Question #3
While writing Emerald Ring, I did sometimes worry that people might read a political message into the way my nineteenth century (English) characters reacted to the conflict between English and Irish. When you read historical fiction, do you find that historical attitudes towards issues that are politically sensitive today get in the way of your enjoyment of the story, or are you able to divorce the two? (For example, slavery in “Gone With the Wind”).
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January 1st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I try not to judge a previous generation based on current standards about certain issues. My enjoyment of the story would not be based on whether that past generation’s attitudes would be politically correct now because the things that needed to happen in order to change that attitude had not yet occurred.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I don’t judge a previous generation either because times change and people change. If they felt the same way we do today, it would really be odd and that would ruin the story. Gone with the wind is my favorite romance novel and the feelings of the characters fit the times.
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:03 am
When I read histrical fiction I don’t let issuse that are politically sensitive get in the way of the story that I am reading.
January 5th, 2007 at 6:21 am
I don’t care for strong political statements in contemporary fiction but when it’s in historical fiction it becomes a look into the past for me. History never held my interest when I was in school but you put that historical information in a fictional book and it comes alive.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I am like the other posters it doesn’t bother me in historicals. Sometimes I’ll shake my head thinking thank goodness times have changed but then it hits you that somethings will never change.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
To the most degree I can divorce the two but things such as slavery bother me; I can still enjoy the story but at the same time am ‘taken aback’ at what used to happen and the mentality of some generations.
January 13th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
It doesn’t bother me. What I don’t like it when I see modern points of view or attitudes that it’s obvious are from current times.