The Real World and Other Nonsense

 

When you see the script was written by the JV squad...

After a questionable shooting, Federal Marshal Raylan Givens, (Timothy Olyphant) is reassigned from Miami to his childhood home of Harlan County, Kentucky. Further questionable shootings—and some first-rate writing—ensue. 

The Missus and I came late to the FX series, Justified. Based on Elmore Leonard’s neo-western/ crime fiction. As with the late-great author’s other work, Justified also addresses socio-economics, race, gender, and even generational poverty. The man made hard subjects easy to read. Sharp dialogue and wry humor helps the harder stuff along. 

And, mostly, the television series followed the model…for a while.

The early seasons benefited from proximity to the source material and from the maestro’s consultation. Unfortunately, the easy-reading stories and whip-crack smart dialogue in the early seasons are built on Leonard’s 50-plus-years of writing excellence. All of the above is gone by season four. Obviously, the television series writers found that it’s not as easy as it looks.

By season four, (premiered the year of Elmore Leonard’s death) the wear is showing. By season five, it was as if the show was written by poor relations. 

Season five, episode two, opens with Raylan, and fellow U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks, (Erica Tazel) arresting a neo-confederate cretin who persists in making racist comments. The cretin refers to a black man as a “boy,”—in front of two black women—before perpetuating a food stereotype to demean his housekeeper. Oh, the cretin also implies that the black women, (the one who isn’t a U.S. Marshal) is there for a transactional relationship. 

“Once you’ve shown that the character carries a stick, you don’t have to beat the reader over the head with it.” -Eric Miles Williamson, author and educator

So what's wrong with depicting a bad guy as a racist? It makes them especially bad, right? Sure, to a point. Then it's simply repleting hurtful crap and exploiting it for cheap writing.

It’s no secret that Kentucky is full of neo-confederates, (the state declared neutral during the actual conflict). 

I know, I know, McConnell was too old to serve then, too.

Nor is it a secret that some men (white, mostly) will reduce relationships (typically with non-white partners) to quid-pro-quo transactions in compensation for…petty issues.

Food culture as racial epithets are the least clever of all insults—not character accents, just backward, inbred, and outdated. 

Worse, when a black woman—perhaps the most maligned, denigrated demographic on earth—is relegated to a racist/misogynistic stereotype, it neither advances the story nor distinguishes the characters. It just hurts black women.

In the example cited from Justified S5 E2, Rachel, (also a black woman) does little more than shrug at the other woman’s mercenary apathy. 

No one expects (or wants) an ABC After School Special monologue. But tacit approval is still approval and it reeks of someone churning out a story, fast and thoughtless.

Cruelty is not what Terry trained us for.

If not clear by this point, it’s not the writers’ job to hurt people who are already hurting. Fiction has a divine purpose. Well, several divine purposes. 

Purists argue that the primary purpose of fiction is to entertain. Others argue fiction is the ultimate way to tell a dangerous or at least unpalatable truth. Still others propose that thoughtful, well-written fiction can elevate the reader above their experiences and circumstances.

As a life-long reader (repeatedly elevated) with an innate love of superheroes and knights, rocketeers and badmen,  I have seen all the purposes fiction serves. Mostly, I believe that our stories, our words, serve the purpose that the reader needs most. 

And fiction works best when rooted in the reality that we all spring from. That shared, bitter root (hungry, lonely, scared, etc) builds the human connection between writer and reader. However, fiction cannot EVER become a slave to reality. Or propped up on reality like a crutch.

When I read my work for the first time to a crit group, I had high hopes. In a lean, ten-page chapter, I took my protagonist-thief from the end of a brutal slog, through a car theft, to a dangerous fence, (buys/sells stolen goods) and then, cash in hand, to food and shelter—all while still struggling with the effects of a horrific beating. I concluded and the group sat in silence, clearly not familiar with crime stories from that side of the game. 

Finally, the group-leader, a respected writer and writing coach spoke, “Once he’s safe and secure in the bed, he should take it out and play with it.”

It was my turn for stunned silence. I mean, obvs, the crit-dude had never been on the receiving end of physical abuse. Nor had he suffered the elements for more than the distance from the store to the car. The last thing you’re thinking about when you still feel the lost fight—three days later—is sex, of any variety.

My face must’ve told the story, because the crit-group-coach guy said, “People masturbate in real life.”

Uh, yeah...

People also pick their nose, evacuate their bowels, and scratch their nethers. One would hope not all at the same time but I digress. The thing is, if none of those actions advance the story or elevate the characters.

Most importantly, if those actions aren’t a central focus of the story, (I don’t judge) none of those actions belong in the story. 

Pretty much like the perpetuation of racist/misogynist stereotypes. Elmore Leonard’s work deserves better. More importantly, the view deserves better. 

I own none of the photos above. All are used for educational/illustrational purposes as covered by the Fair Use Doctrine.