"The Good Lord Bird" and the Uses of Art

John Brown Today

In this episode, "The Good Lord Bird," both the novel by James McBride and the SHOWTIME series adaptation by Ethan Hawke are considered with respect to the relation of fiction to history. There is a difference between the use of fiction in collaboration with history and the use of fiction to rewrite history, Lou contends, and in the case of Old John Brown, "The Good Lord Bird" is particularly worrisome because its portrayal is offered as satire but will inevitably inform viewers quite incorrectly as to the historical record.
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1. "The Good Lord Bird" and the Uses of Art (00:00:00)

2. McBride on Brown: "That guy was crazy" (00:00:19)

3. "The Good Lord Bird" series (00:01:15)

4. A historical burlesque (00:01:45)

5. Regarding historical fiction (00:02:45)

6. Regarding "Cloudsplitter" (00:03:45)

7. Fiction that collaborates with history (00:05:00)

8. Satire and the postmodern mood (00:05:10)

9. McBride's satire (00:06:00)

10. When fiction teaches history (00:06:50)

11. "Mental bracketing" (00:08:30)

12. John Brown and black cynicism (00:09:35)

13. "The Good Lord Bird" series again (00:10:15)

14. Hawke's portrayal of John Brown (00:10:27)

15. John Brown's religion (00:10:50)

16. "No cursing man" (00:11:10)

17. Mistreating Frederick Douglass (00:11:30)

18. Distortion and misrepresentation (00:11:55)

19. A heart-touching episode (00:12:25)

20. An old spiritual (00:13:32)

21. Fiction, not history (00:14:00)

22. A lesson from "Judge Roy Bean" (00:14:45)

23. "Too few lobbyists" (00:15:40)

24. "A marginal figure in black history" (00:16:05)

25. "Someday . . . some good"? (00:16:35)