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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Understanding History: Why Serious Scholarship of D&D Matters
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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9078007" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>Evidently you haven't read most (or possibly any) of the books Snarf is talking about.</p><p></p><p>You cited a birthday as an "absolute truth". How do you know when your birthday is? You're relying on other people telling you that. And the accuracy of your birth certificate. A document a fallible human being created. They could have written it down wrong. Now, the odds are that they DIDN'T, in part because you're able to check that against other sources (the people who were there, presumably your parents), but that's the exact same thing a researcher is doing with historical facts.</p><p></p><p>If the guy writing a book has a copy of a letter from Gary Gygax to Dave Arneson, reporting the contents of that letter is absolutely every bit as factual as your date of birth. Now, a given writer COULD lie about those contents or choose to highlight or emphasize part of it to distort or misrepresent the facts, but part of being a smart and critical reader is being alert for that sort of thing.</p><p></p><p>The idea that we need to read critically is no new revelation. And it's certainly not justification for disregarding all scholarship!</p><p></p><p>Now, if we don't do a combination of primary source document research and interviewing the people involved, what are we left with? Just interviewing the surviving people. Whose memories we KNOW can't be completely accurate. That leaves us on even shakier ground re: what the truth is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 9078007, member: 7026594"] Evidently you haven't read most (or possibly any) of the books Snarf is talking about. You cited a birthday as an "absolute truth". How do you know when your birthday is? You're relying on other people telling you that. And the accuracy of your birth certificate. A document a fallible human being created. They could have written it down wrong. Now, the odds are that they DIDN'T, in part because you're able to check that against other sources (the people who were there, presumably your parents), but that's the exact same thing a researcher is doing with historical facts. If the guy writing a book has a copy of a letter from Gary Gygax to Dave Arneson, reporting the contents of that letter is absolutely every bit as factual as your date of birth. Now, a given writer COULD lie about those contents or choose to highlight or emphasize part of it to distort or misrepresent the facts, but part of being a smart and critical reader is being alert for that sort of thing. The idea that we need to read critically is no new revelation. And it's certainly not justification for disregarding all scholarship! Now, if we don't do a combination of primary source document research and interviewing the people involved, what are we left with? Just interviewing the surviving people. Whose memories we KNOW can't be completely accurate. That leaves us on even shakier ground re: what the truth is. [/QUOTE]
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