When Does the Past Becoae History? by Erik Haugaard All novels are historical, the author draws from past experiences to plot and tell Ms tale. By the time the first Ph.D. thesis was written on James Joyce's Ulysses, the Dublin described in his book had long ceased to exist, both spiritually and physically. ,Now can only be written down when it has become then. The novels of "our time" are 1n reality always of the past. The reason why this 1s not obvious to us 1s that we too live, to a greater or lesser extent, 1n the past. We can only make judgement of the present by comparing 1t to a past we know, to personal experiences which we have lived through. When does the past change Into history? If yesterday does not belong, what about last year or a decade ago? One might argue that the past becomes history when 1t 1s forgotten and has to be taught, when a period and events which happened during It become unreal and are no longer able to move us to pity or wonder. The prisoner of war camps during the C1v1l War were horrifying , yet the thought of them does not move us any more. Is that because we cannot feel guilt over something which happened so long ago? The Christians who were thrown to the lions 1n the Coliseum are perfectly proper subjects for jokes; their pains and fears were not strong enough to last a couple of thousand years. The First World War 1s to me history, closer than the C1v1l War or the French Revolution , but still a part of our history. But the Second World War 1s not. I was In 1t; friends of mine died because of 1t. Yet to my son I am sure 1t 1s history, a part of our past written down 1n the last volume of the saga of humanity. So the point when the past becomes history 1s not the same to everyone. A veteran of a war may still be fighting battles 1n his dreams, and experiencing fears from the past with the Intensity of the present, while those very compalgns to his children are as unreal as the battle of Bunker Hl 1 1 . Once when I was Invited to tea by a very old man, whose experiences went way back Into the Victorian era, I was fascinated to hear him speak of a fellow author called Oscar. He had been foolish rather than brave, 1n my host's opinion. The old man spoke passionately, and suddenly his passion caught me, and the tragedy of Oscar Wilde was no longer history, not 1n the past but In the present. In that little space of time while we emptied our tea cups, Oscar Wilde once more had a choice, could have done something else, escaped to France. "He stayed because he could not believe 1t would come to that! He should have known better." Old Sir Max Beerbohm shook his head; he would have, or had, given Oscar other advice. Then maybe the past becomes history when no one is left alive to remember it as the present . When Sir Max died, Oscar Wilde slid Into Uterary history, as there was no one left who had known him as Oscar. Once In a pub in England during the war, a very old man Insisted that I should sit down In a particular chair. To oblige him I did. Then he told me that as a child he had heard Karl Marx read Shakespeare aloud sitting In that very chair. Every person likes to have a claim to fame; that was the old man's, 1t didn't really move me. Karl Marx did not spring to life as Oscar had during that tea long ago. We write out of our experiences, the kicks and knocks as well as the more pleasant things that have happened to us. The author studies first of all himself, and secondly those around him. He needs to be an observer, noting everything that happens to him as well as what happens Inside himself. It can all be used, stored away to be...