how many details?
I'm thinking of calling the new book Grain of Detail. It's about reenactments as elements in changes in what we've thought of as authors and audiences since the invention of authorship in the seventeenth century. Now these are becoming distributed elements in new forms of production for many more kinds of groups than audiences and with much less control than authors. Grain of detail matters as one moves from one sort of group to another. Too much detail for one is too little for another. Lots of details usually means one is a member of that group, but one has to use fewer details when talking about groups' stuff to others. Something like that.
Business last two days also about needing more details or getting too many. "Far more detail than I wanted to know" sort of thing. I tend to give too many details, either personal or scholarly. I figure you can throw away the ones you don't want. But sometimes too many details is intrusive or unpleasant in other ways. And it's not easy to know how many details are appropriate, except with trial and error, which means errors. Asking is not simple, and often involves too many details, and then turns out to be an error.
Oh well.
Business last two days also about needing more details or getting too many. "Far more detail than I wanted to know" sort of thing. I tend to give too many details, either personal or scholarly. I figure you can throw away the ones you don't want. But sometimes too many details is intrusive or unpleasant in other ways. And it's not easy to know how many details are appropriate, except with trial and error, which means errors. Asking is not simple, and often involves too many details, and then turns out to be an error.
Oh well.