thoughts, words, deeds

historical interest

What period of history is most interesting to you?

I’m not sure. I kind of like living in the modern world rather than any specific point in history. After all, all periods of history have their flaws—from sanitation to food to plagues—and I know the problems of our time sufficiently. There’s also the fact that insulin wasn’t refined for human consumption until 1922, which means that before then, I would be dead. There are traces of type one diabetes back in ancient Egypt—in fact it was a disease that annoyed and disgusted one famous Greek physician, who basically said it was a useless disease that couldn’t be cured. But that really wasn’t the question. It’s not about living there, it’s about general interest.

I am interested in Shakespeare and England of that day. In fact, I’m also interested in John Donne and Chaucer—all separate periods of English history that I would be interested to visit. I tend to be more interested in periods of history before the industrial revolution. The way people lived before the world got so small. Which means, of course, that a lot of periods of American history fall into the meh area for me.

I’m interested in ancient civilizations. Egypt, Greece, Rome to a lesser extent (mostly because it’s more documented and so there are less edges to build stories into), China. I’m interested in the Anazazi and other peoples who have disappeared. I’m interested in the Britons and the Celts and knights and druids—in fact, I am interested in just about everything. Mostly because of the people and the stories involved.

I wouldn’t want to live in any of those places, but I don’t mind learning about them and using them in stories.