History Through The Eyes....

[PoliticalChic]

....of an author of historical fiction.


History is an important area of study.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
...the words of 'American' philosopher, George Santayana





1. History is an important area of study.
Sometimes, it becomes no more than a recitation of dates and the dry facts, events in a timeline.
When it does so, it reduces the interest most people have in the discipline.

Of course, it is the import, the conclusions that can be drawn about what happened, what went right and what went wrong. As Santayana noted.

There is a need to make the lessons of history more accessable....more memorable.
And the role is filled by author who research the facts, and then do their magic: bring the facts to life.


2. So....'historical fiction'....
It is a gross exaggeration to claim that it is the second term that operates in all cases.
The best of the genre never falsifies the facts for the purposes of the tale.
And I'll show that in this thread.



3. I have two such examples in mind.....both based on historical facts.
Two examples that use history...real, factual, historical realities.....made more life-like by 'fleshing them out' in a literary milieu.


In the first, Mao's cadres attacking the 'eternal villains' in the communist's version of geo-political reality...
...and in the second, the same pattern in a larger context, the occupation and repression of Tibet under the Chinese Communists.
Two examples of 'historical fiction' that are very much the reality, the truth of recent history.

I challenge any who doubt the truth to show that the 'history' in these examples of 'historical fiction' are not substantially correct....and even worse.




Historical fiction is most often history writ large.

Pun intended.

 

[PoliticalChic]

4. The Red Banner Youth Brigade, China under Communism:


"The Kwan family met the Youth Brigade in their living room, which had shrunk to the size of a prison cell due to the number of shouting youth surrounding the family. They gazed at the youth in bewilderment unable to understand the evil that they had done.

“Do you repent? Do you confess to clinging to the old values?”
“Confess and seek reeducation and we will spare you!”
“You are guilty of old thought, old culture, old values…”
“You have built a lackey’s empire on the backs of the people!”

Kwan and his wife, along with their twelve-year-old son were bound and defenseless.

“You are part of the old…”

The tall leader of the cadre engages in a furious dialectic, spittle flying from his mouth.

“You are part of the old! Do you repent?”
With every line he spoke, he swung the black baton, heavy as a cricket bat.
“You will reform your decadent ways!”

“The old ways are a threat to the collective good of the people!”
“You will die if you retain your old beliefs!”
“Repent! Reject the old! Admit you have been seduced by unbeneficial and decadent thought!”


It continued for endless minutes- until the blows the student rained down stole the life from the family. The iron-tipped baton left bloody forms at his feet as he recited the catechism the students thirstily sought to hear."
From the novel “The Stone Monkey,” by Jeffery Deaver

 

[Wyatt earp]

Ny and RW will be posting....

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[ogibillm]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

 

[rightwinger]

Ny and RW will be posting....

5

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Shhhh....its too early

PC hasn't started her FDR rant yet

 

[PoliticalChic]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

Stay tuned.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Ny and RW will be posting....

5

4

3

2

1

Shhhh....its too early

PC hasn't started her FDR rant yet

Y'mean you're already prepared to post your typical "Is not, issss nooootttttttttt!"?


As I am overly generous, and don't want you to have yet another wasted day in your jejune existence....

....I may have to add Roosevelt's guilt to the tread.



Say please.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Ny and RW will be posting....

5

4

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How'd you know????

 

[ogibillm]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

Stay tuned.

how about not being a jackass and including the relevant information in your op next time? or are you having to search through wherever you're copying and pasting from to find the info?

seriously, i'm looking for a good book to read. if you have a recommendation just give it

 

[rightwinger]

Ny and RW will be posting....

5

4

3

2

1

Shhhh....its too early

PC hasn't started her FDR rant yet

Y'mean you're already prepared to post your typical "Is not, issss nooootttttttttt!"?


As I am overly generous, and don't want you to have yet another wasted day in your jejune existence....

....I may have to add Roosevelt's guilt to the tread.



Say please.

Waiting......waiting

Here it comes

<should I respond by mocking your posts or pictures showing how great FDR was?>

 

[PoliticalChic]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

Stay tuned.

how about not being a jackass and including the relevant information in your op next time? or are you having to search through wherever you're copying and pasting from to find the info?

seriously, i'm looking for a good book to read. if you have a recommendation just give it

The only jackass is the one voluntarily subscribing to the thread....and actually imagining that he can tell me how to present my own posts.


You decide what you'd like to read, I'll decide what is relevant and what isn't.
You've been dissed and dismissed....now, back under that rock.

 

[ogibillm]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

Stay tuned.

how about not being a jackass and including the relevant information in your op next time? or are you having to search through wherever you're copying and pasting from to find the info?

seriously, i'm looking for a good book to read. if you have a recommendation just give it

The only jackass is the one voluntarily subscribing to the thread....and actually imagining that he can tell me how to present my own posts.


