Jan 1, 2021
1st January 2021
Working on finishing the first essay of the year.
How is your first day of 2021 going?
seen from United States
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1st January 2021
Working on finishing the first essay of the year.
How is your first day of 2021 going?
Essay Part 2: The Deepest Relationship
Now that I have explained how Riku is a strong character with is OWN development and his OWN personanity, I can talk about his relationship with Sora. Sora is also a developed character, even if his evolution is less spectacular than Riku's. I'm not here to talk about Sora so I'll probably give you links to wonderful analysis I've read.
If I mention that, it's because I want to point at something which is very important in terms of writing. To write a relationship between two characters (or more, but here it's two), the two characters involved must be developed. That's important to understand the dynamics between them, why they like each other, why their relationship exists and why it works. And this rule applies to all kinds of relationships.
Indeed, those conditions are filled with Sora and Riku's relationship.
Actually, the producer himself admits that their relationship is the very heart of the series:
"The fact is that the main focus of the series is Sora and Riku; how their friendship develops, but also how they grow up."
Now, let's see how their relationship works. Because it works. Whether you see it as friendly or romantic doesn't matter, it works the same.
Essay Part 1: Riku’s Journey
Riku is undeniably the character who has experienced the greatest evolution throughout the series.
His journey begins in Destiny Islands, when he was just a little kid who wanted to live adventures with his best friend, Sora.
Riku: When we grow up, let's get off this island. We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!
That's that will of discovering the world, and the fact that he was really close to his friend Sora, that lead him to make a promise:
First Medium Article at Last! (with Light Yagami for some reason) >_>'
I finally (FINALLY) got around to writing a medium article.
I wanted to do this for soooooo long. But various life issues (including some level of depression [not clinical]) was in my way like a mario game lol. But today I sat down and finally wrote this one out.
🎉🙌🙌🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳
(I really am like a human yoyo sometimes. . .😑)
Any case the essay is called: 'Why Autistic People are desperately needed in our Decaying World'. Take a read of it below VVV
Autistic people like myself can a lot of the time feel like an anomaly.
Consider this the spiritual successor of that korean capitalism essay I wrote sometime ago. . .
[Also you are probably wondering - why on earth is EVIL LIGHT the featured image? 🤔🤔
Welllll, my dumb self thought it would be some delicious clickbait (lol) but now it feels like this is the article of a edgelord......and now it embarrasses me to look at it. But I promise the article is actually a deep one 😅😆😆🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♂️
Aaaaahhhh nothing can be done. I did change it but Medium hasn't changed it AAAAAAAAAA. So just..........siiiiigh 😩.....yeah - please take a read! 😭🙏]
Finally fixed it lol. Won't be doing that again. Like...ever. 👀💧
First Essay of the Year
First Essay of the Year
People think creative writing is easy until they try to write out a story. You have to make up a person, their personality, their background, their current setting, their friends, their enemies, and interests. And that’s just one character! This shit is hard! The reason I decided to take up creative writing this year at University is to hone my craft so I can one day sit down, read my own book,…
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With references to different approaches over the past century, identify what good local history should do and why.
Defining local history is a topic that has undergone a transformation over the past century. British History Online gives the definition of local history as ‘All history is about people. Local historians […] spend most of their time investigating ordinary people in ordinary places’.[1] The antiquarians of the past would be likened to fact gatherers, who would not seek to draw out any further information than what was found on the surface. This is a habit that it is important to draw away from in order to compile good local history.[2] Several historians have sought to make their own impressions of what makes local history good, including Kate Tiller, W. G. Hoskins, John Beckett and John Tosh. Within this essay, there will be common themes that will be deliberated upon with references to work completed by Barry Reay, Kate Tiller and John Tosh. These themes are to define local history, how to combine the local events with regional and nationwide events, how to treat sources and the questions to ask of them.
