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Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
I agree with you completely, Guwaya.
In fact, I do not know of one single piece of keris literature that deals with the keris which could be regarded as a reliable source of information when subjected to the rigorous standards which you seem to espouse.
Perhaps David van Duuren's "Bibliography" is the only piece of literature that might come close to your standards, and that is a list of published works together with commentary on those works, so it deals indirectly, rather than directly with the keris.
Thus, for those of us who would study the keris we are really only left with the options of using all published works as tools to aid our own research and future study, or of using none of these works.
As you point out:- it is all in the attitude of the reader.
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You are absolutely right - I also don't see "
one single piece of keris literature that deals with the keris which could be regarded as a reliable source of information when subjected to the rigorous standards ......" and I didn't postulate there has to be and in my opinion there never will be, regarding the facts
Naga Sasra already pointed out. And under a certain aspect it is good as it is, as it reflects the situation of studying the keris. And this was or is what I wanted to point out.
In the meanwhile there is a lot of literature about the keris on the market and somebody who is real interested to get deeper informations has a lot of possibilties to look for answers - he might not receive what he is looking for but this is another question. Fact is, there is a lot of literature but somebody has to read it, to read it carefully with requesting the sources of the information. And I am the opinion, the real interested person into the subject will do it and if it is possible for him he will go further into practical studies and requestionings at the places.
But even just a serious literature research for a real interested person is a very interesting matter as the side effect is to receive a lot of informations which can be compared dll., dll. - also further general and specific informations about the indegenious culture in which the object is embedded in.
I appreciate your hint to David van Duuren's "Bibliography" even if it is "just" an indirectly work - in fact I think it is an important work which saves a lot of time as it refers already the literature which is on the market. A real big advantage regarding the time as Harsrinuksmo's first edion of "Ensiklopedi" wasn't yet published.
So far so good and I would like to close with your final words:
"it is all in the attitude of the reader" - how deep are his interests?!