wow. it seems the sword has stirred up a hornets nest. in hindsight, i would have kept my mouth shut as all i contributed was an opinion and an added diversion which was not needed, nor asked for. i think that any cross-forum discussion must be avoided as there is obvious animosity and issues at hand. in an ideal world, we could flit from one to the other but it seems that by doing so you are only becoming an open target.
i think the world is a big place and enough room for different opinions to happily sit along side each other without butting heads.
i like to think that i take my studies quite seriously, and hold every book in my library quite dear to me. i will buy any book that has anything to do with my subject, whether good or bad as until you have read everything written already, it is then that you can happily discard it all and form your own opinion :-) my library hold most books that are oriental arms related, and many that step into iconography and history.
however, there is a clear difference between what i class as 'academic' and 'picture book'.
i only distinguish this classification after i buy the book, and i never critisize the importance of a book as all have some use (i love good pictures!).
if i pay $100-$200 for a book, then i should be entitled to an opinion on its contents.
if an author considers himself an expert and wants to move the world with his opinions, then he must know that he is up for both praise and rebuke. on the other hand, if a book is written in a general sense, then it should not be rebuked for being too general.
i applaud anyone that manages to publish as this alone is not easy. so, for someone to achieve this, and also to devote an amount of years to put the project together, then he should be commended for doing so.
BUT, his work will, and MUST be up for appraisal. i know many published authors and not one of them will convince me (with a straight face) that he did so for personal gratification. all want to put their opinions forward and any decent author will willingly accept critism for his work, as long as it is constructive.
i think this is the key, as vandoo rightly says. anyone who thinks tirri's book was meant to be academic should read it again. 20-40 words per item can hardly be in-depth academic. this book cant be compared to allens persian steel (for example) which has 600 pages on one specific subject. both have uses but in a different way.
elgood has openly admitted on a number of occasions that he has put forward theories in the hope that they will provoke discussions (for or against) which could further known knowledge by bringing a discussion out in the open.
there are a number of authors that spend their 'careers' devoted to the research and publication of hopefully new material (whether in book or article format). to name a few - alexander, elgood, nicholle, zaky, gorelik, miller, melikian-chirvani etc. also, museum related - stronge, buddle, zygulski (michals friend). then there is related subjects to arms (numerous authors).
none of the authors i have listed write 'general' books on arms (with some exceptions of course). each tries to push new knowledge forward and uses pre-written texts as a foundation to either start from or to argue against. none use known knowledge as an assumption (ahem, with exceptions of course). i travelled to italy to meet an author that spent his whole career searching for publishers to allow him to research a subject (chosen by them). his books catered for not just arms and he dove into subjects he knew little about beforehand, but when he finished, he managed to create theories that stood up on their own.
saying that, there is still always need for generalised books for the novice. i will happily buy these as well as i am of the opinion that if i learn one new thing from a book, then its was worth buying.
i look forward to this new book, and will happily pay the price for it. i will read it from cover to cover and i will have a strong opinion, for or against it. this book has already declared a large amount of images, so even if the text is ridiculous, then at least i will get a chance to see images of swords that are new to me. however, i really hope that i will get something from the literature as well.
the reason this forum is so used, participated on and enjoyed is because it is open to strong opinion, if justified and voiced in a polite way. thats my reason for being here anyway. if i have to sit here with my mouth shut even though i strongly feel that what is being discussed it completely wrong, then it would be hard to participate. you cannot walk on eggshells because of fragile egos (this this i mean all authors). we learn by experience and discussion, not just reading and accepting facts without question.
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