Isaac Asimov wrote a history of the children of the Neanderthals—of one in particular, brought forward to our own time. Read his 1958 short story "The Ugly Little Boy" and then discuss with your team: if you were rewriting this story in 2024, with what we now know about Neanderthals, would you describe the boy differently? And, if it were up to you, would you choose to keep him in the present or to send him back to his own era?

By the mid-1850s, the British were able to use computers to help them dominate the globe. The 19 century world that William Gibson and Bruce Sterling reconstruct in their novel The Difference Engine (read an excerpt here) is one that that never happened, but maybe could have—had the scientist Charles Babbage successfully invented a mechanical computer in 1824. Computers then helped the British invent steam-powered everything, from cars to tanks to airships—thus the term steampunk for all works set in a more advanced 19 century. Read a bit more about steampunk, then discuss with your team: how do you think people even further back in the past in the past would have chosen to use modern technology? How would people today react if suddenly they only had access to 19 century technology? Before punching out, be sure to find out who the narrator of the novel turns out to be.

Across a tapestry of over a dozen novels, the Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay has built a past almost like our own, but just a bit more fantastical. It also has an extra moon. His method: to respect the beliefs of the people who lived in any given era. "If I write about a time inspired by the Tang Dynasty and they believed in ghosts, I will have ghosts in the book," he says. "If I write about Celts and Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in the time when they believed there were fairies in the woods, I will have fairies in the woods." His hope is that it allows us to see the past through the eyes of those who lived in it. Read this excerpt from his most recent work, All the Seas of the World, then check out the interview here. Pay special attention to his answer eight minutes in—on his efforts "to tell the stories of people whose stories tended not to be told". Discuss with your team: how different are the roles of an historian and of a writer of historical fiction? Can the latter help fill in gaps left by the former—and, if so, should they?

For the set of poems (and one poetic speech) below, consider how each goes about reconstructing something—or someone—from the past. Which feel the widest in their scope, which the most personal in purpose? Discuss with your team: when is poetry the best medium for looking backward—and can poets ever be trusted as historical sources?

The manner in which we reconstruct an event or individual from days gone by is restricted by the information we possessed at that point in time, not the knowledge we have gained since then. Although our emotions can assist us in mentally picturing those past occurrences or people, we are limited by the understanding we had during that period, rather than our present comprehension. Our memories are definitively molded by the ideas and convictions we upheld in the past, not the perceptiveness we have cultivated since then.

(i recommend you read the selection. im positively sure theyre going to appear)

**"A Dog Has Died" | Pablo Neruda**