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The solstice marks the beginning of summer on our calendars, but back when people thought about these things differently, the longest day of the year was called "Midsummer." Whether you call it Litha or Midsummer (or, for my antipodean friends, the start of THAT season), I hope that yours was lovely. I just posted a story about a Midsummer in the far north in the days of the Vikings (no, this isn't a plug, though I'm of course delighted if you read it!), which posed an unusual challenge for me as a writer. The cultural barriers between that age and this one are vast. Not just obvious ones like religion and government, but quotidian ones like time keeping (the ancient Norse divided the day into eight segments of three hours each, and generally marked them by the positions of the sun over various land markings). The challenge is how to honor those differences without making the story virtually unreadable. One of my favorite movies, nominally about the Middle Ages, was Heath Ledger's A Knight's Tale. The film avoided formal or flowery language, period music or accurate clothing. Instead, it deliberately and obviously substituted language, music, dance and clothing that would convey the appropriate feeling to a modern audience. For instance, in one scene they had a formal medieval dance slide effortlessly into contemporary dance and pop music, because medieval music and dance doesn't convey "cool" and "sexy" to an audience in the twentieth century. It would have, though, back when those older dance forms were common. So, question for other authors. Have you dealt with this problem? How did you choose to resolve it? Merry Midsummer, everyone! |
Comments
Anachronistic Writing
I'm dealing with this in the other direction, in Allison Zero (this is definitely a plug, btw,) which doesn't address issues of writing history at all. Nor is it the opposite, despite being set in the future.
With historic writing you have to reflect who we were, and in many ways respect what was true in those people's times. With sci-fi, or writing set in the future, you have to respect who we or they will be. What brought them to that point. Both of them have one real truth, though. They're being written "now." We can only view the past or imagine the future through the perspective we have at the moment, in this time, that we as authors have. And there's no escaping that. In fact I think authors trying to solve every possible scenario in representing something is a distraction. It's ridiculous to think you can represent everything, even everything you know of. That's not how anything works. You choose for what is appropriate given the circumstance, and that influences what you do write, otherwise you'd be writing non-stop, until you die, without ever completing the preface. It is literally the work of a lifetime.
So then you take this to readers. Readers may want to be shown a dream of the future, or a prediction of where our follies will lead us if we don't stop. Readers may want to be shown how we ended up where we are, or to have the past cast in a new light than they've seen it in before, to have it recontextualised, and certain truths of it highlighted. Ultimately, though, it's about who we are now, and there's no escaping that. It has to be. It can't be anything else. Everything stems from the point we are in. And recognising where you push and play with that is vital to writing, and creation.
Negative relief
I think to some extent historical fiction highlights the shape of our own time, like an image shown in negative relief. For example, I don't discuss clothes at all in Midsummer. It's not that men and women dressed alike in the days of the Vikings, but clothing was primarily utilitarian and people only had a few things. Women's attire was, if anything, more drab than the men's. But there is a LOT of discussion about different roles. Which roles in the society are filled by women, and which by men?
There is lots of evidence to suggest that transgenderism has been around forever. But obviously the unholy tangle of biology and hormones, brain function and social expectations that comprise "gender" look different in different societies. Our current societal focus on clothing, for instance, may be driven in part by (a) a blurring of once-rigid norms around gender-specific work; and (b) the existence of cheap and abundant clothing options that make getting dressed a more expressive activity than it has been for most people in most places throughout history.
Emma
I see summer hats are in fashion this year.
I have an unpublished story set in 18th century North America and as I wrote it, I found myself falling into the rabbit hole of ancient calendars.
Most of us these days pay little attention to the sun, moon, planets, and stars but for our ancient ancestors these celestial objects had to be a central figure in their lives. As the days grew shorter and they looked up from a campfire, our ancestors surely noticed the changes in patterns. Some seem shocked to find stone markers tracked the seasons but I'm sure the understanding was far more wide spread than those who built these places. After all, they were just as smart as us, smarter in some ways.
In my story I dropped in hints using the number of full moons, of shortening/lengthening of days, and the suns position to give the reader an idea of time. One thing is for sure -- writing that story got me to look up more often.
Rabbit holes
I forgot to thank you properly for sending me down the time-and-calendar rabbit hole! I found it fascinating, though, so I couldn't resist seeing whether I could put in more historically accurate time references without bogging down the story. Initially I wrote that it took two hours to climb to the holy place; in the end, I substituted "two-thirds of an eykt," after earlier explaining that an eykt was an "eighth day." So, folks have to do a little math to get the idea. It could be what I call a "barrier to entry," making the story less easy to follow and thus less enjoyable. On the other hand, it's also a good way to subtly make the point that the society in the story has different assumptions than our own.
I'm going to have to track down your 18th Century story!
