The MASC was fascinating. I never realized we had an archive of old manuscripts, much less that we have thousands of them squirreled away beneath the library! The possibilities are endless. When it comes to providing context for a paper, how could you beat newspapers from the year the book was written? Or exploring books by contemporaries, or even looking at ads and getting into the mindset of the time period.
And papers, shmapers! Just being there made me want to write a period novel. With all that research material, I could have fun making it sound like it's straight out of the 19th century, like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which is an amazing book all should read.
Also, I didn't catch the name of the guy who did the presentation, but it sounded like Trevor James Bond, which I hope it is because that would be amazing.
Fawn, I'm glad you found the MASC exciting; it really is! The newspapers and now-forgotten pieces of fiction are as interesting as the "classic" novels, and yes, you could write quite a novel about what you'd find there.
ReplyDeleteThat was indeed Trevor James Bond who did the presentation.
I agree, the books available in the MASC would make for some killer sources if you were writing something up. I liked your idea of writing a period novel, though. Books like that Chatterbox one had a lot of authentic illustrations that really gave the feeling of a distinct ambiance from that time period--books of this sort would be strange to immerse yourself in completely.
ReplyDelete--Michael Molder