Historical fiction or fantasy? Which should I write? Months and years of painstaking research, or build my own worlds where no one can tell me I’m wrong?
Preamble:
‘History is easy’ people say. ‘You look at the records and you know exactly what happened.’ But often those records are incomplete, or, like statistics, require context and interpretation. And if ‘history is written by the victors’ then the records themselves may not be reliable.
All history books should come with a warning sticker: ‘incomplete: subject to interpretation.’
Good history requires three things: solid research, sound interpretation and the acknowledgement of bias. ‘Freedom fighter’ or ‘terrorist?’ ‘Robust state’ or ‘totalitarian dictatorship?’ ‘What have the Roman’s ever done for us…?’
Tragical-historical
Historical fiction is a ‘respectable’ and widely read genre. Hilary Mantel and Philippa Gregory sell by the millions. And yet… historical fiction authors interpret, filter, and join the dots by imaginative leaps to tell the stories of real people they don’t know.
The Old Testament, the Talmud, the Koran and other significant texts are often called historical documents. All have been edited and re-edited, often under the supervision of states and clerisc, according to their political and religious agendas.
Do all the historical research you can, spend a lifetime, get a PhD in your chosen subject. The history will never be complete.
In-fill
The historical author has to fill in the blanks between the facts. When it comes to character, this is an imaginative exercise. An historical figure’s written words or reported quotes may declare one thing, but their interior monologue is pure speculation. We can’t know for sure what their motives, fears and objectives were.
The reader cannot judge whether the historical novel is ‘accurate.’ They take on trust the portraits of lives and times the author presents.
You can read multiple biographies of the same person and discover a totally different character, ascribed with wildly different personality traits and motivations.
And all that research drowns under the weight of popular myth and misconception.
Getting on with it
So why is historical fiction more ‘respectable’ than fantasy? Is it because the author can describe Elizabethan needlepoint or Jacobean bread-making? That’s just the product of many hours on the Internet. Or -gasp- a library. The judgment of a president as a Great Man or a buffoon is still a matter of interpretation.
Historical fiction remains fiction.
‘Just because they wrote it a letter doesn’t make it true’
Famous people, important people, ambitious people; all have one eye on their legacy when they commit anything to historical records. You beg for an alliance with your ‘best friend’ right up to the point you stab them in the back. You claim to be a devout follower, just to keep your neck off the block. Who really knows what someone really believes? Even the subject themselves? What of self deception, delusions of greatness, or the lies we tell ourselves to get through the day?
What about fantasy fiction?
The fantasy and sci-fi genres are honest. We all know the author made it up.’ It’s lore and ‘history’of a world that that never happened. They are an invitation to enter the world of the imagination, to question received wisdom and learn about values along the way.
Fantasy can lead the reader places they might not go alone. They can disguise heavy satire (Gulliver’s Travels) or political commentary (1984, Farenheit-451). The speculative genres always hold up a mirror to our society and values.
So the ‘history’ isn’t complete, or unbiased, and the fiction can only guess at motives, hopes and fears. Meanwhile someone always tells you your ‘history’ is ‘wrong.’ Maybe it is.
But if the history in historical fiction is a pretty frame, then why can’t I make my own?
Fantasy it is, then.
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