Comments on: Acceptable Anachronism

By: Anti Static Brush

Anti Static Brush — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:26:31 +0000

Anti Static Brush…

[...]Acceptable Anachronism « All About Romance’s News & Commentary Blog[...]…

By: autolocksmith

autolocksmith — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 23:15:41 +0000

autolocksmith…

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By: Clinton Pascua

Clinton Pascua — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:58:34 +0000

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By: ya mum

ya mum — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:51:13 +0000

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By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:45:44 +0000

As LizA says above: there are anachronisms and there are anachronisms. I generally will be pretty forgiving if the problem is only 10-15 years either way, and if the general details are right. I don’t read romances for the history (grin). HOWEVER, that being said, a couple of wallbangers for me happened when the modern language and attitudes got out of control. For instance, a governess was ranting at an English landowner within the first 10 pages of the book for being a ‘control freak’. Book was round-filed immediately. Heroines who are out of their class with feistiness get me too. There is romantic tension and the hero appreciating that the heroine is her own character, and then there is behavior that is WAY too 21st century. If one is going to write a historical, one needs to remember that political correctness DID NOT exist back then!

By: AAR Lynn

AAR Lynn — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:39:53 +0000

For Mary Reed McCall – Thanks for posting the links! They were really interesting.
Funny you should mention the folks who had to share living space with their animals. I still remember learning about that in history class. It was quite a jolt to my 10 y.o. mind!

By: Susan/DC

Susan/DC — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:50:47 +0000

I admit to being inconsistent about my requirements for historical accuracy. I prefer authors to be as accurate as possible. However, I recognize that complete accuracy may be neither possible nor desirable. I don’t care that medievals don’t reference personal hygiene because contemporaries don’t either — when was the last time you read a contemporary that discussed whether the hero had bathed or brushed his teeth recently or pointed out the wonders of modern sewer systems? When I read a medieval, I don’t expect the heroine to particularly notice the hero’s bathing habits because they would be the same as hers and everyone elses. If something is universal, people don’t notice it and so it wouldn’t be commented on. I’m more likely to notice inaccuracies that relate to things I know, and I’m more likely to be annoyed if the errors are things that are easy to check (e.g., languages, historical events, and titles) — errors in such things indicate laziness on the author’s part and a lack of respect for the readers.

As several others have noted, if the author has created characters who are psychologically true and a story that’s emotionally true, I’m much more willing to forgive the occasional historical lapse.

By: AAR Lynn

AAR Lynn — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:20:11 +0000

LizA – I think you have a good point. There always seem to be people who don’t follow the norm of their time and so unusual behaviors can be acceptable to a reader because of that. Jumping the gun on inventions would be something else. I just read a book set in the early 1870s and the heroine refers to electricity and automobiles as if they have come into common use at least among the rich in rural England. That jumped out at me so much that I had to go look it up!

And SusiB -I’m with you on the languages. The area I’m in has people from all over the world, so I may just have a skewed view of things, but it seems as though it would be fairly easy to find language help. I have to do it for court cases all the time, and I’m always able to find people – even for some fairly exotic languages.

By: LizA

LizA — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:06:34 +0000

SusiB, you are so right about languages! The first rule of foreign languages in a romance should be:Get a native speaker! And it is not that hard to find native speakers, even of “obscure” languages – there are these funny places called universities that attract even funnier people called international students … who would surely consent to checking these few phrases for a bit of cash or even for free! Sorry for being sarcastic, but I remember one romance writer arguing that she could not find a person to speak Finish… which I found really lame. Just contact the international office of the nearest University, and you will find native speakers of more languages than you’d ever need! Sorry for the rant….
oh and never rely on a few classes you took years ago. They might be fine for traveling and general communications, but most people forget the little details and that is annoying as hell in books.
Okay, rant over!

By: Mary Reed McCall

Mary Reed McCall — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:44:46 +0000

Great topic.

I just have to comment briefly on the medieval hygiene issue, in case it might prove interesting to anyone. In the course of more than a decade of readings and research concerning medieval people, places, and times, I’ve learned that while “well-off” medieval people might not have attained quite the levels of cleanliness we modern people consider desirable, they were quite a bit more concerned about bathing and cleanliness in general than they are often given credit for. Later ages (the Renaissance etc) seem to have associated full immersion bathing with negative things, like illness and potential death – but all of my research indicates that medieval people quite enjoyed and indulged in regular bathing (personal and ritual both).

Of course this addresses primarily people of the middle class and above; the lower classes of the medieval population were necessarily more likely to have dirt as a part of their usual life, thanks to their occupations and the circumstances of living (i.e. sharing living space with their farm animals etc LOL). However, the nobility seems to have been fond enough of bathing to often have their own, personal tubs (round types, which were lined with fabric padding, filled with steaming, herb-scented water, and complete with little canopies, to keep in the heat). These tubs were often turned over and used as tables in between baths.

Public bath houses were also very popular in most cities, though many of these were eventually shut down because they attracted some illicit behaviors (prostitution and the like).

There are many pieces of medieval art, writings, and recipes (for bath herbs etc) devoted to the pleasures of bathing in the middle ages. it seems that the Church, even, had to address the issue to try to prevent people from indulging in bathing so much; Church leaders, while concerned with “cleanliness” of soul and body, nevertheless felt that many of their flock were becoming distracted and too immersed in this practice as a pleasure of the flesh. Here are a couple links that might prove interesting for some in terms of this subject:

http://www.medieval-life.net/bathing.htm
http://www.castles-of-britain.com/castleze.htm
http://larsdatter.com/baths.htm
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/baths.html
And a few pictures:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/english/lion/images/bathing.gif
http://www.sewerhistory.org/images/wh/whm/whm02.jpg
http://scholar.library.csi.cuny.edu/~talarico/medieval/bath02.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3152/2371166225_492d034727.jpg?v=0 (this is a modern reconstruction of a medieval bath at Leeds Castle)

Happy Reading!

–MRM