Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Wed, May 09 2007
Sioux nation or General Custer: Are those the only choices available?
Time Warner Inc. CEO Richard Parsons is quoted as seeing new media as General Custer and traditional media as the Sioux nation. If we were to carry the analogy a bit further, who would be Ulysses S. Grant, who first backed the military's actions and then followed up after Custer's death by dismissing the general as a foolhardy renegade? And who would Mr. Parsons cast as the general's devoted widow, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, who spent the rest of her life defending the man she loved in the face of public ridicule? Who would be seen as Sitting Bull, who took his family and a few followers into Canada when things didn't get any better for them after the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Mr. Parsons made an interesting analogy, but he raised, for me, a lot more questions about why he would use that particular historical clash in order to make his point.
This whole thing makes me consider the soap opera-like possibilities of other historical personal and political clashes. It seems that the further we get from a previous generation's foibles the more we tend to forget details of the history and the more we tend to identify with the legendary aspects of the telling. And the more we hear legend, the more we tend to forget that great themes repeat themselves in both real life and in storytelling. Whether this human tendency changes the course of our own generation's future may depend upon our willingness to challenge the very nature of legend itself.
posted at: 10:40 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
Time Warner Inc. CEO Richard Parsons is quoted as seeing new media as General Custer and traditional media as the Sioux nation. If we were to carry the analogy a bit further, who would be Ulysses S. Grant, who first backed the military's actions and then followed up after Custer's death by dismissing the general as a foolhardy renegade? And who would Mr. Parsons cast as the general's devoted widow, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, who spent the rest of her life defending the man she loved in the face of public ridicule? Who would be seen as Sitting Bull, who took his family and a few followers into Canada when things didn't get any better for them after the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Mr. Parsons made an interesting analogy, but he raised, for me, a lot more questions about why he would use that particular historical clash in order to make his point.
This whole thing makes me consider the soap opera-like possibilities of other historical personal and political clashes. It seems that the further we get from a previous generation's foibles the more we tend to forget details of the history and the more we tend to identify with the legendary aspects of the telling. And the more we hear legend, the more we tend to forget that great themes repeat themselves in both real life and in storytelling. Whether this human tendency changes the course of our own generation's future may depend upon our willingness to challenge the very nature of legend itself.
posted at: 10:40 | category: /Writing Life | link to this entry
