History & Fantasy for Writers: The Purpose of Timeframes in History 1.1
The Purpose of Timeframes in History 1.1:It might seem like there's nothing to it, to choose a timeframe in our history and decide it will be a spiritual ancestor of your story. It is often said that this book or that has a medieval setting, or a modern setting, or is akin to imperial Rome or Han China, or future USA. In reality, these eras become memetic, merging unto one another, and eventually losing historical value as they gain symbolic value. Symbolic value is wonderful for myth-making processes but a deep thorn in the skin for historical processes precisely because of how loosely the author adopts historical characteristics. Often, writers will decide on a setting and its timeframe and move on with a general, memetic, and symbolic idea of what it meant or will mean to be alive in that given time. They assume or hope the imagined characteristics of this symbolic past or future will remain stable through time. In some cases, the worst of cases, they will force the symbolic vision, damning their characters and their settings to remain in a stasis-field of perpetual memetic logic that is all but realistic. This, given sufficient time, becomes a flaw in all stories that are somewhat related to historical processes.
The purpose of this post, thus, is to shed some light on how to distill a measure of realism by taking a step away from the symbolic and memetic acumen of our history. The process of doing so, if done correctly and with honesty, will not only give weight and worth to the stories being told. It may also guide you into new realms of understanding with which to more masterfully imagine, envision, outline, and structure your stories.
Choosing an Era is not choosing a timeframe:The first thing you must remember is that beginning your story in a medieval European setting, for example, means nothing to a historian. Which means it should mean nothing to you as well. As with most eras in our history, the variation across centuries is immense, and the changes that happened were as marked then as they are today in regions of interest like cities and centers of power. When you decide on a specific era and location for your setting, be it directly (on Earth as a historical parallel) or indirectly (in a fantasy setting of your own creation), the specific timeframe is more important. The timeline of choice will determine one base element of your setting that will remain unchanged and four overarching elements that will change through time (in the short, medium, and long run).
Stages of change and permanence in Timeframes
Unchanging Element:The Memetic Legacy (like our genetic legacy) is a given set of blueprints that determine our constitution. In this case, not our genetic constitution (body) but our memetic constitution (mind). The meme, like the gene, is the unit of determining factors, and tends to change or be altered only after vasts amounts of information are added to the pool over extended periods of time. Because this is the nature of memetic legacies, societies may change drastically and still preserve basic and foundational elements of their original selves. Picture a futuristic Asia as opposed to a futuristic Latin America. For this reason, unless your story spans various centuries or millennia, the overarching memetic legacy will remain unaltered during a given time frame. This establishes a series of important things to take into account:Culture is ever-changing and yet static. It is beholden to its origins as it adapts itself to permanent change. The spirit of culture remains as its cosmetics are altered over millennia.Language is altered as it mixes and entwines, but the roots remain like the marrow of bone.Language is the memetic pillar upon which expansion, conquest, growth, and dominance is established. It changes, albeit slowly, and is carrier of tradition, belief, and justice systems.Justice systems are grounded on the moral basis of the memetic legacy.The moral basis of the memetic legacy is determined by the values/morals of foundational myths.Myth and symbolic meaning of the imagined past is the greater shaper of memetic legacies,
Changing Elements:Genetic Legacies: tend to remain unaltered in pre-modern societies and to change very quickly in modern societies. Genetic legacies are subject to rapid change only to the mixing of races which occurs when societies modernize and allow for instances of interdependence to occur. An example of this in the recent past is the Roman Republic and Empire, where race was known to be the tongue of the people rather than their skin color, and where slaves were allowed into the society regardless of race (or tongue), because of the interdependent relationship established between their labor and the Republic's needs. It's important to note that slaves were never citizens nor Romans per se, and that the patricians (higher classes) rarely mingled with other races (tongues) as they claimed direct ancestry to divinity. In a given timeframe of, say, a hundred years, Genetic Legacies can change dynamically, especially if there is also sudden change in moral foundations, the type of solidarity and the relation to nature the group has. As shown in the diagram, genetic legacies tend to change gradually, then aggressively. In this stage the intermixing of races is fast enough to happen between generations. This, of course, brings about a reaction from the most mechanical aspect of society (pre-modern), which lead to a regression in which races tend to re-group and return to a state of xeno and race-related phobia. The change, however, has been to great at this point and society will stabilize at a given point which can, over time, become a new mechanic status quo. In this state, even modern societies which are indifferent to race mixing may become averse of societies that are not actively mixing or that do no show the level of diversity they consider moral. To change this stability is to once more challenge the state of things over a new timeframe that is entirely new or different from the first.
