They Were a Lot Like Us
Just a little less touch-screen
Stace, I won’t lie to you…
Above is the character Nessa’s catchphrase from the comedy TV series Gavin and Stacey, which is why I had not expected to come across it whilst reading Chaucer. But why not?
Our perception of people through history seems to be completely skewed with a false sense of distance. Chaucer may have lived a long time ago but his contemporaries differ from the modern population in far less ways than we tend to assume.
Something a history student said to me yesterday was interesting; We were sat in a Wetherspoons looking at the black and white photographs of Canterbury on the walls and I made a remark regarding how surprising I find it that people are so fond of the colourized photos that seem to be quite popular at the moment.
To some extent I understand, it is because the colour makes these snapshots seem more real, it somehow slightly thaws them from time. So many people I know are actually reluctant to watch a film if it is in black and white because they find it boring but I was at a loss as to why this should be. Clearly these people in black and white were there, in places we can visit today, surely the lacking colour should not get in the way of appreciating that?
My friend replied that that is why he loves his history degree. Because every now and again he is able to see people despite the impersonal face of history. I dwelt on it a little.
I think that’s what literature is; the bits of history which hold the presence of those who experienced it. One can see through reading these works that people in history were as we are today. This should not be a surprising fact but it is. Reading The Reeve’s Tale I had not expected to read the line ‘ But right fair was hire heer, I wol nat lye’.
It’s such a small expression but when read today it holds a huge importance in creating an image of real people rather than far away notions.
