Pictures of the Past

The presence of the pictures was something that struck me while reading Fields of Light. Their use in exploring a family history was a fascinating choice on Hurka’s part, especially in the earlier chapters. Since we, as readers, know little about Hurka’s past, both his and that of his family, we are placed in a similar situation that he once was. Starting from the image that opens the book, of his grandfather, aunt, and father, which, to us, is a mystery before we begin reading. Then, as he explains it to us, it takes on a different shape than just a random artifact, but instead gains a story, gains its meaning. It had me thinking about what sort of connection we can have to images of the past, as they are often the only gateway that we have into actually seeing the past, as opposed to strictly keeping it within our imaginations.

That being said, the information that we are supplied (and I am suspecting that was relayed to Hurka through family testimony with corroboration with whatever records may still have existed) is that which, while providing a sort of grounding for understanding their context, doesn’t necessarily bring us any closer to the truth of what may actually lie within the photographs. All we have to rely upon is the stories that Hurka is told, which we are now told in turn through the text.

 I suppose this is something that I’ve been thinking about this entire course so far: the subjective experience of history. While reading this book, with a focus again toward the start, with Czechoslovakia’s first president and democracy, to how the nation is essentially abandoned by its allies before the Nazi invasion, and so on, are views from one group of people. We have to rely on Hurka’s telling and the sources that he used. While I do not doubt the stories relayed of the family’s history, I’m sure there are other accounts of the other side of the coin, though I suspect it would be infused with propaganda.

I'm going to go a little off topic to make a separate connection here when I admit that a lot of these thoughts were brought about by a conversation I had with girlfriend yesterday. She spent time over the weekend with her family down in DC, but they all originally hail from St. Petersburg, moving to the States in 1998. She was showing me pictures of their history, which gave an interesting look into the USSR from a familial perspective in the 1980s, which further struck me because she didn’t know all the stories to the photos that were from previous decades. I found myself wanting to know these unknown tales, the same way that I wanted to know the ones of those that Hurka included in Fields of Light. Thankfully, in one instance, I was able to get them.