I was reading to M about the Terra Cotta Soldiers found in Qin Shi Huangdi’s grave in China. It was warm and humid. Suddenly I remembered “reading” my Great-Grandmother’s new copy of National Geographic on her front porch on a warm, moist day at her house in Long Island. This was that emperor who buried Confusion scholars alive, or buried them up to their necks and cut their heads off! I’d pestered all the adults around to read me the article when I was his age! The Terra Cotta pieces had just been discovered then. M’s book was more restrained in describing the fate of the emperor’s subjects than the artist in Nat’l Geo was back in the ’70’s. I had nightmares until we drove back to Nyack about that emperor.
I wonder if my nightmares were noisy? I wonder if Gramma and Grandpa wished they’d not read me such educational stuff as a result?