Defining local history is a task that commonly seems to be noted as ‘hard to do well’.[3] The local historian must be able to establish what they intend to study and define what they will call local for the extent of their work.[4] Local history is traditionally not a topic that has been encompassed in a professional capacity, instead amateur groups were established during the Victorian era. This stemmed from a concern over loss of heritage due to the rapid changes brought on to society via the Industrial Revolution.[5] Due to the founding of local history interests in amateur groups, there is an ongoing general perspective at the academic level that local history is relevant only in relation to supporting national agendas and themes.[6] Linking the events on a national and transnational scale can make local history be classified as good, since it places the small area on the global map.[7] No village, town or city exists on its own, it is always part of the larger area even when places were more distanced than they are in the present day. A settlement would be connected to others in the locality, and there would be a focal place in the area where large markets would be held, and all manners of essential goods could be traded. However, the changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution can be viewed as a threat to this known existence. The changes were felt at the ground level by those who had no say in the technology brought in which could threaten their livelihoods, however if the customs were not being challenged too greatly, then the changes would be viewed as progressive by the local history societies.[8] The early societies were rarely involved with local history alone, they would also have wider interests such as archaeology and antiquities.[9] The local societies would also have a middle-class membership rather than an elite-class, therefore they were seen as not as highly educated in the eyes of the universities which founded the academics of history.
The sources used in local history can often formulate a strong basis for a thesis. Historians are highly trained to analyse and interpret sources, and they are also aware of how to test a source for its ‘authenticity’.[10] This is done by knowing the circumstances in which sources are made, along with external knowledge of language changes, author bias and events occurring around them.[11] The sources should be interpreted, and they should come from a wider area than from just the traditional aspects such as census records, written documents and artifacts.[12] By using a broader range of sources, it gives a stronger explanation to the thesis proposed. A historian should also be fully aware that one can rarely find all of the sources that would make the argument for a thesis in one place, thus it is important to search different areas for new sources so one can be able to examine society from all angles as it was then.[13] It can also showcase that it was not only one part of society that experienced the event, nor that it was only the marginalised fringes who felt the aftereffects. Though the historian should be wary of examining the morality of the event or its outcomes, instead of focusing on explaining the changes.[14] It is also necessary to maintain accuracy when examining sources, since historians can succumb to the wishes to ‘explain or justify the present’ while examining the past through the evidence left behind.[15] The use of title deeds and wills can establish how a family would run a farm after the death of the male head of household.[16] While then examining census records, one can also potentially uncover how a family made their living.[17] Though one does also then have to acknowledge that women and children were also hidden labour behind census records under an informal economy.[18] As a list, this brings together the training of the historian to read into what is left behind since Reay draws up possibilities where dual occupations were hidden by the census records. It must be acknowledged that informal economies were the backbone during the Victorian era for the lower-class families, where work which was not necessarily paid but it was essential to the running of the household. Historians have learnt about it by interpreting their sources thoroughly from a variety of origins. A historian must also be thoroughly aware that the bias of the author of the sources can influence exactly what was left behind, and that they must know that it is just as important about what has not been said as what was said.[19] Good local history will extract information from sources, while maintaining the customs and beliefs of the time and not looking to colour it with modern values. This is an idea which can only be further enhanced by bringing together a wide combination of sources, and thus building the most accurate representation of the past that the skills of a historian will allow. Statistics and data are also an important factor to consider, although it must be noted that the context in how the data was gathered is an essential factor to be aware of.[20]
