Photoshopped Writing

Imagine if one day…say in as little as 40 – 50 years from today…young people were taught that 2020 NEVER HAPPENED. It’s possible. And is possible in a number of common scenarios.

People and time moving on, and current events  becoming past events, and eventually historical events… lost to fading memories and insisting that the past has little or no relevance is one way current events become fictional.

Banning or censoring books from libraries, schools and colleges for any reason is another way current events become fictional. 

Current events also become fictional when what I’m calling *photoshopped writing* occurs. 

Photoshopped writing happens when writers airbrush out words, phrases and content considered offensive. Now, this doesn’t mean writers should deliberately write with the sole intent of offending readers. And yet, toning down stories is an elementary way stories, and thus current events, are erased. 

I remember picking up a memoir I wanted to read, curious to know how the adorable (innocent) faces on the cover of the book, lived in an area I had no real familiarity…but (nevertheless) had my assumptions. Welp, I flipped through the book…to peek at the content…checking the general quality of the writing, when lo and behold I came across one word that had me searching my soul asking, “do you really want to read this?” Like, how bad do you want to be offended. I braved it out, and good for me, because that book was (and still is) one of the best (and most informative) books I’ve ever read. 

There are other motivators that inspire me to avoid photoshopping stories, which is not a substitute for well edited and proofread material. When I started reading biographies, many, many years ago, I couldn’t find narratives about Native Americans. I’d seen countless old westerns that included indigenous people (fighting cowboys), and perhaps read books where their stories were blended in with slave narratives, but I was looking for absolute (or personal) material. Quite honestly, I hoped to verify some of the informal stories I heard. When the Internet opened up, I searched then and there too. Over and over I kept reading ‘there was little to no (personal) accounts’ maintained on this group of people. 

On top of this, I was quite surprised hearing how some refuted (and perhaps still refute) the Holocaust ever happening. After reading so, so, so much content on World War II it was really surprising coming across this supposition, much less even fathoming the possibility. Added to this conundrum, was hearing (and to this day hearing and reading) how no one alive were ‘ever slaves' (or slaveholders)… as if the system that was built from this enterprise had no benefactors (or dark horses). 

Clipping off the longer narrative to (gracefully) bring this matter full circle, I have much respect for the original storytellers in my family; one being my great-great grandfather. His story, and his mother’s story (who was enslaved), along with my great grandmother who I (of course) asked thousands of questions, passed along many raw stories in dialects, languages and dialogues I am objective about photoshopping. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.   

#StillWriting #ReaderForLife #Storytelling #EntertainingStories #JustBlogged