Let’s be honest: when you think “historical drama,” you probably imagine sword fights, royal scandals…
…not a 14th-century monk sneezing so hard he knocks over an inkwell.
But here’s the truth: allergy history is wilder than any rock opera.
Did you know Roman emperors banned roses from banquets because guests kept passing out? (Turns out, pollen + wine = bad combo.)
Or that in Victorian England, “hay fever” was considered a disease of the elite—because only the rich had time to lounge in grassy fields and complain about it?
I stumbled into this world while researching for The Itchy History of Allergy, our non-fiction deep dive into the sneezy, sniffly, surprisingly dramatic saga of humanity vs. harmless proteins.
And somewhere between reading about ancient Egyptian pollen rituals and 1950s antihistamine ads (“Now you can picnic without perishing!”), I realized:
This is our origin story.
Because let’s face it—what is fandom if not a form of allergic reaction?
You encounter a story—a song, a wizard, a galaxy far, far away—and bam. Your system goes haywire. Your heart races. You buy a $30 shirt you don’t need. You write fanfiction at 2 a.m.
You’re not sick.
You’re allergic to ordinary life.
So yes, we sell a t-shirt that says “May the Sneeze Be With You” (now with extra tissue pocket!).
And yes, we wrote a whole book about why your great-great-grandpapa thought smelling a rotten apple would cure his cat allergies.
(He was wrong. But bless his cotton socks.)
Because history isn’t just dates and dust.
It’s the itch that started a thousand stories.
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P.S. Volume I of The Itchy History of Allergy is available in print and PDF. Warning: May cause sudden urges to fact-check your grandmother’s “cures.”
[Read the Lore →]