Writing Reflection 2
“The historical novel is, for me, condemned,” he wrote to Sarah Orne Jewett in 1901. “You may multiply the little facts that can be got from pictures and documents, relics and prints, as much as you like — the real thing is almost impossible to do, and in its essence the whole effect is as nought: I mean the invention, the representation of the old consciousness, the soul, the sense, the horizon, the vision of individuals in whose minds half the things that make ours, that make the modern world, were nonexistent.” -Geraldine Brooks on Henry James
Henry James further commented on writing about the past to Sara Jewett saying “…Any attempt to write about a time more than 50 years removed from one’s own was worthless and should not even be attempted.”
Do you agree or disagree with Henry James that the past is impossible to represent?
I disagree with Henry James statement that the past is impossible to represent in writing. I understand what he’s saying but he’s still wrong. It is harder to represent the past when it is more than fifty years removed from your own, but it is not impossible. It is harder because you won’t normally find living witnesses and documentations maybe lost or tampered with. Also it may be harder because you your self didn’t live in that past to which you are writing.
One can represent the past very efficiently in writing. The main way for a writer to represent the past is to put aside the technological and modern differences and focus on human emotion and human nature. It doesn’t matter that we speak differently now or that we don’t live in log cabins and wear wool garments every day. What matters is the predictability of mankind. The specific situations may be different but the reactions are going to be the same. As a species we haven’t evolved much at all. Yes, our technologies have improved and we’ve found better ways to survive but if you look back through history you’ll notice that no matter how civilized we may become we still have the same human instincts. We have the same fears, curiosity, wants, hopes, and dreams.
Our intellect is no greater either. People seem to think that just because these people lived hundreds of years ago that they must not be as smart or civilized as we are; that we as a people now must be completely different from those before us. What about Socrates, Einstein, Shakespeare, Archimedes, the Wright brothers, Humphrey Davey? I don’t believe we have anyone in our time with their intellect, their ability to see beyond the ‘norm’ and the accepted. There’s also the example of the Great Pyramids and Easter Island. We can’t even figure out how these buildings were made. You also have to look at the aqueducts in Rome and realize that they weren’t even the ones who invented it. It was actually the Assyrians in 691 B.C.
So going back to whether or not a writer can represent the past efficiently is no question. Just imagine yourself in that era. To get in touch with the past all you have to do is a little role playing. For example say you want to know what it felt like to live in the 1600′s, just go to Williamsburg or Jamestown where they have exact replications of that period. Say you want to know what it feels like to have to make a living by farming like so many of our ancestors did, just go to some small rural town and you’ll find out. Or maybe you want to know what it is like to live in a village, just go to South America or Africa. You can even reenact being an Indian on America’s reservations. It is easy to escape the modern world because the modern world only occurs in clusters. There are so many places around the world where time has stood still and you won’t see much, if any, modern advancement.
Condemnation is a strong word, and an awful thing. No one can stand underneath condemnation. I agree that the past can be effectively represented in the present. I also believe that the stories from the past can be accurately interpreted to apply to the present. A certain amount of research is needed to effectively do both, past to present, and present to past. My husband once took a class at Regent University about studying the Bible. One of the things that he learned to do was to research the time in which the story was being told in order to obtain the full meaning of the passage. Many of Jesus’ parables revolve around common knowledge from the space of time in which he inhabited. The human heart however is still the same. I agree that is the common denominator that enables this “time travel” with writing to succeed. C.S. Lewis said this, “Humans are amphibians – half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.” The Bible says this, ” GOD has set eternity in the hearts of men.” Something to think about.
I enjoyed your blog. It basically stated the same as mine, you however, added a lot of information from years ago. Henry wouldn’t have like that. People are people and they’re no different today than before. We just have more stuff today.
Exactly! Thanks for reading my blog; I know it was pretty long.
Very good essay. You have a lot of knowledge and actually taught me something.
Thank you! Thats such a great compliment.
I agree that it is possible to write a successful piece set more than 50 years in the past. The Coen brothers have done it many times and so have successful playwrights of the past and present. Imagination is everything and so is research since we have to know what the technology, dress and the parlance of the times were to produce a reasonable facsimile. I agree that a little role playing will go along way. we can I agree that human nature will never change unless our race is still alive a million years from now and then maybe our natures may have evolved.
You’re right. Human nature hasn’t changed much all. We just have to look at is plays like Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Hamlet. Humans have been all about sex, violence and revenge and watching it since the beginning of the written word. Humans have also believed in the powers of hope, imagination, faith and love since that time as well.
