The Past Is Not Always Past 3-3-2013

    [ I am back working through my prison journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 7/10/2025] 

My apologies to William Faulkner. I cannot remember the exact quote from Absalom, Absalom!, but I think I got close with the title.

My oldest sister wrote me something recently about the past being dead. I wrote her back the past is never really dead. We all live with the consequences of actions taken by us and before us. Our successors shall deal with our choices. We cannot be held responsible for anything but our decisions, but decisions made before us may get us killed.

Why don't the conspiracy theorists wonder about the poor teaching of history in American schools? Without knowing history, we cannot judge the present. Instead of history, we all too often have fictions.

The past should be a fountain of wisdom and warning. It is inevitable that fictions attach to what used to be. But it i immoral to make these fictions the ground of harsh judgments of our children.

Michael Eric Dyson's Can You Hear Me Now?, Chapter 17: Wisdom

I see there a variation on The Man Who Liberty Valance problem.

sch

[7/10/2025:

One thing missing from prison is information. No Google. I would have liked to see what others thought about the books I noted above. Well, I got that chance now, and you can decide if I am a moron or not. You may also want to follow the links provided in the text.

What I had Faulkner write in Absalom, Absalom! about the past is wrong:

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

– from "Requiem for a Nun" (1951)

The past (CSMonitor.com)

The Man Who Liberty Valance problem:

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

That single quote, uttered by newspaperman Maxwell Scott (Carlton Young), encapsulates the primary theme of John Ford's last great Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Truth is only meaningful as long as it agrees with what the public wants to hear. When heroes don't exist, it is necessary to invent them. And, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. A clear-eyed deconstruction would likely reveal that what most of us accept as "history" is a patchwork of real events, exaggerations, and tales so tall that Paul Bunyan would likely blink in amazement.

 Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (Reelviews Movie Reviews)

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