{"id":7949,"date":"2019-01-20T18:39:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T18:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=7949"},"modified":"2019-02-06T20:02:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-06T20:02:15","slug":"a-review-of-ric-burns-pilgrims-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/?p=7949","title":{"rendered":"A review of Ric Burns\u2019 \u201cPilgrims\u201d DVD\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actor\u00a0Roger Rees<\/a>\u00a0renders [William] Bradford<\/a>\u00a0beautifully,\u201d in Ric Burns\u2019\u00a0 \u201cThe Pilgrims<\/a>\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n

Just for a change of pace, I offer this review of a DVD I just finished watching:\u00a0\u00a0American Experience: The Pilgrims<\/a>, a\u00a0documentary film<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Ric Burns<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0(Available at\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I must say that \u2013 overall \u2013 I found the tone pretty depressing.\u00a0 I wrote before \u2013 in\u00a0Thanksgiving 2015<\/a>\u00a0for example \u2013 that of the\u00a0102\u00a0Pilgrims<\/a>\u00a0who landed in November 1620 at Plymouth Rock,\u00a0less than half<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0survived the first year. \u00a0(To November 1621.)<\/em>\u00a0 And of the 18 adult women, only\u00a0f<\/em><\/strong>our\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>survived that first winter in the hoped-for \u201cNew World<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0(Illustrated at left.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I just hadn\u2019t appreciated the extent of that loss on an emotional level.\u00a0 Another way of saying that \u2013 just as at\u00a0Jamestown<\/a>, started in 1607 \u2013 there was a\u00a0whole lot<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0of human suffering:<\/p>\n

The major similarity between the first Jamestown settlers and the first Plymouth settlers was great human suffering\u2026 \u00a0November was too late to plant crops. \u00a0Many settlers died of scurvy and malnutrition during that horrible first winter. \u00a0Of the 102 original\u00a0Mayflower\u00a0<\/i>passengers, only 44 survived. \u00a0Again like in Jamestown, the kindness of the local Native Americans saved them from a frosty death.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In\u00a0Thanksgiving \u2013 2016<\/a>, I wrote that the \u201cmen and women who first settled America paid a high price, so that\u00a0we\u00a0<\/em>could enjoy the privilege of stuffing ourselves into a state of stupor.\u201d\u00a0 But the Ric Burns film brought that suffering home in a way I hadn\u2019t fully appreciated before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And by the way, the full caption for the picture at the top of the page reads, \u201cThe actor\u00a0Roger Rees<\/a>\u00a0renders Bradford beautifully;\u00a0 it was among his last performances before his death in July,\u201d 2015.\u00a0 Which could be both prescient and ironic.\u00a0 That is, while Rees died at 71 \u2013 when life expectancy today is about 78 \u2013\u00a0William Bradford<\/a>\u00a0lived to the ripe old age of 67, when life expectancy was about half that.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more about that at the end of this post\u2026<\/p>\n

But what I found most fascinating was how Bradford\u2019s journal,\u00a0Of Plymouth Plantation<\/a>, proved the truth of the old adage,\u00a0\u201cEverything perishes, save the written word<\/em><\/strong>.*\u201d\u00a0 For starters, here\u2019s what\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a>\u00a0said about\u00a0Plymouth Colony<\/a>\u00a0in general:<\/p>\n

Despite the colony\u2019s relatively short existence, Plymouth holds a special role in American history\u2026\u00a0 The events surrounding the founding and history of Plymouth Colony have had a lasting effect on the art, traditions, mythology, and politics of the United States of America, despite its short history of\u00a0fewer than 72 years<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And what gave \u201cPlymouth\u201d such a special place in American history was Bradford\u2019s journal,\u00a0\u00a0Of Plymouth Plantation<\/a>.\u00a0(Which proves again, \u201cEverything perishes, save the written word.\u201d)<\/em>\u00a0And which brings up another thing that I hadn\u2019t realized:\u00a0 That the book was almost lost to history.<\/p>\n

That is, the\u00a0original manuscript was left in the tower of the\u00a0Old South Meeting House<\/a>\u00a0in Boston during the\u00a0American Revolution<\/a>.\u00a0 But after British troops occupied Boston, it disappeared \u201cfor the next century.\u201d\u00a0 The missing manuscript was finally re-discovered, \u201cin the\u00a0Bishop of London<\/a>\u2018s library at\u00a0Fulham Palace<\/a>,\u201d and printed again in 1856.\u00a0 It was only after much finagling \u2013 including a verdict ultimately rendered by the\u00a0Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 that the manuscript was brought back to the U.S. and given to\u00a0Massachusetts<\/a>\u00a0in 1897.<\/p>\n

