05 August 1998 | Anachronisms - II
‘The Inland Letter’ 📬
#memoriesfromdiaries 💕
Poring over some past diary entries dating back to a couple of decades ago, I chanced upon a few words/ phrases / objects that seem to have quite gone out with the ark, 😋 and hence have a quaint, old-world feel to them when I read them today.
This particular day’s [05 Aug 1998] diary entry is witness to such traces or vestiges of the good ol’ past, with specific reference to some of those quaint things that I’ve circled in blue -
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| 05 August 1998 - personal diary entry |
Midsummer Night’s Dream – Hard Copy of the Text
Guitar Strings for Guitar
Battery for Alarm clock
Birthday cards for my childhood friend D’Souza
Postage Stamps for the Birthday Card
Going all the way to Main Guard Gate to purchase our essentials.
Well, we’ve already done a post on anachronisms, just over a month ago, on this very space, [10 July 2021] that carry such vestiges to memory bigtime!
This post could very well be considered its sequel!
The purpose of this post, hence is to highlight the importance of anachronisms to literary studies in general, and memory studies in particular; on how anachronisms could serve as a powerful tool for the periodization of history and memory.
For example, consider the sentence,
‘I need to write an inland’
‘Or I need to use the ‘STD/PCO’ Booth!’
These sentences might sound weird to anyone who hasn’t seen an inland letter anytime in their lives or hasn’t been to an ‘STD/PCO’ Booth anytime in their sweet lives!
Hence, the inland letter could be periodised or pigeon-holed to a specific time-frame in history, that predates the arrival of the email and its gregarious elder kid – the social media!
Similarly, the STD/PCO Booth could be periodised to a specific chronological time-line in history, that predates the arrival of the mobile phone in India!
As eminent critic Scupin Richard rightly points out,
Anachronism hence becomes a lovely liasoning agent connecting the present with the past!
In short, the presence of the past could be further enhanced by foraging into the world of anachronisms!
Moreover, anachronisms also serve to highlight the USPs or the aura of each and every period in the passage of time!
For example, we (70s kids) grew up on Newspapers, and for us, TV was synonymous with DD, Telephone with BSNL, and Radio with AIR!
Something that would be highly anachronistic judging by today’s standards.
Still, to each their aura and their glory!
Hence it becomes next to impossible to judge one era in time using the yardsticks of another period in time!
Just because I didn’t grow up with a mobile phone, (or didn’t even know much about mobile phones) until I finished on my College studies, doesn’t necessarily mean that, I should assess and evaluate today’s kids and their tryst with the mobile phone, using our past generation’s yardsticks, ways and manners!
And if at all I try doing that, I’m being a presentist!
Yes, a Presentist is one who mixes present-day thoughts, values and perspectives to analyse or interpret events or objects of the past!
But fortunately or unfortunately that’s exactly what the new historicists do! 🙃
‘Gosh! How, Sir…’ you seem to ask!
Well, that’s for the sequel on the way, folks! 🤗
PS: You may want to read our past post on anachronisms and narrative anachronies HERE
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