You decide what you'd like to read, I'll decide what is relevant and what isn't.
You've been dissed and dismissed....now, back under that rock.

so you start a thread to discuss two books and you won't even give the names of them.
good job.

 

[edthecynic]

History is an important area of study.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
...the words of 'American' philosopher, George Santayana

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

- George Bernard Shaw

 

[PoliticalChic]

In post #2 above, Jeffrey Deaver paints a dramatic portrait of a the results of communist 're-education.'


5. Lest there be any doubt about the accuracy of the 'historical fiction'....

"Through 1966, secondary schools and colleges closed in China. Students -- many from the age of nine through eighteen -- followed Maoist directives to destroy things of the past that they believed should be no part of the new China: old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking -- the "four olds."


In a state of euphoria and with support from the government and army, the students went about China's cities and villages, wrecking old buildings, old temples and old art objects.


To make a new and wonderful China, the Red Guards attacked as insufficiently revolutionary their parents, teachers, school administrators and everyone they could find as targets, including "intellectuals" and "capitalist roaders" within the Communist Party.


Filled with righteousness, the power of their numbers, and support from Mao, the campaigns for revolutionary change became violent. People seen as evil were beaten to death. Thousands of people died, including many who had committed suicide."
China from Mao to Deng


Clearly Jeffrey Deaver portrayed the facts of history.

 

[edthecynic]

Ny and RW will be posting....

5

4

3

2

1

Shhhh....its too early

PC hasn't started her FDR rant yet

Y'mean you're already prepared to post your typical "Is not, issss nooootttttttttt!"?


As I am overly generous, and don't want you to have yet another wasted day in your jejune existence....

....I may have to add Roosevelt's guilt to the tread.



Say please.

Waiting......waiting

Here it comes

<should I respond by mocking your posts or pictures showing how great FDR was?>

Stroke it a few times, .... It'll come!

 

[PoliticalChic]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

Stay tuned.

how about not being a jackass and including the relevant information in your op next time? or are you having to search through wherever you're copying and pasting from to find the info?

seriously, i'm looking for a good book to read. if you have a recommendation just give it

The only jackass is the one voluntarily subscribing to the thread....and actually imagining that he can tell me how to present my own posts.


You decide what you'd like to read, I'll decide what is relevant and what isn't.
You've been dissed and dismissed....now, back under that rock.

so you start a thread to discuss two books and you won't even give the names of them.
good job.

It appears that I am the flame to your moth.
I can understand why you cannot stay away: a subconscious need for the education that I provide.


OK....first.....learn to read more carefully.
"so you start a thread to discuss two books"
Wrong.

This is what I posted in the OP:

"So....'historical fiction'....
It is a gross exaggeration to claim that it is the second term that operates in all cases.
The best of the genre never falsifies the facts for the purposes of the tale.
And I'll show that in this thread.


3. I have two such examples in mind.....both based on historical facts.
Two examples that use history...real, factual, historical realities.....made more life-like by 'fleshing them out' in a literary milieu."



Clearly the thread is about the value of 'historical fiction."

Notice that I provided Deaver's passage, and documented its authenticity.



Try to work harder in the future.

 

[PoliticalChic]

History is an important area of study.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
...the words of 'American' philosopher, George Santayana

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

- George Bernard Shaw

Are you quoting the Hitler supporter and enthusiast of genocide?

Excellent.

 

[edthecynic]

History is an important area of study.
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
...the words of 'American' philosopher, George Santayana

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.

- George Bernard Shaw

Are you quoting the Hitler supporter and enthusiast of genocide?

Excellent.

No, I'm not quoting YOU!

Time for your "historical fiction" of Shaw!
3
2
1
Go.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

i like historical fiction. can you give the books and authors?

The Greatness of FDR by...

 

[CrusaderFrank]

In post #2 above, Jeffrey Deaver paints a dramatic portrait of a the results of communist 're-education.'


5. Lest there be any doubt about the accuracy of the 'historical fiction'....

"Through 1966, secondary schools and colleges closed in China. Students -- many from the age of nine through eighteen -- followed Maoist directives to destroy things of the past that they believed should be no part of the new China: old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking -- the "four olds."


In a state of euphoria and with support from the government and army, the students went about China's cities and villages, wrecking old buildings, old temples and old art objects.


To make a new and wonderful China, the Red Guards attacked as insufficiently revolutionary their parents, teachers, school administrators and everyone they could find as targets, including "intellectuals" and "capitalist roaders" within the Communist Party.


Filled with righteousness, the power of their numbers, and support from Mao, the campaigns for revolutionary change became violent. People seen as evil were beaten to death. Thousands of people died, including many who had committed suicide."
China from Mao to Deng


Clearly Jeffrey Deaver portrayed the facts of history.

Maoist directives to destroy things of the past that they believed should be no part of the new China: old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking -- the "four olds."

That's actually being practiced right now in our public education system