\"\"That\u2019s a point noted by the New York Times\u2019\u00a0In \u2018The Pilgrims,\u2019 Ric Burns Looks at Mythmaking<\/a>.\u00a0(Including the one about the\u00a0Plymouth\u00a0<\/a>\u201cSigning of the Mayflower Compact,\u201d at left.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Mr. Burns\u2019s most inspired touch is to end not in the 1600s, but two centuries later, by following what happened to Bradford\u2019s journal.\u00a0 It disappeared during the Revolutionary War, then was rediscovered in the mid-1800s\u2026\u00a0 The Mayflower passengers suffered terrible hardships, and from the Indians\u2019 point of view their arrival was ultimately a dark day.\u00a0 But not on Thanksgiving.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s been a tremendous amount of memory produced around the Pilgrims, but there\u2019s also been a lot of forgetting,\u201d the literary critic Kathleen Donegan notes, adding later: \u201cWe don\u2019t think about the loss.\u00a0 We think about the abundance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Or consider this, from\u00a0Who Were the Pilgrims Who Celebrated the First Thanksgiving<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cThe first winter, people died from dysentery, pneumonia, tuberculosis, scurvy, and exposure, at rates as high as two or three per day.\u00a0 \u2018It pleased God to visit us then with death daily,\u2019 Bradford wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Pilgrims were \u201cinventive enough\u201d to conceal their losses from the Indians:\u00a0 \u201cinventive enough, as Donegan notes, to prop up sick men against trees outside the settlement, with muskets beside them, as decoys to look like sentinels to the Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point is this:\u00a0 Our \u201cForefathers\u201d \u2013 and Foremothers as well \u2013 suffered greatly to come to America, and usually much more than we appreciate.\u00a0 More than that, from the beginning they were \u201caliens in a strange land.\u201d\u00a0 Which brings up\u00a0Deuteronomy 10:19<\/a>, where God said to the Children of Israel:\u00a0 \u201cYou are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.\u201d\u00a0 And\u00a0that\u2019s<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0a point worth remembering these days\u2026<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s close with a note of hope and cheer, at least for me.\u00a0 That is, rumor has it that\u00a0William Bradford<\/a>\u00a0was one of my long-ago ancestors.\u00a0 If that\u2019s true, I hope I inherited his longevity gene.<\/p>\n

That earlier \u201cBradford<\/a>\u201d\u00a0lived to a ripe old age of 67.\u00a0 That was at a time when life expectancy for that time and place was about\u00a0half<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>that long.\u00a0 See for example,\u00a0life expectancy in American in the years 1750-1800<\/a>.\u00a0 That is, the life expectancy a century\u00a0after<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Bradford\u2019s time \u2013 he died in 1657 \u2013\u00a0was 36 years.\u00a0\u00a0So if that \u201c1.86 factor\u201d applied to me today \u2013 with a\u00a0 male\u00a0U.S. life expectancy<\/a>\u00a0of 76 years \u2013 I should live to be 141.\u00a0\u00a0(Giving me another 74 years.)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And who knows, I might end my years with the old-age benefits of\u00a0King David<\/a>:<\/p>\n

King David was old and advanced in years;\u00a0 and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm.\u00a0 So his servants said to him, \u2018Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king, and be his attendant;\u00a0 let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may be warm.\u2019\u00a0 So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.\u00a0 The girl was very beautiful.\u00a0 She became the king\u2019s attendant and served him, but the king did not know her\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(In the biblical sense<\/a>.)\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>On the other hand,\u00a0<\/em>King David didn\u2019t have all the \u201cbetter living through chemistry<\/a>\u201d advantages we have today.\u00a0 And that will no doubt increase by, say, 2080?<\/p>\n

Something to look forward to\u2026<\/em><\/h1>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 *<\/p>\n

