Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
But I'd like to raise a tangential question. Do people think "popular" history as this obviously is, is valuable? Or are there inherent flaws which invalidate it? I myself see no reason why a history shouldn't focus on the human aspect of a story and after that, it's an issue of execution and balance. But that's no different from any history, where the very concept of "revisionism" attests to changes in attitude and interpretations - and sometimes I think out of sheer contrarianism.
It's a pity that Moore resorted to fictionalizations which undermined the factual aspects of her narrative, especially since she had both the resources and the ability to make them unnecessary. But that said, is there a compelling reason why a particular narrative shouldn't focus on the personal, as opposed to the corporate or legal?
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I agree. Many times other peoples misfortunes in the abstract do not have an emotional impact on us, where the suffering of an identified person will move us.
Erich Maria Remarque said in Der Schwarze Obelisk (The Black Obelisk):
"It’s strange, I think, all of us have seen so many dead in the war and we know that over two million of us fell uselessly—why, then, are we so excited about a single man, when we have practically forgotten the two million already? But probably the reason is that one dead man is death—and two million are only a statistic."
It becomes real when it's personal.
I remember in 2015 there was considerable debate in Canada over the question of accepting Syrian refugees. After the publication of pictures of Alan Kurdi's body on a beach in Turkey, his aunt Tima Kurdi, living in Vancouver, was interviewed and her stories helped make him a real person to many people. It became an issue in the federal election that fall. I don't think that would have happened just on the abstract knowledge that millions of Syrians were refugees.
For the same reason, many fundraising appeals try to tell a story about a named individual, describing the problems that person is facing.
I also agree with you about the dangers of fictionalizing.