Writing Right with Dmitri: Bearing Witness
Created | Updated May 14, 2017
Writing Right with Dmitri: Bearing Witness
I met a remarkable woman the other evening. Dr Arlene Stein is a sociology professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She selflessly drove all the way up to the wilds of western Pennsylvania to give a talk as part of the annual Holocaust Day of Remembrance. After her talk, we had a chance to snap up her book, Reluctant Witnesses, a ground-breaking study of the way Holocaust survivors and their descendants (Dr Stein is one) dealt with the horrific past. I'm trying to get all the Post writing done so I can continue reading. She's done a wonderful job here, both as academic and as witness herself.
When I asked her to autograph my copy, Dr Stein wrote, 'Toward a better world!' on the flyleaf. That's pretty relevant to our discussion this month. How can remembering the past help us build a better world? And what part do writers play in all this? Let us count the ways.
Those who do not study the past, etc. Do you want those precious children and grandchildren of yours to be doomed to repeat the past? Of course you don't. Never mind all the bleating about 'the good old days'. You know better. But if they don't know what happened, they'll make the same mistakes. In her talk last night, Dr Stein drew significant parallels between earlier outbreaks of US Nativism – including the one in the 1920s that prevented so many European refugees from reaching a safe haven during the rise of fascism – and 21st-century phobias that are stranding refugees today. Teach them to say, 'Fool the past, shame on them. Fool me now, shame on me.'
People remember what they want to remember – unless you don't let them. Here's where writers come in. As humans rush headlong through their lives, looking for the next Twitter fix, they'll make up the past to suit their present needs. For almost a hundred years, most Americans accepted a version of slavery in the 'Old South' as a problematic1 but essentially halcyon era. I'm not making this up. Permitting people to 'misremember' like this is a sin. And it's our fault, if we are writers and don't tackle the issues. Do the research. Tell true stories. Don't let them get away with glossing over the past.
Eyewitnesses are vital. Sticking to the slavery story: most people today get their views of slavery's history from second- and third-hand sources. They either watch movies, heaven help us, or they read secondary literature like 'history books' (marginally better, if the historians are reputable and did their homework). But all the while, there are primary sources available. As Douglas Adams said about the Big Bang, 'Why not ask someone who was there?' In the 1930s, academic people in the US actually interviewed survivors of slavery. You can read their stories in Born in Slavery: The WPA Slave Narratives, by the Library of Congress. You are guaranteed to be surprised by what you find. This isn't what people want to think: it's what people say who lived through it.
There are more narratives out there. What are the stories in your neighbourhood? Coal mining? Orphan trains? Immigration/emigration/just plain migration? Wars, rumours of wars? Living with apartheid? Go find some survivors, hear their stories.
Telling the truth is not optional. Remember those movies? Forever, practically, filmmakers have been complicit in altering the present's perception of the past. Do not let them. A lot of people who saw Twelve Years a Slave were astounded by what they saw. Er, those of us who read the original book, written by the man this happened to? Not so much. Tell the truth, with all that is in you. Wait for Hollywood to catch up. They will, sooner or later. Sometimes sooner: remember Gentleman's Agreement?
Telling starts with listening. The reason more true stories are not told is because nobody was listening. As a writer, it's your job to listen first. Let people tell you what they know, what they've experienced. Encourage this. Withhold judgement. As Krishnamurti said, listen without praise or blame. Remember that he said, 'The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.' Listen neutrally, but with empathy and compassion. If you're not sure how to do this, go back and read Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally. Don't watch the movie. The movie tells you what to think. Read Keneally, and think about how he learned what he is telling. He wasn't there. He read, studied, and listened – to Poldek Pfefferberg in his shop in Los Angeles, to the survivors who would talk to him, to the messages hidden in the mouldy typescripts he found. He listened, then he wrote. With all his heart. And now the world has a new way to talk about the past, about survival, about individual responsibility and personal courage. Maybe even about the role of faith in human ethical choices.
You don't have to concentrate on the 'Big Picture'. My very first journalistic assignment (at age 14) was to interview junior high school teachers about their experience of 7 December, 1941 – the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was the 25th anniversary of the event. Note: don't ask kids to do this. I tried to interview my science teacher, and he looked hurt. It turns out he was all of 24. Alas, kids don't assess adult ages very well. Nor can they count back historically, which is the point. The teachers weren't really very forthcoming about Pearl Harbor. But you know what? I learned tons about history that year – from my piano teacher. She was born in the 1880s. She told me what it was like to be a three-year-old immigrant child among scary New York City's skyscrapers. She shared the songs they sang in her neighbourhood, the games they played, what they believed about the world around them.
If you have a big event, like a tsunami or a major war, by all means learn about it. But your stories about daily life? They'll add up. They'll give us, and the future, a picture of our past. A more accurate one than what we have now. Get out there and learn.
And of course, you know where to put all this priceless knowledge. Right here on the site. You know where it goes, in the Edited Guide or gmail to the h2g2 Post. When I was talking to Dr Stein about the stories I'd heard in my lifetime, she said, 'You have to write them down!' I replied that I did, on h2g2. Keep listening, you people, keep writing. What you do is important. You're bearing witness to the true history of the world. And it's the only way we can make it better.
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