Relation to Nature: pertains more specifically to the knowledge of the environment the group has. This includes technological discoveries or inventions, which can change extremely fast. In some cases we can see technologies that alter the way societies view and use the world, others and themselves. Relation to nature also determines the ways in which the group behaves in communion with their environment, which includes neighboring groups and animals/plants. As with Genetic Legacies, relation to nature shows gradual change over time that can accumulate latent potentials and bring about aggressive change. Often, these aggressive changes will continue to grow. On occasion, for example with something like steel or the atomic energy, a cultural response is warranted and there's a regression that limits its use. In the case of steel we see the cultures of chivalry and bushido, wherein the swordmaster limits himself, avoiding the indiscriminate use of the sword to usurp the freedoms of others. In the case of the atomic energy, we see the MAD policy (Mutually Assured Destruction) and the subsequent growth of nuclear disarmament policies in the UN and the global community. All in all, as time goes by in your story discoveries should be made that radically alter the way characters relate to nature, more or less following an increasing speed of change. Alteration in the way humans relate to nature is both exponential (meaning the more it is altered the faster ill will be altered in the future) and deeply influential (meaning it affects other elements of change more than any other category). For example, a departure from our mythical understanding of nature which may occur during early Renaissance Europe or better yet during the Enlightenment, leads to social upheavals, distancing with mythic pillars (like the church) and pre-modern social requisites like the monarchy. Our relation to nature alters the way we think about the world in general and thus guides us in or out of a more realistic/scientific understanding of phenomena. The closer to reality our relation to nature is, the more the group will atomize and individuality will emerge. This tends to happen because a separation from the historical myths that unite us, when replaced with cold harsh truths, brings great personal anxiety to the individual that no longer find respite. This existential anxiety is made stronger by the ever-growing notion that the living exist in paradox, at once craving endless life yet having the one characteristic necessary for death, which is being alive.
Type of Solidarity: determines if the group is still mechanical (basing its sense of unity on visual and cultural markers) or organic (basing its sense of unity in interdependence to one another). This element is the result of the confluence of both Genetic Legacies and our Relation to Nature changing over time. As the effect of such causes, the type of solidarity (from pre-modern to modern to post modern) should be the guiding wind that distinguishes your story and the passage of time within a given timeframe. While it is possible to have pre-modern societies that are genetically diverse (usually a key modern trait), it is impossible to have pre-modern societies that value individualism and inter-dependence or that see value in restorative justice rather than retributive. Given these limitations, understanding Pre-modern and Modern solidarities is fundamental (see History & Fantasy for Writers #2 of this blog). The essential elements of one society or another and the ways in which the passage of time may affect these societies may be the most prevalent and enduring idea you must present in your narrative. The type of solidarity in a given society will determine the way they see themselves and others, their understanding and relation to nature, the way their beliefs are shaped or translated and the way they express themselves through their values. Morality, thus, emerges not just from the foundational mythos and history of a group but also by its day-today behaviors to one another. The type of solidarity, thus, determines the value system, the moral basis, the system of justice, and the sense of direction (cyclical or directed) of a group. Although change in the type of solidarity may seem gradual (and they are often gradual) quick alterations in genetic legacies and relations to nature can spur a sudden change. The best example of this is the industrial Revolution, wherein a timeframe of merely 100 years (1750 to 1850), life in towns of England had changed dramatically with new phenomena emerging such as alcoholism and unemployment (seen by many as a mental disease rather than the fallout of economic processes). Like with the other elements, the Type of Solidarity will have a gradual and then an aggressive change. The aggressive change, experienced for example in contemporary society, will result in cultural and social pushback from the most traditional elements of a group. This will bring about a form of regression that will eventually naturalize and stabilize. In the case of a change from the Pre-modern to Modern, the modern man cannot go back to being Pre-modern, but he can perpetuate traditions in an emulation of what once was, defending these traditions for the worth they once bore rather than the practical effects they can no longer offer. In the case of a Modern society moving into a Post-modern, the result is similar, with groups who long for the unity of the Pre-modern creating their alternate sub-cultures, which attempt to replace the void of what was lost in order to fight the existential anxiety natural to an intelligent species.
