a secret history
Feb. 21st, 2004 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulaI'm about halfway through the first Ash book, and enjoying it quite a lot. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reasie remarked that she found the frame story dull; I would find it rather compelling, if it weren't for the fact that it's astoundingly unlikely. The problem is this:
Multiple Choice.
If you were an up-and-coming historian who had stumbled upon a text whose contents forced a reexamination of all of fifteenth-century European and Near Eastern political history, you would:
a) Immediately publish an article detailing your finds. Follow this article with a book as quickly as possible.
b) Immediately publish a scholarly edition of the text, in its original Latin.
c) Immediately publish a scholarly translation, with copious footnotes and a foreword explaining the ramifications of the text.
d) Publish a literary translation drawing on several sources, with footnotes to explain minor details such as types of armour to the lay reader.
The answer is not d), unless you are the sort of up-and-coming historian who would rather be a famous novelist than gain tenure. This description presumably applies to Mary Gentle, but she should not force her characters into the same mold.
reasie remarked that she found the frame story dull; I would find it rather compelling, if it weren't for the fact that it's astoundingly unlikely. The problem is this:Multiple Choice.
If you were an up-and-coming historian who had stumbled upon a text whose contents forced a reexamination of all of fifteenth-century European and Near Eastern political history, you would:
a) Immediately publish an article detailing your finds. Follow this article with a book as quickly as possible.
b) Immediately publish a scholarly edition of the text, in its original Latin.
c) Immediately publish a scholarly translation, with copious footnotes and a foreword explaining the ramifications of the text.
d) Publish a literary translation drawing on several sources, with footnotes to explain minor details such as types of armour to the lay reader.
The answer is not d), unless you are the sort of up-and-coming historian who would rather be a famous novelist than gain tenure. This description presumably applies to Mary Gentle, but she should not force her characters into the same mold.
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Date: 2004-02-22 12:27 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2004-02-22 12:36 am (UTC)