Over the Labor Day weekend PBS ran a Downton Abbey marathon and, of course, a pledge drive. During one of the interruptions people were commenting on how the show strode for accuracy of the period in dress, manner and character. There are any number of groups who might well have slurred the show for reminding everyone women didn’t always have rights and other such things, but the show aired here on PBS where viewers are a bit more thoughtful and it made that struggle for rights a major focus of its first season. “Downton Abbey” truly is an example of what PBS was meant to be.
Do you as a writer strive for such a level of accuracy or do you gloss over the uglier parts? Are you willing to let the chips fall or are you trying too hard to be liked?
“The West Wing” made a career of challenging such things head on. You can follow the link to read the script but all you really need to know is the meeting was discussing the wording of the Constitution. This particular scene made a very good point that the wording of the Constitution most kids read in school today is the sanitized version. Mr. Willis was only on the show briefly, but his character was a treasure. A history teacher who taught the constitution to school kids having to step in and fill his wife’s seat until the election.
TOBY Mr. Willis teaches 8th grade social studies, and Mr. Willis knows very well what the article says. It says which shall be determined by adding the whole number of free persons. And three fifths of all other persons. Three fifths of all other persons. They meant you Mr. Willis. Didn't they? WILLIS Yes.
For whatever reason, the random thought patterns which make up my mind had me thinking back to a strange movie called “The Cement Garden.” It was added to a rental list when I felt like watching something experimental. I cannot say it is a movie worth the time of a general audience. If you happen to be a writer compelled to write about darker, baser taboo portions of the human condition it might be worth while, otherwise you can probably skip it. I call them experimental movies because the description doesn’t say much so I put them on the rental list as an experiment. Most experiments don’t succeed.
I never actually figured out what “period’ this was set in. I just know it was a time either before or right as I was a child. What makes me say that is I remember the urban legend quoted as fact when a mother is lecturing her son about wanking. Most of you are probably too young to remember it, but thankfully Dave Allen put it in a book.
Every time you do that to yourself you will lose two pints of blood.
No matter what period in human history you consider romantic, there will be a good many things which are either ugly or patently false. Even if you wish to gloss over the ugly portions you have to be very careful your romanticized thing isn’t a sanitized darker thing. There are so many such land mines in our history.
Think not? How many of you remember a thing called “the Maypole Dance?” As children we used to get streams of colored ribbon or paper and some adult tied it to high up on a post of some kind and we skipped and sang something until all of the streams were wrapped around the pole. I think we might have even did that at school one year during first or second grade.
I have not heard of children being told about the Maypole Dance in years. I suspect it had to do with World History class being added to many high school course schedules. In there older kids learned that during the rise of th Catholic church the Pope wanted to ease Pagan entry into/resistance of his religion so he glommed onto the Beltane Festival and sanitized it.
Times change. Cultures evolve. History remains constant until it is erased and once it is erased it is destined to be repeated. “Downton Abbey” had phenom writing and even better acting. It truly is a masterpiece of drama. May it also serve as a record of history so we can avoid repeating many of the things it covered.