*waves hello, first of all, from the friending meme*
Speaking as a historian by study and training, I can count on my fingers the number of historical subjects and periods that I don't consider myself to be thoroughly ignorant about. I was firmly reminded of this not too long ago, when I picked up a book on the history of North Korea (because I realised that my knowledge about it all but started and ended with the Korean War), and as I was reading the book I came to a part where the author mentioned the assassination of the dictatorial South Korean President Park Chung-hee by the head of South Korean intelligence in 1979. And then I realised that I was remarkably clueless about that incident as well, and about South Korean politics since the end of the Korean War...so each additional bit of historical information opens up a whole new world to explore. This is probably why I have about 85 books on my nonfiction history list to check out from the local library, and keep adding new books every time I read one of the ones on my list, and yet I still find that I have to read multiple books about a person (or event, or period) before I can keep all the related names and dates straight.
Part of the reason why I got into Hetalia was because it let me write fic that uses that knowledge and encourages me to piece together all of the bits of history reading that I've collected over the years. Some of the fic comes from periods that I know quite well already (e.g., colonial American witch-trials); some of it comes from my current research obsessions (e.g., Swiss mercenaries in the 1500s). But I'm definitely still learning, and there are fic-ideas in my brain that I know I won't be able to write down until I do some more reading.
That said, please don't feel discouraged or embarrassed by your background in history, or lack thereof. If you have particular periods or events that you'd like to know more about, I'd be more than happy to go looking for book recs to give you a sense of where to go. (If I don't know of good books myself, I can probably find someone who does.) And you can get a lot out of reading book reviews, too -- the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History pages are excellent short summaries of recent publications, complete with criticisms and comments from leading scholars. The London Review of Books often publishes well-written and free-to-read book review articles as well.
I hope you have a good time in Halifax. It's been ages since I've been there, and I'd dearly love to go back someday.
Heh. I guess we all have something, even within our area of study, that we're ignorant about. It just seems that sometimes the sheer amount of things I don't know is a little overwhelming.
This fit of sulking was sparked by a conversation I had with an acquaintance about a fic they started working on centred on Denmark's role in the Napoleonic Wars. They were kind of trying to nudge me to do one related to that subject too, since I find the idea really cool, but... slight problem: I know absolutely, completely zilch about the Napoleonic Wars at all, aside from having a vague idea about what time period we're dealing with and knowing that, of course, Napoleon had something to do with it. (And a little bit about the aftermath in Scandinavian context - Denmark losing Norway to Sweden as a result of all this business, of course). So... yep. How about those Napoleonic Wars, eh.
(Thanks for the links, by the way!)
I think I might feel a bit better about all this if I had access to a decent library. Gods, I really miss being able to just pick up books on whatever subject I might be interested in. Living in a remote area sucks so badly sometimes.
But, anyway. Thanks for talking with me on this! And oh man, yes, I'll definitely enjoy Halifax. :D It'll be so nice to be back there again.
Speaking as a historian by study and training, I can count on my fingers the number of historical subjects and periods that I don't consider myself to be thoroughly ignorant about. I was firmly reminded of this not too long ago, when I picked up a book on the history of North Korea (because I realised that my knowledge about it all but started and ended with the Korean War), and as I was reading the book I came to a part where the author mentioned the assassination of the dictatorial South Korean President Park Chung-hee by the head of South Korean intelligence in 1979. And then I realised that I was remarkably clueless about that incident as well, and about South Korean politics since the end of the Korean War...so each additional bit of historical information opens up a whole new world to explore. This is probably why I have about 85 books on my nonfiction history list to check out from the local library, and keep adding new books every time I read one of the ones on my list, and yet I still find that I have to read multiple books about a person (or event, or period) before I can keep all the related names and dates straight.
Part of the reason why I got into Hetalia was because it let me write fic that uses that knowledge and encourages me to piece together all of the bits of history reading that I've collected over the years. Some of the fic comes from periods that I know quite well already (e.g., colonial American witch-trials); some of it comes from my current research obsessions (e.g., Swiss mercenaries in the 1500s). But I'm definitely still learning, and there are fic-ideas in my brain that I know I won't be able to write down until I do some more reading.
That said, please don't feel discouraged or embarrassed by your background in history, or lack thereof. If you have particular periods or events that you'd like to know more about, I'd be more than happy to go looking for book recs to give you a sense of where to go. (If I don't know of good books myself, I can probably find someone who does.) And you can get a lot out of reading book reviews, too -- the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History pages are excellent short summaries of recent publications, complete with criticisms and comments from leading scholars. The London Review of Books often publishes well-written and free-to-read book review articles as well.
I hope you have a good time in Halifax. It's been ages since I've been there, and I'd dearly love to go back someday.
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Heh. I guess we all have something, even within our area of study, that we're ignorant about. It just seems that sometimes the sheer amount of things I don't know is a little overwhelming.
This fit of sulking was sparked by a conversation I had with an acquaintance about a fic they started working on centred on Denmark's role in the Napoleonic Wars. They were kind of trying to nudge me to do one related to that subject too, since I find the idea really cool, but... slight problem: I know absolutely, completely zilch about the Napoleonic Wars at all, aside from having a vague idea about what time period we're dealing with and knowing that, of course, Napoleon had something to do with it. (And a little bit about the aftermath in Scandinavian context - Denmark losing Norway to Sweden as a result of all this business, of course). So... yep. How about those Napoleonic Wars, eh.
(Thanks for the links, by the way!)
I think I might feel a bit better about all this if I had access to a decent library. Gods, I really miss being able to just pick up books on whatever subject I might be interested in. Living in a remote area sucks so badly sometimes.
But, anyway. Thanks for talking with me on this! And oh man, yes, I'll definitely enjoy Halifax. :D It'll be so nice to be back there again.
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