The story I reread every once in awhile to keep some perspective on the true
place of artifacts, especially in the days when I would get too mercenary
about working on a family to donate something, is Alice Walker's story "The
Quilt." In this story about a poor country family, one daughter leaves home
and is educated while the other daughter stays home and marries another
farmer. When it comes time to hand down their grandmother's quilt, the
mother has to decide between the daughter who feels the quilt is an
important symbol of her family's history and culture and needs to be
preserved and displayed and the daughter who needs it to keep her children
warm.
Pamela
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Heuman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 10:46 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: It IS important, Eugene
>
>
> Greetings all:
>
> Ever one to get involved in such matters, I'm including a link (below)
> to a most profound parable I came across years ago.
> Naturally, reaction
> to the story will vary greatly amongst museum professionals. (You see
> variety at this URL, as well.)
>
http://www.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/books.html
David added a keen comment about "aura" - in one of these messages -
which is a shade of Walter Benjamin. While Benjamin mourned the risk to
"aura" by mechanical reproduction, he championed mechanical reproduction
as a means to spreading knowledge. This relates to comments several
days ago from someone who mentioned having a copy of the Constitution on
his bookshelf. Of course, the words are the words . . . regardless of
the sanctity (or existence) of the original artifact. While I'm all in
favor of conservation/preservation, I'll not drive myself to the point
of pathological.
Deb mentioned ego . . . in the context of 'publish or perish'. Of
course, in history, egos are responsible for great masterpieces and
world wars. I'd rather do without the great masterpieces in order to
avoid the world wars!
Congratulations to Gene, David and Deb - excellent observations all
around. Roy: Always helping us put things in perspective!
Sincerely,
Jay Heuman
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