GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1990-02 > 0635569417


From: Kay Allen AG <>
Subject: Re: Eleanor of Aquitaine (by Weir)
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1990 19:03:37 -0800


wrote:
>
> In a message dated 2/20/2000 3:39:00 PM, writes:
>
> << And what does the fact that something was published by a commercial
> publishing house prove other than the publisher had hopes of making some
> big bucks? >>
>
> Nothing, of course, but the expectation of big bucks and the support of the
> establishment.

Which establishment? They expect big bucks from a public who thinks that
she's one of the best things since sliced bread, because they don't know
any better. Her editors don't know if her books are any good in the
scholarly sense, just that they are popularly entertaining. I still
don't think that selling a book to a non-knowledgeable public is
necessarily a good thing. It is good for them economically, but is it
good to sell shoddy merchandise for the purported edification of the
masses? I personally do not think so.


Marketability is the key here ... Weir has a marketable
> record, which means that many others out there find something worthwhile in
> her work.

Yes, that it makes money, not that its content is of any value to the
enlightening of the masses. Unfortunately, there are already too many
people who are gullible enough to believe that if it is in print and has
been published by a name publishing house then it must be so.

As we all should know, this is hardly the case. I have spent far too
much of my life attempting to instill some critical faculties in people,
especially as it concerns history and genealogy, to appreciate the
efforts of the "popular" press.


My point was not who is the publisher, but that fact that no one
> has read the book and it is being panned here because a few people have
> complaints about previous books. Obviously, this is not a fair position. Each
> work need to be judged on its own merits.

I have not panned this book. I have panned her credibility and
scholarship. Since leopards do not usually change spots or their track
records, I do have the right to state my suspicions that it is not going
to be a masterpiece of scholarship. I will be willing to apologize on
this list, if or when I am proved to be mistaken.

>
> Of course, you cannot please all the people all the time, as well we know.

And, unfortunately, one can please too many people with uncritical
faculties a good deal of the time. Just ask TV executives :-) We are in
grave danger of becoming a nation of mediocrities because of this, not
because of a lack of popularization for the masses.

Kay Allen AG
>
> - Ken

This thread: