Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00238)

Daniel,

Thanks. That's it. 

In spite of your general warning, the reader can never know what is "abridged" and what is not "abridged" in what he reads. 

This is silent editing.

Carlos Cardoso Aveline  






De:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Para:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com

Cópia:

Data:Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:31:58 -0000

Assunto:Theos-World Silent Editing

> Carlos Aveline quotes Ernest Pelletier about my book
> THE ESOTERIC WORLD OF MADAME BLAVATSKY:
> 
> =======================================================
> 
> However, there are negative aspects to this book 
> that need mention. There has been much silent editing 
> done which renders the contents of this book
> impractical to quote from. While eliminating certain 
> `irrelevant' portions of the text may not necessarily 
> affect context, it is important to know (and from
> what I understand, it is also a legal requirement ? 
> at least in Canada ? to indicate) where changes have 
> been made to the original text. Silent editing
> sets a precedent which eventually will erode the 
> authenticity of the whole theosophical literature. 
> Knowing this, one wonders why this respected historian
> who has promoted and defended HPB would be compelled 
> to compromise the integrity and accuracy of historical 
> theosophical records.
> 
> =====================================================
> 
> Unfortunately, at least from this quotation, some may think
> that this "silent editing" has been done without me
> telling the reader.
> 
> Yet in my preface (ix) to ESOTERIC WORLD, I write:
> 
> =======================================================
> 
> The narratives have been transcribed from the original
> sources with spelling and punctuation modernized. For
> people's names, the spelling used in HPB's Collected
> Writings (vols. 1 and 15) has been adopted. Material not
> relevant to the immediate narrative has been silently 
> deleted. The original texts, however, can be found from
> the bibliographical references. Explanatory notes added
> by the editor are enclosed within square brackets.
> 
> =======================================================
> 
> As regards Pelletier's comment about scholars or authors 
> who want to quote material. It is my opinion that scholars
> should go to the original source or at least go to an
> unabridged unedited reprint of an article or text. 
> 
> In my book I wanted to tell the story of HPB's life or at
> least some of the story and I wanted to give readers the opportunity
> to read some of the original stories, reminiscences by the actual
> people who knew her, etc. At the same time I edited the text so
> the flow of the story moved, etc. 
> 
> In the first edition of my book THE OCCULT WORLD OF MADAME 
> BLAVATSKY, I used the three dots ... to indicate all omissions of 
> text. Even before this first edition was published some of my 
> coworkers who had read drafts of the manuscript complained about the 
> dots. That the dots got in the way of the story. At that time I 
> igored this advice about deleting the dots ... . When TPH Wheaton 
> wanted to publish a second revised edition with additional text 
> added, the dot ... problem was brought up again. The readability 
> issue was discussed back and forth with the publisher and with some 
> of my friends and coworkers, finally I decided that I would not use 
> the dots ... for readability.
> 
> Was that a mistake? I don't know. But I don't really think so. 
> Again interested readers, scholars and authors who want to explore 
> the subject more or who want to quote texts are encouraged to go to 
> the original sources. 
> 
> My intent again was to give readers a "taste" of all the wonderful
> narratives telling about HPB's life. And I also tried to quote very 
> rare and hard to find material. You will find in my book material 
> that has never been reprinted since it was first published (in some 
> cases more than 100 years ago).
> 
> Some of this material (especially) the rare material has been 
> published on my website unabridged and unedited.
> 
> And one of my projects is to publish a book (currently projected
> at 600 pages) of original text about HPB .... unabridged and 
> unedited.
> 
> Of course, I 'm sure this explanation will not satisfy Mr. Aveline.
> 
> Daniel
> http://hpb.cc
> 
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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> 
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