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More from 1632
One of the other things that impressed me about 1632 was the way it presented the gaps of understanding. Like how what one group of people think of as normal and practically instinctive is completely alien and unexpected to another group. And to individuals. I feel like that sometimes, when I do something and somebody seems surprised by it, and I go "what, doesn't everybody?" and they say "No" and I'm surprised. Or when people go and do something I'd never think of doing, just because that's not how I do things. Not major things, just little things.
The habit of centuries had shaped them. The acid of hereditary privilege had corroded their souls. Without even being aware they were doing it, the German newcomers automatically reacted to the Americans as commoners to nobility. It didn't matter what the Americans said. Words are cheap, especially the promises of aristocracy to their underlings.
What mattered -- what had always mattered, more than anything -- was what people are. And the Americans, plain to see, were nobility. it was obvious in everything they did and said, and didn't say and didn't do. it shone through in their simple carriage.
Had they been told, the Americans would have been mystified. Their own centuries had also shaped them, and healed an ancient wound. Every American, on some level, took a fundamental truth for granted. I am important. Precious. Human. My life is valuable.
That attitude infused them, whether they knew it or not. And it was that unspoken, unconscious attitude which the German newcomers immediately sensed. They reacted automatically, just as Gretchen had instantly assumed an American schoolteacher was a duchess. Just as Rebecca had instantly assumed that a coal miner was an hidalgo.
There's a bunch more to that quote, but it doesn't all make sense outside of context. Though I guess I could put it in context and type up more, but that'd kinda ruin part of the plot, and I think everybody should go read this book, it's really good. But maybe I just think that since it hit so many of my nerd buttons.
The habit of centuries had shaped them. The acid of hereditary privilege had corroded their souls. Without even being aware they were doing it, the German newcomers automatically reacted to the Americans as commoners to nobility. It didn't matter what the Americans said. Words are cheap, especially the promises of aristocracy to their underlings.
What mattered -- what had always mattered, more than anything -- was what people are. And the Americans, plain to see, were nobility. it was obvious in everything they did and said, and didn't say and didn't do. it shone through in their simple carriage.
Had they been told, the Americans would have been mystified. Their own centuries had also shaped them, and healed an ancient wound. Every American, on some level, took a fundamental truth for granted. I am important. Precious. Human. My life is valuable.
That attitude infused them, whether they knew it or not. And it was that unspoken, unconscious attitude which the German newcomers immediately sensed. They reacted automatically, just as Gretchen had instantly assumed an American schoolteacher was a duchess. Just as Rebecca had instantly assumed that a coal miner was an hidalgo.
There's a bunch more to that quote, but it doesn't all make sense outside of context. Though I guess I could put it in context and type up more, but that'd kinda ruin part of the plot, and I think everybody should go read this book, it's really good. But maybe I just think that since it hit so many of my nerd buttons.