Jamie and Claire
Yeah. I'm the dweeb who read all the Outlander books BEFORE it became a thing. Except for the last one. I need to catch up. I fell in love with Jamie and Claire from the 1st chapter onward. I adore the pairing of Sam Heughan and Catriona Balfe. Diana Gabaldon has def written an uber saga.. She loves words and I'm here for ithem. She writes for readers. If you ain't one, don't even try. You might hurt your brain. Her depiction of Jamie and Claire is everything a romance should be. Except...That is where my 1st bone to pick with Gabaldon or STARZ or whoever is. Initially, from jumpstreet, this series of books was labelled ROMANCE. Not HISTORICAL FANTASY. It's like if a person calls Outlander, romance, it's a dirty word. The series drips in it but for some reason the folks associated with it have distanced themselves from the term. I mean. damn! Romance sells. Look at the success of NETFLIX's Bridgerton. Which for me has been a snoozer from episode one. I didn't finish it first time around and I doubt I'll tune in for this second part.
But I digress. Folks love it. It's just not my cup of tea. But at least it's billed as ROMANCE.
Next bone to pick? My gripe is with the Frasers' sojourn in the New World. While Jamie, Claire and their immediate kin are depicted as understanding and accepting of the non-Whites in their midst., I'd have to say all involved are pretty tonedeaf.
Yo, dudes! The Scots, the Irish, etc. fled to the colonies because ENGLAND was putting an ass-whuppin' on them by moving them off their ancestral lands, ERADICATING their customs, forbidding the teaching of their mother tongues and by jailing or killing any of them who did the aforementioned. SO why get to the New World and do the same ish to the Indigenous people here? And don't even get me started with the enslaved Africans.
Talk about cognitive dissomce.
Jocasta, Ulysses and Phaedre at River Run Plantation
But STARZ is sticking to the books. More or less. Some books are melded together.
The third gripe I have is the passing glance givien to Natives and Black people. Yeah, I said it and I think I heard your collective groan. Look. I know the books and the TV show center around Claire, Jamie aand their brood while in Americaa BUT honey chile, you cannot give a picture of Colonial America WITHOUT on-going stories of the folks who were already here, and the ones that were dragged here in chains.
Here is a line from a PBS/TIMELINE special entitled 1773, Slavery and the making of America:
"The slave population in the colonies is nearly 500,000. In Virginia, the ratio of free colonists to slaves is nearly 1:1. In South Carolina it is approximately 1:2."
So how you gonna have a series set in Colonial America and see partically ZERO SLAVES when in reality there was, at least, one for every White person?
How? Is STARZ' budget low? Do the writers not know how to incorporate realistic non-White characters? Maybe I'm expecting too much as the show is about conquering things - fear, traditions, time, expectations.
Gabaldon and STARZ only has non-Whites in a storyline to highlight how virtuous Claire and Jamie are, or for titillation purposes ( See Phaedre's "affair" with Jocasta's husband.or Ulysses' "affair" with Jocasta.). Lord, that's a whole other post for me. That's some fantasy that needs to be broomed to the nearest curb. I am so weary of these rapes being penned as "love affairs" Yes. We have the noble Ulysses, the Black manservant/ex-bed buck (a dude who'd been FREED years before but stayed behind to care for his former mistress) to Aunt Jocasta who saves her from being killed by killing the White man who was attacking her. Ulysses had to be sent away to England (ironic) with Lord John Gray for his safety. There was another plotline where a young slave, Rufus, disobeys his master. They fight. Rufus draws the man's blood. Rufus is punished by being impaled on a HOOK. Somehow he gets to the Frasers and Claire tends to him. A mob assembles outside River Run Plantation and threatens to burn it down (how neighborly), and slaughter the other slaves if the Frasers don't hand over the wounded slave for execution by midnight. The effery of this episode is that Claire as a doctor can do no harm but she can aid Rufus in his choice - To surrender to the mob to be lynched or drink a poisoned tea and die before the mob kills him. Being noble, Rufus drinks the tea. Jamie holds the mob off until the guy dies and STILL has to hands off the body to the mob. The sickest moment is when the mob takes the body and HANGS THE DEAD MAN. Phew! There are female slaves who run Jocasta's estate who you see every once in awhile. Occasionally, a Black or Native body will meander across the screen but that's it. Yeah, the poor Whitess couldn't afford slaves but still...Somebody could if the ratio was 1:1. Slaves were planting the crops, bringing in the crops, washing the clothes, preparing the food, cooking the food,, and yes, being starved, beaten and sexually assaulted in between performing these tasks while held in bondage. Half of season 4 and all of seasons 5 and 6 are problematic. Hella problematic.
But, again, I digress.
Lovers of the books and the series can argue that the story is about Claire and Jamie. Not background people.True. True. But if one is going to set a story in an era that is known for certain occurences, or has a specific atmosphere, do it right. Or don't do it at all. The showrunners had no problem showing whorehouses in Scotland or France or the lavishness of the French court during one season. Same with the years spent at Castle Leoch. No detail was left unexplored.. Thinking on this omission now answers the questiion of WHY folks associated with the show/books started calling it HISTORICAL FANTASY in lieu of ROMANCE. With their "alterations" they should call it REDACTED AMERICAN HISTORICAL FANTASY.
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