: Re: How can I write about historical realities that readers mistakenly believe are unrealistic? Readers have certain expectations about locations and time periods, things they "know". For example, people

@XinRu607

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This is a good case for those little out-of-character sideline blurbs at the top of each new chapter (don't know the english word - often printed in italics and blatantly not from the perspective of the main story).

For example:

Chapter 5 - The Big Feast

The personal table fork was most likely invented in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, where they were in common use by the 4th century (its origin may even go back to Ancient Greece, before the Roman period). Records show that by the 9th century a similar utensil known as a barjyn was in limited use in Persia within some elite circles. By the 10th century, the table fork was in common use throughout the Middle East.(*)
----- Alice Bobster, The Forks of Middle-East

On the next day, our hero was invited to a big feast and ...

(And, if you feel so inclined, provide a list of science-y references in a addendum - exact page numbers etc.).

This adds a bit of spice to the book. Also, while the fork is probably just a random example and not a main story plot, especially adding such inconsequential facts would just feel nice to set the stage a bit.

(*) The actual quote is from the page on Forks on Wikipedia.

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