Emma
"barrier to entry," less easy to follow ...less enjoyable
On the contrary I think it makes it more enjoyable. You've done due diligence in educating us and challenged us to become involved in the culture. You often make me highlight and right click to search for the meaning of terms or location of places. I prefer to be challenged that way.
One of my favorite non-TG stories is "Watership Down" by Richard Adams. In it Adams carefully introduces differaent words or phrases, and their meaning, in Lupine, the rabbit's native tongue. Near the end one of the main characters states, “Silflay hraka, u embleer rah!” with no explanation as to its meaning, yet the reader can translate for themselves by then.
"Go outside and eat sh*t, you stinking prince."
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Longest day!
Lovely new hat, Emma! Darn, now I really need to get the next book posted so you can have an excuse to hold onto it stylishly to keep it from being blown off all the upcoming majestic cliffs! ;)
Whether it's science fiction, fantasy, or historical, trying to get the world building correct always requires effort. Some authors go absolutely and wonderfully overboard (Tolkien!), others keep it more 'modern' in tone and detail to maintain that empathic resonance with the current audience. In my own efforts, I've tried a mix of both. Tone has blended more 'mythic' writing for the historical/biblical 'flashback' scenes as well as crux instances reaching that level of import/focus, while using a contemporary casual conversational first person as the main thread.
Constructing other 'realms' (fae, Hell, etc.) has required days of spacing out pondering how the societies work, including how they keep time, all of that sort of thing, and I likely go overboard on such things in the planning - and then only use what seems appropriate in the writing as it happens. Which means a lot never hits the page, but that's okay. I figure that if *I* know it, then at least what portion actually gets used will be consistent and thus feel more 'real' to a reader. This includes research on other places in the modern world too - especially ones I've never been to. Google Earth VR is wonderful for this!! As is all the data available for looking up temperature/weather for different times of year all over the globe.
And hooray for another Emma Anne Tate story!!
- Erisian
Oh my
And if you haven't read Emma's story yet, go! Go now! It's great!!
In fact, here's a linky!! Midsummer
Balance
I think you've done a nice job in the Light saga of using "formal" speech as one way (among others) to signal that you are in what would be, for angels and powers, a more "formal" setting. (I mean, sure, you could have an cherub meet up with Lucifer and say, "Yo, Dude, you're stylin' in those new horns, but dial back the evil, 'kay?" That really wouldn't work for the kind of story you are writing). That makes the language that you are employing suitable for its "sphere," and the more formal usages don't overwhelm the story.
Your world-building is indeed very intricate and it works well. I think it might be harder, though, for a more compressed story form. A multi-volume epic allows you to have the details emerge organically, where they will flow with the story rather than deaden it.
Emma
Happy Solstice!
I like Solstice as a holiday. It has meaning in our agrarian origins as a species
dating back past the dawn of the written word, but it's one holiday I have no personal
baggage from my past regarding and so far there's been zero commercialized hype.
I couldn't even imagine trying to write credible Vikings, If I wanted to write a story like that
I'd probably set it on another planet with some vaguely Vikingish society I could make up from
scratch (who would probably have foreheads like horseshoe crabs, fight with bat'leths and all talk
like they're choking on a chicken bone- "HoQ Mokk Gak P'Tooey!") so I'll leave that topic to the first
millennium Northern European history buffs. If you live on earth's top hemisphere
have summer fun + keep hydrated, and if you're on the lower one stay toasty...
~hugs, Veronica
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
P'Tooey!
Veronica, even your comments are priceless. :) I'm sure we can ruin this holiday, too. It just needs a little effort, you know? We can start with Solstice Carols!
A very happy day-after-the-holiday-that-you-like; may it be ever free of baggage!
Emma
A Blue Moon
I can't help you with your writing quandary, but since we are talking solstice... A blue moon is a bit of an invented tradition or “modern American folklore". It refers to having two full moons in one month or the third full moon in a season containing 4. Lo and behold, this happens once every 2-3 years and it will happen this August 20th. I'll be celebrating in traditional trans fashion and would welcome anyone to join me at my favorite lake at a concert commemorating this inauspicious event. :DD
DeeDee
I wish I could be there
Sounds like fun, Dee — hoist a Blue Moon for me!
Emma
The shortest night
Was confusing the f out of the wildlife up here in GOC!
I spent the night in my tent and for the most part slept pretty well. This morning I can hear a lark giving it some above the veritable cacophony of bird song - truly up here on the edge of the moors it does feel like summer has arrived at last.
