Stolen Goods

In keeping with the "what's in it for YOU" feature of the blog, I offer the following mini-rant and some food for comment/thought.

A few years back I saw in the bookstore William Manchester's A WORLD LIT ONLY BY FIRE. Woot! thought I. A new research/enjoyment tome about the middle ages! So I yanked out the gift card and it was mine.

Surprise. I never finished reading the book (and those of you who know me are aware I ALWAYS finish a good medieval nonfic book). Here's why. It did not deliver on the unspoken promise to be a scholarly, thoughtful look at those centuries we call medieval. Oh, no. Instead it claimed that people in the middle ages "invented nothing" and were shackled to superstition, starvation and stupidity.

Hence the problem listed above: that of Stolen Goods. See, I've been canoodling this for a while, and I propose the following conclusion: the middle ages have been "stolen" from Christians due to the fruitbasket of biases Manchester so ably enunciated.

The medievals did nothing, accomplished nothing, knew less. They were one step up from Saxon/Viking/name your barbarian paganism. Barely Christian, right? After all, they weren't Protestants. Never mind that fervent believers spent almost a thousand years making sure the Gospels and other Writings were not only preserved, but enhanced. They found better source documentation in the Arabic and Greek writings as they came to light. They worked by candlelight in freezing or damp monasteries, hand-copying the Word of God one letter at a time. They dedicated their lives to doing this.

But they aren't worth writing about. They were pre-Reformation, therefore Beyond the Fictional Pale.

I submit otherwise. I find them very worthy of admiration. More so, the more research I do for the medieval fiction I seem stubbornly determined to write. My ancestors survived the Black Death, feudalism, probably slavery. They were admirable people despite they believed in a religious system to which I do not adhere.

Please, readers. Let not this fascinating time period be stolen from us by those who say that only the recent centuries matter.

Right Faith, Wrong Trimmings

Rant Warning: the following has some of the characteristics of a diatribe. Discussion, sharing of ideas, or conflict may ensue. You have been warned.

Recently on a lively writing loop, a topic arose about historical fiction. Now, just so we're all on the same page: much of CBA historical fiction consists of the Sweet Prairie Romance with the Bonneted Woman on the Cover. This is a known genre. Do not attempt to argue: it just IS.

Why do all CBA historicals have a woman wearing a bonnet (often a transparent bonnet, so you sort of wonder-what was the point?) on the cover, you ask? Very well, I will attempt to answer this burning question. They are there so innocent readers will know this is fiction set in an Acceptable Era: the 1800s.

The nineteenth century is the only acceptable time for stories to be set because it meets the criteria for acceptable fiction: the characters must be Protestant. Fiction dealing with Puritans, the Revolutionary War period, etc., should not be written. Worse, we should not write about pre-Reformation Christians: these would of necessity be Catholic.

Now, before you run screaming for the door: if you write or read historical fiction, you must to some extent abandon your current-day prejudices. People in the pre-Reformation centuries did not think of themselves as idolators, Papists, hidebound or any other stereotype we sneer at today. They called themselves CHRISTENDOM, and the reason they referred to themselves this way is that they kept Christian writings, Christian learning, Christian tradition alive during centuries when my ancestors were worshiping Odin and eating foul-tasting lutefisk...

Ahem. I digress.

We authors must not attempt to write stories set in these benighted times. Do you ask why? Because we'd be writing about Catholics.

I say no. We'd be writing about Christians. People of their time, like us. Many, many of them loved their Savior and served Him in the way the current day permitted. So do we. Some of them were "surface" believers. Some of us are. Some of them abandoned family, friends, and a normal medieval life in order to spend 100% of their time in prayer and learning. Some of us are blessed to do that, in this age.

Do not tell me not to write of these people because they were not Christians. You're wrong. If you don't want to read my work, that's fine, and your privilege. But don't use this most specious of reasoning to say that historical fiction must deal only with people who think like we Protestants do. Don't you dare forbid me to write of people in earlier eras and shed some light on their most-interesting lives and times.

Who knows, maybe we'll all learn something.