I have to confess to having dropped history as a subject at the earliest possibiity opportunity (and have since been reading biographies of people that interest me as a means of repairing the gaping holes in my knowledge!).
I have a nervousness of retrospection, partly because history is so often used as a figleaf for uphelpful political posturing and partly because we can only ever look at the evidence (however representative or truthful that may or may not be) with a modern mind. We are all products of our own times, no? Oxford is a great place for the promotion of Early Music - played on "authentic instruments" (replicas) and often in period costume - but with contact lenses, electric light, printed sheet music and WITHOUT fleas, TB, hunger and fear! I like the spectacle for its difference, and for its assistance in showing how things have moved on, but I'm always conscious that my enjoyment is on an artistic level and I take a pretty lenient view of the anachronisms, because I don't want to keep modernity out of my view of the past.
There's a similar take in my fondness for Minekura's Saiyuki manga (Journey to the West), which has a 7thC Chinese priest using a Smith and Wesson and riding in a Jeep. Oh, and I saw a beer can on more than one occasion! It somehow always the past to poke fun at the present.
I do appreciate decent (reliable) research and admire enormously the way that some people can dedicate themselves to investigating a minute or arcane topic for several years (PhD students spring to mind). I don't think I have the patience or application to do this myself though! The opportunity cost in terms of losing a broad perspective is too high a price for me to pay.
Meanwhile, I'll enjoy all the Saiyuki, Gackt, literature, art, music, martial arts crossovers that I can find!
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-10-25 12:17 am (UTC)I have a nervousness of retrospection, partly because history is so often used as a figleaf for uphelpful political posturing and partly because we can only ever look at the evidence (however representative or truthful that may or may not be) with a modern mind. We are all products of our own times, no? Oxford is a great place for the promotion of Early Music - played on "authentic instruments" (replicas) and often in period costume - but with contact lenses, electric light, printed sheet music and WITHOUT fleas, TB, hunger and fear! I like the spectacle for its difference, and for its assistance in showing how things have moved on, but I'm always conscious that my enjoyment is on an artistic level and I take a pretty lenient view of the anachronisms, because I don't want to keep modernity out of my view of the past.
There's a similar take in my fondness for Minekura's Saiyuki manga (Journey to the West), which has a 7thC Chinese priest using a Smith and Wesson and riding in a Jeep. Oh, and I saw a beer can on more than one occasion! It somehow always the past to poke fun at the present.
I do appreciate decent (reliable) research and admire enormously the way that some people can dedicate themselves to investigating a minute or arcane topic for several years (PhD students spring to mind). I don't think I have the patience or application to do this myself though! The opportunity cost in terms of losing a broad perspective is too high a price for me to pay.
Meanwhile, I'll enjoy all the Saiyuki, Gackt, literature, art, music, martial arts crossovers that I can find!