Artistic License or Outright Lies
I watched the first episode of “Salem” Sunday night and wanted to share some thoughts. My latest book, “Pure Lies,” is an alternative history of the Salem witch trials. Unlike the WGN mini-series, however, it truly is based on real events. I’ve devised an alternative explanation for the “afflicted” girls’ delusions.
Historians have suggested a number of reasons for the girls’ behavior from fungus in the grain they ate to simple boredom. I came up with a new possibility. (Sorry, you’ll have to read it to find out.) But the television program went far beyond any reasonable solutions in creating an alternate history. They completely revamped history.
Let’s start with the setting. Salem Village was tiny, not the busy enclave with shops and big houses they portrayed. (The set was staged in Shreveport, Louisiana, by the way, nowhere near Salem, Massachusetts, but okay, what the heck?) Salem houses were small and very simple; windows were rare and made out of blown mullioned glass. Plus, Puritans were extremely religious and yes, puritan. So did they really have a whorehouse in town? Egad.
Yes, some of the characters they portrayed did, indeed, live during that time and place. But many were fictitious. Even the characters based on real history were in fictitious situations ie: Cotton Mather (who played no significant role in the real Salem story) caught with a prostitute? I know, I know, the whole series is based on the fantasy that witches were real with devilish powers, so what am I going on about? It’s fantasy. Still, it bugs me that producers can take a very real and very fascinating period of history and turn it into Hollywood.
Don’t get me wrong. I love “Grimm,” “Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Hunger Games.” These are all fantasies and you can get lost in them. But they’re not, and don’t pretend to be, based on real events in history. That’s the problem with “Salem” for me. Since I know so much about the real history, I get distracted and, frankly, annoyed, at the ridiculous plot and silly character machinations.
Maybe I’m just one of those righteous history geeks and hate to see the essence of the truth completely destroyed. When I was a kid I remember watching a Disney cartoon about hippos dancing underwater. Even as a kid, I somehow knew that hippos didn’t dance in real life. But I did not know, until I was much older, that they didn’t, couldn’t, live underwater. How much does this fake history teach our children?
Yikes. Does anyone else agree?
Puritanical they may have been, but you can’t keep a good doxy down. The oldest profession and all that. I haven’t seen the program. I assume it hasn’t reached us yet on the eastern side of the pond. Your book sounds interesting. Is it available? Why no clickable link in your article?
Thanks for your interest, JJ. Pure Lies is in a contest right now, so I’m waiting before I move forward with publishing. Also thinking of going traditional route (maybe) but in any event, it won’t be out for a while. In the meantime, keep watch! Lynne
I’m with you. Walking the streets of Salem. Walking the town of Plymouth. Knowing the history of those years. The appearance of impropriety got you the Scarlet Letter! A little bit insulting to the real history. Just the scenes where they show people kissing in public. The dress spans 150 year period. They could have made it scary an interesting without violating history.
Thanks, Mary, for reading and replying!
I totally agree, Lynne! These types of people set their fantasy story in a historical setting, violating all historical facts, and then try to excuse their attempt at rewriting history by saying, “It’s just fiction.” Yes, it’s just fiction, but since so many people will never read the real story, they will buy this nonsense as historical fact. And I would venture to say that the author(s) of this warped story are doing this deliberately.
I love people who totally agree with me! Thanks, Dave.
If you think they would believe this as fact because they would not READ the actual history of what happened, then what makes you think they would READ this?
Maybe you should make a YouTube video and TELL them the truth. Perhaps they would watch that and believe it. Who knows??
As for the war of northern aggression, what’s your point? It REALLY did happen you know. Lots of dead folks around to prove it. Just because the North had more funding, equipment, and drafted soldiers. Is the ONLY reason they won. You probably believe that BS about it being about slavery, lime most of the weak minded do. But then why wouldn’t you? It IS written in the history books after all.
Since I went to public school I have SEEN the “history books” change many times over. When I was a boy the BOOKS said that Columbus was a HERO! As was George Armstrong Custard. Not to mention George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and all those other people they say today were greedy slave owning old fat white men!
History books seem to leave out that ALL the slaves sold here were actually captured by their fellow Africans! Not to mention that Africa is the ONLY continent on earth where slavery is STILL LEGAL!
Books are just that, books. They have no more accuracy than the person writing them. Sort of like TV shows!
Still, I agree with what you wrote and I did enjoy reading it. History WILL always be repeated because people do not have anything to LEARN from that is accurately recorded.
Maybe you should write a book about it. You can put in the part about how JFK was a beloved President! You know, another lie! He ONLY became loved after he was dead!
Good luck to you pal. Happy reading. :0)
Thanks, Gary, for your insight, albeit cynical!
Right you are, Lynne. Whorehouses, indeed. Most people were farmers in those days,unless they were preachers, and nobody got out of line. Rebecca Nurse was an ancestor of mine. I wrote a short story a couple of years ago about the witch trials that appeared in an MWA anthology. It’s as real as I could make it, and it’s up on my website if you want to check it out: http://www.kategallison.com/spectral.htm
Thanks so much, Kate. I’m excited to find a descendant of one of the key Salem players . . . and Rebecca Nurse! I’m heading to your website right now!
The thing I like about history is that most of it is lies. According to history, the good guy/gal always wins. They win because they’re the one left to write the history of those events. As for the Puritans, they didn’t sail from England to America to escape persecution, they sailed from England because the law didn’t permit them to persecute enough all those that disagreed with them.
So keep on seeking and revealing the truth, its out their somewhere, buried beneath a load of ‘history’.
You mean like the south won the Civil War, oops, the War of Northern Aggression? Good points, Peter!
For one thing, the Puritans did not sail from England to America. They went Holland first, escaping with their lives (and forced leave behind their wives and children). I can agree with you that some history is colored black and white, and shades of gray are ignored, but to portray the Puritans as being aggressors and persecutors is about as far from the truth as you can get.
Dave, I assume you are referring to Peter Rogers’ comments? Lynne
I watched this show and thought the same thing, particularly about the brothels. What would brothels be doing in a small puritanical village? However, after digging a bit further, I think the show’s writers might be more aware of history than you think.
Here’s a good article on brothels in Colonial america. It seems like they were quite common, and rarely punished. Salem is also near the coast, so it’s not totally unthinkable that they might have a brothel.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2009/03/were_there_sex_shops_in_the_time_of_george_washington.html
Further, I think they may have intentionally twisted the roles around. The historical Cotton Mather actually tried to get brothels banned in Boston, but was largely ignored.
Increase Mather, in the show, is shown as draconian, sadistic witch hunter obsessed with rooting out evil by any means necessary. Historically, he was actually the voice of reason and calm whose famous quote “It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that one Innocent Person should be Condemned.” presaged the presumption of innocence in criminal trials.
In the show they reversed his quote to “Do you not see, when hunting witches, far better a hundred innocents die than a single solitary witch walks free!” I think this indicates they intentionally playing with history, not simply doing things out of laziness or ignorance.
Also, Salem was not a tiny remote town by colonial standards. In fact, it was considered a prosperous trade port, at least according to tulane university: http://www.tulane.edu/~salem/Salem%20and%20Village.html
That being said, the show is obviously intended to be a horror show, in the vain of True Blood, American Horror Story or Penny Dreadful. It’s about sex, violence, blood, gore and duplicity. I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with historical fantasy/romance, and people have been doing it for ages.
You make some interesting points, John Doe. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I will definitely check your links.