A few years ago, an editor I very much admire said something that made my eyes cross. \u00a0I\u2019m paraphrasing here, because I\u2019m too lazy to go look the exact quote, but, in answer to a neophyte writer who wanted to know if she had to do a whole lot of research in order to write historical fiction or historical fantasy, the editor said (paraphrasing, right?): you have to do some, but people are basically people, no matter when\/where you set them.<\/p>\n
Eyes crossing right now.<\/p>\n
The world has changed since I was a young human. \u00a0I know this because every time I watch an older movie with my daughters there will be moments when they look at me, dumbfounded. \u00a0\u201cWas it really like that when you were young?\u201d they ask (about women wearing gloves to leave the house, or men condescending to female lawyers, sexual double standards, really weird hairdos), and I have to say, well, yes it was. \u00a0The far past is exotic, but we think we know what it was like because we\u2019ve seen movies and read books and stuff like that. \u00a0But the near past, which we think we know because we were there (for some part of it, anyway) is just as exotic.<\/p>\n
Case in point: a few years ago I was given the 1945 edition of Etiquette<\/em>, by Emily Post. \u00a0This book was published during WW II; women were working jobs vacated by men who went off to war; the world had gone through sixteen kinds of sea change since the end of the last world war (voting women! talking pictures! radio! sulfa drugs and penicillin just on the verge of being mass-produced!) and we think we know what it was like, how people behaved, what they thought and aspired to.<\/p>\n Then you read Etiquette<\/em> and have to revise your thinking. Mrs. Post\u2019s books may have harkened back to a more formal time, but she was still the<\/em> arbiter of social usage. \u00a0Etiquette <\/em>covers the waterfront, social usage-wise: exhaustive and exhausting information on weddings and advice on the protocol of engagements (\u201cCorrectly, the mother, father, sisters,brothers, aunts and cousins of the bridegeroom-to-be should go at once and call upon the bride and her family.\u201d \u00a0 I\u2019m imagining the terror as this army descends upon the bride\u2019s hapless family, brandishing visiting cards. \u00a0Also, Mrs. Post points out that \u201cTHE ENGAGEMENT RING IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO THE VALIDITY OF THE BETROTHAL.\u201d \u00a0Caps hers). \u00a0She\u2019s got the scoop on christenings and, speaking to the modern woman, she includes the wording for an announcement of adoption (\u201cMrs. and Mrs. Nuhome have the happiness to announce the adoption of Mary, aged thirteen months.\u201d).<\/p>\n The section on funerals and mourning is fabulous (in the enlightened year of 1945 a widow need only stay in deep mourning for a year, with another year of second mourning\u2013grays, I suppose\u2013to follow. \u00a0And as always, men get off easier. \u00a0\u201cAlthough the etiquette is less exacting for a man than for a woman, a widower should not be seen at a dance or any large and solely social entertainment for from six to eight months; a son from four to six months; a brother for three\u2013at least! The length of time a father stays in mourning for a child is from four to eight months.\u201d \u00a0A child under eight, however, should never be put into black, no matter what Charles Dickens says). \u00a0It\u2019s revelatory to anyone who has been to a funeral in the last thirty years; I\u2019ve never been to one where everyone<\/em> wore black, have you?<\/p>\n And Mrs. Post talks about servants. \u00a0The staff for a large house (the Butler is more important than the Housekeeper, but just barely), includes the butler and housekeeper, footmen, chauffeur, cook, kitchen maids, house maids, lady\u2019s maid, valet, tutor, nursery maid\u2013I feel like I\u2019ve wandered into a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery! \u00a0Advice is given to those who have persistent trouble with the help. \u00a0To her credit, Mrs. Post stresses rigorous firmness and fairness with the help; no taking your bad mood out on your social inferiors, that\u2019s tacky. \u00a0And she talks to the woman with only one maid in a small apartment as well: the maid will of course live in, and you should make her room as pleasant as possible, and allow her a decent afternoon off once a week\u2026.<\/p>\n And on it goes. \u00a0I could quote you passages (\u201cBusiness Women in Unconventional Situations: Certain jobs\u2013particularly those of responsibility leading to the heights of success\u2013carry with them the paradoxical responsibility of upholding a moral code of unassailable integrity while smashing to bits all rules of old-fashioned propriety!\u201d) until your eyes glaze over. \u00a0Mine won\u2019t; this is like catnip to me, a window into another time and another way of thinking. \u00a0Emily Post was not writing for the wealthy who had been wealthy all their lives\u2013they knew this stuff. \u00a0She was writing for the people who aspired to be wealthy, or upper middle class, or middle class. \u00a0The people who wanted to know how they were supposed <\/em>to be living their lives.<\/p>\n I would say to my editor friend: yes, if you want to create a different place, you have to do enough research to understand how the place shapes the beliefs and the behaviors, and vice versa. \u00a0If you\u2019re looking at the near past, Emily Post is not a bad place to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few years ago, an editor I very much admire said something that made my eyes cross. \u00a0I\u2019m paraphrasing here, because I\u2019m too lazy to go look the exact quote, but, in answer to a neophyte writer who wanted to know if she had to do a whole lot of research in order to write […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4467,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466\/revisions\/4467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}