There are a number of problems when you write historical fiction, particularly something like that (Crispin). You have the question of language. Then you have the question how people thought. Then you have the material world, the clothing, the houses, and so forth. And, finally, you have to tell a story that fits that period of time. If you write a medieval story and then the telephone rings in the middle of it, it doesn’t work right?
In terms of thinking the way people do, that’s perhaps the most difficult to do. You have to get into people’s heads, and you have to understand how things work. Here’s a good example of that: I was at a planetarium a couple of weeks ago. And when the lights went down and the stars came up, there was a voiceover that was doing the lecture. He said, “There comes a time when everybody begins to understand that the earth is not the center of the universe.” And I’m thinking, “Boy, if you said that 600 years ago, you’d be called a witch.” You know, you’d be a heretic. So, you couldn’t say that at that time. That’s a very modern view.
So, you have to understand when the character from 500 years ago looks up at the sky, the character does, indeed, think that they are the center of the universe. Well, that’s a very different vision than I would have or, perhaps, you would have. The notion that the world is a tiny speck in the universe is very different from thinking, “I am the center of the universe.”
