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Dateline: Troy
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From: Paul Fleischman <fleischman>
Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 07:58:31 -0700
Having written a recent article in Booklinks in praise of the pencil, I feel a little sheepish communicating electronically in public. I would, however, like to make use of the medium to respond to some of the criticisms of DATELINE: TROY.
There was no annotation of the newspaper stories because it was assumed the book either would be read by a teacher who would supply any needed explanation or that readers who wanted to could read the first few paragraphs of the story to learn more. There simply wasn't room for annotations. Even if a reader doesn't know the facts behind "Draft Evaders Taking Canadian Citizenship" and doesn't read the story itself, the connection to the text on the left should still be clear, along with the general point that the past is replayed in our own era. Yes, the type size of the stories is small. That's because the link to the Trojan War story is present in the headlines and subheads; readers weren't meant to have to read the stories. If they want or need to, the type is only slightly smaller than that in newspapers. I think this point about the clippings' contexts is well raised. Have you who've used the book or whose students have read it on their own found this to be a problem?
The newspaper stories are indeed mainly American in origin, for the simple reason that those were the stories available to me on microfilm, in indexes, in library basements, and on my kitchen table. I could have picked U.S. coverage of exclusively global stories, but that would have been too limiting. It was hard enough as it was to find good matches.
On that topic, no two reviewers agreed on which matches worked and which didn't. A writer can't please everyone, only himself or herself. The baseball player Darryl Strawberry threatening to leave camp if his contract demands weren't met strikes me as a perfect fit with Achilles. Both are proud, pouty, and their "team's" mightiest member, without whom success is impossible. Both know this and use it for leverage. The fact that Strawberry is a baseball player doesn't trivialize the link for me; it's the situation and psychology that are being compared. (It could also be argued that sports figures today command the same celebrity, respect, and perks that Bronze Age generals did.) The ads accompanying Helen's falling in love with Paris make unbelievable modern claims for Aphrodite's magical power--to make the object of your choice fall in love with you. John Peters was disappointed as well with "Tougher Tank Armor Developed by Pentagon" opposite the death of Patroclus. The link is to material farther down the page--the fashioning of Achilles' marvelous, multilayered armor. It's the subhead in this case that makes cinches the match. But I'd be the first to admit that in some cases, like this one, I simply wasn't able to find a clipping I really liked. I, too, would have rather had one reflecting Patroclus' death. I'd thought that tracking down the clippings would be a pleasant respite from writing novels and such. It ended up taking two years, off and on. Coming up with a matching news story, avoiding themes and locales from the other clippings, finding an account in which the link to Troy was present in the headline or subhead (by far the hardest part), then getting permission--which ruled out some great clippings--all made the task seem impossible at times. I'm not making excuses; I think the book works. For those clippings that are less then ideal, there are those (to my eye) that couldn't be better--the baby rescued from the dumpster, for example. The dumpster today serves the function that the mountainside did for the ancient Greeks. That's the sort of updating and emotional punch combined that I was looking for.
As for the idea that the ILIAD should be read unencumbered by my responses to it, I agree. DATELINE: TROY was never meant to substitute for Homer or to add one to the number of retellings of the ILIAD. It's a different book entirely. If readers would have made the connections to modern history without my intrusion, bravo. For those who might not, I offer the book. If they can think of other and better news stories, I'll be pleased; the book is meant to stimulate thinking.
As for the clippings dating over time: The thesis of the book isn't simply that Bronze Age Greece resembles 20th century America, but rather that all of history is of a piece, because the human nature of the participants remains constant. For that reason, I'm not worried about the news stories dating. They simply recede a little farther from the present, passing from
"current events" to "history." The WWII clippings work as well as those from the Gulf War.
If adults enjoy the book more than children, I won't be greatly surprised. I tried for a while to have it published as an adult book. We're the ones who remember the news through headlines, not newcasters' faces. Though the book has very modern look to it, it's a hymn to the old?shioned printed word and the endangered newspaper. I grew up with a hand printing press in the family and had my own printing business throughout junior high school. I set type by hand, curled up with type catalogs instead of comic books, and learned early to love the look of words. The composition of newspaper pages, with their mixture of verticals and horizontals, has always appealed to me. (Though I find them visually exciting, Candlewick felt something more was needed--thus the artwork added by the book's illustrators.) I've also long felt that newspapers are the best buy on the document market. They're fabulous troves of miscellaneous facts--from the news of the world to baseball box scores to the pollen count for that date. Tom Wolfe has said that Print Man can always "check it out" when it comes to nailing down what happened. In DATELINE: TROY I've tried to give readers not only a taste for the long view, but for the newspaper's power to preserve.
