Historical Perspective

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. champions a specific approach to history that values knowledge, realism, and empathy over justification, romanticization, and self-congratulation. To support this argument, the novel dissects three related motifs: historical arrogance, historical romanticization, and historical redemption.

The novel strongly criticizes historical arrogance, a series the belief that “progress” has made modern people better than historical people: smarter, stronger, and ethically superior. Lester falls into the trap of historical arrogance when he does no research about Elizabethan London but nevertheless arrives believing he can manipulate events however he wants with no consequences. However, the best example of historical arrogance is Blevins’s treatment of Magnus. When Magnus starts threatening witches and seeking information in thirteenth-century Normandy, Blevins insists: “He isn’t sophisticated enough to figure the whole thing out—or to be useful to us if he’s here...