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Can We Actually Remember What The Past Was Like?
Certain aspects of our reality that are commonplace now will be forever lost
Early 1900s
Reading an account of life in Barcelona in the early 1900s, I quickly realised I couldn’t quite picture the scene. It wasn’t that the descriptions weren’t good; on the contrary, the text is full of vivid details that make you touch, breathe and taste the world as remembered by the author. I was missing aspects no decent writer would bother with: what the streets were made of, how wide they were, what a normal person did for a living, if motorcars were in use, if electricity was available, etc.
Literature And The Mundane
The memoirs, written fifty years after the described scenes, already accounted for most of the main differences half a century had caused. Naturally, the problem is almost another three-quarters of a century has passed since the writing. And what a seventy-year period it has been! While a historian should be thorough in their description of life at a specific time, we will be grateful for the general author to spare us the tediousness of unnecessary minutiae. Admittedly, we will miss on some of the peculiarities of an era but still grasp the gist of the narration. Literature should do away with the mundane and focus on the…