We all imagine meeting a historical figure and having them unload to us the REAL reason why they did X, Y, or Z. I can see it now. Moments before Washington crosses the Delaware, he graciously takes the time out to sit with you on camp chairs in front of a cozy fire and explain to you all his hidden ( to history) reasons why. All this over a cozy cup of tea.
In fact, you show up, and an aide de camp hustles you away to the enlisted men’s mess for a feast of the slops that the troops get. On the way out, you get a crudely printed broadside on the horrors of the British occupation. You wish you had stopped instead at the road house you saw on the way down from 2026.
You thought perhaps that you were first in line? The winner of the lottery to meet famous people at a crucial moment? Take a number and sit on the bench. We’ll call you when he’s ready.
Here’s How
I’ve thought about this in odd moments and decided that there are better ways of doing this. In Washington’s case, hang around the Officers’ Mess Tent the night before. Listen to the scuttlebutt as the aide de camp unloads over a glass of cheap sherry.
In my case, I’d like to hang around the studios of famous artists, carvers, and sculptors. Back in much of history, the shops were run by a crop of journeymen and apprentices. They did most of the work. Having a mug or two with the boys in the shop after hours, I’d soon find out which journeyman’s wife was the model for what famous portrait and why.
You want to get answers? go to those who know.
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This is a fun thought exercise. I was thinking only yesterday of a scene in a book I am reading where slang terms are used for gear inside an Army Blackhawk helicopter. I know the author personally, and know that he was not in the Army and possibly never inside an Army helicopter. I began imagining him working his way into a group of enlisted people, asking for a tour of a helicopter for book research purposes, staying there long enough for people to begin relaxing. Hearing someone refer to the thing as a — getting nearby people to laugh at the jargon and inside joke, and the author laughing easily at the comment, then asking, “What did you call it? Why?” and then being able to put it into his book. But maybe he just read about it on Wikipedia.
Hey! That’s a technique used by some anthropologists…I ain’t naming names!
Exactly. Because you don’t know what you don’t know.
I’d hang out with a mendicant, medieval wall painter who carried all this needs, maybe his donkey carried them to small churches in remote village, and who had to make all his paint. He’s my hero. It’s unlikely he was a she, but plenty of more urban painters were women.
Hanging around with that guy, you’ll get to see some interesting places. Not too shabby at all.
I started a novel about him but realized that I was over my head — he was OK, his donkey was awesome, the paint, plaster and marble dust were great, but Italian history? Good god… Compelling project, though. I loved it. I just hit a place where I didn’t have the resources to go further. PLUS I got COVID and following on that was COVID brain. Then the contest books arrived, and that was it. Maybe I should look at it again…