Confession
Apr. 8th, 2011 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI have an unholy love of time travel stories. Or rather of a specific type--where someone from the past is stuck in the present (or future). It's gotten more sever the more I study history, as I'm constantly trying to compare historical and modern worldviews.
(I have a whole thought experiment about the best way to introduce an Ancient Greek to chocolate. Cause let's face it, they'd probably find it disgusting, given their cuisine. I figure your best bet is high quality fudge or pudding--nothing too dark, and nothing too sweet. Given how poorly I react to foreign cuisines' desserts, I'd bet an Ancient Greek would find something like ice cream too weird to try. Anyway.)
The problem is most stories that feature an ancient person displaced into modern times are exercises in masturbatory self congratulation. Oh, look how amazing our technology is! Oh, look how incredible democracy is! Oh, isn't ice cream the best thing ever invented! (Seriously, I think the Discovery Of Ice Cream is a required scene in these stories.) And of course there's the whole teach the pagans the true meaning of Christmas type of thing (thanks for reading that,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jethrien) which is vomit worthy.
I would think that if you suddenly found yourself a thousand years in the future, you'd be awed, yes, but you would be mostly horrified and depressed. Not just that everyone you loved is dead, but that your culture is dead. That everything you thought would go on forever didn't. That people think your religion that you would have died for is silly. That people think your values are immoral. I don't think it would be a happy fluffy montage sequence of going to Toys R Us and the Apple Store and Central Park.
So. Does anyone know of any really good time travel stories? Fic, TV, novels, movies, whatever. But they have to be well grounded in historical fact and not just an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for being alive when we are. Recommendations? Anybody?
(I have a whole thought experiment about the best way to introduce an Ancient Greek to chocolate. Cause let's face it, they'd probably find it disgusting, given their cuisine. I figure your best bet is high quality fudge or pudding--nothing too dark, and nothing too sweet. Given how poorly I react to foreign cuisines' desserts, I'd bet an Ancient Greek would find something like ice cream too weird to try. Anyway.)
The problem is most stories that feature an ancient person displaced into modern times are exercises in masturbatory self congratulation. Oh, look how amazing our technology is! Oh, look how incredible democracy is! Oh, isn't ice cream the best thing ever invented! (Seriously, I think the Discovery Of Ice Cream is a required scene in these stories.) And of course there's the whole teach the pagans the true meaning of Christmas type of thing (thanks for reading that,
jethrien) which is vomit worthy.I would think that if you suddenly found yourself a thousand years in the future, you'd be awed, yes, but you would be mostly horrified and depressed. Not just that everyone you loved is dead, but that your culture is dead. That everything you thought would go on forever didn't. That people think your religion that you would have died for is silly. That people think your values are immoral. I don't think it would be a happy fluffy montage sequence of going to Toys R Us and the Apple Store and Central Park.
So. Does anyone know of any really good time travel stories? Fic, TV, novels, movies, whatever. But they have to be well grounded in historical fact and not just an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for being alive when we are. Recommendations? Anybody?
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 08:32 pm (UTC)