BIG HISTORY
This is definitely my favorite video this week! It speaks to two key issues for this Gaia-writer: context and imagination. (I have removed the video, because it always played automatically! Check it out on his website!)
I am constantly maneuvering around Big History as I write Gaia Girls. I acutely aware there is context to the conditions I’m talking about. But, how much context do my middle-reader fans need? A certain pace must be kept. An excellent plot must propel a reader forward; a beating heart at chapter’s end is a wonderful thing!
But the story marinated in history is juicier. So I go down history’s paths and find myself lost in other stories. I may spend a day striving to understand what mindset a character’s parent had, that shaped that character’s behavior at this moment. It may never make it on the page, but it makes the character more real to me. I’m not entirely sure this is a good process; but it feels more honest, so I’m going with it.
What was I thinking taking on “writing the whole world?” As a newbie writer, I decided to write Gaia as a character. In my books, she speaks, and sounds very individual. An yet, the whole point is…there are no individuals. We are a collective as surely as an ant colony. And our collective labors must yield to our environment. We cannot clever our way out of certain immutable, and very dynamic laws. It’s all connected, whether we have the sight to see it or not. So how does one develop such sight? I believe by living our history through our imaginations. If you send your mind into the past, you will find some of your memories flare to life. You may actually feel the memory. Some personal: the time you got the scar on your knee. Some generational: a grandparent telling the story of how their parents came to the United States, perhaps. Some jingoist:when you were 9-years old, you imagined yourself on the gold rush, or in a little house on the prairie, pushing westward and building a country!
Do you think our historical memories inform our behavior? And do you think historical memory is strongest in you where you once applied your young imagination? What history has “come alive” for you; and how does it play into your current decision-making?
I think the Big History Project will be fabulous and can’t wait to see the results of the pilot program! You can also view historian, David Christian’s wonderful 2011 TED talk on Big History.
