Virginia Woolf’s ‘unacceptable views’ explained via QR code on her statue

[SerendipityJane]

Must watch Orlando again sometime soon

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/25/virginia-woolfs-unacceptable-views-explained-to-the-public

This seems like a good idea if it's done well. Explain historical figures in the context of the times they lived in and their contributions to society both good and bad. Better than vandalising or tearing down every statue and hopefully more educating.

And many of her views would be considered unacceptable today. The Bloomsbury Group in general tended towards anti-Semitism and were also supports of eugenics. She remains an important and BRILLIANT writer though. So a big fan of contextualising rather than removing where appropriate. It's seen as best practice for many museum exhibits for example.

Her views are not wholly anti-semitic, though, and her biographer Hermione Lee has tried to unpick this in as fair and unbalanced a way as possible. Of course there are some unconscionable representations of Jewish people. The short story 'The Duchess and the Jeweller' is amongst the worst: full of the expected, unpleasant stereotypes. Elsewhere there are affectionate portraits of Jewish people. And then, of course, there was the suicide pact between her and Leonard, as they were on the Nazis' hit-list should they ever have invaded Britain.

The eugenics question is also fair: it permeated everywhere including Labour and the Fabians. D H Lawrence wrote some deeply worrying stuff, and the views of the likes of T S Eliot and Wyndham Lewis are also questionable.

As long as the QR code achieves this balance and sets it in context, along with other authors of the same ilk, I think the idea is fair enough. If all questionable politics within the modernist canon were erased, it would be left extremely thin.

@SerafinasGoose wholeheartedly agree. I'm currently teaching Milton to my Year 12s. I mention often how I disagree with Milton on many things, he wouldn't have liked me very much but gosh Paradise Lost is a pleasure to write about, discuss and analysis (they also do Mrs Dalloway with their other teacher as it happens).

As long as the QR code

We could have a sweepstakes on how long before some wag replaces it with one that takes you to a slightly different site. I'm not a big fan of people crowbarring technology they don't really understand themselves into a world where 12 years olds do.

But I digress.

Lucky you! It's a wonderful epic; other than Dante just about my all-time favourite.

I've heard of QR codes being replaced and people scanning them having their bank accounts emptied. I admit I don't know much about them. I expect the risk at the moment is small and more likely when you're expecting to process a payment

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/qr-codes-whats-real-risk

It's just a shorthand link. That can link to anywhere ... need I say more ?

They are a good idea in principle. But they are extremely vulnerable to scammers and pranksters and other people who may have what is best described as "ill intent".

I'd like to know who gets to decide which cultural items need QR codes, and what counts as an "unacceptable" view, and who gets to write the explanations of their wrongthink.

Archived version of article

As well as the security issues pointed out by PP, I don’t think a QR code link is going to get beyond “this person thought/said/wrote these things that now we know are Bad; they did this because in those days people did not think it was Bad; even though they did the Bad Thing we do not have to cancel them forever because they did not mean to be Bad & there was no social media to re-educate them on”. Or, y’know, roughly that level of detail & sophistication. Actual analysis of how an individual’s [expressed] thought/beliefs & body of work sit within their socio-cultural context is of course valuable; but is the stuff of articles, books & perhaps full-scale exhibitions that allow for expansion on the topic. Not a wee tag on a random statue with analysis my cats could do.