FIC COMMENTARY - A Dream That Could Not Last
Last spring I wrote an American Idol historical AU set in London during the early days of World War II, A Dream That Could Not Last. I'd been holding off on posting the commentary while waiting for a few things that unfortunately have been delayed, and given that historical AU's in general and American Idol historical AU's in particular are the subject of some controversy at the moment, I decided it would be best to post this now.
There are many specific historical notes at the end of each chapter of A Dream That Could Not Last, so this commentary is about two general bits in the story that didn't really belong in any particular chapter:
If anyone would like me to do a more traditional DVD-style commentary for this story, just let me know.
Chapter Titles
The title A Dream That Could Not Last is taken from the song "Lost in Meditation." It appears on Ella Fitzgerald sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, which along with Glenn Miller: His Best Recordings was the unofficial soundtrack of this fic:
I am lost in meditation
And my reverie
Brings you back to me
For in my imagination
Love has lingered on
As though you'd never gone
This is just a dream that cannot last
When the magic of this mood has passed
So I sit in meditation
Trying to pretend this mood will never end
The chapter titles were inspired by the philosopher and film critic Stanley Cavell's theories on the philosophical meanings of romantic comedies and melodramas of the 30s and 40s. In Pursuits of Happiness, he discusses seven romantic comedies: The Lady Eve, Adam's Rib, It Happened One Night, The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, The Awful Truth, and Bringing Up Baby. In Contesting Tears, he discusses four melodramas: Letter from an Unknown Woman, Stella Dallas, Gaslight, and Now, Voyager. Because his ideas have had such an impact on me and the way I think about and write romances, and because the time period of this story leant itself to a more direct reference to these movies than I usually make, I decided to title the chapters after these movies and his two books.
Race
First thing first: there were no African American pilots flying in the RAF in 1940. While a few Americans went to Britain and flew with the Royal Air Force, the vast majority of the sacrifices of the early part of the war were borne by British and Commonwealth pilots. There were significant Canadian forces in the war from the start, and the detail about Canadian soldiers being a big chunk of the Dunkirk evacuees is accurate. There were a few squadrons from Australia and New Zealand but they were quickly recalled when the Asian war began to heat up, as they were needed to maintain the antipodean defenses. So three colored airmen serving as part of an American squadron flying with the RCAF is entirely my invention.
However, the attitudes about Black pilots that Chris refers to as his own before he met Robinson were accurate for the time. The US Army Air Corps (the predecessor to the USAF) did not admit "colored" pilots until they were forced to by executive order of the president in 1941. The Army Air Corps tried to make education and flight experience qualifications that would be impossible for a Black man to achieve. Unfortunately for them, the Tuskegee Institute had been training black pilots under the Civilian Pilot Training Program. And of course there had been traditionally black colleges since just after the civil war, so black pilots as educated as Anwar Robinson were far from unheard of. But few white pilots thought that blacks could fly as well as whites, and it took the Tuskegee Airmen to prove them wrong. They were eventually formed as the 332nd Fighter Group, first serving in the North African campaign in 1942.
Note that segregation in the armed forces applied only to blacks. Other ethnic groups, even if they were subject to segregation at home, were integrated into the main part of the armed forces, including native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians-though Asians were generally sent to fight in Europe. Shortly after the war, in 1947, President Truman ordered the armed forces integrated, and black pilots became much more common.
Anwar and Kimberley were part of a growing black middle class that was developing its own rituals and customs in parallel to the white middle class. This began mostly as blacks moved north during the Great Migration that started in 1910, and that would have been around when Anwar's parents moved to New Jersey. As blacks became increasingly segregated, they developed their own professional class to provide them with medical and legal services, and of course education. It is this educated black middle class that would become the base of the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s, because they had the money and time to give to the cause.
As for the integrated review, they probably would not have been able to perform anywhere in the US during the 1940s. While there were some Broadway shows that had a few black performers in the cast-and remember, most shows at this time were reviews, not book shows-there weren't shows that were truly integrated the way that Paula and Randy's show is, with a fully integrated chorus. There were several night clubs that catered to whites but had an all-black cast, but entertainment was incredibly segregated during this period, even in northern cities like New York. The rules in Europe were different, and many black jazz musicians who had a hard time finding accommodations and venues in America could tour extensively in Europe, which was crazy for American jazz.
Ryan refers to the segregation of radio when he talks to Joel about where to send their interview with Robinson. Radio stations were seen as "black" or "white" during this period. Black stations would play "race records" by black musicians and relied on the local black newspaper for any news they might read on-air. "White" radio stations rarely played any music by black musicians and certainly wouldn't air any sort of news story about them.
Gender roles
Amanda's complaint that she wouldn't be able to service combat aircraft in the US Army Air Corps is accurate. However, she would have been able to be part of a ground crew in the RAF, and all the background about the ladies in her barracks being radio operators and the like is very typical of what women in the women's corps of the RAF were doing during the war. They also often trained as mechanics and served on home bases. Then-Princess Elizabeth famously donned a uniform and learned how to fix automobiles during the war. It would have been seen as a little strange that Amanda fraternized more with the male soldiers, even though she was American. Consider that another thing I've fudged for the sake of the story.
