This appeared in my Odysee feed today, and of course I had to watch it immediately. WordPress is once again blocking Odysee links, so please enter without the blank in the browser:
https://odysee. com/@scoobyburn:1/David-Irving—Speaking-Frankly:a
I respect David Irving’s work enormously, and what was done to him is quite simply a crime. But what immediately appealed to me in this… it’s not an interview, it’s more of a monologue or a spoken autobiography… were his comments on the realisation that he was dealing with real people and events. This may seem strange to the average reader, but it’s a phenomenon that probably all authors of historical events encounter. For example, I know exactly what Irving is talking about! It’s that hard-to-describe moment when the research becomes real – when you realise in a very tangible way that the people you’re researching and writing about had lived and were people of flesh and blood. As I said, it’s hard to describe; you have to experience it to really understand it. The difference between scholarship and knowledge, as Abd-ru-shin would say: Knowledge is only that which one has experienced and made one’s own.
A good reminder, especially now that I’ve started doing research again. And I’m so happy about it!
Probably boosted by that feeling of upcoming Spring, I finally pulled myself out of the slump I have been in for what feels like ages and spontaneously started a new biographical research. I have read really good stuff over the past months – research by Margot Metroland, Edward Dutton’s fantastic biography of Churchhill’s headmaster (fantastic because of the exemplary research by the author – that is what I’m always talking about!), Ikuo Suzuki’s book on Anne Frank’s Diary. And despite enjoying all of it immensely, I almost felt depressed for not being out there and doing research myself. So here we go.
I don’t know yet where the threads I’ve picked up will lead me. Perhaps there will be something to write about; perhaps there won’t. The uncertainty is part of the fun.
Clarissa Schnabel 