Enjoyable read J.M. Be heartened to know that your lost piece is out there somewhere.
On the shoreline of this high alpine lake are emerging the ruins of an ancient civilisation hardly anyone has knowledge of. As if, once lost, they are saying "Time to Shine."
Answers to questions: 1/No. 2/ Good times at weird costume parties! 3/ Authenticity (which, when written well is entertainment enough.)
There is in such attempts at revival a tension between form and substance. It is often the form for which people feel nostalgic. They want the form restored, but not the substance. By way of a crude analogy, historical reenactors wear modern underwear, pack a nice lunch, and don't use real bullets. The recreate the form, but not the substance, of battle.
Historical fiction can fall into this trap as well, recreating the form but not the substance of the past. (Actually, from a commercial point of view, this is not so much a trap as an essential feature that readers demand, since it is the form and not the substance they want.)
But we live in an age without much substance at all. I think there is a broad nostalgia for substance, and perhaps that drives some of the nostalgia for the form. But nostalgia for substance is not substance, and real substance can gather new forms around itself. It would be a grand thing if we could back to substance itself.
Jun 22, 2022·edited Jun 22, 2022Liked by J. M. Elliott
This reminds me of the arts and crafts movement of which I am a huge fan. Not because it built gothic cathedral replica's and medieval home, but because it created it's own aesthetic drawing the best of those things and throwing in with it a good measure of grieving for a world that was passing away under the industrial revolution. Some arts and crafts artifacts are much sought after artworks entirely of their own merit. Their likeness to be found in no other time period and yet they contain wistful nods to many forgottten things. A desperate longing to not see the world fall under the cheapness of mass production birthed many beautiful forms in architecture, interior design, and jewellery still beloved today.
I recently lost a piece I was writing in exactly the same way and was so sick over it I couldn’t go back to it for awhile. It’s for an anthology I’m working on with some other writers, so I’m piecing it back together Humpty Dumpty style. :)
I’m sorry for your writing tragedy, but I’m glad it inspired this beautiful post. Just like the imprints of ancient cultures live on in our imagination today, all the work you put into that lost file surely will as well, one way or another.
Enjoyable read J.M. Be heartened to know that your lost piece is out there somewhere.
On the shoreline of this high alpine lake are emerging the ruins of an ancient civilisation hardly anyone has knowledge of. As if, once lost, they are saying "Time to Shine."
Answers to questions: 1/No. 2/ Good times at weird costume parties! 3/ Authenticity (which, when written well is entertainment enough.)
Phenomenal piece! You captured how I feel almost exactly, although I hadn't given it any focussed thought before reading this. Good writing. I wanted to be an archeologist when I was a boy. I also lost a piece, although it was only a morning's work. I wrote about it here: https://ryanwinfield.substack.com/p/the-edges-of-the-day?r=b6ynm&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
There is in such attempts at revival a tension between form and substance. It is often the form for which people feel nostalgic. They want the form restored, but not the substance. By way of a crude analogy, historical reenactors wear modern underwear, pack a nice lunch, and don't use real bullets. The recreate the form, but not the substance, of battle.
Historical fiction can fall into this trap as well, recreating the form but not the substance of the past. (Actually, from a commercial point of view, this is not so much a trap as an essential feature that readers demand, since it is the form and not the substance they want.)
But we live in an age without much substance at all. I think there is a broad nostalgia for substance, and perhaps that drives some of the nostalgia for the form. But nostalgia for substance is not substance, and real substance can gather new forms around itself. It would be a grand thing if we could back to substance itself.
This reminds me of the arts and crafts movement of which I am a huge fan. Not because it built gothic cathedral replica's and medieval home, but because it created it's own aesthetic drawing the best of those things and throwing in with it a good measure of grieving for a world that was passing away under the industrial revolution. Some arts and crafts artifacts are much sought after artworks entirely of their own merit. Their likeness to be found in no other time period and yet they contain wistful nods to many forgottten things. A desperate longing to not see the world fall under the cheapness of mass production birthed many beautiful forms in architecture, interior design, and jewellery still beloved today.
Sentiment does have it's uses.
I recently lost a piece I was writing in exactly the same way and was so sick over it I couldn’t go back to it for awhile. It’s for an anthology I’m working on with some other writers, so I’m piecing it back together Humpty Dumpty style. :)
I’m sorry for your writing tragedy, but I’m glad it inspired this beautiful post. Just like the imprints of ancient cultures live on in our imagination today, all the work you put into that lost file surely will as well, one way or another.
>The Nazis tried to revive the myths of ancient Germany in their ideology, but such an attempt could only lead to sterility and moral suicide.
Did it though?
Very defeatist thinking in this article.
>The Nazis tried to revive the myths of ancient Germany in their ideology, but such an attempt could only lead to sterility and moral suicide.
Did it though?