Stupid, Part Three: How Historical Fiction Can Save Our Brains

Today on Unedited, three authors of historical fiction join us to parse the state of modern entertainment and ponder whether we’re really living in a uniquely stupid era.We as creatures have been weaving epic fictions since at least the Iron Age—and authors have been called out for their overuse of sex and violence since at least Herodotus. But with millions of books being published (or self-published) each year, and a disproportionate number of those books trying to out-Scoville each other, can any prior century claim as stupid a literary legacy?Writer of historical thrillers Marjorie DeLuca, master of Golden Age mysteries Christopher Huang, and award-winning Western novelist and returning Unedited guest Chase Pletts help us understand what publishing houses today are asking for, why we don’t remember much of the stupid fiction from prior eras, and how stories set in other times can help us more accurately understand our own.