Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00326)

Folks,

To cite all the positive effects from having written some 
historical/biographical books would probably serve no purpose; 
suffice it to say they have been substantial and I'm endlessly 
surprised and grateful. As for the negative effects rebounding on 
the author, I have not only personal experience of this but also the 
vicarious experience of closely observing others in similar 
circumstances vis-a-vis Baha'i and Radhasoami/Eckankar etc. figures.

One negative effect on an author is that the effort to do 
biographical work on any historical figure implies an intention to 
modify what is known about that person, else why do any research and 
writing? And if the modification is anything other than innocuous 
expansion of the existing body of facts, without any controversial 
implications, someone's ox is gored. Anyone holding a mental picture 
of the biographee that conflicts in any way with your research and 
conclusions might be offended or even outraged. And even though your 
sole objective was to find out the truth, if the truth you find 
conflicts with their preexisting conclusions they will perceive you 
as an attacker and possibly respond in kind. They will believe that 
you deliberately set out on a destructive mission to undermine their 
particular beliefs about the person. They won't be able to see that 
your intention was constructive, despite the fact that all you wanted 
to do was expand knowledge and improve understanding of the person 
about whom you wrote. And if the subject of the biographical 
research is perceived as a spiritual leader, their admirers who are 
offended by your work will perceive you as wicked, anti-spiritual, 
earning bad karma (or divine wrath, or whatever) for your effort to 
destroy their idol. Of course, that's only "bad karma" if you aren't 
prepared for it and expected no such results.

Another bit of "bad" karma is that once you're a published author, 
some people who think they know more than you do and have a better 
understanding and ought to be recognized for it automatically have an 
agenda. They see you as needing to be put you in your place, shown 
up, and all that jazz. This is a way of making up for the grievous 
injustice that someone so much less worthy than themselves has gotten 
published and received some acclaim. *Someone* deserves to be 
punished for this. Uh-oh, that'd be me (gulp). But generally I'd 
say that the "bad"ness of the karma of historical and biographical 
authorship is directly proportional to the degree of disappointment 
this entails. Knowing in advance what would happen would have taken 
most of the sting out of it for me. (Future authors reading this, 
take note!)

But it was all worth it,

Paul