Frederick Douglass and Covey, One More Time

It was in my reading of Karl Marlantes' What it is Like to Go to War,  a title I have mentioned many times on my blog over the last couple of months, that I found myself thinking of Frederick Douglass. For me this was odd, because at the time, The Life and Narrative of Frederick Douglass was a book I found particularly bland. It wasn't until our extensive study of the Covey fight that I began to foster more of an interest in LNFD.

At this point, deep into my junior theme research and surely stressed out, I had all but forgotten about Douglass. But then I read the following line and I was back in first semester, studying slavery.

"Fighting on television lasts long enough to entertain people.

 Fighting in bars doesn't have the same purpose" (Marlantes 14). 

This immediately reminded me of our discussion about the length of the fight between Douglass and Covey. Douglass had, in more editions that one, described the fight saying that "two hours has elapsed" before Covey gave up. As a class, we all questioned whether or not this was supposed to be taken as an exaggeration or if Douglass and Covey had actually fought for two hours. Graham mentioned that a six minute wrestling match left him exhausted, so he doubted that this was realistic. We concluded that while Douglass might not have been trying to lie, he was most likely exaggerating to make a point, to emphasize the fight.

Marlantes brings up a similar thing here. Fights, on television go on and on because that's how people are entertained. But a real fight, like a bar-fight as Marlantes states, those fights are quick and painful. The audience wants a drawn out drama filled fight. And Douglass probably knew that. While his fight with Covey was probably longer than a bar-fight, he knew that a longer fight would be better for his audience. Douglass and Marlantes, 155 years apart, bring up the same phenomenon. We love fights. We love the drawn out drama. No one cares about a little punch, it has to be more than that.