I mentioned yesterday that I'm currently reading Sarah Chrisman's book, Victorian Secrets: What a Corset Taught Me About the Past, Present, and Myself, and it is fascinating. Ms. Chrisman marches to the beat of her own drummer, and a few years ago decided to immerse herself in the Victoriana that she loved and started dressing Victorian style, full time. She and her husband live a Victorian-style life near Seattle, and this book is about that journey, which started with the gift of a corset on her 29th birthday. I intend to write up a full review as soon as I finish the book, because there are a lot of good talking points, but I wanted to share these lines from the book, which struck my historian's heart this morning:
"'The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.' Yet foreign countries have ambassadors and diplomats to speak for them. The past is far less able to defend itself; it cannot formulate rebuttals. Perhaps that is why it is an easy victim. Thus, an opinion has become common that everything about the present is superior to anything that existed in the past. It is difficult for many people to grasp that lifestyles may have been different in the past, and yet still completely satisfactory to those living them. History has no emissaries."
~Sarah Chrisman, Victorian Secrets, Skyhorse Publishing, 2013, Kindle Edition, Location 2744.
"It is difficult for many people to grasp that lifestyles may have been different in the past, and yet still completely satisfactory to those living them." Such a great quote. I feel half-inclined to type it up, print out lots of copies, and mail them to writers of historical fiction. :-)
ReplyDeleteHa-ha!
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