A Slow Day

I've been cleaning out my computer this evening, getting rid of things in the start-up menu that I didn't even realize my computer was doing. We'll see whether or not it speeds up my machine's performance. But consequently, I haven't had a lot of time to look around for subjects and links to write about. It's a "holiday" today, though, so it doesn't seem like there's as much going on.

By the way, how many people actually get today as a holiday? Government employees are off, banks are closed, of course, and I guess most schools are shut down. But other than that, how many private-sector businesses actually close their doors today? I was at work like normal. How about you?

Over the weekend, I heard about an intriguing movie that'll be opening soon, sort of wide. CSA: The Confederate States of America appears to be an alternate history in which the Confederacy not only won the Civil War but took over the Union, as well. The movie takes the form of a current-day BBC documentary on the history of the country. It'll probably be fairly episodic to cover 150 years of history. Until recently, I knew a bit about the Civil War but, even as a history grad student, didn't go out of my way to study it. But a couple of years ago, I oversaw a huge Civil War project at work, learned far more about the subject than I ever expected, and became fascinated by it (although not fascinated enough to take part in any reenactments--they're great if that's what you like to do, but I'm just saying). And I've always been interested in alternate history, in which one or two (or several) historic incidents work out differently to create a different reality.

A successful Confederacy is actually a fairly common theme, and perhaps the best-known example is the novel Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove. Although some of the ideas in that book are interesting, I had a real problem with its treatment of slavery. By the time we get to the end of the narrative, President Robert E. Lee and his nation have recognized the evil of slavery and set about to free the slaves. The issue had been glossed over throughout the book, and to be dismissed so easily undermined the work for me. Turtledove also has another series of books about a Confederate victory (which I haven't read), in which the slaves are freed about twenty years after the war, though I don't know how he treats the subject up until then.

CSA has no such reluctance to deal with the issue of slavery. In the movie, the modern-day Confederacy continues to keep slaves. In fact, that looks like a primary point of the film. I'm curious to see quite what they do with it. I said earlier that it was opening wide sort of. It opened last week in New York, and it opens in a number of cities (including Chicago) this Friday, with more being added in the next few weeks. But from what I can tell on the Website, it only appears to be opening in one theater in each city. This has the feel of a film that will be in its appointed theater in each city for only a week or so, so you'd better move quickly if you want to see it. (Of course, we live in an extremely modern world, so if you don't make it to the theater, you should have no problem coming up with the DVD in a couple of months.)