JWPlatt wrote:
When I buy a biography or a history book, I understand that it was written in the context of research done by an author who is at the mercy of his resources. The author's name is on the spine, copyright page, title page, and so on. And the author does not generally claim to actually be the person he is writing about (unless it's an autobiography) and it is often the case that he did not personally live through the particular topic of history. So it seems a reasonable assumption that people of common sense will understand that the works can be imperfect representations of fact which can be amended in later editions if necessary.
True, but if I buy something that advertises itself as a "scholarly" biography or history, I would also expect footnotes and a complete list of sources, as well as the avoidance of commentary such as Quote:
Cate's reasons for leaving? "I'm not getting a return on my investment," or something like that.
Ironic, actually,
Cate had mentioned the week before that she would believe a Bahro war when she saw it. And now here she was leaving, no Bahro war in sight.
Now, Carl has been very careful not to advertise the Heritage Nights as "scholarly," as that would have ensured a complete absence of attendance (
). And thinking about them as "non-scholarly" in no way demeans them or minimizes their importance, for they are the first attempt to create a narrative history of that period (I'm not counting the summaries that appear in places such as MystLore). For that, Carl and his co-contributors should be congratulated and even honored with some sort of presence in an in-game journal.