A Fable Agreed Upon

We noted the other day that two balloonists who crossed the Pacific were touted as having "made history" by the media. The feat was certainly unique, but at True Archives we have to question the claim of "history" being made by the two daring aeronauts.

History has become one of the more abused words in this nightmare we call the digital age. Those who have never picked up a book (yet who have logged untold hours watching Ken Burns films) consider themselves well versed in "history." People who go into hock to purchase the latest mind-numbing electronic toys have their credit "history" checked. A television network that wallows in such visual tripe as "Swamp People" and "Pawnography" has the nerve to call itself the "History Channel." In recognition of this fetid semantic stew we decided to check on the meaning of the word "history" in the Oxford English Dictionary (yes we used the online version; who ever said we are consistent?) and here is the first definition listed:

A written narrative constituting a continuous chronological record of important or public events (esp. in a particular place) or of a particular trend, institution, or person's life. Common in the titles of books.

Now did the intrepid balloonists mentioned above actually compose a written narrative whilst sailing through the air over Hawaii, or were they simply jotting down notes into an iPad or something? If the latter, which is highly likely, they no more “made history” than you did when you typed your last 140 characters into Twitter to describe your lunch. Real history is a NARRATIVE, and it is published in BOOKS, which used to be kept in LIBRARIES.

Of course, libraries like that are...wait for it..."history."