"Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear."
— Hannah Arendt
Since hearing about the tiffany problem, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. The problem, coined by writer Jo Walton, refers to the tension between historical fact and the popular perception of history. The example Walton uses is that of the name Tiffany. Whilst most people assume Tiffany is a modern name, conjuring up images of Audrey Hepburn singing Moon River, it actually has a long pedigree, found as far back as 12th century Britain and France as a variant of Theophania (Greek for God’s appearance, taking the name from the Feast day Epiphany celebrated by Christians, though having Greek origins). Part of this of course is that Tiffany was a common baby name in the 80s at number 11 most popular in the U.S. Yet it also speaks to the ways in which most of us view history in concrete blocks with clear distinctions between different periods. We think of things that are still with us today as modern when there is a large amount of continuity between different eras. Jo Wal...
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