I agree with Alison - Kipling is a problematic writer, but an essential
one. I can't get far with his poems - though I do like the ones that I
somehow know by heart:
The eathen in his blindness
ends up where e began
but the glory of the army
is the NON COMMISSIONED MAN
Worrying about Kipling's politics is what a good reader must always do
(it's what any good writer would want) but there's nothing that is
Theoretically interesting about Kipling's case - most artists, especially
the old ones, turn out to have horrible opinions. The problem referred to
above is, as best as I can define it, something to do with a highly
deviant aesthetic. I've had a recent stab at writing about Kipling's prose
here: http://www.geocities.com/mpeverett/selhist2b.htm
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