Technology and chararacter now get a dedicated page on this blog. This could be the most important aspect of writing historical fiction. It helps us understand more than “what happened.” It asks “so what?” As I make decisions about plot elements to follow, I hold this notion of relevance. As such, the answers are not in the past; they are in my readers and me. For example, why do my characters Antonia and Concetta want to leave Columbia so desperately? They have wealth, a classical education, and social connection. The plot can follow two aspects of human experience that can absorb us most fully: the pain of love and the pain of addiction. These drive people who have money and security as well as those who do not. Freedom of movement is required to act on these intense needs, yet that freedom is not given to young women, then as now. Lust for freedom is germane to my theme in The Compromise, but what are the consequences of these intense desires?
For each historical or technological lack relative to our time,
there is an opportunitiy to learn a sense of history and all that entails.
LiveScience: Opioid Crisis Has Frightening Parallels
to Drug Epidemic of Late 1800s
Antonia looked at me up and down and said, “I am tired of your dreary calicos, your ridiculous lace bonnets, your filthy rice, your sour bread, and your flat American language!” Then she sipped the tea with peppermint and clove for her toothache. “Where is the garlic? The next one will have garlic and red cayenne.” When she stopped shouting, her brow furrowed with pain.
The Compromise “The Pull West 1845”
Treating Antonia’s physical pain has caused addiction. What does this offer my story? How would my heroine help someone in pain, and at what cost to herself? Now I find myself unsure of laudanum’s cost, availability, and effects over time. Research tells me that the drug was used abundantly without restriction until after 1900. Therefore, the problem is not repressive social controls, but the lack of access to medical care and understanding of addiction. On the other hand, was the repressive social control of women the condition for illnesses and unhappiness? Did illness prey on a class of women? Following what I thought was an interesting plot thread has turned out to be a major complication. The prevalence of laudanum in the 19th century has been an assault on my understanding of the period and deserving of another book, not one I would elect to write. Dare I ask questions about the ethical uses of sedatives or performance enhancement? The drug’s effects on my characters, several plot threads, and my theory of relevance to modern readers and educational contexts are thus far unresolved.
