LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Colleen McCullough (1937 - 2014)

Colleen McCullough (1937 - 2014) has died at age 77, after writing many successful novels, including her most famous, The Thornbirds, which was also a most successful television series.






But the books of hers I admired were those which made up her long narrative histories, the 7-volume series she titled Masters of Rome. The research she did for Masters of Rome was as impressive as any credentialed academic scholar would have.  If I have this right, she even learned to read Latin, while being directed in her research by professional academic scholars.

Before she began writing bestsellers, McCollough, an Australian, was a neuroscientist researcher at Yale University.

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