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From: Ruth I Gordon <druthgo>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 19:30:08 -0800
I am not quite sure that I understand the following
"I think that biography and autobiography are very different, most primarily because of the implied omniscience of biography that is by definition lacking in autobiography. "
As we scholars say, "Huh"?
Of all genres, autobiography is (a) the most self-serving and (b) the biographer, the self, is totally omniscent, not necessarily truthful but extremely powerful in what will be admitted to the story and what will be omitted. Dangerous--very.
A strong biographer can also introduce "warts" and keep the biographee attractive to readers; a weak biographer makes a hero of a dolt.
And yes, it really is an enormous problem when some foolish teacher insists on a biography of 100 pages (why is this the magic number, pray? since there is no comfortable format that folds into 100 pages) when someone's life (e.g., the teacher's) is worth 23 pages. I tried and tried and tried to convince my colleagues in the teacher training institutions that such page requirements are dumb, stupid, not worthy, etc., etc. Alas, too damn many folk in the teacher training institutions are mal?ucated and have probably never read a book in their lives (aside from racy fiction and popular history as presented in "Readers' Digest") except for the idiotic tomes in eddicashun.
I would not enter a school today to serve as a librarian. It was hard enough when I did try to educate teachers and principals and folk in the
"sub-normal" schools a few decades ago--but it is now an impossible task--especially in this brazen golden state. It would be delightful for this list to accept stories and anecdotes about teacher training (and library training) institutions. We could gather our thoughts on paper, have them edited, and produce a book of quackery--sometimes not so delightful. But...but..occasionally we might write of models who might serve as inspiration for their very weak brethren and sistren (not that I expect any change in most of these highly paid folk.)
Angry? Pissed? Me? Never--jamais, mai, usw, etc.
Big Grandma
I just read Nina Lindsay's thoughts on nf--and totally agree. Perhaps there are some folk who might care to examine www.bayviews.org and then avail themselves of a membership which gives a subscription to BayViews--the toughest nf reviewers (including Nina Lindsay, Linda Perkins, Marian Drabkin, et alii and the above-signed).
undersigned
"You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty." Jessica Mitford (191796)
Received on Fri 03 Nov 2000 09:30:08 PM CST
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 19:30:08 -0800
I am not quite sure that I understand the following
"I think that biography and autobiography are very different, most primarily because of the implied omniscience of biography that is by definition lacking in autobiography. "
As we scholars say, "Huh"?
Of all genres, autobiography is (a) the most self-serving and (b) the biographer, the self, is totally omniscent, not necessarily truthful but extremely powerful in what will be admitted to the story and what will be omitted. Dangerous--very.
A strong biographer can also introduce "warts" and keep the biographee attractive to readers; a weak biographer makes a hero of a dolt.
And yes, it really is an enormous problem when some foolish teacher insists on a biography of 100 pages (why is this the magic number, pray? since there is no comfortable format that folds into 100 pages) when someone's life (e.g., the teacher's) is worth 23 pages. I tried and tried and tried to convince my colleagues in the teacher training institutions that such page requirements are dumb, stupid, not worthy, etc., etc. Alas, too damn many folk in the teacher training institutions are mal?ucated and have probably never read a book in their lives (aside from racy fiction and popular history as presented in "Readers' Digest") except for the idiotic tomes in eddicashun.
I would not enter a school today to serve as a librarian. It was hard enough when I did try to educate teachers and principals and folk in the
"sub-normal" schools a few decades ago--but it is now an impossible task--especially in this brazen golden state. It would be delightful for this list to accept stories and anecdotes about teacher training (and library training) institutions. We could gather our thoughts on paper, have them edited, and produce a book of quackery--sometimes not so delightful. But...but..occasionally we might write of models who might serve as inspiration for their very weak brethren and sistren (not that I expect any change in most of these highly paid folk.)
Angry? Pissed? Me? Never--jamais, mai, usw, etc.
Big Grandma
I just read Nina Lindsay's thoughts on nf--and totally agree. Perhaps there are some folk who might care to examine www.bayviews.org and then avail themselves of a membership which gives a subscription to BayViews--the toughest nf reviewers (including Nina Lindsay, Linda Perkins, Marian Drabkin, et alii and the above-signed).
undersigned
"You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty." Jessica Mitford (191796)
Received on Fri 03 Nov 2000 09:30:08 PM CST
