I've been reading Alex Haley's Roots for four weeks now (started April 12th), and I'm pretty close to the halfway point of this big (688 page) novel. It's a compelling book, for sure. It is also absolutely revolting at times. The description of Kunta Kinte's trip from Africa to America in the hold of a slave ship is sickening, and guaranteed to make anyone with even a tiny heart angry. I usually try to avoid spoilers, but I really have to this time out, so here are some of the details of that ordeal:
- The captured Africans are not given any way to relieve themselves, so bodily waste just falls where they lie chained. The slavers come in every once in a while to muck out the waste.
- Rats roam freely amongst the captives, biting them whenever they can.
- The men are brought up on deck to be "cleaned" off. On deck, they are scrubbed with rough brushes which open up their wounds and cause hideous pain to the men. The sea water they are then doused with burns their open wounds.
- The women are regularly raped by the crew.
It was hard to read this section of the book...hard to imagine that there could be human beings who would be so unrelentingly cruel to other human beings...human beings who have no hint of mercy in their souls.
I had never watched the tv mini-series based on this book. My friend Louis showed it to at least one of his classes every year, though. Which is quite an investment of time. The 8 part mini-series has a running time of 9 hours and 48 minutes (I'm trusting IMDb on that). So even with optimal, bell to bell conditions, that means it would take eleven class periods to show the series...over two weeks of classroom time. And anyone who has ever been in a classroom knows that you can't get 55 minutes of instruction time into a 55 minute class period, so I would guess that even going at it hard with no stops for discussion or anything, it would take a full three weeks to show the series. That's a very significant amount of classroom time. And most teachers are very conservative when it comes to spending classroom minutes, because there just aren't that many of them. (Three weeks of classroom time is about 10% of the entire school year.) So the fact that Louis, a Kentucky State Teacher of the Year, was willing to spend that time on Roots says something.
So I decided to watch the first episode, knowing that I was well clear of the subject matter it would cover so far as my reading progress went.
Well. Let's just say that I can't judge how powerful this would be if I hadn't read the book...maybe it would have blown me away...especially if I'd watched it when it came out in January of 1977, when things like this just weren't shown on tv.
But having read the book...it was more than disappointing to watch Part I. In fact, it made me mad. Really mad.
For one thing, the book spends a lot of time developing Kunta Kinte's life in Gambia...from birth through the early years of his manhood. That allows you to appreciate the complexity of what might appear to be a "primitive" civilization, and to appreciate the way that the Mandinkan people interact with each other, care for each other, and lead full, meaningful lives. The first 150 pages of the novel are focused on Kunta in his homeland. That's almost 22% of the book.
In the first episode of the tv series, a little over an hour in (69 minutes) and Kunta has left Africa behind. So in the tv series, only 12% of the entire time has Kunta in Gambia. That's a pretty substantial difference in and of itself, but it's worse than that, because whereas the novel focuses only on Kunta and his family, the tv series has several scenes focused on the captain of the slave ship. But it's worse than that.
Deep breath.
In the tv series, the writers...one of whom is Alex Haley...seem to go out of their way to create sympathy for the captain of the slave ship. Edward Asner plays this character. When he is first told that his cargo will be slaves he is obviously upset about this--he had No Idea that he was signing on to captain a slave ship. I guess the ship owners didn't put that part into the want ad. Then, when he arrives in Africa to begin collecting the slaves, he is so wracked with guilt that he begins to drink--even though this goes against his religious beliefs. The poor man is SUFfering! In another scene when he is told that the slaves need to be brought up on deck for exercise and so that the sailors can fuck the women, he becomes angry.
I don't get it. Why make this character sympathetic in any way? It's certainly not in the novel, and I very much doubt that there were any real-life counterparts to this fellow. I can't help but think that it's a sop for White folks...so that they can sympathize with Captain Ed, shake their heads and say, "Well, really, what could he do?"
There are some other things that made me hopping mad, too.
In the slave hold the men are chained in a prone position, and they are shown as sweaty and crying out in distress, but there are no obvious signs of torture and not a speck of shit to be seen. Also, a character from Kunta's village is chained near him, and since this slave ship is well-lighted and lightly guarded, they are free to engage in conversation--a far cry from the maddening pitch blackness and cacophony of different languages Kunta experiences in the book.
When the slaves are brought up on deck to be washed, they are doused with sea water...not a rough brush to be seen. And Edward Asner--in the most ridiculous wig and fake beard ever--averts his eyes when the slaves are brought up on deck. Because he feels So Bad, you know?
But here's the capper so far as the Good Captain goes. Quote: "I've not slept well since this voyage began."
See, when you're confronted with a moral outrage, there's no need to do anything about it. As long as you feel bad, avert your eyes, drink a bit, and lose sleep, it's all good.
I don't know if I have it in me to watch Part 2.
By the way...Roots is still one of the most popular tv shows of all time. Check it out:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_watched_television_broadcasts_in_the_United_States |
So full of shit.
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