Dudes and the feathers in their caps

[ljwrites]

Has it seriously been a month since I updated? o_O THE TIME WHERE DOES IT GO

My friends who have given me encouragements on the Soseono novel will be heartened to know that my obsession with the project continues apace. I've done a substantial amount of research on the politics of the period, at least in the internal politics among the heroine's people, so I've moved on to the daily lives including clothing, food, and architecture.

I've started on clothing first because it's the best researched and documented among the "daily life" topics. Goguryeoh in particular has a wealth of primary sources on these, because starting around the second or third century A.D. these people started painting elaborate tomb murals depicting everyday scenes like dancing, parades, cooking, fighting and so on. (In later periods the murals become more abstract and religious, closing this window into the material lives of their eras.)

There's a lot of research on specific subjects depicted in these murals. Recently I read an entire paper on men's headgear, for instance. Evidently Goguryeoh men wore caps, and noblemen wore feathers in their caps to denote their status. Feathered caps are shown in various murals including the following the third or fourth century depiction of a hunt.


Hunting scene from a Goguryeoh tomb mural in Jilin, China (click image for source)

My problem is that these sources, as with so much else, post-date my chosen period by at least three centuries. This means I need to extrapolate backward and imagine how these hats would have looked in the late 1st century B.C. and 1st century A.D. when my heroine was alive.

For instance, the hat-feathers in archeological finds are not actual bird feathers but imitation feathers made of leather or cloth. These have certain advantages over real feathers--not as perishable, more durable, can be styled to specification etc. It's not too much of a leap, though, to imagine the original custom was wearing actual feathers. I wouldn't rule out imitation feathers for my heroine's age, though.

As for the cap, it's again not a great stretch to imagine they had precursors that were simpler to design and make, such as headbands. One of my favorite manhwa (Korean graphic novels) authors, Kim Hyeh-rin, seems to have had the same idea. Her epic manhwa series The Fire-Sword (불의 검) is a semi-historical romantic and political saga featuring the Amur, a fantasy proto-Korean people. This is how Kim depicts the king of the Amur, Cheon-gung:


Doesn't he just scream "sexy antihero?"

So I think I'm justified, both by extrapolating from available records and from one of Korea's national manhwa icons, in imagining the noblemen of my heroine's people wearing headbands with feathers in them. Fun stuff, at least for me.

Comments

[lb_lee]

Very cool! I admit, fashion and such for Princess and Monster was such a pain for me that I kinda defaulted to the most boring shit I could think of, and avoided discussing it whenever possible. Historical research is HARD.

--Rogan

[graychalk]

Glad to hear you're still passionate about the novel! Sounds like you're neck-deep in research still, but it all looks like such fascinating stuff (I love this sort of thing). Are you still working on the writing portion or mainly just doing research for now?

Anyhow, good luck and yay for continuous progress, regardless which kind. :)

[dhampyresa]

Glad to see the novel is progressing! And he does scream "sexy antihero".

[ljwrites]

So I'm guessing you're not one of those artists who are obsessed with fashion and designs. I could kind of tell from your other work. XD I'm not much of a clothes hound myself, and I try to console myself that it would be distracting to overdescribe clothing anyway. Mostly I plan to have characters notice the differences that denote status, grouping etc., as humans will. Status-denoting feathers are definitely the kind of thing people would recognize and respond to.

[ljwrites]

The writing portion has stalled out for now, and I'm afraid I may be using the research portion (and my RL responsibilities) to procrastinate on the actual writing. I love this kind of thing, too, so much that I've often called the novel a pretext for the research. :D

Thanks for your good wishes! I can't put the writing off forever, so tomorrow I'm going to take my tablet and keyboard with me and try to write on my commute. I can do this! >:( ...I think. *whimpers*

[ljwrites]

Thank you! And he does, doesn't he. I should blog about The Fire-Sword one of these days, it's been such a huge influence on me.

[graychalk]

... Oh, I empathize with the procrastination via research and RL responsibilities. I'm kinda stuck on something I'm working with and suddenly, it's like I'm super productive with everything else and I even started drawing up calendars for my timeline. *facepalm*

And yes, you can do this! Happy writing - you do ever so well when it comes to writing while commuting. :D

[lb_lee]

Sadly no. I consider it one of my weaknesses as a creator; researching fashion tends to bore me to tears. I can duplicate what I see, but I have little aptitude and less inclination to create my own. Sneak is better, and it shows; zer character designs for Alice Nobody have WAY cooler wardrobes than I come up with.

Like, if I can attach meaning to it, I can remember it. (For instance: three feathers = teh manliez, two feathers = respectable, four is over the top.) But I'm rarely able to reach that point. *embarrassed*

--Rogan