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A Writer of History

~ by M.K Tod

A Writer of History

Tag Archives: purpose of historical fiction

The People of Our Past by George Dovel

12 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by M.K. Tod in Guest Posts, Historical Fiction

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author George Dovel, building cathedrals in the 13th century, learning from history, learning from the past, novels about religion, novels set during the 13th century, purpose of historical fiction, The Geometry of Vengeance by George Dovel, understanding the past, understanding the present through historical fiction

George Dovel was one of the writers I met at the Historical Novel Society conference last June. He’s the author of The Geometry of Vengeance, a novel that according to E.M. Powell “brings the violence and superstitions of the medieval world vividly to life.” Welcome, George.

~~~

The People of Our Past

Tucked in among the weighty proclamations issued by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 is the delightful gem of Canon 16, which in part prohibits clerics from attending “the performances of mimics and buffoons” or wearing “curiously sewed together gloves.”

If they could be transported to the 21st century, the Council attendees would surely be appalled to see that the performances of mimics and buffoons are nearly the sum total of our contemporary culture, but what a relief it would be to note that the great danger of curiously sewed together gloves has passed.

After having a nice chuckle about Canon 16, though, anyone with a mind for digging into history is compelled to ask a couple of questions. First, how had this society developed in such a way that these matters were important enough to command attention from one of the most significant conferences in European history? Second, how has our society grown so far apart from theirs that these once-important matters now seem trivial?

And this was a problem?

Moving most of a millennium even further back in time, as the first major gathering of church leaders after the emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, the Council of Nicaea in 325 had its own catalog of important matters to resolve, starting with the so-called Arian heresy and its assertion that Christ was not divine. Two or three hundred bishops attended, as did Constantine himself.

And yet, in what might well have been the most important international meeting in the world up to that point, and a meeting that shaped the long-term trajectories of countries and cultures all over the world (imagine how different the world would be if institutionalized Christianity had not survived this fledgling stage), the emperor and this assembly of prelates were compelled to address the problem of priests who had transformed themselves into eunuchs.

In fact, it’s the very first of the 20 canons issued at Nicaea. Canon 1 makes allowances for men who had the operation for medical reasons or who were victims of barbarian savagery, but it states that priests who had emasculated themselves should leave the priesthood, and that in the future, no man who had done so would be allowed into the priesthood.

Buffoonery and curious gloves are one thing, but voluntarily unburdening oneself of body parts is on an entirely different plane of un-understandability.

Again, the two questions. First, what would a society have been like in which instances of men self-administering such a transformation must have been common enough that an international meeting of bishops, presided over by the Roman emperor, was compelled to address the problem? Second, how did we grow so far away from this society that such a phenomenon is almost impossible to imagine?

It’s tempting to dismiss these odd and old ideas as just that, the inexplicable behavior of benighted people left far back in the dust behind our ever-advancing selves. But to dismiss these ideas as irrelevant is both an error and the waste of a wonderful opportunity.

They are in us; we are of them

The auto-eunuchs of 325 and the curiously gloved buffoon watchers of 1215 may belong to lost and distant cultures, but they are not members of another species or visitors from another planet. They are us, or at least earlier incarnations of us.

There are no step-function discontinuities in human history. The world didn’t jump from 325 to 1215 to today. It lunged and lurched, one year, one day, one connected human moment after another. The path might have been tortuous, regressive, and downright insane at times, but it has been continuous.

Not only has the path from then to now been continuous, but the way we define ourselves is largely in reaction to the generations that came before us. We may have rejected many of their beliefs and behaviors, but we reject in opposition to them and in so doing are defined in large measure by them. We are not painting on a blank canvas. As Booker winner Barry Unsworth put it, the past “belongs to us because it made us what we are.”

The better we can understand them (although we never will completely understand them, of course), the better we can understand ourselves and the behaviors we exhibit that will have future generations looking back at us with derision and disgust.

Exploring the past through the lens of historical fiction

The wonderful opportunity these old and odd ideas present is the glorious pleasure of discovery, that addictive feeling of uncovering the who, what, when, and how—and every once in a while getting a glimpse of the why.

What was it like trying to build a supranational religious organization at a time when even rudimentary education was far from universal and many clerical candidates surely did find the tavern and town square more appealing than sacred texts and liturgical practice?

And regarding eunuchs who aspired to the priesthood, how widespread was the barbarian savagery mentioned in the canon from Nicaea? Were some of these men freed slaves who hoped for nothing more than to devote the rest of their lives to God? Or were eunuch priests in goddess cults converting to Christianity in large enough numbers to cause concern for the new church? The number of questions this canon alone raises could occupy (or distract!) a curious mind for days.

The opportunity to bring old truths and questions and curiosities to life through the alchemy of storytelling is surely one of the reasons historical fiction is endlessly compelling for so many writers and readers.

The quoted passages from the Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council are from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp; the quotation from Barry Unsworth is from a speech given at the Key West Literary Seminar.

Many thanks for this illuminating post, George. Exploring the past through the lens of historical fiction is why so many readers love the genre.

The Geometry of Vengeance by George Dovel ~~ Vital Moysett has spent half his life burying the tragic mistakes and deadly secrets of his youth, but in an instant he learns that even being the most celebrated cathedral architect in 13th-century France and a favorite of Louis IX is not enough to protect him from his enemies’ rage.

When his latest design suffers an inexplicable collapse, the terrified locals believe the devil himself pulled the daring vaults down. But Vital sees evil of a very human kind—and the threat of even greater destruction to come.

His frantic search to identify the next target turns into a maddening series of philosophical riddles and strangely personal attacks motivated by knowledge of his childhood that no one still alive could possibly have. With the help of his unusual wife and the famed encylopedist Vincent of Beauvais, he follows his tormentors to the glorious cathedral at Chartres, knowing he is stepping right into their trap.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY (see left hand sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.

 

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History as a Mirror of Our Present by Alice Poon

05 Tuesday Nov 2019

Posted by M.K. Tod in Guest Posts, Historical Fiction

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author Alice Poon, Empress Xiaozuang, history sheds light on the present, novels about Empress Xiaozhuang, novels set during the Ming dynasty, novels set in China, purpose of historical fiction, stories of forbidden love, The Green Phoenix by Alice Poon

Alice Poon, author of The Green Phoenix, has a unique background that informs her writing. She firmly believes that historical fiction offers insights for the present.

