Klarinet Archive - Posting 000299.txt from 2006/01
From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] new Mozart finds
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:59:53 -0500
This entire conversation is little more than a pile of doo doo
and I won't participate in it any further.
Lelia's comments were particularly absurd in the sense that she
felt she had tracked down a gap in the story, saying that my book
was published in the same year as the collection was found. And
she saw the inevitable consequences of this coincidence as only a
person with an eye for bizarre tales would do. But anyone with
half a brain knows that a book published in 2004 was probably
written at least a year earlier and more like two years earlier.
One does not write a book and get it published the next day. It
is a grueling, difficult process that take time, energy, and
effort. Do I have to tell anyone this fact?
For anyone to bring up the possibility of chicanery here must
think that I am a complete and total schmuck with no brains.
This is not a subject to which I will reply any further. It is
beneath me to have to answer questions about my integrity.
Believe what you will and create whatever fantasies you wish. I
have real work to do.
Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Ormondtoby Montoya [mailto:o4rmondtoby@-----.net]
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 12:40 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] new Mozart finds
Dan,
I have been holding my tongue because, given the limited
information
that I have had until just now, I couldn't think of a way to talk
about
this without sounding obstreperous or mean-spirited or (to quote
you) "a
moron".
Please try to look at this situation from a partially-informed
observer's point of view rather than from your own point of view
wherein
you know all the facts.
"Partially informed" is a key phrase because most of us on
Klarinet know
about "Mozart Forgeries" whereas the 'average Joe' who picks up a
copy
of the Mercury News does not.
Now that you have told us that the Mercury News (the reporter or
the
reporter's editor?) was the party who decided not to mention
"Mozart
Forgeries", I want to tell you (and to agree with Lelia and Rien)
that,
to people with only half the information (as opposed to 'average
Joe'
who has none at all) (and as opposed to your closest friends who
have
all the information), a perception of "something's wrong here and
needs
fixing" is inescapable.
Dan, there are _plenty_ of respected authorities in various
fields,
ranging from the Middle Ages up through the present, who have
also
published satire, and both their satire and their serious work
are
praised because "this author knows the topic inside-out and is
not just
spouting whatever he thinks will draw attention on the 5 o'clock
news."
I don't know what should be done at this point --- sometimes an
attempt
at follow-up makes things look even worse --- but as I've already
said,
it *does* look bad to partly-knowledgeable members of the
'clarinet &
Mozart public' who know your "Mozart Forgeries" and who then see
all
mention of it conspicuously missing from an apparently thorough
news
story.
I have no experience with press relations, but I *do* feel (based
on the
new information which none of us had 24 hours ago) that either
the
reporter or the editor has not reported the story ethically.
Whatever
their motives were, they have left you swinging in the breeze a
bit ---
and I don't see how you can avoid at least some diminution of
reputation
and respect as a result --- even if many people here are
uncomfortable
telling you directly.
I want to repeat again that many, many respected scholars have
engaged
in satire. As Lelia has posted, their satire has more 'bite'
and is
read more carefully _because_ it comes from someone with real
knowledge.
Regardless of their motive, Mercury Press has effectively set you
up for
criticism because they did an "in depth" piece about you that
included a
_glaring_ omission of fact of which apparently they were well
aware.
Intentional or mistaken, it has happened.
One of the good things about the Internet is that it offers you a
view
of other people's opinions which you would not receive otherwise.
I
hope that you can take my and Rien's and Lelia's posts in this
light.
We are telling you what the current situation looks like to those
who
have some information, but not the full story.
Respectfully, and with good will which I hope you perceive,
Bill
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