“Many practitioners and critics alike argue that a biographer’s affection for her subject is essential… But a biographer’s feeling for his subject is often more like that of a crazed stalker than that of a faithful husband… When Ellis refers to Jefferson as his ‘quarry’, he employs a common metaphor: the biographer as hunter” (134).
How do we know when an important figure should be given privacy? This person could be an important historical figure, but they’re a person with their own values and beliefs. They may not want their lives traced and and rummaged around in and uncovered for the general public to see. It brings us back to one of our last classes, where we discussed the level of privacy photography subjects should be given. This person may be important or an essential part of an event that took place, but they have a family and were a living , breathing, thinking human being, so is it even ethical to see them as just another figure or just another dead body?
Where is the line drawn between historian and “crazed stalker”?
“Finding out and writing about people, living or dead, is tricky work. It is necessary to balance intimacy with distance while at the same time being inquisitive to the point of invasiveness” (129).
This is kind of the same theme as my first quote. If you couldn’t tell, this balance is fascinating to me on both an ethical and practical standpoint. However, let’s try taking a different kind of perspective on this: how could potentially invading someone’s private life benefit the general public, or even just a future group of historians? History is a giant game of catch-up. We learn and discover new things everyday. It could be so we can learn from history and try not to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. Or it could be that the lives and cultures in centuries past are thought-provoking and we want to learn more just for the sake of learning it. Maybe the only way researching and discovering certain things benefits future generations is because now they don’t have to do it.
How does this kind of research and documentation benefit everyone else?
