![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
secondary source
Aug. 7th, 2024 09:35 pmOne reason to read primary source is to get the actual point of view of the people of the time.
For this purpose, secondary source is primary source, for the purposes of figuring out what the people of the time of writing thought about the people of the time written about. However, this often hinders secondary source in its purpose of revealing the time written about --
I'm reading an author who writes that a cunning woman of early modern England had to wait until her husband was in bed before she worked something for healing an illness. She discusses several possibilities, noting that the law against witchcraft had been repealed in that time, but it does not even seem to have occurred to her as a possibility that he thought it was witchcraft, and therefore wrong.
For this purpose, secondary source is primary source, for the purposes of figuring out what the people of the time of writing thought about the people of the time written about. However, this often hinders secondary source in its purpose of revealing the time written about --
I'm reading an author who writes that a cunning woman of early modern England had to wait until her husband was in bed before she worked something for healing an illness. She discusses several possibilities, noting that the law against witchcraft had been repealed in that time, but it does not even seem to have occurred to her as a possibility that he thought it was witchcraft, and therefore wrong.
reasons for primary source reading
Jan. 11th, 2013 08:19 pmHaving told you how you should do it, I will now tell you why I recommend that all aspiring writers read a lot of primary sources, from as many eras and places as they can pull off. 0:)
It's not for research purposes. It may prove useful for that in the long run, but the recommendation includes eras and places that you have no interest in writing in. Indeed there's enough primary source floating about that it would be a trick and half to sample a lot of it and manage to use it all as research. That's not its primary benefit.
( Read more... )
It's not for research purposes. It may prove useful for that in the long run, but the recommendation includes eras and places that you have no interest in writing in. Indeed there's enough primary source floating about that it would be a trick and half to sample a lot of it and manage to use it all as research. That's not its primary benefit.
( Read more... )
history and obscurity
Nov. 18th, 2012 02:44 pmOne of the great offenses against world-building is to interject modern thinking into eras where neither the technology nor the social structure would have produce it.
Very easy to do by default if you haven't done enough historical reading -- especially of primary source -- when you don't realize that what comes natural to you is not the nature of the universe. And a grave danger when dealing with eras where we have very little documentation so it's hard to piece together. However. . . .
( Read more... )
Very easy to do by default if you haven't done enough historical reading -- especially of primary source -- when you don't realize that what comes natural to you is not the nature of the universe. And a grave danger when dealing with eras where we have very little documentation so it's hard to piece together. However. . . .
( Read more... )
Young Medieval Women
Oct. 22nd, 2011 11:59 pmYoung Medieval Women edited by Katherine J. Lewis, Noel James Menuge, and Kim M. Phillips
Being a collection of essays on medieval woman, some of them specifically about maidens, and some about issues that would have been important to maidens, even if not specific to that age group.
( Read more... )
Being a collection of essays on medieval woman, some of them specifically about maidens, and some about issues that would have been important to maidens, even if not specific to that age group.
( Read more... )
Crowns In Conflict
Aug. 16th, 2011 08:27 pmCrowns In Conflict by Theo Aronson
Being a study of the monarchs and royal families just before and during World War I, with some clean-up afterward.
( Read more... )
Being a study of the monarchs and royal families just before and during World War I, with some clean-up afterward.
( Read more... )
Mr. Kipling's Army
Aug. 14th, 2011 01:22 pmMr. Kipling's Army: All the Queen's Men by Byron Farwell
Being a survey of British Army life in the later part of the Victorian era -- with enough history and looks forward to situate it. Given that in 1850 the army still had officers who had served under Wellington at Waterloo, and other officers led the troops in World War I, that's a far stretch. (Indeed, at one point it goes back to Cromwell's time, since one unit of Cromwell's army had, by a legal fiction, survived the Restoration.)
( Read more... )
Being a survey of British Army life in the later part of the Victorian era -- with enough history and looks forward to situate it. Given that in 1850 the army still had officers who had served under Wellington at Waterloo, and other officers led the troops in World War I, that's a far stretch. (Indeed, at one point it goes back to Cromwell's time, since one unit of Cromwell's army had, by a legal fiction, survived the Restoration.)
( Read more... )
The Persistence of the Old Regime
Aug. 9th, 2011 09:39 pmThe Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War by Arno Mayer
An interesting analysis of how Europe was agricultural and ruled by nobles and kings up to World War I.
( Read more... )
An interesting analysis of how Europe was agricultural and ruled by nobles and kings up to World War I.
( Read more... )
Slavery In Indian Country
Jun. 18th, 2011 03:40 pmSlavery In Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America by Christina Snyder.
Bit of a misnomer. It treats with slavery among the "Southern Indians" -- those on the East Coast and as far west as the Mississippi who were south of the territories that the Iroquois controlled. Not that meant that the Iroquois were not sometimes a problem. . . .
( Read more... )
Bit of a misnomer. It treats with slavery among the "Southern Indians" -- those on the East Coast and as far west as the Mississippi who were south of the territories that the Iroquois controlled. Not that meant that the Iroquois were not sometimes a problem. . . .
( Read more... )
The Discarded Image
Jan. 20th, 2011 02:21 pmThe Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C. S. Lewis
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
on wallowing in an era
Jan. 9th, 2011 05:09 pmIt's valuable experience, reading lots and lots and lots of stuff about an era you want to use, or emulate (or rip off, if you prefer).
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Sacred Places
Dec. 9th, 2010 08:46 pmSacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century by John F. Sears.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Courtesans and Fishcakes
Oct. 13th, 2010 11:57 pmCourtesans and Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens by James Davidson
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
.
