History, legends, heartbreak
Feb. 15th, 2012 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatI was musing a weeks ago about historical novels, and the fact that I can very seldom get emotionally involved in a story starring real people. Even in novels that avoid blatant historical errors, an annoying little presence in my mind keeps jumping up and down, shouting, "but they didn't really have this conversation in these exact words, or feel these exact emotions! There is a real story, yes, but this isn't it! It's all fake!" It creates a distancing effect, a barrier against emotional involvement. There's absolutely no logic to it. I can quite happily immerse myself in a story of a fictional character who rampages through history doing various deeds that never happened, or even doing deeds that in real life were performed by somebody else. Within the world of fiction, my emotions can accept this as real and allow themselves to get immersed, whereas with real people, they usually dig in their heels and refuse to get past that pesky barrier.
From then, I went on to muse about the fact that I sometimes have a similar problem with novels that are fairly straight retelling of familiar myths and legends. In this case, it's not a barrier caused by some Real Story lurking in the background, but a barrier caused by the fact that there is no single Real Story. If a story has been told over hundreds or thousands of years in numerous different forms, once again those illogical, treacherous emotions want to kick in and say, "Ah, this is just one version out of many. There's no point caring, because it's not real."
In fact, I was going to write a post about all this a few weeks ago, but didn't get round to it. And it's just as well that I didn't, really, since I'm currently reading Gillian Bradshaw's Arthurian trilogy, and my emotions are very definitely engaged. I'm about a fifth of the way through the final book, and I've taken to whimpering, gasping "No!" at the screen, and even rushing in to Pellinor in tears, saying, "Arthur's kingdom is going to fall and I don't want it to happen!" I don't think I've really felt the tragedy of the Arthurian story since... well, since I was 11 and first discovering the tales via Roger Lancelyn Green? A bit older, and reading The Once and Future King? Ever? Even though it's breaking my heart, I'm really rather pleased that I can still feel this way about a (broadly) familiar tale. Maybe I should give novels about real people another go, too.
EDIT: Oh, and because I'm currently so emotionally involved in this series, please don't leave comments along the lines of, "I hate that series and here are all the things that are wrong with it.
From then, I went on to muse about the fact that I sometimes have a similar problem with novels that are fairly straight retelling of familiar myths and legends. In this case, it's not a barrier caused by some Real Story lurking in the background, but a barrier caused by the fact that there is no single Real Story. If a story has been told over hundreds or thousands of years in numerous different forms, once again those illogical, treacherous emotions want to kick in and say, "Ah, this is just one version out of many. There's no point caring, because it's not real."
In fact, I was going to write a post about all this a few weeks ago, but didn't get round to it. And it's just as well that I didn't, really, since I'm currently reading Gillian Bradshaw's Arthurian trilogy, and my emotions are very definitely engaged. I'm about a fifth of the way through the final book, and I've taken to whimpering, gasping "No!" at the screen, and even rushing in to Pellinor in tears, saying, "Arthur's kingdom is going to fall and I don't want it to happen!" I don't think I've really felt the tragedy of the Arthurian story since... well, since I was 11 and first discovering the tales via Roger Lancelyn Green? A bit older, and reading The Once and Future King? Ever? Even though it's breaking my heart, I'm really rather pleased that I can still feel this way about a (broadly) familiar tale. Maybe I should give novels about real people another go, too.
EDIT: Oh, and because I'm currently so emotionally involved in this series, please don't leave comments along the lines of, "I hate that series and here are all the things that are wrong with it.
