I said I would do something different and I’m sticking to it. I think every post this last month has been about something I’m writing. Change of pace.
Today is going to be about the joys of reading history.
I’ve always loved history. I can remember when I was a kid, no more than four, and leafing through a big coffee table book about Egypt, looking at the pictures of pharaohs and pyramids.
The first books I read for myself were children’s history encyclopedias. I can still remember a story about Cyrus’ conquests as they were besieging a town on a rocky hill. One of the soldiers in the town dropped his helm. Following goat paths, he climbed down and retrieved it. Unfortunately, he was observed by Cyrus’ men. They followed the path and stormed the town.
That story, for whatever reason, stuck with me over the years. Then, when I was 18, a friend of mine gave me their copy of Herodotus. Reading it, I came across the same story, and experienced a sense of historical whiplash. I had never appreciated a primary source before, but there it was, sent through 2500 years to reach me.
Another story I love is the time Alexander the Great covered a teenager in crude oil and set him on fire, just to see what happened. The boy not only volunteered for the experiment, but proposed it. Some other time I’ll go into it.
History is the source of many great plot points, all the better because they are true to life. People were put in those positions, or made those choices. Best of all, history is not copyrightable, so an author can take freely from it. Just be careful, as the words of a history book are.
Best to take it all and mush it up in your brain until you can’t remember where it came from.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
