At the end of Year 9, we were made to choose the subjects we’d pursue our GCSE’s in. Well, to put it how it felt at the time, we were free to drop the subjects we didn’t like, timetables permitting. And whilst this mostly meant the difficult decision between keeping either French or Geography on the cards (I chose French and got my lowest GCSE grade in it, an E), it also meant that some of the teachers tried to advertise their subjects to you in an attempt to steer you down their path. My music teacher failed to convince me I had any musical talent, but my history teacher surprised me by helping me realise how much I actually enjoyed the subject.
It’s odd, as the stereotype is that history teachers are stuffy old farts who bore their students to sleep. But I’ve always had interesting, quirky or funny teachers. My GCSE history teacher was a great man who shared the exasperation of his students on certain issues, made good conversation and most importantly, joined us in oversimplifying and taking the piss out of certain events and figures in the histories we studied. I can’t say that I would have chosen Medicine Through Time as my own personal field of study, but I evidently enjoyed it enough to pursue history as an A-Level. And besides, it was as close as I ever did get to studying any ancient history, as we touched on the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, and their interesting notions of how to stop people shitting to death on a regular basis.
To do A-Level history, I had to hop on a minibus and go to an entirely different school, as mine didn’t feel like shelling out money for the subject if I was the only Year 12 student to take it. And I can’t complain too much because it gave me the opportunity to meet an entirely new group of people who I shared some great times with. The first module of A2 History was, rather unfortunately, 20th century British politics, which would have definitely bored me to sleep had I not had an odd combination of teachers. One was similar to my GCSE teacher in that he joined us in taking the piss out of history, but he also took an active interest in the social lives of his students and their gossip about the rest of the yeargroup. The other was probably the most on-task and professional history teacher I’ve had, but rather than drawling on or being boring like the aforementioned stereotype, she was enthusiastic and motivating. The modules, besides the British politics one which did end up showing relevance this past week (more on that later), ended up being thoroughly interesting, with a module on Vietnam teaching me much about American politics and one particular module on Russia between 1850 – 1950 being absolutely gripping.
I am no historian. In fact, I got a D for my A-Level (and not for want of trying for a C). But there’s often times when I stop and wonder whether I might have taken this path in life if I didn’t have my love of writing, and fiction. I remember attending an open day at university for history as part of a class-wide field trip and, while it was never a difficult decision to choose Creative Writing, I can’t entirely say I was bored stiff there, either, though the hard work required for it was probably a little out of my league. But lately, after watching history-based dramas like The Crown (hello 20th century politics) and The Last Kingdom, and The Tudors long before that, I can’t help but feel fascinated by the past and feel a drive to independently research eras of history that interest me. Last week I actually bothered to look through the entire list of American presidents, though not extensively so; it just bothered me that I didn’t know much about them from before the 50’s. I’m somewhat interested in learning generally about the entire history of England, from its very origins to today.
I think the reason why history captures me as it does is the knowledge that this stuff actually happened, and the only barrier between this reality and that one is time. I started being sucked in to the extended universes of fictional fantasy worlds like Warcraft, A Song of Ice and Fire and The Elder Scrolls. I was always most intrigued by the long-forgotten formation of worlds and races and lands, which ultimately led into civilisations and politics and wars until it filtered down into current events, and every time I delved into these fictional worlds a voice nagged at the back of my head, reminding me that I know more about the monarchy of the Targaryens than I do about the British kings and queens that they’re inspired by. And whilst I’ve never been attracted by the notion of writing a novel based in a real historical setting myself, I do feel compelled to know the way the world was shaped into what it is today – whether that is due to reasons of fictional creativity or political scrutiny. Only time will tell.
(Note: For anyone who expected today’s blog post to be about Donald Trump, I believe last week’s post to still be perfectly relevant to my feelings on the matter. I have nothing more to add to the current chatter of social media regarding the topic.)
Perpetually Perturbed 