Paul Fleischman
Received on Sat 24 May 1997 09:58:31 AM CDT
Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 07:58:31 -0700
Having written a recent article in Booklinks in praise of the pencil, I feel a little sheepish communicating electronically in public. I would, however, like to make use of the medium to respond to some of the criticisms of DATELINE: TROY.
There was no annotation of the newspaper stories because it was assumed the book either would be read by a teacher who would supply any needed explanation or that readers who wanted to could read the first few paragraphs of the story to learn more. There simply wasn't room for annotations. Even if a reader doesn't know the facts behind "Draft Evaders Taking Canadian Citizenship" and doesn't read the story itself, the connection to the text on the left should still be clear, along with the general point that the past is replayed in our own era. Yes, the type size of the stories is small. That's because the link to the Trojan War story is present in the headlines and subheads; readers weren't meant to have to read the stories. If they want or need to, the type is only slightly smaller than that in newspapers. I think this point about the clippings' contexts is well raised. Have you who've used the book or whose students have read it on their own found this to be a problem?
The newspaper stories are indeed mainly American in origin, for the simple reason that those were the stories available to me on microfilm, in indexes, in library basements, and on my kitchen table. I could have picked U.S. coverage of exclusively global stories, but that would have been too limiting. It was hard enough as it was to find good matches.
On that topic, no two reviewers agreed on which matches worked and which didn't. A writer can't please everyone, only himself or herself. The baseball player Darryl Strawberry threatening to leave camp if his contract demands weren't met strikes me as a perfect fit with Achilles. Both are proud, pouty, and their "team's" mightiest member, without whom success is impossible. Both know this and use it for leverage. The fact that Strawberry is a baseball player doesn't trivialize the link for me; it's the situation and psychology that are being compared. (It could also be argued that sports figures today command the same celebrity, respect, and perks that Bronze Age generals did.) The ads accompanying Helen's falling in love with Paris make unbelievable modern claims for Aphrodite's magical power--to make the object of your choice fall in love with you. John Peters was disappointed as well with "Tougher Tank Armor Developed by Pentagon" opposite the death of Patroclus. The link is to material farther down the page--the fashioning of Achilles' marvelous, multilayered armor. It's the subhead in this case that makes cinches the match. But I'd be the first to admit that in some cases, like this one, I simply wasn't able to find a clipping I really liked. I, too, would have rather had one reflecting Patroclus' death. I'd thought that tracking down the clippings would be a pleasant respite from writing novels and such. It ended up taking two years, off and on. Coming up with a matching news story, avoiding themes and locales from the other clippings, finding an account in which the link to Troy was present in the headline or subhead (by far the hardest part), then getting permission--which ruled out some great clippings--all made the task seem impossible at times. I'm not making excuses; I think the book works. For those clippings that are less then ideal, there are those (to my eye) that couldn't be better--the baby rescued from the dumpster, for example. The dumpster today serves the function that the mountainside did for the ancient Greeks. That's the sort of updating and emotional punch combined that I was looking for.
As for the idea that the ILIAD should be read unencumbered by my responses to it, I agree. DATELINE: TROY was never meant to substitute for Homer or to add one to the number of retellings of the ILIAD. It's a different book entirely. If readers would have made the connections to modern history without my intrusion, bravo. For those who might not, I offer the book. If they can think of other and better news stories, I'll be pleased; the book is meant to stimulate thinking.
As for the clippings dating over time: The thesis of the book isn't simply that Bronze Age Greece resembles 20th century America, but rather that all of history is of a piece, because the human nature of the participants remains constant. For that reason, I'm not worried about the news stories dating. They simply recede a little farther from the present, passing from
"current events" to "history." The WWII clippings work as well as those from the Gulf War.
If adults enjoy the book more than children, I won't be greatly surprised. I tried for a while to have it published as an adult book. We're the ones who remember the news through headlines, not newcasters' faces. Though the book has very modern look to it, it's a hymn to the old?shioned printed word and the endangered newspaper. I grew up with a hand printing press in the family and had my own printing business throughout junior high school. I set type by hand, curled up with type catalogs instead of comic books, and learned early to love the look of words. The composition of newspaper pages, with their mixture of verticals and horizontals, has always appealed to me. (Though I find them visually exciting, Candlewick felt something more was needed--thus the artwork added by the book's illustrators.) I've also long felt that newspapers are the best buy on the document market. They're fabulous troves of miscellaneous facts--from the news of the world to baseball box scores to the pollen count for that date. Tom Wolfe has said that Print Man can always "check it out" when it comes to nailing down what happened. In DATELINE: TROY I've tried to give readers not only a taste for the long view, but for the newspaper's power to preserve.
Paul Fleischman
Received on Sat 24 May 1997 09:58:31 AM CDT
