tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post7474868886595197607..comments2024-03-28T02:46:03.227-04:00Comments on The Historical Society: Jane Kamensky on Learning from FictionRandallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-70361282942048152972011-04-16T02:25:14.344-04:002011-04-16T02:25:14.344-04:00Dan, I'll have to check out the examples you g...Dan, I'll have to check out the examples you give. Sounds like you've got a great future HS topic on your hands.PWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-4571632606140048762011-04-15T19:27:36.023-04:002011-04-15T19:27:36.023-04:00It would be interesting to look at the change over...It would be interesting to look at the change over time in the rhetorical techniques that have been used by writers and accepted by readers of history. Oscar Handlin used italicized interior monologues of made-up "representative" characters in the _The Uprooted_ (1951). In the sixties, Perry Miller and Robert Wiebe both used fictional characters (Natty Bumppo and the doctor from Bellamy's _Looking Backward_) as archetypes, in place of real people. Would these techniques be possible now? Does it matter who is trying them?dan allossohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10733670017382794923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-84521555705596380202011-04-15T17:23:09.828-04:002011-04-15T17:23:09.828-04:00Well put, LD. I love your point about control, par...Well put, LD. I love your point about control, particularly. <br /><br />With regard to the ballgame, I have passed up many a sunny afternoon to get another couple of hundred words on the page, forsaking the fresh air and Vitamin D recharge that'd do me the world of good!<br /><br />We writers need to get out more...PWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-30772670212565388932011-04-15T17:12:09.500-04:002011-04-15T17:12:09.500-04:00Thanks PW.
But I didn't mean to imply that so...Thanks PW.<br /><br />But I didn't mean to imply that someone who relies on these "fiction techniques" is doing so because he can't get his point across by more "empirical" means. <br /><br />Even an unhittable hurler enjoys throwing good stuff. To see a fastball pitcher do his high kick and expect him to come with the heat only to see him astonish the batter with a looping knuckleball is a delight like no other. Every historian can benefit from this reminder to write prose that has a quick pulse.<br /><br />But there is still a strike zone -- I do think that Kamensky stays well within it here. Those of us who are PhD students are like single-A minor league prospects -- we have to show control and precision, and at least the potential to bring the heat, in order to get away with tossing the stuff.<br /><br />Good lord -- why am I sitting at home and wrestling with my writing today? I should be out at a ballgame!LDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09742066809468902814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-83215255670016242582011-04-15T16:16:11.449-04:002011-04-15T16:16:11.449-04:00If the facts are there to back up the descriptive ...If the facts are there to back up the descriptive techniques Jane mentions, combining the two will create insightful history that jumps off the page. McCullough does it to great effect, Rick Atkinson is a master, too. Bravo, Jane, for sharing these practical tips with us. <br /><br />LD, I agree with your contention if the writer does not have the historical chops to ground the narrative in what actually happened (or, indeed, to put the people mentioned and their actions & motivations into context). <br /><br />PWPWnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-51086612440344750322011-04-15T12:14:55.692-04:002011-04-15T12:14:55.692-04:00LD: Thanks for your thoughtful post on the Kamensk...LD: Thanks for your thoughtful post on the Kamensky essay!Randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755286304057000048noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7872819010848426693.post-42577864318080687932011-04-15T10:32:43.282-04:002011-04-15T10:32:43.282-04:00I tend to agree with Kamensky on these suggestions...I tend to agree with Kamensky on these suggestions, though I have some reservations about edging too far over into the realm of fiction.<br /><br />I am using a baseball metaphor to make sense of Kamensky's advice:<br /><br /><a href="http://gatesofmercy.blogspot.com/2011/04/good-stuff.html" rel="nofollow">Good Stuff</a>LDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09742066809468902814noreply@blogger.com