Anachronism

Anachronism is always interesting because it triggers a displacement or superimposition of temporal planes. I dislike it when it suggests a false parallelism. Street gangs in 1950s New York are not equivalent to Italian clans of the 16th century.

We are always anachronistic when thinking about the past--by definition. We belong to a different time. The language of Li Po and Tu Fu doesn't have native speakers anymore.