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Hello, and welcome to the new people who have recently joined my ‘I’ll remind you about this post’ e-mail service. I do hope those first-of-the-month emails are getting through to you?
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Thank you.
An update on my hip replacement: doing well after 12 or so weeks now, I’m still using a crutch because I’m still a bit stiff – and my balance (because of my wonky sight) is off-balance *laugh*, but otherwise, all is OK.
My theme
this month: TIME
Yes, you know, that timey-wimey stuff (as David Tennant/Dr Who so well put it). Funny thing isn’t it? Time, I mean. When you’re waiting for something– a special day, birth of a child an important result, the minutes drag by as if they were hours. When there’s something not so looked-forward-to ... that dentist appointment ... time flies.
Summer holidays as children, lasted a few days didn’t they? The school week seemed stuck on Mondays especially if it was Double Maths and PE! (Hated both!)
And I can’t believe that we’ve lived here in Devon for coming up to thirteen years, nor that I’m now 72. Yet the reminders of the past is all around us: our house built circa 1769 with its low beams and the old bread oven, the layout of the fields along the valley, the oak trees that are a good couple of hundred years old. All echoes of the past that linger through to today.
I wonder, though, how much of Time Passing is personal perception, that time itself isn’t a fixed thing, those ticking seconds ticking by? We look at the clock, see that it is, say 4.50pm but that totally depends on where you are. 4.50pm might be right for me, but different in North Carolina or Brisbane. Even different up in Scotland... time used to depend on where the location was, but became ‘standardised’ because of the railways. That 4.50 from Paddington? (Miss Marple Agatha Christie fans will know exactly what I mean) Was 4.50 at Paddington Station, London, a different time here in Devon (where that particular train was headed.) So timetables had to match up for the trains to make sense.
(Except, of course, Devonshire and Cornwall seem to run on their own timescales... the term 'Dreckly' can mean within the next hour or sometime whenever...
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We measure time, now, by the clock, but time also includes era - Victorian, Georgian, Tudor, Roman Times. Hundreds of years in some instances - thousands, millions when you go back to pre-time. It's hard to imagine how Stone-Age, Bronze-Age, Iron-Age managed without the modern concept of time. Did Stone-Age people arrange to meet like this: "See you at half-past sunset beside the BlueStones?"
This one always makes me laugh - even though it's completely inaccurate as this is Avebury, not Stonehenge...
Time is
something that was drawn to my attention regarding historical novels. When
exactly were hours important in history – quite early on, I believe with the
time being marked by candle or water clocks, or the Old Faithful sun dial (as
long as the sun shone!) But what about minutes and seconds?
Did the Romans or Anglo-Saxons count time in seconds? Probably not – so as authors we should be careful not to use the wrong words in our dialogue. “Wait a second” pleaded Julius Caesar, or The monk Bede held his breath for a minute? Better to use the terms "moment" or “a heartbeat” perhaps?
But talking of heartbeats. I read a book recently where the woman (Anglo-Saxon circa early 500s) could feel her pulse racing in her neck along with her pounding heart. As a reader I get the meaning, except this character would have had no connection between her pounding pulse and her heart rate. The blood circulation system wasn’t understood back then.
So that all comes under the heading of plausible accuracy where historical fiction is concerned... and you know full well I am now going to mention that awful TV drama King And Conquest.
I’ll not repeat my initial review (read it here - link goes to my other blog) suffice to say it was dreadful, but not merely because of the outrageous inaccuracies of the timeline – which was utter fantasy. Apart from the events being 100% Unfact the general depiction was way off. The Anglo-Saxons loved colour. They were superb craftsmen and women, they wore sophisticated, beautiful jewellery (well, the rich did) and bright, colourful clothes, not as depicted in this travesty of a TV show, dull browns and greys with muddied faces and drab homes. What nonsense!
Drama is drama but for goodness sake try to make it feel real! Even Game Of Thrones was more realistic than King And Conqueror and G.O.T. had dragons in it!
Of course we can never totally know the facts of the past, not unless Dr Who happens by or someone does, one day, invent a Time Machine, but some things are known well enough because of documented evidence that has lasted through time. The Bayeux Tapestry as a fine example. You only need to have a quick glance at that to see the colours the characters involved wore, and to see that the English had moustaches and the Normans didn’t. ( K & C take note!)
So the passing
of time might, for individuals, be a flexible thing, but Facts are also Facts.
Unless you’re into the UnFacts of conspiracy theories... ah, is that what King And Conqueror was all about? An American remake to show that we’ve got all our English history wrong? That the Anglo-Saxons were the Great Unwashed, that our legitimate Kings were about as pathetic as Joe Biden (I’m quoting Trump) and that the Normans were the sophisticated Good Guys?
Huh. Don’t think so. I’ll stick to my novel, a far better, more accurate, version of Time Past.
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| Mal Phillips |
Great post, Helen. Glad I never tried K+ C or by the sound of it I might have thrown something at the tv.
ReplyDeleteYou'd probably have thrown the TV itself it was so bad!
DeleteWe haven’t seen K&C in the US yet, now I know not to waste my time. Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteTime is a very funny thing…..never enough for the good things, too much for the bad. But I believe you’re correct, it’s all a matter of perception.
Glad to hear you’re recovering from your hip replacement - my doctor is watching my knees, may be headed for an “upgrade” in the future 😱.
Thanks Kelly - hope your knee upgrade gets sorted!
DeleteHi Helen, I wondered what you would make of that K & C drivel. There were so many holes in it. Where were Harold's 2 other brothers ? and London that had Roman walls and gates at the time was made to look like a few huts surrounded by a palisade. There were many more inaccuracies as you know. I can't believe it was given air time.
ReplyDeleteand those were minor inaccuracies Colin! - William was still a teenager when Edward was crowned, neither of them were married at the time, Edward did not murder his mother Emma... Emma would never have chosen William over her own son. The entire thing was utter garbage!
DeleteI knew you'd be nashing your teeth at it. It was to be endured and not enjoyed
DeleteI didn't even bother to endure! :-)
Delete