Carly's career path, and the conversations about her and Giuliana's futures in radio, are fairly accurate. There was acceptance of women in some behind the scenes positions in radio, but a great deal of resistance to their being on-air. What was the point of having a woman you couldn't see? Also, women's higher voices were thought to be more grating. However, even during this time, there were those women who could rise to the level of producer-though never on a hard news show. On something "softer" like Simon's entertainment show, or a women's issues show, they would have a better chance of advancement.
Homosexuality
And now the biggest change, which was the actual status of homosexuals during this time. On the one hand, Ryan and Simon being able to move about with relative ease, and some of their coworkers knowing the truth about them, certainly wasn't unheard of. They were, after all, in the entertainment industry. And Jennifer's speech to Kat is also accurate, as there were plenty of gays in and around Broadway and the nightclubs in New York, especially songwriters. Of course, none of them were out to the general public, but many of them were generally known to be homosexuals within the industry.
That said, I've muted the dangers that Ryan and Simon might risk by being out in public, and somewhat over-emphasized the safe spaces they were in, again for the sake of the story. You'll notice that the story at times is fairly claustrophobic, and that's because there were very few places that any of these couples could openly be together. There was the club, which could be raided at any time as homosexuality was a crime in Britain until the late 1960s, or private homes like Simon's. Little cafes in specific neighborhoods allowed for some small visibility, particularly for women, but it was still a dangerous thing. I decided not to emphasize the contrast between the safe spaces and the unsafe because I wanted the story to remain essentially comedic, and the war brings enough drama to the table. But hopefully the concern that Chris and Blake show when Simon tells them they've been discovered, and Kat's reaction later in the story, are enough to show how serious it was.
Of course Chris, Blake, Amanda, and Cook would all have been dishonorably discharged from the armed services were they to be discovered. On the other hand, many gay men and women served in the US and Canadian military during WWII, as they have in every war and continue to this day. My own uncle and his husband were both Korean War veterans, and his husband was regular Navy, serving for twenty years.
As for Robinson's acceptance of Chris and Blake's homosexuality, I've definitely let that one slide for the sake of the story. Robinson is singularly accepting just as a general personality trait, and I did this not only because of the story but also because I was in a sense "slashing" Anwar Robinson, who's all but out of the closet these days. There is a lot to be said about the difference between writing a straight person as gay and writing a gay one as straight, and I must admit I was hesitant about slashing Robinson. But even more sadly, handsome black male singers on Idol are few and far between.
crossposted from Dreamwidth |
comments | comment at Dreamwidth
There are many specific historical notes at the end of each chapter of A Dream That Could Not Last, so this commentary is about two general bits in the story that didn't really belong in any particular chapter:
- the meaning of the chapter titles
- race, homosexuality and gender roles in the 1940s and what I modified for this story
If anyone would like me to do a more traditional DVD-style commentary for this story, just let me know.
Chapter Titles
The title A Dream That Could Not Last is taken from the song "Lost in Meditation." It appears on Ella Fitzgerald sings the Duke Ellington Songbook, which along with Glenn Miller: His Best Recordings was the unofficial soundtrack of this fic:
I am lost in meditation
And my reverie
Brings you back to me
For in my imagination
Love has lingered on
As though you'd never gone
This is just a dream that cannot last
When the magic of this mood has passed
So I sit in meditation
Trying to pretend this mood will never end
The chapter titles were inspired by the philosopher and film critic Stanley Cavell's theories on the philosophical meanings of romantic comedies and melodramas of the 30s and 40s. In Pursuits of Happiness, he discusses seven romantic comedies: The Lady Eve, Adam's Rib, It Happened One Night, The Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, The Awful Truth, and Bringing Up Baby. In Contesting Tears, he discusses four melodramas: Letter from an Unknown Woman, Stella Dallas, Gaslight, and Now, Voyager. Because his ideas have had such an impact on me and the way I think about and write romances, and because the time period of this story leant itself to a more direct reference to these movies than I usually make, I decided to title the chapters after these movies and his two books.
Race
First thing first: there were no African American pilots flying in the RAF in 1940. While a few Americans went to Britain and flew with the Royal Air Force, the vast majority of the sacrifices of the early part of the war were borne by British and Commonwealth pilots. There were significant Canadian forces in the war from the start, and the detail about Canadian soldiers being a big chunk of the Dunkirk evacuees is accurate. There were a few squadrons from Australia and New Zealand but they were quickly recalled when the Asian war began to heat up, as they were needed to maintain the antipodean defenses. So three colored airmen serving as part of an American squadron flying with the RCAF is entirely my invention.