Local history was formed on the idea that it was only important in relation to explaining national events at a local level.[21] The Victoria County History (VCH) was founded in 1899 with the expectation of being able to document every parish in England upon completion.[22] Though the founding of the VCH may have been misguided, since local history is now often referred to as a history of people, rather than place. It focuses on the day-to-day ordinary citizen instead of the original top down history.[23] If changes at a local level can be linked to national events then it was relevant for traditional historical study. For example, the food riots in the eighteenth century in East and South England and the corn laws set by parliament.[24] The food riots were only focused on certain towns and areas, but it contributed towards a wider response to move to a free market and to enforce the idea that a free market should establish the cost of the corn and flour that many people depended on to make their bread for the week. However, the local area is where the people would feel the change the most. It was the local people who would band together to make the drive to not buy the corn for the price set by the seller, instead they would bargain to pay a fair price. Thus, by studying the local area, you are uncovering the history of the ordinary person. Ordinary people who would remain hidden in history if studies were not undertaken to extract them and expose them to the present.[25] By explaining how the changes at a local level relate to the national events, then a historian is incorporating the understanding they have gained from their sources and integrating it with their knowledge of the wider locality.[26] They are also acknowledging that not every place had the same reaction to events, and that sometimes, the common belief about what happened in the past is misguided.[27] The investigation of the evidence should present the changes without adhering to expectation of how the local area was affected and it should not seek to romanticise the past.[28] A good study will place the local area in relation to the regional, national and global issues.[29] This will draw out the idea that no village or town exists entirely on its own. One parish or locality will not support itself; it is always connected to others and it will have a purpose there.[30] The sources used by the historian should be relatable to others, the sources like the parish, cannot stand alone.[31]
Writing history should be a blend of perspective, understanding people and place, and maintaining a distance which will enable an ability to interpret the evidence critically.[32] By uncovering the customs of a locality, then a historian can seek to exploit further understanding of why people lived their lives in certain ways. This knowledge can usually only be uncovered due to the extensive training that a historian undergoes. One should be able to lift the source from the era and examine it with the knowledge of customs, beliefs and a willingness to learn more about what other studies could have missed.[33]
History must be written well for it to be considered good, even going as far as that a good historian must be able to write creatively to engage with readers and other historians.[34] Imagination is required for good history writing, as sources will often only show a glimpse instead of showing the whole story behind its creation in the past.[35] To be able to engage with your audience, then one must be able to recreate the past in vivid detail. Word choice is essential and can make the difference, whilst paying attention to details that have been taught as a historian’s tool. The poorest were often the type to leave behind no footsteps in the past, thus imagination enables the historian to bring them back to life through their analysis of a source.[36] It is also important that while answering the issues and questions, the place itself is not forgotten otherwise the results could be compared to the earlier antiquarian fact gathering expeditions.[37] A properly thought out argument that is written well can distinguish the professional historian from the enthusiastic amateur who compiles facts that they have found interesting.[38] It should also be written in a way that can demonstrate emotions in the face of what is viewed as change for the worse by the people of the time.[39] However, the historian should be wary of presenting the past as static in their writings since attitudes and events have a habit of constantly changing and evolving.[40] When badly written, history can hide the majority of people from view. It can hide many problems that are placed on the poorest, who a historian can deduct from sources is already highly unlikely to leave their mark on society.[41] It can also produce a flat image which, when not done correctly, leaves the audience misguided on events. Events are not stand-alone features, so the historian should be able to write them as such with cause and effect lain out for the reader to learn from.[42]
Writing local history is a task that is not easy to define. The Victoria County History is still aiming to complete all the parishes in England and its work is ongoing over 120 years on from its formation. The historian must be aware when they begin, the task before them is an arduous one. Sources will not speak plainly; the historian must be able to extract information and data from them to form evidence to support their thesis. They must also be able to write creatively, fluently and engage with their audience to bring the past to life. A well written local history will be able to define its own area of study and will have used a wide variety of sources in order to engage the past in its truest form. Historians should be able to link events from the local reaction to the national event and place the locality in the wider globe. Local events do not happen on their own, there is a complex web of cause and effect to examine and the historian can only bring this issue to life with extensive training, knowledge of how to examine the sources and the ability to write well.
[1] Adam Chapman, ‘Subject guide: local history on British History Online’ British History Online <https://www.british-history.ac.uk/using-bho/local-guide> [accessed 20 October 2020] (para 1 of 12).
[2] Ian Willis, ‘Academic Snobbery: local historians need more support’ The Conversation <https://theconversation.com/academic-snobbery-local-historians-need-more-support-5710> [accessed 20 October 2020] (para 10 of 26).
[3] Annette Atkins, ‘Reviewed work: Writing Local History Today: A Guide to Researching, Publishing, and Marketing Your Book by Thomas A Mason and J. Kent Calder’, The Public Historian, 37 (2015), 144-146 (p. 145).
