13 Comments
Apr 11Liked by Brent Hartinger

First email I've actually taken the time to read from anyone in forever. I 100% agree with the ideas and sentiment presented in your article, indeed I teach middle-school English in Australia and dedicate several lessons a year to discussing and accessing older texts and authors whose work is being re-written and opening dialogue with my class in regards to it. I firmly think a book is written and reflects the values of its time, ground-breaking novels becoming removed because they no-longer meet our current societal values and understandings is nothing short of a travesty and disservice to authors who completely went against things to get their work published. What we are viewing now is in essence a rewriting of history, which has the aim of making things easier for all, but actually runs the risk of erasing the struggles of minority groups and oppressed people of the past. Well meaning people, sometimes make mistakes. Rewriting books is one I will always fight against.

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Thanks!

Yeah, it is a rewriting of history, and also a denial of the whole concept of "perspective," which so important in education. I am surprised we have ended up in this place, and I'm surprised how quickly we got here. But perhaps the tide is starting to turn.

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It's easy to forget that as recently as 1974, a married woman (who was, of course, married to a man) couldn't open a checking account or get a credit card in her name without her husband's permission (he had to co-sign). I'm working right now on a novel that takes place in the late 1980s. One of the characters is a trans girl. Or that's how we'd refer to her today. The social, medical, and psychological view of the 1980s was different. I'm anticipating having to explain things in my front pages.

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I think it would be easier to get audiences to understand the credit card thing now because of MAD MEN and its zillions of imitators. I think it would be harder to get modern audiences to understood people at the time -- men and women -- supporting and arguing for that position, without them coming across as total ninnies and cartoons. But honestly, I'd like to try! I'd like to see that, as in MRS. AMERICA.

The transgender thing is interesting, because transgender folks definitely of *themselves* has changed so dramatically since the 1980s. I recall a lecture by Kate Bornstein saying that she she herself "between" genders, neither man nor woman (she was and is no non-binary), and I know she came in for a lot of shit for that (and has since revised her self-definition somewhat). The question is, can you be faithful to the time period without offending people in the present? I mean, hey, we all gotta eat. But OTOH, I do think being accurate is also really, really important. Good luck!

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Mar 1Liked by Brent Hartinger

It's a great observation and reminds me of things that have also irked me in movies set in the past. It often feels lazy too, and as you said, misses out extra interesting layers and nuance of that time.

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I'm honestly never sure if it's laziness or just stupidity -- like the writer can't even IMAGINE that smart, in-some-ways-decent people at one time just saw things...differently. LOL

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Feb 28Liked by Brent Hartinger

Yes! It drives me bonkers when historical characters don't seem to be immersed in the actual mindset of their times, with the very real risks and prejudices and pressures and so forth. Which isn't to say they can't break new ground, but doing so shouldn't have this simplistic "of course" ease and inevitability.

The TV series "Hacks" addressed this more realistically, I think ... where a young comedy writer is teamed with a veteran female comedian who had to make the kinds of compromises you talked about. And they open each other's eyes as well as pointing out each other's stumbling blocks. While the older comedian is now, under the influence of the younger, willing to take new risks with the kind of material she wouldn't have been able to do 30 years ago, the show doesn't present it as "now she's seen the light" but more "this is what's possible now."

An excellent book about women in comedy--from Phyllis Diller/Moms Mabley/Lucille Ball/Elaine May up through the present day--is Yael Kohen's WE KILLED. It's an oral history, based on interviews with the performers and writers themselves, and you can really see how both comedy and women's rights evolved through the past 80 years.

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Oh, you're absolutely right about HACKS, and of course Jean Smart is always fantastic.

I know part of this is generational -- that it's really hard to imagine earlier times, and maybe it's especially hard to imagine the previous generation, because in many ways, the sensibilities are similar, so it can be very deceiving. Then again, if you're writing historical fiction, I think you have a responsibility to consider these days.

I have to look for this book. I see it's not at either of my libraries.

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Feb 28Liked by Brent Hartinger

I find that reading books from the time in question help with getting that period's mindset, vocabulary, etc.

As for Yael Kohen's book--yeah, I had to order it. I found it worth it, though; I've read it more than once!

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I think that's the only way to do it -- and interviews, if folks are still alive. Movies and TV too, if they're available in that time period, although (unlike books), I think that's more of an "idealized" version of reality.

It's always tough, though, because there is a tension between that sensibility-of-the-era, and also accessibility. Go too far in one direction, and modern audiences can't engage.

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Semi-tangentially: Did you ever see the two PBS series, "1900 House" and "Colonial House," in which ordinary people tried to live as in earlier periods of history? It was heartening to see that most people had difficulty resetting to some of the earlier mindsets around inequality, but occasionally someone would get into their power over women/minorities/indentured servants in a flash of creepiness. It was also fascinating to see people cope, in a very immediate and realistic way, with the totally different standards for cleanliness, and availability of food and other goods. Most of all, everyone was struck by the sheer amount of physical labor that people expended in the past, compared to our more sedentary lifestyles now. "Doing the laundry," for example, was a real athletic workout.

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Feb 28Liked by Brent Hartinger

What a terrific perspective! You've covered multiple aspects of this issue, and one I'd like to expound on is about how those who got out too far ahead of their audiences paid a terrible price. Pee Wee Herman comes to mind, and let's not forget how recently he was pilloried and discarded. Perhaps the truth is in how much like the past the present really is. The recent movie, Zone of Interest, demonstrates the grotesque, timeless capacity of people to see only what they want to see.

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Thank you! Yeah, you're exactly right about Pee Wee Herman. It's the story of Edward Scissorshands -- a novel talent is viewed skeptically but accepted...until he's not. And then there is hell to pay.

It does seem like humans are quite good at repeating the mistakes of the past.

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