Why Amish?
Several friends have cautioned me that Zeph's
Amish background is too conspicuous, that it's out of character with the rest
of the series, that it gives him
too much of a backstory. And if it were
almost anyone else writing about this character's experiences, I would have to
agree with them. But because it's
me exploring Zeph's external and internal
life, it's ironically appropriate.
No I'm not an ex-Amishman. I'm an ex-Jonishman.
I studied film at Bob Jones University in South Carolina back
in the 70s, and anyone familiar with the racism, sexism and homophobia of that
culture will recognize the similarities between the cultures. The campus of BJU
looks dramatically different, of course, from the typical Amish community. The
campus has electricity, indoor plumbing and telephones (although when I was a
student there, TVs weren't permitted anywhere on campus except in the faculty's
private residences). But exploring the psychological landscape of the two cultures
reveals both of them to be intractably patriarchal societies that will do what they must
to resist change.
Parallel examples: The Amish went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1972 (
Wisconsin v. Yoder) to defend their right to prevent their children from attending school past the eighth grade. BJU went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1974 (
BJU v. Simon) to defend their tax-exempt status, which the IRS had revoked because of the prohibition of interracial dating on campus.
Paralleling the Amish fear of too much education, BJU prohibited
its science department from teaching the theory of evolution, at least during
the years I was a student there. The only required textbook which addressed the
topic was
The
Twilight of Evolution, an easy-reading book detailing how evolutionary
theory was losing ground among thinking people and would soon be dismissed as
unscientific.
As a result, the university is scholastically lightweight and
is unaccredited. For instance, all of my science
and math requirements
for a bachelor of science degree were fulfilled by one two-semester bio survey
course. As a graduate, I found myself significantly under-educated and I eventually attended
the Community College of San Francisco in the early 90s to fill in my curricular
gaps.
Another parallel: Amish culture originated with one persuasive
person, Jacob Amman, who in Switzerland in 1693 broke away from the Mennonites
to establish a more doctrinally conservative sect. Jonesish culture originated
with one persuasive person, Bob Jones, Sr., who in Florida in 1927 founded Bob
Jones College to provide a more doctrinally conservative education than other colleges offered.
When creating the character of Zeph, I decided against
making him a conservative Baptist like I had been because, first, it would be
too autobiographical and, second, conservative Baptist culture is not very interesting
to look at. Too much plastic laminate. Amish culture, by contrast, is extremely
interesting visually, with tidy farms on rolling hills, horse-drawn buggies, kerosene
lamps, handmade quilts, women in caps and aprons and men in broad-brimmed hats and suspenders.
It's a culture that is very picturesque and nostalgic and homespun on the surface
but simmering with psychological conflict underneath. With this substitution,
I was able to offer, in episode 2, a more visually appealing exploration of Zeph's
fish-out-of-water nature.