Moral Foundations: are the basis of day-to-day activity within a society. The reasons why we would offer our help to others or deny it; why we would save money or give it away; why we would fight for our nation or only for ourselves; why we would feel empathy to some and not to others. It is the confluence of all changes over time, the genetic legacies being altered by intermingling of races or groups, our relation to nature changing by historical events and discoveries, our change in the solidarity we offer to one another. Moral foundations dictate our willingness to see a king beheaded and find it moral, to pursue warfare and find it moral, to kill another and find it moral... or to find morality only in restraint. It is a guide that is created by everything we are and everything that happens. It is also, informed and guided by the Memetic Legacies of our groups and as such vulnerable to both immediate radical change and regressions. In your stories, this is presented as the characters that have moral arcs, finding reasons to love others that in prior circumstances they should have hated. Moral foundations are also where most writers struggle both in the way they present their protagonists and the way they formulate their character's arcs. If you see a movie or read a book with a character that seems to have a moral foundation that seems out of place (a queen that wants to liberate her serfs from serfdom or a knight that fights for another group with no hesitation because "it's the right thing") you're encountering a fault in the understanding of Moral Foundations. For the medieval knight it was not moral to spare an infidel. Quite the opposite. It was moral only to kill him. For the Japanese that came into Nanjing in 1937 it was moral to humiliate, torture, and behead their rivals. Likewise, for the nazis it was moral to eradicate the world of Jews. The moral foundations of these peoples, while exemplary pre-modern, are also what distinguishes them from each other and from themselves in their own extended timeline. In these cases, the crusader, the Japanese soldier, the nazi, are all the result of an aggressive moral change that happens during a short period of time (decades in this cases) and that feeds on latent potentials of pre-modernity within these societies. It instrumentalizes the most vicious aspects of the group in a form of retributive justice that seeks cleansing in a faulty and misguided way. These societies, suddenly turning so violent to others, exemplarise a moral foundations change that is extremely aggressive and that, at least for a little while, created a sense of moral duty to the group that led ordinary men to do heinous acts. Like with all Elements of change, gradual moral foundation change can become suddenly aggressive (crusaders, Japanese soldiers, nazis), and then suffer a form of regression in which the radical elements are stripped away and a new universalisable moral foundation is re-established. The characterization of a people emerges from the seed of moral foundation and so must also be expressed in the reality of a fictional story. What matters here is that historical reality dictates a constant cycle of gradual, aggressive, regressive and stabilizing forces in which moral foundations are deformed and reformed.
Like your characters, your setting must also go through the process of change and face the cycle. This is where the adoption of an era like the European middle ages is simply not enough. Studying specific moments of history will shed light on the ways these elements change and should change in your novels.
The purpose of this post, thus, is to shed some light on how to distill a measure of realism by taking a step away from the symbolic and memetic acumen of our history. The process of doing so, if done correctly and with honesty, will not only give weight and worth to the stories being told. It may also guide you into new realms of understanding with which to more masterfully imagine, envision, outline, and structure your stories.
Choosing an Era is not choosing a timeframe:The first thing you must remember is that beginning your story in a medieval European setting, for example, means nothing to a historian. Which means it should mean nothing to you as well. As with most eras in our history, the variation across centuries is immense, and the changes that happened were as marked then as they are today in regions of interest like cities and centers of power. When you decide on a specific era and location for your setting, be it directly (on Earth as a historical parallel) or indirectly (in a fantasy setting of your own creation), the specific timeframe is more important. The timeline of choice will determine one base element of your setting that will remain unchanged and four overarching elements that will change through time (in the short, medium, and long run).
