I have engrossed myself in a multitude of different lore from fictional media. Whether it be books, movies, video games, anime, or tv series. I’ve delved into the worlds of each of my interests, researching lore in a pseudo academic fashion. As I grew up, my interests started to sway towards reality. A need to understand the world around me incited my desire to understand how the world came to be. I wanted to learn about different cultures in the same way I would want to understand the different races of a fantasy RPG game. What I found most compelling was how often different cultures come up with the same general ideas but implement them with such a difference. I’m delving into anthropology at this point, though anthropologists rely on historians to present them with something to interpret and make sense of. The interdisciplinary nature of history is something else that I appreciate. History to me is like an endless well of content that I can entertain myself with for as long as I exist. New interpretations arise from previously reviewed material, adding new flavor to already consumed content. Not to mention the plethora of historical figures, some inspirational and other infamous.
In my academic career, I am hoping to learn how to apply historical thinking to my personalized field of study. I’m exploring monster theory, which involves relating monsters to the fears and anxieties of a culture. Through those studies, I am hoping to utilize historical thinking to understand the othering of groups of people. I made this connection while studying the mistreatment of Asian-Americans (primary Chinese immigrants) in a previous course.
To end with an interesting realization. I believe that analyzing history is like the non-fiction version of analyzing literature. A funny thought to end on.
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I also think that one of the most compelling aspects of history is that it will never really be exhausted. While some historians frown on “presentism,” or asking questions of the past based on our present, I actually think it is one of the strengths of the discipline and will ensure, as you noted, that history is an endless well of content. Each historian brings their own set of knowledge and experiences to bear and the history only gets richer for it. I’ve actually taught the Monsters FP class before, and monster theory is a great tool of social analysis. What is othered, what is othered and made to instill fear, for example, can illuminate many different aspects of a given time and place. It’s also interesting how the interpretation of monsters has changed so much over time–once something largely set up to be defeated or to be scary, modern monsters are often sympathetic, or have their own explanatory history attached to explain their monstrosity. An interesting change to unpack!