It was set centuries from "current day" and was an academic article about some "historical events" that the academic writer wanted to show were "mythical events".
Basically, it was the idea the central figures in those "historical events" were "obviously" mythical figures not historical figures.
The figures were Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler.
Since they were mythical figures, both the American Civil War and World War Two were mythical. [Crazy Grin]
I don't remember the author & title and I don't really remember why the academic considered Abe or Hitler were "obviously" mythical.
I could swear I remember an old SF story that mocked the whole idea of euhemerism by having a future historian point out how 'obviously' the story of George Washington was just another solar myth.
Ah the solar myth! The famous showings that Napoleon Bonaparte was a solar myth and Max Muller -- one of the famous members of that school -- was a solar myth by his own standards did much to debunk it
I think of the play and movie Amadeus, which is explicitly about Mozart as the archetypal creative genius as much as it's about Mozart as an actual historical figure.
There are some people who simultaneously exist as historical and mythical figures. People like Mozart or Einstein, for instance, who we think of as symbols almost as much as real people.
I hadn't really thought about it that way. In the fanfiction arena, everybody writes stories with the same characters in the same universe. You're not expected to take any of it as canon. Only the original is canon. The fanfic is "what if?" Historical fiction is just fanfiction of history. It's fun to read because it's just somebody's take on it. If I want to write a fantasy Mongolian running around in Medieval Spain with a magic sword, I can do it and nobody cares. :-D
Fanfic that insists it's what really happened, or more correct than the canon, is not appealing to some readers. (Indeed, some just don't like fanfic.)
On "historical" and "mythical" figures.
Several years ago, I read a short work.
It was set centuries from "current day" and was an academic article about some "historical events" that the academic writer wanted to show were "mythical events".
Basically, it was the idea the central figures in those "historical events" were "obviously" mythical figures not historical figures.
The figures were Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler.
Since they were mythical figures, both the American Civil War and World War Two were mythical. [Crazy Grin]
I don't remember the author & title and I don't really remember why the academic considered Abe or Hitler were "obviously" mythical.
I once read a far future story where one character asked another for historical pirates.
Got back Long John Silver, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Blackbeard.
Didn't think Blackbeard real. I mean, swimming around the ship after being beheaded?
I could swear I remember an old SF story that mocked the whole idea of euhemerism by having a future historian point out how 'obviously' the story of George Washington was just another solar myth.
Ah the solar myth! The famous showings that Napoleon Bonaparte was a solar myth and Max Muller -- one of the famous members of that school -- was a solar myth by his own standards did much to debunk it
I think of the play and movie Amadeus, which is explicitly about Mozart as the archetypal creative genius as much as it's about Mozart as an actual historical figure.
There are some people who simultaneously exist as historical and mythical figures. People like Mozart or Einstein, for instance, who we think of as symbols almost as much as real people.
And it slanders Salieri. That's why I can't watch it.
Salieri is, in fact, quite a good composer.
I hadn't really thought about it that way. In the fanfiction arena, everybody writes stories with the same characters in the same universe. You're not expected to take any of it as canon. Only the original is canon. The fanfic is "what if?" Historical fiction is just fanfiction of history. It's fun to read because it's just somebody's take on it. If I want to write a fantasy Mongolian running around in Medieval Spain with a magic sword, I can do it and nobody cares. :-D
Ah, but that's alternate history.
Fanfic that insists it's what really happened, or more correct than the canon, is not appealing to some readers. (Indeed, some just don't like fanfic.)