it was written, it is instead one of the reasons racism was rampant at the time. (less)

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A Town Like Alice

by Nevil Shute

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