get it straight, you bastards
in the 75th anniversary issue of the Townsman there are many, many articles on the town's history. this makes sense, because no one knows it. and the articles behave pedagogically, because they know they are already the link between the present and 30 years before. funny how early this effect started, eh? gets one to thinking this is is a root of the American Disease.
so ANYWAY... in one paragraph they quote Fiske, renowned town historian, to get their dates right, and in the next column they contradict him, vaguely. (Fiske says a street is named in the late 1850s, the paper says it was named "after" 1789.)
this presents both a very interesting space for me to nestle into -- the inconsistency of primary texts, or just the relationship between primary and secondary texts, even just the relationship of newspapers to the town and the historians -- and a rather annoying conundrum that requires i do further research to firm up a somewhat insignificant date. see what i mean? the contradiction means as a matter of accuracy & responsibility, i have to track down a third source to corroborate one of the first two.
AHEM
if you're interested in this sort of stuff please pipe up. if there's sufficient interest, i'll leave these posts public. if not really, i'll make a filter for y'all who are reading. if no one's interested, i'll just go about things as i have been, and the suckier for all of you.
so ANYWAY... in one paragraph they quote Fiske, renowned town historian, to get their dates right, and in the next column they contradict him, vaguely. (Fiske says a street is named in the late 1850s, the paper says it was named "after" 1789.)
this presents both a very interesting space for me to nestle into -- the inconsistency of primary texts, or just the relationship between primary and secondary texts, even just the relationship of newspapers to the town and the historians -- and a rather annoying conundrum that requires i do further research to firm up a somewhat insignificant date. see what i mean? the contradiction means as a matter of accuracy & responsibility, i have to track down a third source to corroborate one of the first two.
AHEM
if you're interested in this sort of stuff please pipe up. if there's sufficient interest, i'll leave these posts public. if not really, i'll make a filter for y'all who are reading. if no one's interested, i'll just go about things as i have been, and the suckier for all of you.