However, the attitudes about Black pilots that Chris refers to as his own before he met Robinson were accurate for the time. The US Army Air Corps (the predecessor to the USAF) did not admit "colored" pilots until they were forced to by executive order of the president in 1941. The Army Air Corps tried to make education and flight experience qualifications that would be impossible for a Black man to achieve. Unfortunately for them, the Tuskegee Institute had been training black pilots under the Civilian Pilot Training Program. And of course there had been traditionally black colleges since just after the civil war, so black pilots as educated as Anwar Robinson were far from unheard of. But few white pilots thought that blacks could fly as well as whites, and it took the Tuskegee Airmen to prove them wrong. They were eventually formed as the 332nd Fighter Group, first serving in the North African campaign in 1942.
Note that segregation in the armed forces applied only to blacks. Other ethnic groups, even if they were subject to segregation at home, were integrated into the main part of the armed forces, including native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians-though Asians were generally sent to fight in Europe. Shortly after the war, in 1947, President Truman ordered the armed forces integrated, and black pilots became much more common.
Anwar and Kimberley were part of a growing black middle class that was developing its own rituals and customs in parallel to the white middle class. This began mostly as blacks moved north during the Great Migration that started in 1910, and that would have been around when Anwar's parents moved to New Jersey. As blacks became increasingly segregated, they developed their own professional class to provide them with medical and legal services, and of course education. It is this educated black middle class that would become the base of the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s, because they had the money and time to give to the cause.
As for the integrated review, they probably would not have been able to perform anywhere in the US during the 1940s. While there were some Broadway shows that had a few black performers in the cast-and remember, most shows at this time were reviews, not book shows-there weren't shows that were truly integrated the way that Paula and Randy's show is, with a fully integrated chorus. There were several night clubs that catered to whites but had an all-black cast, but entertainment was incredibly segregated during this period, even in northern cities like New York. The rules in Europe were different, and many black jazz musicians who had a hard time finding accommodations and venues in America could tour extensively in Europe, which was crazy for American jazz.
Ryan refers to the segregation of radio when he talks to Joel about where to send their interview with Robinson. Radio stations were seen as "black" or "white" during this period. Black stations would play "race records" by black musicians and relied on the local black newspaper for any news they might read on-air. "White" radio stations rarely played any music by black musicians and certainly wouldn't air any sort of news story about them.
Gender roles
Amanda's complaint that she wouldn't be able to service combat aircraft in the US Army Air Corps is accurate. However, she would have been able to be part of a ground crew in the RAF, and all the background about the ladies in her barracks being radio operators and the like is very typical of what women in the women's corps of the RAF were doing during the war. They also often trained as mechanics and served on home bases. Then-Princess Elizabeth famously donned a uniform and learned how to fix automobiles during the war. It would have been seen as a little strange that Amanda fraternized more with the male soldiers, even though she was American. Consider that another thing I've fudged for the sake of the story.
Carly's career path, and the conversations about her and Giuliana's futures in radio, are fairly accurate. There was acceptance of women in some behind the scenes positions in radio, but a great deal of resistance to their being on-air. What was the point of having a woman you couldn't see? Also, women's higher voices were thought to be more grating. However, even during this time, there were those women who could rise to the level of producer-though never on a hard news show. On something "softer" like Simon's entertainment show, or a women's issues show, they would have a better chance of advancement.
Homosexuality
And now the biggest change, which was the actual status of homosexuals during this time. On the one hand, Ryan and Simon being able to move about with relative ease, and some of their coworkers knowing the truth about them, certainly wasn't unheard of. They were, after all, in the entertainment industry. And Jennifer's speech to Kat is also accurate, as there were plenty of gays in and around Broadway and the nightclubs in New York, especially songwriters. Of course, none of them were out to the general public, but many of them were generally known to be homosexuals within the industry.
That said, I've muted the dangers that Ryan and Simon might risk by being out in public, and somewhat over-emphasized the safe spaces they were in, again for the sake of the story. You'll notice that the story at times is fairly claustrophobic, and that's because there were very few places that any of these couples could openly be together. There was the club, which could be raided at any time as homosexuality was a crime in Britain until the late 1960s, or private homes like Simon's. Little cafes in specific neighborhoods allowed for some small visibility, particularly for women, but it was still a dangerous thing. I decided not to emphasize the contrast between the safe spaces and the unsafe because I wanted the story to remain essentially comedic, and the war brings enough drama to the table. But hopefully the concern that Chris and Blake show when Simon tells them they've been discovered, and Kat's reaction later in the story, are enough to show how serious it was.
Of course Chris, Blake, Amanda, and Cook would all have been dishonorably discharged from the armed services were they to be discovered. On the other hand, many gay men and women served in the US and Canadian military during WWII, as they have in every war and continue to this day. My own uncle and his husband were both Korean War veterans, and his husband was regular Navy, serving for twenty years.
As for Robinson's acceptance of Chris and Blake's homosexuality, I've definitely let that one slide for the sake of the story. Robinson is singularly accepting just as a general personality trait, and I did this not only because of the story but also because I was in a sense "slashing" Anwar Robinson, who's all but out of the closet these days. There is a lot to be said about the difference between writing a straight person as gay and writing a gay one as straight, and I must admit I was hesitant about slashing Robinson. But even more sadly, handsome black male singers on Idol are few and far between.
crossposted from Dreamwidth |
comments | comment at Dreamwidth