So America: The story of us. Us? Well Americans obviously. I live in America right now and why make a generic title that can easily be used world wide. I exaggerate of course, the show is a detailed and sympathetic look at the history and culture of the native American Indian and how the people came to be in the position they are in. Well actually it isn’t. It is the story of how America came to be what it is today, made for the Americans of today. After two episodes it has mostly glossed over the native Americans. I think they helped out the whiteys from time to time with finding trails and such like, whilst occasionally getting in the way when “new” land was being discovered. Hmm.

That aside the series could be an exceptional and informative look at American history, and to a certain extent it is. But this is America, and there are few things America likes more than slapping itself on the back, and congratulating itself on a job well done. Hey why wait for someone else to do it if you can do it yourself, right?. So rather than just report the historical facts, whether right or wrong, every few minutes a celebratory figure head of some description, is rolled out to blab on about some particular facet of American people. Ordinarily in documentaries, using a few talking heads, scientists, researchers or whatever the context requires, provides extra weight to the facts. These people tend to know what they are talking about because this is their area of expertise. So tell me, what does Sheryl Crow (yes the “All I wanna do, is have some fun..” one), Martha Stewart, Sean “Puffy” Combs, and what appears to be just the head of Michael Douglas, (yes that Michael Douglas) know about American history that the rest of us don’t? Hey if a celebrity talks about it, it must be true right? So we get to the part about the workers digging out the Erie Canal and what happens? We get Sean “Puffy” er, “P Diddy” (or something so tedious I forget and have no urge to look up) Combs, talking about the strength of the American worker, and the attitude taken to achieve their goals. And you know this how Piffy? It’s your particular area of expertise because of?

Why, Why, Why? The facts tell a by far good enough story on their own, they don’t need the additional comments from “celebs”. Find a historian or something. This actually detracts from the programme rather than adds to it.

Unfortunately it is not the only thing about this show which slightly bothers me. What’s with the subtle historical rewrites? When we got to the part of the settlers fighting for their Independence it was a bit of the “Evil” Britain. But lets not forget where these people came from. They were not natives of the land living there for centuries and “discovered” by the British, harshly forced to live their evil way. No these were people who came from England, Ireland, and other neighbouring European countries. They wanted the benefit of the new land but not wanting to pay the appropriate tax to the King. That is fine wanting some Independence but lets not try pretend it was just or automatically deserved, and that these people were poor put upon natives. They were not. Compare and contrast that with how said settlers treated the people who actually were native to these lands. Check those facts again after gold was discovered on their lands.

This of course, leads me to another point which has been glossed over so far. Americans do seem to like their warfare. The Independence was born out of war. When Texas, which was largely Mexican land at the time, wanted Independence, the people went to war. When they wanted Native American land, they went to war. It even went to war with itself in the Civil war over the right of slavery although I’m not going to argue against that one. Even in the last 100 years the USA has been involved in  11 Wars. This point seems to be largely forgotten about but what does it matter when you have the head of Michael Douglas blabbing on about the spirit of Americans? Now I’m not trying to say all these wars should not have happened, or whether they are right or wrong, that’s an entirely different debate. The point is this is a part of the American history too but of course isn’t mentioned as a facet of the American character in the for example, hard work, is. Why gloss it over? Well it isn’t a very positive thing for the most part. On the other hand, what is wrong with admitting to some mistakes or errors of judgement? Both good and bad decisions make you the person that you are and the same principle applies to a country and its people. Coca Cola likes to forget that it as involved in some early sponsorship of the Nazi party. That is fair enough not wanting to draw attention to it but when asked about it (try this on one of the coca cola tours), it is denied it ever happened. They could easily say “Sure we did that, it was a bad move looking at how things panned out, but it is easy to cast judgement with the foresight of today. It was just a mistake the people of that time made which we can only apologise about now”. That doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. Embarrassing mistake sure, but that is what happened.

Now lets not get me wrong here. I like this country a lot and truth be told, which is why these points annoy me, I like American history whether it is considered right or wrong by todays standards or not. It is mostly all interesting to me. The story is a good one, why not just tell it? A part of this answer is a style choice, the way the American documentaries are put together. If we compare say American drama series to those of the UK, the UK can’t come anywhere close to shows like “The Sopranos”, “The Wire”, “Mad Men” and the like. On the other hand, documentaries, “The World at war”, “Planet Earth”, “Life”, the BBC Darwin series, the UK easily wins there. Although while we’re on the subject, what’s with Oprah Winfrey narrating “Life” in the USA? In the UK the voice over was was written and narrated by David Attenborough, a respected expert in the field. He even sounds like he knows what he is talking about and has a deep interest in it. He sounds like he belongs. Oprah, as good as she is in her field, sounds just like she is reading a script. Which indeed she is. David’s script! Just leave it be, see the above. No need to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done on that one.

So anyway, what rather tenuous link to writing do I have? Technical writings aside, whatever you write you need to put some of you in it. Something needs to show it is you, or rather that it is not just words. Read a signpost. Would you want to read something which is three pages of that i.e. tedious descriptive prose that doesn’t actually tell you much or something that actually engages your attention. The reader needs to engage it in some way, either follow it as they do not know exactly what is coming next, or if they do, be able to form some opinion about it, rather than say, just forget it. Now I’m not saying I’m perfect at that and it is something we all need to improve on from time to time, but look at the example above. This is a TV documentary (which was still written) and the same example applies. The historical facts are more than good enough to survive on their own. The historical facts are the personality. It is engaging enough. The non expert talking heads, well that just adds something to it that is unnecessary. It’s like writing a story then writing it from another perspective in case the reader cannot work it out on their own. The show is good and in my opinion would be excellent without it, were the head of Michael Douglas not pulling me out of the story all of the time. And I haven’t even mentioned the annoying Bank of America adverts, which kind of puts me off wanting a bank account there. Finding that balance in story is of course something for every writer (especially including myself), to strive for.

By Admin : @ http://www.adventureinwriting.net/