Need a New Perspective? Try Historical Fiction.

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From Publishers Weekly:

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami recently wrote in the New Yorker, “All we can do is breathe the air of the period we live, carry with us the special burdens of our time, and grow up within those confines. That’s just how things are.”

His words set me thinking about today’s adolescents, the first full-fledged generation born and raised in a digital world, and how his words applied with a pertinent severity to them. Their lives are so locked into the world technology created for them, and I use the phrase “locked into” advisedly. In many ways, technology has built a cage around them—one from which they have yet to find an escape.

By now, those of us of earlier generations have become well aware of Gen Zers’ compulsive allegiance to cellphones, their reliance on text messages rather than the telephone as a means of communication, their abandonment of TV and film and literature in favor of YouTube. These are, one might say, the outer walls of their prison. But there are inner walls, too, within which they are even further confined.

To backtrack a bit, one might argue that peer influence began its ascendancy after WWII, with the baby boomer generation. And the value of peer influence has grown steadily ever since, culminating—to my way of thinking—with the present generation of adolescents. Technology has boosted the value of peer influence to the max. Video games, dating apps, and Instagram have defined and limited the way—to return to Murakami’s more general observation of mankind—they see the world and themselves. At one point in time, peer pressure came from one’s group of friends. Now it comes 24/7 from every corner of the globe.

My focus here, though, is specifically on social interactions (or lack thereof): the codes of behavior by which adolescents live, codes reinforced by the technology they use. Because I teach 18-year-olds, I have the opportunity to witness this on a daily basis. They are continuously conscious of what others, friends and enemies alike, are posting about them on the web. They seem to rise and fall on the number of likes they receive for any given effort. In short, they’ve succumbed to a new, multidimensional kind of peer-engineered conformity.

. . . .

[I]n writing my latest novel, If Anyone Asks, Say I Died from the Heartbreaking Blues, a coming-of-age novel set in 1960, I began to see the relevance of historical fiction in a new light—in particular, how such fiction allows adolescent readers a chance to see the landscape of love and romance in a way that offers an alternative to what they now experience. Whether the period is the Middle Ages, the Renaissance or Victorian era, or, as in If Anyone Asks, the 1960s, an alternative is presented; at the very least, it provides a basis for discussion.

Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly

While reading the OP, PG was reminded of advice that Mrs. PG received from her thesis advisor in graduate school. He said one of the best ways of gaining an initial understanding of a nation/time in history was to read a well-written historical novel on that topic.

7 thoughts on “Need a New Perspective? Try Historical Fiction.”

  1. I’ve always thought the best way to introduce children/teens to historical periods is via a good historical novel, and then teach a bit of contextual history around it.

    You can only cover so much in a generalist way (European & American history, some Asian – for a limited number of periods) in the lower grades, but what you cover will stick, and serve as a better scaffold to build upon than if they just had unadulterated history lessons.

  2. With all due respect to Mrs. PG and writers and readers of historical fiction, I prefer reading material written in earlier times for jolting my brain to life. Historical fiction written by folks today views the past through the lens of the present. There’s nothing wrong with reading historical fiction, if you enjoy it, more power to you, but if you want to twist your head around, read something written in the 12th century, or the 5th century BCE.

    When I was a kid, reading the life of David in the King James Version in Sunday school was to experience the savagery, cruelty, and treachery of a different phase of civilization. It was disturbing, but it taught me something about humanity that has stuck with me. Kids today should get the same opportunity. Not necessarily, reading the KJV, but reading anything from far enough in the past that they can get a taste for themselves how varied human existence truly is.

    I suppose the best of historical fiction provides some of this, but too often, when I read historical fiction, it seems to be current modes of thought in odd costumes, which can be good, but it is nothing like a dose of the real thing.

  3. I’m a little from column A — read historical fiction, and a little from column B — read fiction from historical time periods. I trust Jane Austen to represent her era correctly, but her mores and assumptions are so different from that of modern people that it’s not a given a modern writer would portray her era accurately. Not that it can’t be done!

    I do similar with modern cultural settings. It’s one thing to read a book set in a foreign locale, it’s another thing to read a book from someone from that culture. I think you have to mix the two to get a good overview. I’m reminded that one advantage of Pearl S. Buck writing stories set in China is that as an outsider writing to Westerners, she took the time to detail customs that are no longer practiced in modern China. Insiders take for granted that other insiders will know their ways, and don’t bother explaining them, but outsiders take for granted that they do have to explain.

    I definitely like the idea of making sure to include history lessons with the historical fiction. My high school English classes gave us an overview of British history just to explain Shakespeare’s worldview and references. I had one history teacher who gave us novels or biographies to go with the relevant time period. That didn’t happen often enough 🙂

  4. <emTo backtrack a bit, one might argue that peer influence began its ascendancy after WWII, with the baby boomer generation. And the value of peer influence has grown steadily ever since, culminating—to my way of thinking—with the present generation of adolescents.

    Regarding this, I think it was a mistake for schools to set up classes so that everyone is the same age, give or take a few months. It’s an unnatural scenario, and you basically have kids at the same stage of development socializing each other, with dubious results.

    Years back, some edu-bloggers were pointing out that an advantage of K-8 schools, as opposed to middle schools, is that the younger kids have the older kids to look up to and emulate. The older kids have the responsibility of modeling behavior for the younger kids, and at times they take responsibility for the younger ones. The arrangement fosters maturity in both sets of kids, more so than the one where the kids stay strictly with their age mates.

  5. In agreeing with the OP (and Mr. PG), I have to point out the limited scope of a couple of the Comments here. My current historical interest is in the Upper Paleolithic/Pleistocene era. There are really only two ways to read about that: scientific papers/books and historical novels. I read one and write the other.

    • I sat down on a log with a piece of flint and a rock a few years back and tried to fashion a blade. Then the goal became to fashion anything resembling a tool. And the final result? A bunch of pieces of pointy flint. I decided to call them small arrow heads. They were sharp, but I imagine my ancient ancestor would look on them with disgust. Totally different world.

  6. Perhaps one of the most successful historical fiction efforts of the last few years has been Rush Limbaugh’s Rush Revere series. It’s aimed at kids and follows the adventures of Rush Revere and a talking horse through the the founding of the US.

    He’s quite open about it. He set out to teach history, and used fiction as the vehicle.

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