On Chronological Snobbery
(A Rant)
When researching through mythology and history for my fantasy works, I think it's an important point to remember the dangers of Chronological Snobbery.
What is Chronological Snobbery?
Roughly, it is a term coined by Professor CS Lewis used to describe people who assume their time and culture are right and how others which came before are obviously wrong.
A good example of this is the general idea of Modern Progress, which has its distant roots grounded in The Renaissance and its nearer roots embedded with the Industrial Revolution.
Are we living in the greatest moment in all of Time?
Isn't that a bit conceited to assume we are?
What about other times and places?
Now, it could possibly be an easy route to take, in trying to say that oh, well since we don't live in 1548 or some such era, we can't very well say, either way, which has it better.
As my good friend, fellow author, and budding Medieval Historian, R.E. Dean would say (probably),
"PREPOSTEROUS!"
When you read old works, try and understand what the authors mean - not what you assume they might mean. One of the wonderful qualities of History is how it can tell us exactly what WAS witnessed, believed, and considered important. Professor Lewis, while remembered mainly for his outspokenly Christian-based fantasy and lay-man theological works, also wrote other things, too.
(As a British Professor, he was sort of expected to, you know...)
In one of the other excellent books he wrote, On Words, Lewis explores the importance of how words are used through the ages, by following a few of them. By doing so, one can learn just how easily passages from Shakespeare to Caesar can be misread because linguistical context is misunderstood.
Will we always only read things 'correctly'?
Is reading and understanding 'rightly' all there is to enjoying a good book?
(*rolls eyes) What do you think?
But the ideas and sentiments behind what is being recorded through History and Myth - the storied voices and mirrored Truths which other eyes witnessed and other hands now long turned to dust touched come to life. They rise like long shadows cast down through the years to illuminate our own modern history and everyday lives. When we read intelligently, we are not reading books. We are peering through another's eyes.
Good History does that. - It is not merely the analytical recording of tedious events, but second-life. When you pick up the Illiad, it's not assigned reading or something you're finally getting around to... You see the world as it was thousands of years ago. You're not learning dates, you're re-experiencing other people's lives, passed down through countless oral stories and translations, because what they saw and felt is important. Primal, even. And we're not too different from them, on a human level, either.
But only, if we continue to learn - and also think critically, with intelligence and an open mind.
To remain ignorant is to live in the Dark.
...
Other excellent reads relating to this rant include the following:
- Lies My Teacher Told Me
- The Book That Made Your World
- From Homer to Harry Potter
- The Discarded Image
- The Greek Way
- On Faerie Stories
Read On!
- Ryan
PS, my up-and-coming fantasy novel, Rienspel, releases THIS Halloween!!
(Don't worry, I'll keep you posted)