Stages of change and permanence in TimeframesUnchanging Element:The Memetic Legacy (like our genetic legacy) is a given set of blueprints that determine our constitution. In this case, not our genetic constitution (body) but our memetic constitution (mind). The meme, like the gene, is the unit of determining factors, and tends to change or be altered only after vasts amounts of information are added to the pool over extended periods of time. Because this is the nature of memetic legacies, societies may change drastically and still preserve basic and foundational elements of their original selves. Picture a futuristic Asia as opposed to a futuristic Latin America. For this reason, unless your story spans various centuries or millennia, the overarching memetic legacy will remain unaltered during a given time frame. This establishes a series of important things to take into account:Culture is ever-changing and yet static. It is beholden to its origins as it adapts itself to permanent change. The spirit of culture remains as its cosmetics are altered over millennia.Language is altered as it mixes and entwines, but the roots remain like the marrow of bone.Language is the memetic pillar upon which expansion, conquest, growth, and dominance is established. It changes, albeit slowly, and is carrier of tradition, belief, and justice systems.Justice systems are grounded on the moral basis of the memetic legacy.The moral basis of the memetic legacy is determined by the values/morals of foundational myths.Myth and symbolic meaning of the imagined past is the greater shaper of memetic legacies,
Changing Elements:Genetic Legacies: tend to remain unaltered in pre-modern societies and to change very quickly in modern societies. Genetic legacies are subject to rapid change only to the mixing of races which occurs when societies modernize and allow for instances of interdependence to occur. An example of this in the recent past is the Roman Republic and Empire, where race was known to be the tongue of the people rather than their skin color, and where slaves were allowed into the society regardless of race (or tongue), because of the interdependent relationship established between their labor and the Republic's needs. It's important to note that slaves were never citizens nor Romans per se, and that the patricians (higher classes) rarely mingled with other races (tongues) as they claimed direct ancestry to divinity. In a given timeframe of, say, a hundred years, Genetic Legacies can change dynamically, especially if there is also sudden change in moral foundations, the type of solidarity and the relation to nature the group has. As shown in the diagram, genetic legacies tend to change gradually, then aggressively. In this stage the intermixing of races is fast enough to happen between generations. This, of course, brings about a reaction from the most mechanical aspect of society (pre-modern), which lead to a regression in which races tend to re-group and return to a state of xeno and race-related phobia. The change, however, has been to great at this point and society will stabilize at a given point which can, over time, become a new mechanic status quo. In this state, even modern societies which are indifferent to race mixing may become averse of societies that are not actively mixing or that do no show the level of diversity they consider moral. To change this stability is to once more challenge the state of things over a new timeframe that is entirely new or different from the first.
Relation to Nature: pertains more specifically to the knowledge of the environment the group has. This includes technological discoveries or inventions, which can change extremely fast. In some cases we can see technologies that alter the way societies view and use the world, others and themselves. Relation to nature also determines the ways in which the group behaves in communion with their environment, which includes neighboring groups and animals/plants. As with Genetic Legacies, relation to nature shows gradual change over time that can accumulate latent potentials and bring about aggressive change. Often, these aggressive changes will continue to grow. On occasion, for example with something like steel or the atomic energy, a cultural response is warranted and there's a regression that limits its use. In the case of steel we see the cultures of chivalry and bushido, wherein the swordmaster limits himself, avoiding the indiscriminate use of the sword to usurp the freedoms of others. In the case of the atomic energy, we see the MAD policy (Mutually Assured Destruction) and the subsequent growth of nuclear disarmament policies in the UN and the global community. All in all, as time goes by in your story discoveries should be made that radically alter the way characters relate to nature, more or less following an increasing speed of change. Alteration in the way humans relate to nature is both exponential (meaning the more it is altered the faster ill will be altered in the future) and deeply influential (meaning it affects other elements of change more than any other category). For example, a departure from our mythical understanding of nature which may occur during early Renaissance Europe or better yet during the Enlightenment, leads to social upheavals, distancing with mythic pillars (like the church) and pre-modern social requisites like the monarchy. Our relation to nature alters the way we think about the world in general and thus guides us in or out of a more realistic/scientific understanding of phenomena. The closer to reality our relation to nature is, the more the group will atomize and individuality will emerge. This tends to happen because a separation from the historical myths that unite us, when replaced with cold harsh truths, brings great personal anxiety to the individual that no longer find respite. This existential anxiety is made stronger by the ever-growing notion that the living exist in paradox, at once craving endless life yet having the one characteristic necessary for death, which is being alive.
