Writing Right with Dmitri: Voices from the Past
Created | Updated Apr 10, 2012
Words, words, words. That's what we're made of. Herewith some of my thoughts on what we're doing with them.
Writing Right with Dmitri: Voices from the Past
While reading a book about the Big Bang, the Gallifreyan Doctor famously complained, 'Why didn't they ask someone who was there?' Good question. If you're going to let the past speak through your fiction, do your homework first. Let the voices from the past speak to you, as much as you can. Listen and learn. Then weave your story around their experiences. In so doing, you will not only make up a much better narrative, but you'll find surprising moments. You and your readers will be edified, and you'll have done something to honour the citizens of that other country, the one where they do things differently.
Take Titanic. Okay, you knew that was coming. It's the 100th anniversary of the sinking of that great ship. As the Onion put it, 'World's largest metaphor hits iceberg, sinks.' But is that all there is to it? Before you're ready to put Jack on that prow, shouting about how he's king of the world, stop and find out what it was like to be there.
You've got tools. Right at your fingertips. Just navigate over to www.archive.org and look up 'Titanic'. You can hear interviews with survivors, no lie. You can also read The Truth about the "Titanic", the first-hand account by Archibald Gracie.
Gracie (1858-1912) was there. He was also one of us: a writer. He'd just finished a seven-year writing project on the US Civil War, and he thought he owed himself a holiday. Unfortunately, he was returning from that holiday to his native New York aboard Titanic when it hit the iceberg. Gracie survived that night – by less than eight months. The ordeal of clinging to an overturned boat ruined his health. Gracie, though, was a dedicated writer. He spent the time between that night in the freezing water and his own death in December, 1912, collected, remembering, and checking his facts. His book was published posthumously.
This is about as close as you can get to being there.
Do you want your characters aboard Titanic to hear the band mournfully play 'Nearer My God to Thee'? Check with Gracie first:
It was now that the band began to play, and continued while the boats were being lowered. We considered this a wise provision tending to allay excitement. I did not recognize any of the tunes, but I know they were cheerful and were not hymns. If, as has been reported, "Nearer My God to Thee" was one of the selections, I assuredly should have noticed it and regarded it as a tactless warning of immediate death to us all and one likely to create a panic that our special efforts were directed towards avoiding... – Archibald Gracie, The truth about the "Titanic", p.20.
Yes, we're aware that Cameron tried to have his cake and eat it. He knew they didn't play that hymn. But he couldn't resist. Who can forget the lone violinist who picks up the bow and starts the strain, just as they're all turning to go to their deaths? Fine. But know what you're doing first.
Do you want people to be all brave and heroic? Good. There was a lot of that. Gracie records many examples of courage and self-sacrifice. He also praises the women of Titanic, many of whom rowed the lifeboats to safety, even when they had to fight terrified men to do it. It's an amazing story. A couple of men who should have known better behaved rather badly, as well.
When you tell the story, though, be honest. Don't make it only about heroes and cowards. Read, and listen, and use your imagination to tell what it felt like, even if you weren't seventeen and in love:
One of the incidents I recall when loading the boats at this point was my seeing a young woman clinging tightly to a baby in her arms as she approached near the ship's high rail, but unwilling even for a moment to allow anyone else to hold the little one while assisting her to board the lifeboat. As she drew back sorrowfully to the outer edge of the crowd on the deck, I followed and persuaded her to accompany me to the rail again, promising if she would entrust the baby to me I would see that the officer passed it to her after she got aboard. . . I remember this incident well because of my feeling at the time, when I had the babe in my care; though the interval was short, I wondered how I should manage with it in my arms if the lifeboats got away and I should be plunged into the water with it as the ship sank.. – Archibald Gracie, The truth about the "Titanic", p.32.
Now that's a telling detail. When you come to think of it, that thought of Gracie's is so natural, yet so unexpected, that it puts the whole story right into perspective for you.
A lot of times, we're so busy trying to get verisimilitude into our narratives that we forget that truth is really much stranger than fiction. You might have been able to make up a disaster like the sinking of Titanic, but I'll bet you couldn't have made this incident up: Gracie records (and he didn't have a reason to lie, it seems to me) that, when he was in the water and became sure he'd drown, he sent out a prayer. It seems that someone in his wife's family had had what we call a psychic experience. Gracie prayed that he would be able to send his wife a message that he loved her. In his memoir, Gracie lets his wife tell the rest of the story:
'I was in my room at my sister's house. . . in New York. After retiring, being unable to rest. . .A voice. . .seemed to say, "On your knees and pray." Instantly, I literally obeyed with my prayer book in my hand, which by chance opened at the prayer "For those at Sea." The thought then flashed through my mind, "Archie is praying for me."' – Archibald Gracie, The truth about the "Titanic", p.69.
So Mrs Gracie got the message. She didn't hear about Titanic until the next morning, and at that time, she thought her husband had drowned. It's an unusual story, and one we might not choose to invent if we didn't know it happened.
So what am I saying? Just this: go exploring. Find the witnesses. Let them tell you about the strangeness and originality of historical fact. Don't rely on the history books, the boffins, and general wisdom. Ask someone who was there, if you can.
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