History is fiction in the cloak of facts, because
history, strictly speaking, is not events but writings
about events. Many forget this, or disregard it.
歴史とは、事実の衣を着た作り事ですね。なぜかといえば、歴史は起こり
事ではなくて、それを書き綴ったものでしょう。これは忘れる人が多い。
無視しがちです。
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true, but one could also say that history is fiction that makes use of - and ideally is constrained by - facts. it depends how you define "facts", which can be complicated. your statement sounds more poetic, but without this qualification there's no way of distinguishing relatively sound history from pure lies and unadulterated propaganda.
ReplyDeletePat is absolutely right. He is more precise, and the distinction he identifies is surely important.
ReplyDeleteyour statement is still more poetic and intuitively resonant, but thank you for the validation. it's making seemingly anal qualifications like this that used to get me called an objectivist, a realist, and - curse of curses - a positivist by my poststructuralist colleagues. it all depends on what point one is trying to make and what one is trying to argue against, really.
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