![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Cardinal Sin of Historical Fiction
Aug. 19th, 2008 01:04 amThe cardinal sin of historical fiction books: the auctorial hand, like the hand of God, smacks one of the characters into an epiphany about the truth, justice, and general awesomeness of present-day American values.
I loathe books that do this. It’s so unbearably smug, as if modern-day liberal American values were so perfect and wonderful in every respect, as opposed to evil, backward, hypocritical historical systems of belief. We may have progressed, but we haven’t reached the culmination of moral existence. Seriously. If we have, that’s depressing beyond belief.
And even if we had, that’s still no excuse to write historical fiction as a literary freak show. That’s just mean-spirited and suggests that the author can’t face opponents who are actually alive to defend themselves.
( Etc., etc., etc. )
I loathe books that do this. It’s so unbearably smug, as if modern-day liberal American values were so perfect and wonderful in every respect, as opposed to evil, backward, hypocritical historical systems of belief. We may have progressed, but we haven’t reached the culmination of moral existence. Seriously. If we have, that’s depressing beyond belief.
And even if we had, that’s still no excuse to write historical fiction as a literary freak show. That’s just mean-spirited and suggests that the author can’t face opponents who are actually alive to defend themselves.
( Etc., etc., etc. )
