In a message dated 3/17/2004 4:56:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Forgive me for saying it, but are you "too close" to
 the situation to see it objectively?  I have to ask
 you, as I was once asked. If things were ideal, the
 situation would be as you painted it here.  But it's
 not.  It's as you have lamented it.

 So then the question begs itself, what are YOU going
 to do to fix the problem? >>

Indigo, actually no, I don't think I'm too close to the situation.  Certainly
I have a personal perspective, which differs from other perspectives, but I
strive for objectivity.  My perspective includes my opinions plus empirical
observations and documented facts.  Incidentally, I've been interested in the
issue of objectivity ever since I engaged in a series of private e-mail
conversations with a member of this list some time ago.  Despite his assurances that
objectivity is a myth and an impossible dream (which apparently we shouldn't
even discuss), I try to approximate it.

I'm well aware that I have my own personal spin on the subject.  Writing
about any complex problem or issue always entails a struggle between the totality
of truth and one's own perspective.  It reminds me of the essential paradox in
documentary and evidentiary photography: many photographers--primarily those
functioning as artists--insist that photographs always "lie" because they can
never tell the whole truth, since the photographer always must select what to
record and show; but what's impossible is not making a selection, since no
single photograph, series of photographs, or even an infinitely long movie can
ever record the whole world.  The best we can do is make snapshots of partial
truths and understand their inherent limitations, but in my opinion that doesn't
invalidate the attempt.  Scholarly writing and analysis has parallel
limitations--as if we haven't always known that.

Such philosophizing aside, I hadn't thought about the kind of manual you
describe, but I have in fact drafted some chapters for a possible book on the
current crisis (perhaps I should say crises) in museums, so I am doing something
along the lines you suggest.  The most important thing I need to do toward such
a project is research on competing perspectives, followed by comparisons and
analysis.  I am indeed trying to "do" something, as opposed to mere griping.

David Haberstich

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