I didn’t know that about the Assyrians, that is really cool. You’re right it is amazing how cultures so far in the past could have accomplished such amazing works of architecture, literature, art and science while working with so little in terms of technology and modern medicince. That we don’t even understand how cultures made these structures shows how intelligent they were. With so much information at our fingertips in the form of the internet we should be accomplishing much more.
As far as intelligence I think we have some undiscovered Niels Bohrs, Rosalind Franklins and Virginia Woolfs walking amongst us. There seems to be a general brain drain probably because of popular culture and the fact that kids aren’t given enough credit now. Back 1000 years ago, 5 years old had personal tutors and were learning many different subjects. Also there seems to be a miscorrelation in our society that being able to regurgitate a bunch of random facts somehow signifies intelligence. Einstein believed that creativity was much more important than rote memorization. Here are two cool quotes by him:
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.”
~Albert Einstein~
Now the real learning doesn’t seem to take place until middle school. I also think that the belief that if you are great at math you probably won’t be good at English and vice versa is bogus. Back then the great minds were doctors, lawyers, philosophers and scientists all rolled into one. The great minds of past eras really embodied the terms polymath and Renaissance Man. I think someone can be very good at all the subjects if given a proper schooling. I think it’s our culture and not a lack of genetic talent that has led to some decline. There is still hope. when people begin to tap into the powers of vision, creativity, imagination and unconditional love we will make great advancements again. People still care and still want to make a difference.
The human race has never stopped looking for power, wealth, or understanding. For some reason we need to know what everything is and how it works. We search for truth, but the truth changes. We strive for such intelligence but we are tricked easily into believing fabrications with nothing else but word of mouth. Even our brain makes use see, feel, and believe things that are not real or true. So how can we be all knowing anyway? I don’t think the human race will ever evolve, but that’s just me. I suppose I don’t really know though, huh. We have only been here for 200,000 years, so I guess we haven’t had much time to evolve. But then again how do we know that for sure either? I know of carbon dating but since I don’t know exactly how it works I am skeptical of it. There’s my human nature, skeptics. That’s another discussion though. Any way the point I’m trying to make is that we don’t know everything and there are just some things that we are not going to be able to find the truth about. Our arrogance and pride gets in the way of our research and findings. We aren’t as smart as we like to think.
I still don’t think there are any great inventors in our time. Yes, we have very intelligent people among us but that doesn’t make them Einstein. Mostly they just replicate something that was already invented by making it more ‘user friendly’ or accessible to the population. I’m talking about people that think outside of the box; people that ignore the critics when they are told that ‘they are stupid’ or ‘it will never work’. People who thought about the telephone and electricity before the there was a name for it. People like Shakespeare and Van Gogh who never saw a dime of recognition for their work but carried on any way through out their life doing what they loved.
1000 years ago only the rich children had tutors. Even a couple hundred years ago only the rich kids got a good education past middle school. This did them no good. Many great minds of the past were not well educated. And like you said, many intelligent people suffered from neurological disorders. Look at Lincoln and everything he’s done; he was pretty much self- educated.
There are many reason kids are the way they are today. When you do look at the many reasons you have to consider that American kids are extremely different than kids from other countries. I think its culture that makes up your education. I’m not sure what you mean by kids don’t get enough credit. Credit for what? Most kids are too busy getting knocked up to do something worthy of any kind of praise. Americans have way too much extra time which makes them easily distracted and therefore don’t study. They also have both parents working. Japanese kids on the other hand are in school year round. In Japan you pay to go to school until you reach college level and you have to pass rigorous tests to get into school. They don’t have the ‘no kid left behind’, which is probably why they are so much more advanced. I totally agree with creativity being the most important thing in education. It’s the knowing and thinking for yourself that makes you more intelligent. Creativity I definitely think is extremely important because that is what gets you to think outside the box. I definitely agree with you also about the memorization part of learning. You can’t learn by memorizing. Memorizing lets you pass the test but won’t allow you to apply it in your future. I also agree with you when you say the real learning doesn’t begin until middle school. By the time they get to middle school their brain has already passed its peak of absorbing knowledge. You have to start young. They should be learning much more than ABC’s in kindergarten. They should already know them by the time they get to kindergarten. Like I said it’s just the culture. You’ve got two full time parents who are too tired to put more effort in their child’s education and then you have terrible teachers mixed in with the good ones. Then there are the curriculums the teachers have to follow and the stupid no kid left behind rule.
I agree with the fact that if you are good at math you’ll be bad at English saying is bogus. People are misrepresenting the facts. It is proven that a person uses one side of the brain more than the other. If you use the left side of your brain more often then you are better at math and science and you are a logical person. If you use the right side of your brain you’re more artistic and imaginative.
Sorry this is so long…I didn’t even realize how long it was until I revised it. I tend to do that alot when I’m talking about something that interests me…oops