~~~

Having been born and raised in colonial Hong Kong, I was lucky to have received a bilingual education. Chinese History and English Literature were my two favorite school subjects. My dream to become a writer was spawned in my mid-teens, stoked by an English Literature teacher’s praise for a piece of my creative composition. Prior to high school, I had already become a young fan of Jin Yong’s martial arts historical novels. Hence, it could be said that the tendency to write fiction based on Chinese History had been cast long before I put my writing dream into action, which didn’t occur till late adulthood.

Since the publication of my first historical Chinese novel The Green Phoenix in 2017, I have been interviewed a few times. These two questions seem to be the most common: (1) Why did I choose that particular historical period to write about? (2) Which authors are my favorites and how have they influenced my work?

Re: the first question, The Green Phoenix is set in the Ming-Qing transition period (17thcentury China). I have always found this period fascinating because embedded in this stretch of history are many poignant human stories about love, loss, wars, politics, divided loyalties, treachery and ethnic conflict. These stories are always immersive because they are so relatable. They are relatable because the modern world is still governed by forces as ancient as the hills: power vs. weakness, love vs. hatred, truth vs. lies, life vs. death. Thus the stories of our past, be it recent or distant, tend to closely mirror our present-day situation.

Growing up, I came across those historical stories via Chinese writings (including Jin Yong’s novels) and through watching numerous opera, film and TV adaptations. Examples of such stories include the romance between the famous courtesan Chen Yuanyuan and Ming traitor Wu Sangui, the story of patriotic sacrifice of Princess Changping (who was made famous in the renowned Cantonese opera The Emperor’s Daughter 帝女花), the story of forbidden love of Empress Xiaozhuang and Dorgon, the story of unflinching loyalty of the courtesan Li Xiangjun (as told in the famous historical play The Peach Blossom Fan), to cite the most popular few.

Another factor that draws me to this period is that the art scene of the times was one of great diversity and creative flair, probably at the summit of Ming poetry and opera music development. This artistic phase ran parallel with what became known as the “cultured courtesan” phenomenon which prevailed in Jiangnan (South of the Yangtze). It was a period of vibrant interaction, both romantically and in terms of poetic and musical expertise, between the literati and talented courtesans. I might just mention that my upcoming novel is set in the glitzy pleasure district of Nanjing, where such art scene becomes the animated setting. The story follows the destinies and sisterhood of three of the most celebrated courtesans of those times.

