The Case Within and the Problem of Changing History
The moral case for adding to instead of editing the past.
Editor’s Note: Congrats to The Case Within for being nominated for a record 10 Indie Series Awards. Winners will be announced May 15th.
As artists, are we responsible for the stories we tell? If so, to what extent do we carry that burden? One solution to how we deal with old stories is destroying or altering past work.
What we write, what we create and how we create it are reflections of who we are at the time, as well as of the time itself. Whether it is removing questionable scenes from Gone With the Wind, or removing books from the curriculum, if we try to alter – or erase – history, we are effectively playing God. Instead, we should learn from it. Let the work be a warning, or a beacon to understand the world as it was.
If it is agreed that old works of art should be left alone, one might ask how far that applies. Does that mean updating visual effects is immoral? I believe as long as what is updated does not alter the message, it is acceptable. If George Lucas wants to make the Death Star explosion look grander, that’s not harming the moral imprint that was Star Wars. However, if the change is to cover something we feel differently about now, a line has been crossed. Societal development could just as easily go in reverse with this kind of change made acceptable. Eliminating a derogatory line of dialogue about an LGBTQ+ person or a racial slur in an old film may seem to serve a greater purpose of minimizing the damage and sparing future generations from being exposed to that line. But what if it was the other way? What if during a conservative regime, marginalized characters were completely eliminated from past works?
By leaving the art alone, its expression and reflection of the time is history preserved. If instead it is used to discuss and learn from that moment, it forever has meaning.
I began this guest entry by asking if we are responsible for those stories we’ve told. I’ve made my view of altering past work clear, but what I haven’t addressed is, what that means for the artist who created it.
I created a web series called Clutch, from 2009-2013. The series was about a pickpocket who seizes an opportunity to steal from the mob. What she uncovers is an international human trafficking ring, she faces her own Casablanca moment – does she take the money and run, or do something more with this knowledge. Her decision ultimately is her downfall, but there are others who do fight back, one small ambush at a time.
The series was a huge success, earning both critical and audience acclaim. A decade later, however, something wasn’t sitting well with me. Clutch was an expression of what I understood a “strong female character” to be at that time. There were many things I felt were ahead of the norm, such as making the main female character flawed, but I cringe at my own choices of sexualizing the heroines and telling a female’s story from the male perspective.
The answer to how we can, as artists, honor those stories we wish we had done differently is to continue them. Carry on the story, with your newfound knowledge and wisdom, to allow the characters and the story to grow with you.
Cue The Case Within – an audio drama built around a character from Clutch a decade later, and co-created with the woman who played her (Jillian Clare). The character (Nicole) was abducted by human traffickers in Clutch and was set to be sold when a fellow victim (Kris) revealed that she was an undercover FBI agent. Nicole escaped, and that was the end of the series as we made it.
Now in 2024, Nicole is an FBI agent herself, dealing with the trauma that being a trafficking victim caused her. The Case Within is about facing the past and moving forward from it – and healing. Just as it’s immoral to play God and retcon history, there’s no redoing the story that was Clutch for me, there’s only moving forward with it, with what I know now.
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The Case Within is distributed by Realm and available for free where ever you stream podcasts including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon. Find it’s page on Apple at bit.ly/thecasewithin
Clutch is available on YouTube.