[4] David Hey, ‘Local and Regional History: Modern Approaches’ Oxford Reference <https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199532988.001.0001/acref-9780199532988-e-2004> [accessed 18 October 2020] (para 2 of 23).
[5] John Beckett, Writing Local History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007) p. 73.
[6] Beckett, Writing Local History, p. 3.
[7] Ian Willis, ‘Local History: a view from the bottom’ History Workshop <https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/local-history-a-view-from-the-bottom/> [accessed 20 October 2020] (para 12 of 13).
[8] Rebecca Wheeler, ‘Local history as productive nostalgia? Change, continuity and sense of place in rural England’, Social & Cultural Geography, 18 (2017), 466-486 (p. 469).
[9] Beckett, Writing Local History, p. 71.
[10] John Tosh, The Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of History (Oxon: Routledge, 2015) pp. 98-102.
[11] K. D. M. Snell, ‘Gravestones, Belonging and Local Attachment in England 1700-2000’, Past and Present, 179 (2003), 97-134 (p. 108).
[12] Kate Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century: An Overview and Suggested Agenda’, The International Journal of Regional and Local Studies, 6 (2010), 16-47 (p. 16-18).
[13] W. G. Hoskins, The Midland Peasant: The Economic and Social History of a Leicestershire Village (Chichester: Macmillan, 1963), p. xvii.
[14] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 22.
[15] Tosh, p. 3.
[16] Barry Reay, Microhistories: demography, society and culture in rural England, 1800-1930 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 18.
[17] Reay, p. 20.
[18] Reay, p. 30.
[19] Rosemary Sweet, ‘The production of urban histories in eighteenth-century England’, Urban History, 23 (1996), 171-188 (p.182).
[20] Tosh, p. 113.
[21] Beckett, Writing Local History, p.82.
[22] [Anon.], ‘What is Victoria County History?’ British History Online <https://www.history.ac.uk/research/victoria-county-history/about-victoria-county-history> [accessed 10 November 2020] (para 1 of 5).
[23] Reay, p. 13.
[24] E. P. Thompson, ‘The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century’ in Customs in Common ed. by E. P. Thompson (London: Merlin Press, 1991), pp.185-258 (p.189).
[25] Jan Broadway, ‘No Historie So Meete’: Gentry Culture and the Development of Local History in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006) p. 3.
[26] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 33.
[27] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 39.
[28] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 23.
[29] Pierre Goubert, ‘Local History’, Daedalus, 100 (1971) 113-127 (p.124).
[30] M. Aston, Interpreting the Landscape: Landscape, archaeology and local history (London: Batsford, 1985) p. 151.
[31] Tosh, p. 122.
[32] Tiller, ‘Local History and the Twentieth Century’, p. 16.
[33] Tosh, p. 27.
[34] Tosh, p. 123.
[35] Tosh, p. 142.
[36] Snell, p. 122-3.
[37] John Beckett, ‘W. G. Hoskins, the Victoria County History, and the Study of English Local History’, Midland History, 36 (2011), 115-127 (p.126).
[38] Beckett, Writing Local History, p. 197.
[39] Wheeler, p. 469.
[40] Wheeler, p. 470.
[41] Wheeler, p. 482.
[42] Tosh, p. 125.
A wee post
Hi, I haven't post anything because I been really busy with homework 📚 and life.
The last time I posted I was going to corseford ❤️. I had fun❤️.
Last Friday I handed in my first essay for modern studies 📚❤️.
This week I am not feeling well ❤️🤢. On Friday I am going to corseford then on Saturday I am staying at my grans 🔥❤️.
my ap lit test went ok, best part was getting food and walking to barnes and noble instead of going to french tho, got a new book thats crazy with how the author messes with typography (i think thats the word? brains fried, just coming up with literary devices) and the form of the page. super cool. also my table was in a patch of sunlight and ive never felt more like a cat, specialy since the testing room was freezing to the point of not being able to feel my toes