History
is written by the victors. So said Winston Churchill. Napoleon called it a
fable agreed upon.
In
my current WIP, a pre-teen learns that what she knows of history, even recent
history, is but a version of it and not the most interesting version.
Young
people learn from books and increasingly from games and other visual media, (such
as movies) what passes for the “true” story of humanity’s past.
Even
scientific truths are augmented by storytelling. Think of the visualization in
school textbooks of what the dinosaurs looked like. These are hypothetical
guesses, periodically revised. Yet these images are taken as true depictions of
a world now gone.
The
greatest achievement of winning in battle may not be the spoils of war or avoiding
the pain of being ravaged. It may be that you and yours get to be the ones
telling the story of who did what to whom.
Somehow,
perhaps because I began my life in an embattled region, I felt the need to
tackle this thorny matter. Even more, it
seems all the more important to make younger readers consider it.
Storytellers
have an outsized responsibility, one few can begin to achieve, to have their
audience made aware of what a vantage point does to perception.
Because
perception is reality is more than a cliché. It is what we carry forward
and use to make decisions. “Knowing history as to not repeat it” misses the
point. Whose history do we know? Because, Virginia, it seems to me we are repetitiously
repeating the repeats.
5 comments:
I have a non-fiction illustrated book coming out next year about a fascinating Canadian artist who lived from 1910 to 2010, Doris McCarthy. She kept a diary from age 12 to about 90, and she also wrote 4 autobiographies - interesting to read the sections from her diaries that she chose to include. It must've been interesting for her to write her memories using her diaries from her earlier life since her 80 year-old eyes would have seen the world in a very different light.
Yes, Mirka, one of the reasons I like your current WIP is because it does help the reader understand that history, as we know it, is not the full picture.
And, of course, it seems to me that all the fake news that's currently being circulated in society makes it harder and harder to know what's really the truth.
Evelyn, as one of the few who read my WIP, I appreciate your input as well as the feedback help you gave me on the third draft.
Sifting through the noise to get to the truth is becoming harder and harder. All we can do is to pray for the Holy Spirit to consecrate us in truth, try to tell the stories that have placed upon our hearts, the truth that good always wins eventually.
When I recall what I learned about American history makes me want to rewrite the textbooks. Fortunately, others are correcting the incomplete, untrue “facts” we were fed. Yes, the victors told the story as they wanted to, not from the perspective of those who were conquered and enslaved. Also, history has generally been about the so-called accomplishments of men (who killed and
pillaged!) and little to nothing about women’s roles except as queens, mothers, misteesses.
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