'Twas ever thus.

Apparently there are people up in arms because in a new book "Go Set a Watchman", Atticus Finch, the hero of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is revealed as a racist bigot.  For many it seems this is beyond belief.  As one tweeter put it, it is like "Spielberg doing a sequel in which ET punches Eliot in the face and steals his lunch money."  And yet as I understand it, Watchman was written BEFORE Mockingbird, even though it's been published decades after.  So will the real Atticus Finch please stand up?  I wonder if The Simpsons will do a take on this - I seem to remember he was a hero to Lisa. It does seem a bit strange to set a man up on a pedestal and allow him to remain there for years, only to then knock him down - together with the beliefs and dreams of a generation of young people - mainly I suspect, girls.  There have been suggestions that the book is being published against the wishes of Harper Lee, the author, and it would be interesting to know how she feels about all this, but she is old and reputedly infirm and in any case was always somewhat of a recluse, so we'll probably never know.