Making history, in the eyes of a child prodigy.

Sometimes, what seems a little cynical, can also seem funny.

Yesterday, Ainan remarked: “It is easy to write history...the difficulty comes in not writing fiction.”

I thought it summed up, quite pithily, the situation in not a few countries, where history and fiction were, to some degree, intertwined, depending on the political motivations of the day. It also, of course, embodies a certain cynicism of Ainan, towards the whole process of recording the past, the influences that impinge upon it, and the quality of the result.

Then again, I believe he was trying to make a valid point that expressing the full truth of something is an eminently difficult task and that, even if well-meaning, falsehood could creep in, unbeknownst to even the most careful chronicler. In Ainan’s eyes, it may be rare indeed, for the absolute truth to be written, but more common, instead, for attractive fictions to be penned – ones that fit the needs of the time.

I wonder what the future will tell, if anything, of Ainan: will it be the truth, or a fiction written by people who don’t know him, understand him, or perhaps even judge him, truly, as he is, rather than as they suppose him to be. Funny as Ainan’s remark is, he, too, might one day, become a victim of this tendency that he notes. However, if it happens in his lifetime, I am sure he will make an effort to correct those who so chronicle – as will I, in the time I have.

Posted by Valentine Cawley