Re: the second question. My favorite authors include Jin Yong, Pearl S. Buck, Sarah Dunant, Sharon Kay Penman, Antonia Fraser, Hilary Mantel and Robert K. Massie.

It was Jin Yong’s novels that sparked my life-long love of Chinese history, and in recent years I have greatly enjoyed historical novels written by my favorite authors. Their books are great sources of inspiration for me, in terms of how to blend historical facts with fiction.

Two books in particular inspired me to write The Green Phoenix: Pearl Buck’s Imperial Woman and Robert K. Massie’s Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman.

Buck’s vivid and honest (as opposed to eulogistic) portrait of Empress Cixi impressed me. There are already numerous English language accounts, both fictional and non-fictional, about Empress Cixi’s life and deeds. In sum, she is well-known as the leader who brought the Qing, China’s last imperial dynasty, to an end. But, by contrast, very little has ever been written in English about Empress Xiaozhuang. As the female leader who helped found the Qing dynasty and who significantly contributed to peace and the well-being of the multi-ethnic society at large, she has been sorely neglected in the literary world. I thought it was high time for a novel to be written about her life and the tumultuous times she lived in (marked by the Manchu Qing’s violent supplanting of the Ming).

Massie’s moving tale of Catherine the Great and his meticulous period descriptions left an indelible imprint on my mind. As much as Catherine the Great and Empress Xiaozhuang have hugely different personalities, it dawned on me that there are certain striking similarities between them: they were both forced by their families into a political marriage; both were unhappy foreign brides in their respective adopted homelands; both overcame unimaginable obstacles to become influential female leaders, leaving a prominent mark on history. After reading Massie’ book, I was convinced that Empress Xiaozhuang would make a compelling protagonist in a historical novel. This was going to be my pet writing project!

Prior to reading these two books, I had watched, in 2003, a Chinese historical drama TV series that was about Empress Xiaozhuang, which got me hooked. I had then started to do some research on her. The more I read about her, the more I fell in awe of this amazing woman. The idea of writing about her thus started to take shape.

When Bumbutai (Xiaozhuang’s given name) is twelve years old, by design and fate, she is given by her grandfather, the Khorchin Mongol tribal leader, in a political marriage to a powerful Manchu prince, Hong Taiji, who later becomes the first Qing Emperor. Twenty-one years her senior, Hong Taiji obviously cannot compete for her love with Dorgon, his handsome and young half-brother and nemesis. Nonetheless, she has to submit, broken-hearted as she is, to the fate of a Manchu consort, whose primary duty is to bear a son for her Emperor. Dorgon won’t leave her alone and they seek ways to meet in secret. Then she bears Hong Taiji a son. Five years later, Hong Taiji, whose mind has been set on conquering Ming China, dies a sudden death, leaving the Aisin Gioro clansmen in a bitter feud over who should take up the throne and the Ming cause….

The Green Phoenix centers round the story of forbidden love and emotional struggles between Xiaozhuang and Dorgon, set against the violent backdrop of the Ming-Qing dynastic change. Underlying themes include struggles between love and duty, familial love, betrayal and loss, and disparity between violent and benevolent rule.

Many thanks, Alice. Our world seems to be experiencing some ‘dynastic change’ at the moment. Perhaps we can learn from the past. Alice’s new novel Tales of Ming Courtesans, inspired by literary works and folklore, will be published by Earnshaw Books in March 2020.

The Green Phoenix by Alice Poon ~~ With the fate of East Asia hanging in the balance, one Mongolian woman manipulated her lovers, sons and grandsons through war and upheaval to create an empire that lasted for 250 years. The Green Phoenix tells the story of the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, born a Mongolian princess who became a consort in the Manchu court and then the Qing Dynasty’s first matriarch. She lived through harrowing threats, endless political crises, personal heartaches and painful losses to lead a shaky Empire out of a dead end. The story is set against a turbulent canvas as the Chinese Ming Dynasty is replaced by the Qing. Xiaozhuang guides her husband, her lover, her son and her grandson – all emperors and supreme leaders of the Qing Empire – to success against the odds.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY (see left hand sidebar)

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.