The upper image is courtesy of\u00a0Review (NYT): In \u2018The Pilgrims,\u2019 Ric Burns Looks at Mythmaking<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Re:\u00a0 \u201cEverything perishes save the written word.\u201d\u00a0 The quote is from\u00a0Techniques of Fiction Writing: Measure and Madness<\/a>, by\u00a0Leon Surmelian<\/a>.\u00a0 Surmelian cited\u00a0Plato<\/a>\u00a0as saying the poet \u2013 including but not limited to the writer of fiction, and maybe of such essays as these \u2013 creates \u201cnot by science or technique, not by any conscious artistry, but by inspiration or influence of some non-rational, supernatural influence.\u201d\u00a0 Which could apply to the writers of the Bible, which Surmelian implied by saying a true writer \u201cis the medium of some higher spirit that gets into him.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 He is literally inspired.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

But \u2013<\/em>\u00a0Surmelian<\/a>\u00a0continued \u2013 the writer needs more than mere inspiration, by and through \u201cwhat mysterious power dwells within him.\u201d\u00a0 (The \u201cmadness\u201d in the book title.)\u00a0 He needs \u201cmeasure:\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Through measure a story is given the structure and style that snatch it from the chaos of reality and fix it in the memory of man.\u00a0 We remember through measure.\u00a0 We move from the unrealized to the realized through measure.\u00a0 Through measure writing resists the ravages of time.\u00a0\u00a0Everything perishes save the written word<\/strong>, says an old eastern proverb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the 1969 Anchor Books paperback edition, at pages 242-44, emphasis added.<\/em><\/p>\n

The image to the right of the paragraph ending, \u201cBradford<\/a>\u00a0lived to the ripe old age of 67, when life expectancy was about half that,\u201d shows the \u201cCoat of Arms of William Bradford.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Also from\u00a0(New York Times) Review: In \u2018The Pilgrims,\u2019 Ric Burns Looks at Mythmaking<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

The Pilgrims and their fellow travelers weren\u2019t terrorists, of course (despite an instance of putting the severed head of a perceived enemy on a pole), but they and those who followed certainly did effect a cultural conquest.\u00a0 Some versions of their story play that down, partly because\u00a0a plague\u00a0<\/a>resulting from earlier contact with Westerners brought widespread death to coastal Indians in the Northeast just before the Mayflower arrived. God, it seemed to some, killed off the Indians to make way for the whites, a view this program corrects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Here\u2019s more from\u00a0Who Were the Pilgrims Who Celebrated the First Thanksgiving<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

It draws on the unique, nearly lost history,\u00a0Of Plymouth Plantation<\/a>, written by William Bradford, the new colony\u2019s governor for more than 30 years, whom the late actor Roger Rees portrays from a script derived from Bradford\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

Right from the start, the death rate was awful. Mortality had been enormous at the Jamestown colony, where by 1620 nearly 8,000 people had arrived, although the settlement was struggling to keep its population above a thousand. Bradford\u2019s history recalled the Pilgrims\u2019 anticipation of \u201ca hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men.\u201d Ferrying in supplies from the ship meant wading through ice-cold water, at one point with sleet glazing their bodies with ice. The first winter, people died from dysentery, pneumonia, tuberculosis, scurvy, and exposure, at rates as high as two or three per day. \u201cIt pleased God to visit us then with death daily,\u201d Bradford wrote\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See also\u00a0PBS Documentary \u201cThe Pilgrims\u201d: A Review<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lower image is courtesy of\u00a0King David Abishag\u00a0\u2013 Image Results<\/a>.\u00a0 The painting may actually show Bathsheba, see\u00a0Moritz Stifter Bathsheba\u00a0\u2013 Image Results<\/a>, and\/or\u00a0Bathsheba Painting\u00a0\u2013 Image Results<\/a>.\u00a0 The \u201cAbishag\u201d connection was gleaned from \u201cInteresting Green: Reflection \u2013 King David and Abishag,\u201d from\u00a0veryfatoldmanblogspot.com<\/a>.\u00a0 But see also\u00a0Is Veryfatoldman.blogspot legit and safe?\u00a0 (Review<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe actor\u00a0Roger Rees\u00a0renders [William] Bradford\u00a0beautifully,\u201d in Ric Burns\u2019\u00a0 \u201cThe Pilgrims\u2026\u201d * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * \u00a0 * Just for a change of pace, I offer this review of a DVD I just finished watching:\u00a0\u00a0American Experience: The Pilgrims, a\u00a0documentary film\u00a0by\u00a0Ric Burns.\u00a0\u00a0(Available at\u00a0Amazon.com.)\u00a0 I must say that \u2013 overall \u2013 I found the tone pretty depressing.\u00a0 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7949"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8006,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions\/8006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/georgiawasp.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}