The inverse error is to treat history as mere story, process it with the same part of your mind that handles the novels you read.
For good and bad, I think we’re stuck with that error. We don’t have separate imagining and experiencing systems for fictional and historical stories.
It has the potential to be liberating and empowering, by finding stories that empower and move you. But another way to describe such stories is historical porn, always more action packed, meaningful, and moving than real life, so that real life no longer motivates. I had recently been excited by the possibilities of fiction to change a life for the better, and now I’m seeing something of the other side of the pancake.
That was a good read, but I’m sure the fictionalized movie will be much more exciting. Art is about amplifying meaning and emotion.
Historical stories have an advantage in their association with real life, so that that story borrows meaning and significance from other stories and real consequences, but I don’t know enough of the history to make a big difference here.
For good and bad, I think we’re stuck with that error. We don’t have separate imagining and experiencing systems for fictional and historical stories.
It has the potential to be liberating and empowering, by finding stories that empower and move you. But another way to describe such stories is historical porn, always more action packed, meaningful, and moving than real life, so that real life no longer motivates. I had recently been excited by the possibilities of fiction to change a life for the better, and now I’m seeing something of the other side of the pancake.
It can try. Are you sure you’re reading the right history?
Here is a sample about the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, it’s just a page long, read it all.
That was a good read, but I’m sure the fictionalized movie will be much more exciting. Art is about amplifying meaning and emotion.
Historical stories have an advantage in their association with real life, so that that story borrows meaning and significance from other stories and real consequences, but I don’t know enough of the history to make a big difference here.