18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY, HISTORICAL TREKKING, AND PERIOD WILDERNESS LIVING.
Quotes on the editor of this blog
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Saturday, 31 December 2011
Words That say It Like It Really Is.
There is more than one way to explain something, but this quote I think is very good. It is hard to explain the feeling I get when touching original artifacts, and even copies! Hard to explain the feeling of dressing in period clothing and using 18th century items whilst trekking and camping in period style without anything to remind you of the 21 century.
“A feeling of immediate contact with the past is a sensation as deep as the purest enjoyment of art; it is an almost ecstatic sensation of no longer being myself, of overflowing into the world around me, of touching the essence of things, of through history experiencing the truth.”—Johan Huizinga, historian
When visiting the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, a couple of years ago, I was in the Rare Documents room, reading a first edition book from the mid 1700s. I experienced just such feelings when I opened the book. People usually look at me askew when I mention the emotions evoked by touching that, and other, tomes.
Some of us understand those feelings. Most folks probably don't. Good words.
ReplyDeleteWhen visiting the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, a couple of years ago, I was in the Rare Documents room, reading a first edition book from the mid 1700s. I experienced just such feelings when I opened the book. People usually look at me askew when I mention the emotions evoked by touching that, and other, tomes.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is all in the brain Kyle, some people just don't think like we do about ancient things.
ReplyDeleteKeith.