From: garym@mcgath.com   
      
   On 8/31/25 6:04 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:   
      
   > This September, TCM gives you the choice of *two* BEN-HUR   
   > movies--the 1925 and the 1959. Personally, I prefer the 1925; I   
   > think the chariot race is far more exciting in that version.   
      
   The 1925 Ben-Hur was very rough on the extras, of whom there were   
   something like 10,000. Some may have drowned in the sea battle scene.   
   > MONDAY,  September 29   
   > 12:30 PM    The Phantom of the Opera (1925)   
      
   There will be a screening of the 1925 Phantom of the Opera in Boston's   
   Symphony Hall on Halloween, with live organ accompaniment. I've bought a   
   ticket.   
   > [An alternate version has "But a biplane put him in his grave".   
   > Which you prefer depends on whether you think "the airplanes got   
   > him" or "'twas Beauty killed the Beast." -ecl]   
      
   Definitely the airplanes, or else suicide. It was the ape's fault he got   
   himself into that situation.   
   > TOPIC: First Person Singular in History Books (comments by Evelyn   
   > C. Leeper)   
   >   
   > Last week I wrote that Judith Herrin had to make a lot of   
   > assumptions and guesses about women in the Byzantine Empire and   
   > said, "Perhaps this is why one sees the first person singular   
   > pronoun at times; traditionally historians have eschewed it for   
   > a more distant stance."   
   >   
   > This week I was reading WRITING HISTORY: A GUIDE FOR STUDENTS by   
   > William Kelleher Storey (Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-983004-6) and he   
   > writes, "Avoid the First Person Singular. Generally speaking,   
   > historical writers do not write in the first person singular. ...   
   > Usually historians employ the first person singular only when they   
   > have personally experienced a phenomenon they are describing."   
      
   I used the first person in some parts of my history of filk, _Tomorrow's   
   Songs Today_. They fell into the "personal experience" category.   
      
   --   
   Gary McGath    http://www.mcgath.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)