NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/bit/listserv/history/6310

Text File | 1993-01-26 | 1.9 KB | 38 lines

Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.ans.net!cmcl2!panix!mls
From: [e-mail] (Michael Siemon)
Subject: Re: Angelou/Santayana
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Summary: historiographical note
Organization: Panix Public Access Internet & Unix, NYC
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 05:29:14 GMT
Lines: 26

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:

>I cited no such television shows.   I hate that medium with a passion!!!

Well, that's a noble sentiment, but it raises some questions.  The poem
has been mentioned rather a lot on several USENET groups I read, and the
pattern of this mention has been (commonly) for someone with an admiring
memory of the recitation as covered on TV asking for the text.  I have
seen TWO differening texts posted, one as in the New York Times of the
next day (which obviously stands as the "official" version :-)) and one
given without breaking into lines -- and omitting some words (notably,
"gay") in the list, which I have seen attributed to a wire service.  It
is also fairly clear that protesters about the omission in the latter
case sometimes did so from memory as "eyewitnesses."

There are serious problems about how what is NOT seen modifies the effect
of this kind of witness -- and other problems about fabricated events, as
in "reconstructions" which may convince people they have seen what they
have not.  But surely, the national broadcast of a public event such as
the inauguration does count as a reliable testimony for what it shows, if
not for context or omissions?
--
Michael L. Siemon    "We honour founders of these starving cities
[e-mail]         Whose honour is the image of our sorrow ...
             They built by rivers and at night the water
             Running past the windows comforted their sorrow."