A Voyage Long and Strange

I have just finishing up reading this book "A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World" by Tony Horwitz and I have to say, it has been one of those moments in life where I find myself thinking an awful lot, sometimes related to the subject matter (which is all about who ended up in America between Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 and the "first" English settlers arriving at Plymouth Rock) but also sometimes just related into the engaging and intriguing way in which the author has chosen to portray the subject matter.


In terms of the subject matter itself, I am finding weird coincidences that I did not quite understand before. Like the complete brain numbing night I spent last night watching National Treasure (both movies) back to back. And the second one was talking about 'Cibola". Suddenly, I got it (thanks to the book) and could even figure where the writers of the script had dumbed down the legend to play into their movie plot (what little of it there was, but still enjoyable for the actio-adventurey sequences). And how they got it wrong: I was left scratching my head why Amrican Indian treasure would be guarded by a riddle in Olmaec, which I thought was a language of South America, not North America. Anywho, it reads for a really intresting read about the history that has been forgotten in relation to America itself.

And that is the other thing that really has me thinking with this book: the way that the author has managed to highlight how history is fluid and personal. How history can be shaped by what people choose to believe. Or choose to share. I have heard said that history is written by the winners but that is not necessarily always true. History is something - that I think - is personally shaped and defined by those who are 'reading' it. The way in which the author highlights how various people(s) choose to interpret and believe historical evidence is intriguing. I have come across the way in which people can choose to believe or deny parts of history as suits their agendas (for example, Holocaust deniers) but most importantly, to me at least, is the way this book seems to track how widespread and ingrained the tendency is - to examine our history and reinterpret it. It makes me wonder: by the very act of iving my life, what personal history have I decided to reimagine in a way more suited to my present being?