The colorized book doesn't really have anything super unusual. What's most unusual about it is the way it depicts the town.
The town history is refreshingly honest:
Clarksdale was incorporated in the 1700s, there was an iron foundry that created metal products and ammunition used in the Revolutionary War. At one point there was a bloody clash between rebels and Tories that resulted in the tragic loss of innocent life as the civilian members of two Tory families were killed.
The history goes on to explain the discrimination in the town and the efforts of the civil rights movement in the 1950s.
The town is flawed. The town is normal in having a flawed history. Some books gloss over the bad points of a place's history but some modern history books try to be honest and unflinching. Certainly a modern history book could gloss over the worst parts, but a book that doesn't can only potentially exist in the normal modern world, not the brushed over world of a sitcom.
The black and white book, a history of Darlington, is super rosy. It depicts the town as unflinchingly noble and rebellious against the monarchy during the Revolutionary War. There is no mention of bloody clash against Tories and the resulting loss of life.
There is no mention of a civil rights movement that had to fight against injustice in the town and in fact goes on to state that people of all types were always accepted. Everything is neat and tidy and devoid of any cultural criticism or implication anything was ever wrong there.
This could just be the result of normal historical erasure - but given the town name is different, it's also a possible attempted assertion of a painless, flawless reality.
Where he looks in the newspaper room, Merton will see the only article in color already on a counter top.
The article - an unflinching local editorial critical of a proxy war being raged - discusses rising tension in a country called Addeh Katir, where a man named Zaher Bey has been leading a violent resistance against the foreign powers fighting there there with a group insistent on being considered pirates rather than terrorists.
The article asserts that the foreign forces have been disrupting the region and points out all the civilian deaths of the Katiris, as well as the fact that all Katiri resistance has been internal, and only against military targets. Tensions between different countries - all vying for control of the region's oil deposits - has the editorial writer concerned about the potential for the conflict to erupt beyond the local conflict, especially because of rumors of use of agents like nerve gas.
The writer fears the possibility of the war spreading into a third World War.
The article was written for the Clarksdale Gazette and there is a note written on it, like someone was researching this before them, but was forced to run without what they'd collected. The note says:
Darlington = Clarksdale, NJ Clarksdale + Katiri War = the Clarksdale of our world!!!
no subject
The town history is refreshingly honest:
Clarksdale was incorporated in the 1700s, there was an iron foundry that created metal products and ammunition used in the Revolutionary War. At one point there was a bloody clash between rebels and Tories that resulted in the tragic loss of innocent life as the civilian members of two Tory families were killed.
The history goes on to explain the discrimination in the town and the efforts of the civil rights movement in the 1950s.
The town is flawed. The town is normal in having a flawed history. Some books gloss over the bad points of a place's history but some modern history books try to be honest and unflinching. Certainly a modern history book could gloss over the worst parts, but a book that doesn't can only potentially exist in the normal modern world, not the brushed over world of a sitcom.
The black and white book, a history of Darlington, is super rosy. It depicts the town as unflinchingly noble and rebellious against the monarchy during the Revolutionary War. There is no mention of bloody clash against Tories and the resulting loss of life.
There is no mention of a civil rights movement that had to fight against injustice in the town and in fact goes on to state that people of all types were always accepted. Everything is neat and tidy and devoid of any cultural criticism or implication anything was ever wrong there.
This could just be the result of normal historical erasure - but given the town name is different, it's also a possible attempted assertion of a painless, flawless reality.
Where he looks in the newspaper room, Merton will see the only article in color already on a counter top.
The article - an unflinching local editorial critical of a proxy war being raged - discusses rising tension in a country called Addeh Katir, where a man named Zaher Bey has been leading a violent resistance against the foreign powers fighting there there with a group insistent on being considered pirates rather than terrorists.
The article asserts that the foreign forces have been disrupting the region and points out all the civilian deaths of the Katiris, as well as the fact that all Katiri resistance has been internal, and only against military targets. Tensions between different countries - all vying for control of the region's oil deposits - has the editorial writer concerned about the potential for the conflict to erupt beyond the local conflict, especially because of rumors of use of agents like nerve gas.
The writer fears the possibility of the war spreading into a third World War.
The article was written for the Clarksdale Gazette and there is a note written on it, like someone was researching this before them, but was forced to run without what they'd collected. The note says:
Darlington = Clarksdale, NJ
Clarksdale + Katiri War = the Clarksdale of our world!!!