white women love to write about slavery

Aphra Behn had me really thinking how can I get upset tonight about white people enslaving a royal prince who doesn't care about white gods, white bullshit, and white slavery. Oroonoko is smart enough to know that he cannot trust the white people once he gets to Suriname.

It saddens me from the onset that his horny grandfather just had to take his promised lover Imoinda from him and then sell her into a life of slavery when he became jealous. His actions were simply petty and frivolous. Then, as a result, he pardons Oroonoko and lies to him about Imoinda being dead.

Behn is complicit in the racism she narrates about in the book. Being a part of the 17th century doesn't mean you still don't actively participate in the activities of your environment. Behn never condemns slavery once--she's simply disappointed and dismayed at the ways that someone of Oroonoko's status is being treated like a slave. A prince or royal shouldn't be living like a slave, but a commoner or savage is fine. The way she speaks of natives or Negroes in the books is just as equal to the way people speak of Blacks and immigrants in the US today. I see no difference. She is not a product of her environment. She is a racist and complicit in her environment.

This book was quite dry and boring in the first half of the book to be honest. It picked up for me in the last half of the book, but I read this in college in the early 2000s. I'm reading it now because I'm teaching it in college. My students were not so thrilled with the first half either so we shall see how the second half pans out.

I give this a 2.75-3.00 star rating.

first novel ever ??? written by the first professional woman writer??
simultaneously so ahead of its time while also being so backwards. very complicated politically