Across a roaring hill {Paws for thought}

Thursday, 8 January 2004

I. Am. Very. Very. Very. Sleepy.

But hey, I had a fun stay-up last night, watching Priscilla again, eating delectable dessert and working on my 100 things. I have about sixty-one so far. Won't be long now!

Here's some scattered thoughts from the other evening.

History is a formalisation. In our reading of it we learn only what the historian wanted to reveal, and this is more often than not a cold, objective perspective; glorified and/or exaggerated. The more recent the writer, the less relevant it is to apply our perceptions to the history, for the further apart in style they are. Can we know how, or if, people back in time thought and felt differently to us in all aspects of life? I find historical fiction better to read because it attempts a more subjective, emotive, human perspective. But is it just pasting modern sensibilities over true possible occurrences? I want to know how people regarded one another and their world, how their thoughts ran, what motivated them. This seems to be something that cannot be known by anyone from a different time, unless we can look into past lives, but then it would be us using our modern 'eyes' to see the past. And besides, each mind is a realm unto itself which is difficult to know: we cannot truly know the mind of another person of our time, or, at times, our own.

~ posted by Anna @ 12:27 PM
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Thursday, 8 January 2004

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