#WorkshopWednesday - On Historic Figures

I don't intend it to be, but I nevertheless have the feeling that, with this post, I'm wading into controversial waters. I shall wade anyway.

Last week, my brother texted me a link to this article. He spends more time on the web than I do, and he's forever sending me things he think I'll like or appreciate. And this definitely fit the bill. 

(For anyone who doesn't want to take the time to read it, it's a fairly snarky rebuttal to those Twitter threads that try to demolish, or "cancel" historic figures of the distant past and to blame them for all the problems of today. The Twitter threads that strip away every scrap of context, and paint the people of yore as abject villains.)

While I think there are definitely conversations to be had about the morality of key figures from the past, and about wars, and policies, and so on, I really hate the way misinformation gets bandied about on Twitter, totally unverified, and presented as "fact." Shortly after I published Walking Wounded, my Korean War historical novel, I encountered a Tweet in which someone claimed "the US totally just started bombing the Korean peninsula for no reason, because they love subjugating people." My head very nearly spun around. Think what you will of the US and its wartime policies - come to your own conclusions - but my God, at least know the facts before you start spouting stuff like this. For instance: in the immediate aftermath of WWII, the US was very hesitant to become involved in another international war. They only entered Korea after the UN insisted they do - beneath the leadership of a French diplomat - and even then, only a small contingent of green US Army boys who'd never seen conflict, shipped over from bases in Japan, made a move. Overfed, undertrained, and outgunned, these initial Army deployments were mowed down by the North Korean's Russian tanks and guns. It was quickly realized that a mistake had been made in underestimating the North Koreans - who invaded South Korea, by the way, prior to any other countries' involvement - and it was then that the US Marine Corps entered the fray and spent a winter losing toes and fingers to frostbite as they tried to push back the NKs.

But on Twitter, the narrative was: the US wanted Korea and bombed it and took it. And...my God. Read a book, dude. 

Because here's the thing: it's one thing to question motives, and it's quite another to interpret the facts, and understand those motives in the first place. It doesn't matter if you agree; a historian's job is not to make things more palatable, or to draw a moral conclusion. It's to present the facts.

In my case, as a fiction author, it's my job to crawl inside my character's heads, no matter where they come from. 

The author's note at the beginning of Dragon Slayer is my admittance that I've always wanted to write a book about Vlad. But it wasn't until I started researching my series in earnest that I realized that the whole story of his life was, at large, being withheld from the public. "A warlord," he's been called. A monster, a wicked, fiendish villain who loved the sight of blood and who feasted on the innocent for no reason.

Readers, let me tell you: there is always a reason. And it wasn't until I was poring over the absolute tragedy of Vlad the Impaler's family life that I understood his reason.

I will never excuse his behavior. Never. He committed extreme butchery. But context is important. Context is how we make sense of the past. Even if the past is dark, and ugly, and repels us - it's important to understand it if we're going to write about it. 

I think it's incredibly important that authors be given the leeway to explore the past without limits. Without it being assumed the author is pushing an agenda. I never am. In fact, it's damn insulting when someone assumes they understand my politics based on my (hopefully) accurate attitudes of characters from the past. 

I guess my point is this: history ain't pretty. But let's not wipe it out and pretend it never existed. And that there was never any logic behind it.