Once, when I was way too young, I saw the 1965 version of Agatha
Christie's famous 'Ten Little Indians.' I was probably about seven
or so, and my sister and I were spending our days at a babysitter's
house. I assume this was during the summer, because I think we would
get taken over there shortly after breakfast, but the truth is I
can't remember. My recollection of childhood is blurry like that.
The film is good, and while there's no blood shown, it's still a bit
darker than I would want a child to see. There are four versions of
the film, and even though the '65 incarnation isn't my favorite, it's
fun to watch. I have it on DVD, and when I watched it the other day
I wondered if they had released my favorite version on to DVD yet.
That's when I did a Google search.
I found out that they have released it, but when I looked at some of
the titles that were coming up as translated versions of the film,
and book, the names didn't make sense. I've picked up a bit of
Spanish over the years, and what I was reading under the Spanish and
other Romance language versions substituted a word for the color
black in the title. With a 'WTF' look on my face, I followed up.
It seems when the book was released it had a slightly different
title. I found a copy of the book in a library sometime during my
time in the Corps, and it had a title of 'And then there were none,'
which I recognized from a poem that is used in the book, so these
many years I've thought that was the title. But when Ms. Christie
sent her story out into the world back in 1939 the poem wasn't about
Indians, and the island it takes place on wasn't named Indian Island.
The original title was Ten Little N*****s. That's why the Spanish
version came up as Diez Negritos.
I was born and raised in Dallas, and spent time growing up in smaller
cities and some small towns. I know enough about the South to
connect with the pride that a person can feel in claiming it as where
their roots come from, but I do not feel that it will ever clean
itself from the taint of slavery. No matter what else happened, from
the culture, through the courage, to the full facts of who did or
didn't own slaves, the South has a permanent stain on it that comes
from stolen lives, shed blood, and the attitude that let people sip
their tea or whiskey while other human beings were getting
bullwhipped just up the road. There were people on both sides of the
Mason-Dixon line who saw it as an abomination, to be sure. But not
enough of them to prevent it or change it. The founding fathers of
this country didn't outlaw it when they put together either the
Articles of Confederation or later, the Constitution. They kicked
the can down the road, with results that are history.
I know that attitudes in the past were different. One of my favorite
writers, H.P. Lovecraft, and some of his contemporaries, had that
same attitude. The problem is that the attitude was based in
ignorance, the kind that lets an intelligent person see themselves as
'better' than other human beings, if not by divine providence, then
at least by inherent nature. If any of those writers had simply sat
down and put in the time to get to know these people that they were
dismissing so casually, they might have had one of those epiphanies
that make life so interesting.
That laxness comes at a price. How many young people who are black
have heard of Ms. Christie and picked up one of her books, and after
enjoying it, might have decided to find out more about this lady who
told such great stories? When they found out that one book's
original title, do you think they kept reading any further? When we
keep our ignorance out on the kitchen table where anyone who drops by
can see it, those visitors are going to stop listening to what we
have to say.
That's how this connects to writing. If you want someone besides
just the people who think exactly the way you think to hear your
voice, you damn well better be someone worth listening too. Good
points are valuable. Ignorance is cheap and plentiful, you can find
it on most radio and TV channels.
So with that in mind, back to writing.
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