The Lens:
The written word.
So powerful is the written word, It has been said “The pen is mightier than the sword.” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
I think of all of the words I have read – the images they create, the stories they tell, the lessons they convey, the knowledge they impart, the motivation they inspire, the diversion they provide, and so much more.
Where would we be without the written word?
That is a huge question. I think someone could write a tome about it.
But, that is a bit much for a simple little blog like mine.
So, I am going to talk about one little book I read many years ago.
Where I don’t recall, but I came across a fascinating diary called “A Frontier Lady: Recollections of the Gold Rush and Early California.” I am guessing I picked it up on some vacation to a national park or the like.
I always check out the books in the gift shops. I love finding and reading non-fiction books, often diaries or taken from diaries, about the lives of women lived in another time and/or place.
“A Frontier Lady” is one of my favorites of these books. In it, Sarah Royce chronicles her migration across the United States in a covered wagon and the early days of her new life in California.
If you want to understand how arduous it was to make this journey and what it was like to settle in early California, this book brings it to life. It wasn’t until I read this book that I realized these travelers walked across the United States. Yes, walked. They did not ride in the wagon. The wagon was for carrying possessions, not people.
That really put a new perspective on the grit of those who made the migration west. What isn’t clear in reading the diary, is that Sarah was pregnant throughout this journey.
I was pregnant – twice. I cannot fathom walking across the United States, let alone doing it while pregnant. We think of the men as being tough. Sarah was tough.
If not for the written word, we would not have this perspective or knowledge of the trek west.
The Refraction:
Or would we?
Because the narrative took place in relative recent history, when I read “A Frontier Lady,” I had some background knowledge to rely on. I knew about settling the west, Manifest Destiny and all. I also knew what a covered wagon was, what it looked like from movies, pictures, and museum displays. I knew the type of clothing people wore from the same sources.
I had an idea of the types of tools, kitchenware, etc. And, I have a sense of what the open Midwest is like, through the same sources as well as driving through it myself. (I say I had “a sense” because, being in my car barreling down a on a long stretch of highway at 65 miles per hour, is not quite the same as being a lone caravan in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but plains.)
So, as I was reading the story, I could visualize all of this in my head as I imagined Sarah Royce walking across the United States.
But, what if I hadn’t had that knowledge? What if I had never heard of a covered wagon? What might I think? How much of the story would make sense? How much of it would I get wrong because I didn’t have a visual concept?
This last week, I was finally able to see the “Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibit at our local de Young Museum.
As I walked through the exhibit, taking in all of the history chronicled through drawings on seemingly everything (walls, funeral boxes, etc.), I wondered how much more powerful these pictures were than words.
What if they recorded their history in written word? My “Lost in Translation” post can give you an idea of all of the things that could go amiss if we had to translate an ancient Egyptian text vs. given a novel in graphic form?
In addition, we would only have a narrative of the actions. Like “A Frontier Lady,” there would likely be no description of what they wore, what their tools looked like – only the things they were doing.
Of course, the stories were skewed, slanted to make Ramses look favorable at all times. But, so often is the written word, too. And, the pictures aren’t entirely correct. People didn’t have bird heads, or square shoulders and triangular waists.
But, through pictures, we were able to see things like their clothing and jewelry, their weapons and modes of transportation. As I was talking with one of my son’s about this, he commented we simply confirmed what their jewelry looked like once artifacts were found since we had already seen them in their drawings.
In the end, what would we know about Ramses had his life not been so extensively documented in a way that we could easily make sense of it more than 3000 years later?
The flipside to “the pen is mightier than the sword,” is “a picture is worth a thousand words.” (Frederick R. Barnard)
It has also been said, speak the name of the dead and they shall live forever. Ramses certainly hasn’t yet lived forever, but 3,000+ years ain’t bad.