REFERENCE TWEET: https://twitter.com/HarperKingsley0/status/1578831231902703616
The only famous female historical figures mentioned in cartoons during the 80s/90s growing up was like Marie Curie. As a result, I have not remembered the names of any female inventors/creatives in the same way that like Ben Franklin has hung around.
Rather than changing the history of real historical people…
I wish creatives would focus on shining the light on lesser known historical figures and telling real stories.
I want to know real history. So it sucks that people watched "300" with tiny kids because "it’s historical"
I mean, good on you for being able to track down all that real historical stuff and be able to add your parts and create an amazing masterpiece of sight and sound. All claps to you.
But did you have to keep the name of the real historical figure you’re IRL effecting the memory of?
Sorry I’m off-topic… But I was disheartened by the "Bohemian Rhapsody"; shocked to find out the bad crew member on "Titanic" was actually a HERO; disgusted by what they’ve attempted to do to poor Marilyn; and skeptical that they let those guys from Compton rewrite history 🙄
I miss the days when someone would write their completely epic fanfic… Then file off the real names and turn their largely original interpretations into fully original characters set in beautiful historical settings in an OBVIOUSLY fantasy world.
Like, AU is fantasy.
Maybe I’m off-base, but yeah. I see AU as fantasy, while high-fantasy is swords and sorcery, and urban fantasy is magic and all that jazz in a modernish-world, likely in a city-setting.
⚡️
Sudden realization of self: I remember a time when genres were easier to find.
That’s like a modern variation of "When I was your age, I had to walk 10 miles to get to school everyday."
And I know people roll their eyes at the saying, but think about it: There was a time people were so spread out there was only one school and kids WALKED 10 miles to get there.
Like even now, all the historical shows and movies are from the perspective of rich people.
A vast FEAST of historical moments are being wiped from our collective consciousness because the only people able to read and write at the time were rich people. They were definitely the people with the most free time to enjoy reading for entertainment. (And they wouldn’t have to worry as much about the cost of lantern oil.)
The classics were written for rich people.
Like, if it was you back then, what would you write about:
- The horribleness of your hard life of poverty with all of its many indignities and a definite "eat the rich"-vibe?
- A story of love and romance in high society featuring beautiful people having beautiful people problems?
We all live on coin. And back in the day, there 100% WERE NOT any programs to feed the poor. Like, maybe you could get some food from some nuns or some rich people making penance or whatever, but otherwise they’d scoop up your body like the Little Matchstick Girl.
You’d maybe be a sad story in the newspaper, a little blurb some rich dude would puff his pipe past while looking for news he actually cared about.
Kind of like now, but with less of a social media presence left behind and probably no policing at all.
Like, it is ridiculous to find out how recent the "invention" of detective work is. Forensics. Basic evidence gathering.
Like, dudes today purposefully bungle their evidence gathering, but back in the day THEY SIMPLY DIDN’T KNOW.
They would WANT to solve a crime but fail. (Would be haunted by the memory of the terrible things they had seen and the murders they failed to solve. That was the pathos of the sad retired cop back in the day. Not having been in a violent gang and now angry at the way things have changed, but someone that tried so hard but simply didn’t know how to catch the person ruining so many lives (murder is bad, but there are other things that can ruin a family, including a serial philanderer leaving a string of pregnant people behind him) with such wild abandon.)
It was a time before instant communication.
You would pay some person to deliver a letter for you… and that person might just take your coin and run off. (DRABBLE: The letter had been so hard to write. Not just putting pen to page, but being able to find the money to buy the paper and envelope. Everything was so expensive. And then had come the days of work to save up enough to pay Old Man Hughes to deliver the letter. It had hurt so terribly bad when Mama had never responded. He longed to see her face once again, to hear her laugh. To know that she was still healthy and hale, and not more worn down than she had ever been.)
And if something happened to you your family would never know where you ended up, just that you were going to somewhere and never got there.
Like, with rich people, they had their manor houses and they’d keep their manor houses unless something "dramatic" happened. Otherwise, even if they weren’t currently staying at the manor, there would be a groundskeeper or someone to send word to family that you had made it there. And there would be much rejoicing and your harrying experience would become a tale of adventure to your laughing family and friends.
Meanwhile, poor people might be forced to move around. Hopefully to a better life, but maybe to the same kind of life somewhere else. Maybe their village would fail and the buildings would be left abandoned to the elements. Or maybe there would only be a single old neighbor left behind that only knows "the people that were there moved away about 5 years back. The new family moved in a week later."
There are real tragic stories of people that lost their family and never found them. How amazing to reunite them with their loved ones historically after death?
So why don’t we ever see the stories of a young person separated from their family, making it home… to an empty house?
There are so many historical people that lost their families yet had to continue living. And not all of them lost their family members to death.
How cool to compare the DNA of real historical figures to find out if they shared relatives?
Though I guess it would suck to think your whole life that you were directly related to a famous historical figure… then they run your DNA and find out that somewhere in your direct family line someone lied.
Your whole identity would be rattled. Your sense of self would change.
~Harper Kingsley
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