The other problem is that Balantier doesn't consider source bias, or if she does quickly dismisses it.
Oh, sigh, this is like practically every biographer I've read in the last couple years, on any subject. This is why I treat them all as glorified novels. I'm glad your other one is better about this!
Tangent: I had a linguistics prof who once told me that Turkish has this particle that has epistemological meaning: you can attach it to any sentence and it means "So I've heard; could be wrong." He was saying we should borrow it into English. Well, I've often agreed, and never have I so badly wanted this particle since I started discussing history. "My only source on this is a biography; take with a pinchful of salt."
the author, as she mentions in the afterword, does not speak German I...whuh...buh...how?? How do you write a biography of MT without knowing German? I wouldn't even *begin* to write a bio of Fritz before learning both German and French, and honest-to-god I'd wait until I learned to deal with 18th century handwriting so I could look at unpublished material. I barely consider myself qualified to share forcefully-expressed-but-often-unfounded opinions about Fritz with two other people in Dreamwidth!
Languages in the order in which I am motivated these days to learn or relearn or learn them properly: 1. Ancient Greek, my all-time favorite language. 2 and 3: Italian and Latin. Italian would be easier; Latin has more stuff I want to read. 4 and 5: French and German. French would be easier; German has more stuff I want to read.
And 4 and 5 are only so high because Fritz. Once I'm back out of Fritz fandom, Ancient Near Eastern languages (Akkadian, Hebrew, Sumerian) will beat them out again.
Re: The Ballad of Isabella and Maria Christina
Oh, sigh, this is like practically every biographer I've read in the last couple years, on any subject. This is why I treat them all as glorified novels. I'm glad your other one is better about this!
Tangent: I had a linguistics prof who once told me that Turkish has this particle that has epistemological meaning: you can attach it to any sentence and it means "So I've heard; could be wrong." He was saying we should borrow it into English. Well, I've often agreed, and never have I so badly wanted this particle since I started discussing history. "My only source on this is a biography; take with a pinchful of salt."
the author, as she mentions in the afterword, does not speak German
I...whuh...buh...how?? How do you write a biography of MT without knowing German? I wouldn't even *begin* to write a bio of Fritz before learning both German and French, and honest-to-god I'd wait until I learned to deal with 18th century handwriting so I could look at unpublished material. I barely consider myself qualified to share forcefully-expressed-but-often-unfounded opinions about Fritz with two other people in Dreamwidth!
Languages in the order in which I am motivated these days to learn or relearn or learn them properly:
1. Ancient Greek, my all-time favorite language.
2 and 3: Italian and Latin. Italian would be easier; Latin has more stuff I want to read.
4 and 5: French and German. French would be easier; German has more stuff I want to read.
And 4 and 5 are only so high because Fritz. Once I'm back out of Fritz fandom, Ancient Near Eastern languages (Akkadian, Hebrew, Sumerian) will beat them out again.