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American Morning

Reframing "Gone With the Wind"

Aired June 22, 2001 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for because it's the only thing that lasts.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Oh, pa, you talk like an Irishman.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It's proud I am that I'm Irish and don't you be forgetting, Missie, that you're half Irish, too, and to anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them, why the land they live on is like their mother. Oh, but I know you're just a child. It'll come to you, this love of the land. There's no getting away from it if you're Irish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: America has been on a first-name basis with Rhett and Scarlett and the rest of the "Gone With The Wind" family for more than 60 years now. But as Alice Randall, author of "The Wind Done Gone" reimagines the Margaret Mitchell classic, Rhett is known as R and Scarlett as Other. And the names and the characters aren't the only things that Randall has changed. It is framed as a slave's perspective on life on Tara. Her book brought copyright lawsuits from the Mitchell estate and it sparked a nationwide debate about free speech.

And Alice Randall, the author of "The Wind Done Gone," joins us from New York. Alice, good morning. Good to have you with us.

ALICE RANDALL, AUTHOR, "THE WIND DONE GONE": Good morning, Daryn. Thank you for having me here.

KAGAN: I have been reading about you for some months now. And you're now, we should say, victorious, Alice Randall, because the latest round of courts, the courts have come and said that you do, indeed, have a right to publish your book.

RANDALL: Yes. Cynara is enjoying some freedom and so am I.

KAGAN: Are your legal battles done?

RANDALL: No. The injunction has been lifted but we are still involved in litigation. KAGAN: And so does that mean you're limited in what you can say about it?

RANDALL: Yes. I think that to some degree since the case is still under consideration.

KAGAN: But right now what it means is that if people want to buy the book they can go to bookstores and buy it?

RANDALL: Yes, they can. They can do that and I'm hoping that it'll be a wonderful way for people to celebrate the Fourth of July, too. We are free in this country to write and we're free in this country to read so.

KAGAN: Let's give people an idea who haven't read the book, an idea of what it is. As I understand, is the character, the main character's name, it is Cynara? Is that how you say her name?

RANDALL: Yes.

KAGAN: Cynara Brown. She is the mulatto half sister of Scarlett O'Hara and this is written from her perspective, in other words, as we said at the top, a slave's perspective of the story of what took place during "Gone With The Wind".

RANDALL: It's a parody of "Gone With The Wind" and uses as its first point of departure the absurdity of Scarlett having a black half sister.

KAGAN: And in terms of that absurdity, you give some different names to characters. So let's put that graphic back up on the screen and we can run through some of the characters. You call Rhett R. Scarlet is Other. Melanie is Mealymouth; Ashley, Dreamy Gentleman; and Mammy is Mammy and Prissy is Miss. Priss. Why is Mammy the only one who gets to keep her name from the book?

RANDALL: Well, to answer that question, that's sort of one of the secrets the book reveals. She does have, we discover in my book that Mammy actually has a name and it's Palace.

KAGAN: Ah.

RANDALL: So, in fact, there isn't quite -- there, in fact, is a parallel, a change between the two books.

KAGAN: Now you mentioned that this is a parody. Does it strike you that throughout this people have lost their sense of humor, that you're hoping that laughter does take place and kind of bring people together instead of divide people?

RANDALL: Yes, and I think it's, you know, the slaves haven't had a lot of, the ancestors of slaves haven't had a lot of experience poking fun at the planters and the planters, perhaps, haven't had -- the ancestors haven't had a lot of experience knowing what that humor might sound like. So I guess we're all learning something here now. KAGAN: The Margaret Mitchell estate, of course, calling this an unauthorized sequel that violates the copyright of "Gone With The Wind." Can you see their perspective at all?

RANDALL: My work, I've often said if I had written a sequel to "Gone With The Wind," nobody in my family would speak to me and it is for sure my husband would have divorced me. So, no, I did not, would not have written a sequel to "Gone With The Wind," you know, that sort of Uncle Tom Goes To Tara. This is a parody with biting criticism. It's been a pleasure to write because the first book really divided a nation. It said people are either white or black and white and black people are fundamentally different. I hope my book will unite a nation. Everybody can elect to have Cynara in their family.

KAGAN: Some of the critics say, not getting on whether it's a sequel or not, whether it's a parody, but that you really have to have read "Gone With The Wind" and be very familiar with that, otherwise you're going to kind of get lost in your book. Do you think that's a fair criticism and a good suggestion?

RANDALL: No. You don't have to have read, in fact we, I have met and talked to lots of young African-Americans and also a lot of young country music singers who I know who've never, males in particular who've never read "Gone With The Wind" and who come and look at what is between these covers and feel the political criticism but haven't read "Gone With The Wind".

I think there are two ways into my book. You can, you need either a big heart or a big mind. We've all been influenced by "Gone With The Wind" the book whether or not we've read it. If we didn't read it, our grandmother read it and those views, our grandmother's views influence us. So you don't have to have read "Gone With The Wind" to understand this book. And as long as you approach it with a big heart or a big mind, you can feel your way into this book. This book has a lot of secrets and so everything's not on the surface. You've got to use your heart or mind to get inside of it.

KAGAN: And quickly, Alice, as we let you go, besides the legal battle, which you will continue to fight to defend your book, what else is on the docket for you? More books ahead, parodies, original works?

RANDALL: Well, this is a highly original work, but more of enjoying my freedom to choose my genres. It's exciting to be one of the first black women to go into the area of parody and yes, I'll be enjoying my literary freedom in the future by writing.

KAGAN: Very good. Well, you enjoy that. Good luck with those pursuits. Alice Randall, good to have you with us this morning. Thank you.

RANDALL: Good to be with you. Thank you.

KAGAN: And if you would like to talk with Alice Randall a little bit later this morning you can put your questions directly to her. She'll be live on CNN's Web site beginning at 11:30 A.M. Eastern. RANDALL: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: Log onto CNN.com/chat, AOL keyword, CNN.

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