Type of Solidarity: determines if the group is still mechanical (basing its sense of unity on visual and cultural markers) or organic (basing its sense of unity in interdependence to one another). This element is the result of the confluence of both Genetic Legacies and our Relation to Nature changing over time. As the effect of such causes, the type of solidarity (from pre-modern to modern to post modern) should be the guiding wind that distinguishes your story and the passage of time within a given timeframe. While it is possible to have pre-modern societies that are genetically diverse (usually a key modern trait), it is impossible to have pre-modern societies that value individualism and inter-dependence or that see value in restorative justice rather than retributive. Given these limitations, understanding Pre-modern and Modern solidarities is fundamental (see History & Fantasy for Writers #2 of this blog). The essential elements of one society or another and the ways in which the passage of time may affect these societies may be the most prevalent and enduring idea you must present in your narrative. The type of solidarity in a given society will determine the way they see themselves and others, their understanding and relation to nature, the way their beliefs are shaped or translated and the way they express themselves through their values. Morality, thus, emerges not just from the foundational mythos and history of a group but also by its day-today behaviors to one another. The type of solidarity, thus, determines the value system, the moral basis, the system of justice, and the sense of direction (cyclical or directed) of a group. Although change in the type of solidarity may seem gradual (and they are often gradual) quick alterations in genetic legacies and relations to nature can spur a sudden change. The best example of this is the industrial Revolution, wherein a timeframe of merely 100 years (1750 to 1850), life in towns of England had changed dramatically with new phenomena emerging such as alcoholism and unemployment (seen by many as a mental disease rather than the fallout of economic processes). Like with the other elements, the Type of Solidarity will have a gradual and then an aggressive change. The aggressive change, experienced for example in contemporary society, will result in cultural and social pushback from the most traditional elements of a group. This will bring about a form of regression that will eventually naturalize and stabilize. In the case of a change from the Pre-modern to Modern, the modern man cannot go back to being Pre-modern, but he can perpetuate traditions in an emulation of what once was, defending these traditions for the worth they once bore rather than the practical effects they can no longer offer. In the case of a Modern society moving into a Post-modern, the result is similar, with groups who long for the unity of the Pre-modern creating their alternate sub-cultures, which attempt to replace the void of what was lost in order to fight the existential anxiety natural to an intelligent species.
Moral Foundations: are the basis of day-to-day activity within a society. The reasons why we would offer our help to others or deny it; why we would save money or give it away; why we would fight for our nation or only for ourselves; why we would feel empathy to some and not to others. It is the confluence of all changes over time, the genetic legacies being altered by intermingling of races or groups, our relation to nature changing by historical events and discoveries, our change in the solidarity we offer to one another. Moral foundations dictate our willingness to see a king beheaded and find it moral, to pursue warfare and find it moral, to kill another and find it moral... or to find morality only in restraint. It is a guide that is created by everything we are and everything that happens. It is also, informed and guided by the Memetic Legacies of our groups and as such vulnerable to both immediate radical change and regressions. In your stories, this is presented as the characters that have moral arcs, finding reasons to love others that in prior circumstances they should have hated. Moral foundations are also where most writers struggle both in the way they present their protagonists and the way they formulate their character's arcs. If you see a movie or read a book with a character that seems to have a moral foundation that seems out of place (a queen that wants to liberate her serfs from serfdom or a knight that fights for another group with no hesitation because "it's the right thing") you're encountering a fault in the understanding of Moral Foundations. For the medieval knight it was not moral to spare an infidel. Quite the opposite. It was moral only to kill him. For the Japanese that came into Nanjing in 1937 it was moral to humiliate, torture, and behead their rivals. Likewise, for the nazis it was moral to eradicate the world of Jews. The moral foundations of these peoples, while exemplary pre-modern, are also what distinguishes them from each other and from themselves in their own extended timeline. In these cases, the crusader, the Japanese soldier, the nazi, are all the result of an aggressive moral change that happens during a short period of time (decades in this cases) and that feeds on latent potentials of pre-modernity within these societies. It instrumentalizes the most vicious aspects of the group in a form of retributive justice that seeks cleansing in a faulty and misguided way. These societies, suddenly turning so violent to others, exemplarise a moral foundations change that is extremely aggressive and that, at least for a little while, created a sense of moral duty to the group that led ordinary men to do heinous acts. Like with all Elements of change, gradual moral foundation change can become suddenly aggressive (crusaders, Japanese soldiers, nazis), and then suffer a form of regression in which the radical elements are stripped away and a new universalisable moral foundation is re-established. The characterization of a people emerges from the seed of moral foundation and so must also be expressed in the reality of a fictional story. What matters here is that historical reality dictates a constant cycle of gradual, aggressive, regressive and stabilizing forces in which moral foundations are deformed and reformed.
Like your characters, your setting must also go through the process of change and face the cycle. This is where the adoption of an era like the European middle ages is simply not enough. Studying specific moments of history will shed light on the ways these elements change and should change in your novels.
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