Fascinated by the Fascinating

You know, I'm really interested in what exactly it is that people find fascinating or captivating. In fact, I'm fascinated by it. I'm probably one of the few people who studies history who finds the history of history (historiography for someone who'd like a few more cents in their word) almost as engaging as history itself. Why do people write about what they do? Why do we record some things, and decide that others are entirely irrelevant, and what is it about our memories that makes certain facts more important depending on the time? Why do certain things fascinate people, while other things seem almost universally unappealing? Why don't we have more histories of things like the footnote, or the effect of medieval earthworms on the surfdoms of Eastern Russia? What makes things like Hitler and WWII so widely studied and written about while other subjects lie virtually untouched? What exactly makes some people interesting, and others boring?

This brings me to an interesting question we've talked about in my history class--is there any way to really record and report on the "truth" since all history is based on someone's memory, and human memory is riddled with imperfections? I don't think that it will ever be possible to write the complete and truthful history of the world in this life--I'm hoping to be on that committee once I reach the other side. I'm not totally skeptical either though. I think it's kind of like Newton's Physics V. The Einstein Model. Sure, Einstein is closer, and more correct--but Newton is simpler, and he's correct enough for things to work out. I think that's the way that history works--sure we can't be totally right about every event that happened in attempting to reconstruct the past, but we can get close enough. I'm just hoping that as I write papers and reports and the like, that I won't run into someone in Heaven and find out that I interpreted their life completely wrong. Sometimes when studying poetry or short stories and the like, I often wonder if the people who wrote it and are now dead just sit there and laugh at the students who are analyzing their every word. I think it goes something like this:

Edgar Allen Poe: "What? They think that silly bird has some kind of meaning? HA! I just used a raven because it sounded better than 'quoth the cockatoo!' Kids these centuries!"

Robert Frost: "Yeah, that little 'miles to go before I sleep' bit was just me, whining about being tired. The misses used to hate it when I complained to her out loud, so I just had to write it down.

Shakespeare: "What about Hamlet? 'To be or not to be' was just the edited version of the script before that, where Hamlet tries to decide his future career. The original bit went 'To be a scruples-free, free-loading, usury collecting, freedom killing beast, or not to be?' The first guy cast as Hamlet couldn't remember his whole line."

Anyway, I think my point was that there is truth, and we shouldn't give up on it--keep getting as close as we can to it, but just realize the limitations. Again, as my history teacher said, "We've all got this Whale to eat, how are we going to do it? By taking one bite at a time--just realize that you're only taking one bite."