if i'm not careful, i might learn something.
4.1 miles.
Linda and I were discussing the opening of Beloved this weekend and she thinks it's going to do big business. I said, "Linda, it's a 3 hour movie about slavery." Of course, there is the Oprah factor, I guess.
Today on the first installment of Talk of the Nation the topic was slavery, inspired by the upcoming PBS documentary about the history of slavery. I don't know if they discussed Beloved at all.
I did manage to hear one caller who was outraged by the fact that there's more interest in this country in the Holocaust or in the Japanese internment than in the period of slavery and its ramifications in our history. Ray Suarez rather neatly pointed out that survivors of the Holocaust and people who were in the internment camps are still around us and can testify to things that happened in their lifetime.
The woman was very exercised, however, that Schindler's List was a big hit and stories and movies about slavery--such Spielberg's Amistad--disappear without a trace. In fact, she went out about the Jews so much I wondered if the disparity between interest in these two events isn't a tenet of the famed problems between blacks and Jews in this country.
(Then, of course, someone writes in and talks about his ancestors were dying of starvation in Ireland while slaves were sharecropping--presumably with full bellies--and we should just get over wrongs done to people long dead. Now, I'm all for remembering the past, but...I don't think you can compare the Irish/English conflict with slavery. They're different experiences, okay?)
The PBS documentary evidently goes over the entire history of slavery, from its origins in Africa to its various practices in the US, using actors reading documents from historical figures, reenactments, and photos (kind of like The Civil War.) It sounds really interesting, and if you're interested, it starts October 19 on a PBS station near you. There will be a quiz.
This morning, after my run, I went back to bed, even though I wasn't terribly tired. I thought I'd wait around for Darin to wake up, if you know what I mean.
Next thing I know, it's 11am. And the only reason I got out of bed was I figured I had slept long enough--I could have easily gone straight back to sleep. Hmm.
Darin had been at work for quite some time, of course.
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Copyright 1998 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com