The Wood Beyond The World Forum Dramatic Moments in Time

Feel free to ignore this. This doesn't really have to do with anything, just some random thoughts.

I wonder why people pay more attention to fictional stories, even stories set in the real world without a hint of fantasy, more than the real history of the world. I was just thinking about this while watching a D-Day special on the Military Channel. I started thinking about some of the most dramatic moments in history, the moments when I would most like to be a fly on the wall, or even one of the random ordinary people that witnessed them.

Events like the destruction of Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted, or the assassination of Caesar, or when all of Rome burned to the ground while the insane Nero stood by and watched, or when an army of Celts rampaged through the Roman empire and marched right through the gates of Rome itself, the first enemy to every do so. Or later events, like witnessing the rise of Hitler and such universe-changing events like the dropping of the Atom bombs and the landings at Normandy, and the final battle for Stalingrad. Even the assassination of President Kennedy, the bombing of Baghdad and Saddam's trial and execution, or the first time the US sent men into space. All of these events encompass the emotion and excitement and even worry and fear that we get from the best battle sequences and most tender interactions between friends that we've read in our favorite books.

I don't really know. I just think it's funny that people tend to ignore or think little of the huge world events that inspired most writers to write anything in the first place.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "most people." I know lots of folks (men especially) who don't read much fiction, even despise it, but love history (often obsessed with a specific period or phenomenon (American Civil War, Nazi Germany, etc.))

And apparently the History Channel is pretty widely viewed, along with documentaries such as appear on PBS etc.

It may be younger people who aren't interested in history -- probably because it's been presented poorly to them in school. I know I suffered through a lot of rote learning of historical facts in junior high and high school, but devoured works by really talented historians whenever I stumbled across them. Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples (unabridged), William Shirer's The Nightmare Years and Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and that peculiar memoir of WWI's Arab Revolt against the Ottoman empire, T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I was always happy to read a good historical novel, too -- Howard Fast for American history, Mary Renault for ancient Greece.

I think I'd write historical novels, if it didn't require so much research. I readily absorb cultural history, but don't have a lot of patience for getting every single detail right, especially in terms of dates and events. With fantasy I can make up my own history, let it mirror what I know of this world's past, put twists on it to make a thematic point, etc.

I think it really boils down to folks not reading -- they read for practical reasons -- get a better job, have a better marriage, etc. -- and for escape -- most don't read in order to think -- a pity. The ones who do read out of real curiosity and interest in things outside themselves are the ones I'm writing for, in my own little way.

I had to read the Seven Pillars of Wisdom (non-fiction]. How often does the namesake of a favorite bigger-than-life character starring in one's alltime favorite movie write a book covering in minute detail the real events in one of the strangest lives ever lived.

Andy, if you want to see fictionalized history read anything by James Clavell. As engaging as any fiction and as informative of historical periods as the best history books, due to the effectiveness of his putting reader in the shoes of those who took part in the making of that history. Read Taipan, for instance, and see how Hong Kong was born from the Opium Wars. Read Nobel House to see what Hong Kong had become by 1963. Gaijin puts us in the turmoil of Japan soon after it opened to the West, just a generation after the birth of Hong Kong. It doesn't get much better than this.

I think people who don't take time to read were never taught the worth of reading; or at least they did not think it something worth continuing even when their lives became more cluttered with having children or playing video shoot'em ups. Not reading is, for example, most responsible for our citizenry not knowing how their government works, which in turn causes them to harbor grave misconceptions and make poor political judgements.

I think people do pay attention to history, otherwise there would be no need for publishers and agents who specialize in historical fiction.

The trick is bringing a historical event to life. It's one thing to read about WWI in a high school textbook. It's another thing to read All Quiet On The Western Front. Of course, that's not really historical fiction, because Erich Maria Remarque actually lived through the Great War...but that's getting me off topic.

Most of the major historical events Andy mentioned have actually been covered in literary form. Shakespeare did Julius Caesar...another guy whose name I can't remember did Pompeii (Roman Polanski is currently adapting it for film...it's supposedly going to be the most expensive movie ever shot on European soil. I'm stoked!)...there are others, of course, that I can't think of off the top of my head. In short, the tricky thing about writing historical fiction, is finding an event that hasn't been done to death...or, at least, finding a new perspective on something otherwise familiar to millions. This is why I can't watch The History Channel...I swear, if I see one more WWII documentary...wait, what was the topic, again?

Historical Fiction of Mori Ogai is one of my favorite most boring historical fictions of Japanese history.

I only say boring because it is a lot of name reading. Paragraphs of character introduction and description by virtue of what families they belong to and how those family members branch out into the historical world and what not.

but historical stories about vendettas and prisoner transports, and a mass sepuku before the French Consul (which was awesome), as well as a chinese poet and her love for a noble man -- that kind of stuff.

But hey, it isn't roman overkill.

check out this link, it;'s an e-book and you can read some of it right now.