Romantic days and times; always in the past?

"The Accolade" by Edmund Blair Leighton

It's curious to see how many stories of romance and chivalry take place in the Middle Ages. Some are more recent, but there's strange appeal in stories set long ago. For some reason, we humans love to think only of the grand and lovely things long gone. Plus, we have impressively short memories for harsh and difficult days. I think that's why we romanticize about them. And, as storytellers, we get to use known settings for absolute fiction. Daily life from 200 years ago is barely documented, so why not make stories in those settings? Plus, doing so gives the hint of credibility--even to fiction.

My wife loves reading stories from the Pioneer days in America, and I love mythology from the Greeks and Romans. Because of her, I've enjoyed the "Anne of Green Gables" stories and movies (yes, I actually like them and am not pretending). It's great to expand your story horizons. Plus, there's all of history to fool around with, and so the world's your playground. Setting it in the past provides the skin of possibility with the stuffing of fact.

 

Romance is found wherever you want it, place it, or find it. Somehow, it's tough to cast romance into the future (science fiction tends to be, well, science oriented fiction and not romance). I'm not talking about the fluffy, frilly sort either, but the deeper kind most everyone really desires. Strange how it's discovered so often in the past. Well, that's not awful. History should be remembered, even if it's colored by optimism. At least some of the past carries forward.

 

- M