So happy days to all, I’ve got @ a 30 mile ride, generally downhill to York cycle rally where I will see one or two of you and a good number of other friends and perhaps new acquaintances.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
The course of your ride sounds appropriate
After the solstice, it’s all downhill . . . . :)
Emma
Here In The Antipodes
It's the shortest day and the longest night. We're subtropical where I live and there's not much evidence that the difference had much effect on pre-European inhabitants. They were much more focused on the wet and dry seasons. The coming days were when the scrub and forests were burned to drive the native animals into the waiting arms of the hunters.
Further south it was the season when the snow fell or the cold rains came, and the effects were much the same as in the Northern hemisphere. It was the time to get closer to the campfires and eat sparingly to conserve supplies until the spring. It was when the dingos prowled, looking to take the unwary child who had wandered too far from the warmth.
I wouldn't try to write a story about those times because there is no written record to provide an anchor for the narrative.
There is such an anchor for the times after Europeans reached our shores. Most did not understand that the seasons were reversed and planted the wrong crops at the wrong time. We also had (and still have) a distinctly different climate to northern areas. We are the land of flooding rains and brutal droughts, either of which can strike at any time, and shape our national character. One day I may write a story about that. In fact, in a way, I already have!
But what a blessing we all have, to see our wonderful Emma Anne Tate decked out in her summer finery.
Definitely a difference
The closer to the poles you travel, the wilder the seasonal variations get. In Reykjavik, the sun only dips below the horizon for three hours on June 20, and travels in a long, shallow arc across most of the horizon during the day, never getting higher than 48 degrees. But at the winter solstice, sunrise is at 11:30 and sunset at 3:30. That kind of variation just has to put a stamp on every aspect of life and culture.
You would think that Europeans would have figured out summer and winter by the time they got down to Australia, but I guess not. Stubborn bastards, our ancestors!
Emma
Yup
See my story Bian, set in the early part of last millennium in an alternate timeline. Among other things, I invented a couple of languages. Such fun! :)
I don't have to be historically accurate because alternate timeline, huzzah. :)
Also see my "His Inconstant Desire" for a different, more faithful, historical epoch. :)
Both stories are tons of fun for me but exhausting which is probably why neither is completely finished but just resting under a quiet cedar bush.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Not the cedar bush!
Perhaps the tum-tum tree, where they wait and wait, while in uffish thought you sit . . . .
Seriously, the “alternative timeline” or “similar culture, but in space” gambit definitely allows a writer more freedom. I found, though, that the Viking times are far enough distant that I could take some liberties. I’ve been thinking about setting a story in France’s Second Empire, and that would pose a much greater challenge.
Emma
Numbers
I once wrote a story set on an island, with a culture that hadn't developed numbers.
It was a pain.
There was a snake that I wanted to call a Ten-Stepper, because you would die from its bite within ten steps. I wrestled with that for weeks.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
For your next trick . . .
Maybe you should write a story about a culture that hasn’t developed the concept of nouns!
No numbers? I can see why that kept you awake. :)
Emma
I can see and appreciate the problems
I have yet to attempt to bridge a gap that far. I have done a little cross-cultural writing. Growing up in the western United States I have only ventured into Canada for fleetingly short times. One overnight in Vancouver BC as a guest of a church and one overnight in a campground on the shores of Lake Erie. Each of these had minimal interaction with locals and could in no way give me a feel for anything about the country or the culture.
What I have done is attempt a story set in the UK. The research for that required a lot of due diligence and the assistance of a couple of British natives just to make sure that my British characters didn't speak American. I have another that I'm still working on that will likewise need the help of some British natives. Required because much of the audience here reside on that side of the pond.
Both were and are set in modern times. To go back even as little as a hundred years would make the historical references nearly impossible for this poorly educated and travel stunted American.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
That poses a host of additional problems!
Writing stories set in Britain, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand poses a host of additional hurdles for an American writer. Because the language is so similar, we use expressions that we think are shared, only to find they aren’t. It’s not what you don’t know that gets you, it’s what you mistakenly think you know. Or worse, to use Will Rogers’ famous formulation, it’s “what you know for a fact, that just ain’t so.” On top of which, unlike writing about ancient Norsemen, there are plenty of folks on the site from those countries, who will spot the mistakes immediately. It’s embarrassing, but worse, it takes them out of the story.
I’ve written a couple stories that include scenes set in Britain, and/or scenes with British characters. I’ve been blessed to have beta-readers from the UK spot (most of) my mistakes before I posted. For sure, I wouldn’t have even attempted the stories without their help.
Emma
A boy named Sue
I see what you mean. FYI that applies to old Norsemen as well.
I remember a story that used to be here with an old Norse setting that begins with a boy being dragged away. The boy had a period appropriate name. The only thing was that it was, and is, a female name. The authors had not intended that. The fact that my great-aunt had that name detracted somewhat from the story. (My great-aunt passed away while clearing snow at the age of 98).
What about the boy? She took another name as a girl.