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The Importance of Warts

10 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by M.K. Tod in Guest Posts, Researching historical fiction, writing historical fiction

≈ 6 Comments

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authenticity in historical fiction, author Elizabeth Bell, Necessary Sins by Elizabeth Bell, novels featuring slavery, novels set in antebellum Charleston, novels set in antebellum south, purpose of historical fiction, role of historical novelists, transporting readers in time and place

Elizabeth Bell and I met at HNS 2019. She is the author of the Lazare Family Saga, the result of a quarter century of research and revision. I’m delighted to host her on the blog today. Over to you, Elizabeth.

~~~

After moving from Colorado to Virginia, I happily began visiting my new state’s many historic houses and museums. Yet this history buff found herself reluctant to visit Colonial Williamsburg. I had mistaken it for a Disneyland version of my nation’s past.

Fortunately, I was wrong. Colonial Williamsburg programming portrays American history in all its diversity and complexity while also catering to tourists. You can choose to take a carriage ride down the restored Duke of Gloucester Street or follow a costumed tour guide on foot. My tour guide directed us around a manure pile freshly deposited by a carriage horse and warned: “Be careful you don’t step in the authenticity!”

That’s great advice for the streets of Colonial Williamsburg. It’s terrible advice for historical novelists. While admiring all the lovely clothing and architecture of the past, we should be tramping around in authenticity and inviting our readers to join us.

We might actually mention the manure our characters pass by or stumble into—the unpleasant sights and smells that make up their world. But it’s even more important that we don’t sanitize our characters’ thoughts and actions. Our protagonists shouldn’t be dropped in from the 21stcentury.

This is especially true for the main setting of my series, the slaveholding American South, which has been portrayed as “moonlight and magnolias” for over a century. It is reprehensible to romanticize a society in which human beings were bought and sold. But it’s also irresponsible if all the good characters in our fictional American South know instinctively that slavery is wrong. In these characters’ world, slavery was normal, defended in the papers and from the pulpits as a positive good. “My protagonist is enlightened and ahead of her time” is dramatically dull and teaches us nothing.

Instead, I prefer to explore how the lies have been drummed into my protagonist. Early on, he’s regurgitating those lies. This runs the risk of making him unsympathetic to a modern audience, but it’s essential that he possess a true 19th-century psyche. His conscience will begin to trouble him, and this will be part of his character arc, but he won’t become “woke” overnight. Another point-of-view character, my protagonist’s great-grandmother, remains an unrepentant racist till the day she dies. She’s not supposed to be sympathetic, but she is supposed to be human.

In real life, I faint at the sight of blood. In my fiction, the Haitian Revolution changes the destiny of my fictional family. Most of the violence happens “off stage.” Yet readers have called my Haitian chapters “intense”: “You don’t pull any punches.” It would be dishonest to depict one of the bloodiest and most sadistic wars in human history without any gore.

Similarly, an agent rejected my novel because she “found the descriptions of how they treated slaves painful to read.” Did she expect reading about slavery to be fun? I infuse my fiction with as much humor and happiness as I can, but I refuse to sugarcoat slavery. I want my readers to feel everything my characters do, including the painful parts.

One of my favorite comments from my editor is that my series “really feels like a fully formed, accurate, compelling world, warts and all.” Only when I’d given my protagonist a birthmark—which is incidental to the story—did he begin to feel real to me. Only when I realized my 19th-century heroine would have hairy armpits did she begin to live and breathe. By revealing the past in all its ugliness or simply quirkiness, especially those aspects that make it distinct from the present day, we make our stories both more authentic and more memorable.

As historical novelists, we are tour guides and teachers. Like the tourists who visit Colonial Williamsburg, many of our readers will never crack open a history book. Consciously or unconsciously, our readers will take our portrayal of the past as Truth. We do them an enormous disservice if we’ve whitewashed that truth. We’ll have given our readers a pleasant fantasy, but we will have taught them nothing. If we don’t make our readers think, if we don’t make them at least a little uncomfortable, we’re not doing our jobs.

Great advice, Elizabeth. Many thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Necessary Sins by Elizabeth Bell ~~ In antebellum Charleston, a Catholic priest grapples with doubt, his family’s secret African ancestry, and his love for a slave owner’s wife.

Joseph Lazare and his two sisters grow up believing their black hair and olive skin come from a Spanish grandmother—until the summer they learn she was an African slave. While his sisters make very different choices, Joseph struggles to transcend the flesh by becoming a celibate priest.

Then young Father Joseph meets Tessa Conley, a devout Irish immigrant who shares his passions for music and botany. Joseph must conceal his true feelings as Tessa marries another man—a plantation owner who treats her like property. Acting on their love for each other will ruin Joseph and Tessa in this world and damn them in the next. Or will it?

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.

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