The Case for Books: Past, Present & Future by Robert Darnton
Donald McKenzie devoted his life to studying the manuscript culture. There is more to writing than the text itself. We know that today, plagerism and unreliable sources linger throughout the internet. But what I found surprising was that these problems are not just new-age problems.
What i found ironic is McKenzie's ability to find errors accuracy problems in past printings. I thought that the history in which we knew was permanent, whether it was right or wrong. I never thought it was possible to investigate history. "The search for reliable texts of his plays drove the whole discpline (Darnton 137). What we thought we knew about Shakespeare proved to be wrong. Missing copies? Two different versions of King Lear? Hamlet has subtracted scenes in another version?
Through bibliographies, we are able to establish some sort of credibility, however these same bibliographies are drawing more than that. There are discoveries of mystery texts and new additions to old versions.
Now there is more added to the problem. Because of these unpublished additions and mystery texts, plagerism is bound to hop in at some point. There has to be another taking credit for others' work. Because bibliographies do not have the power to omit wrong information, discovering plagerism has to become a deeper and even longer process.
It seems that inaccurrate information and plagerism was easier back in the day even with the lack of resources. With today's technology, there is software available to detect plagerism and inaccuracies. It's a bit contradictory.
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