I am extremely fearful of historical novels unless I am reading them to dissect what they have done to people I'm researching. In Adult Ed, I got fed up having to demolish the myths and misconceptions to which otherwise intelligent adult students were clinging because they'd read them in a historical novel or seen them in a film/TV dramatisation. I've seen too many reputations either over-inflated or wrecked by unscrupulous novelists...
consider how old 12 seems when 50 is old and 65 decrepit.
Not entirely true. The average life-expectancy was low because of childhood mortality; it doesn't mean that people who were only middle-aged were considered elderly. There were old people around, just fewer of them. But you were expected to take on adult responsibilities and roles in your teens.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 04:37 pm (UTC)consider how old 12 seems when 50 is old and 65 decrepit.
Not entirely true. The average life-expectancy was low because of childhood mortality; it doesn't mean that people who were only middle-aged were considered elderly. There were old people around, just fewer of them. But you were expected to take on adult responsibilities and roles in your teens.