From: owner-sheryl-crew-digest@smoe.org (sheryl-crew-digest) To: sheryl-crew-digest@smoe.org Subject: sheryl-crew-digest V5 #207 Reply-To: sheryl-crew@smoe.org Sender: owner-sheryl-crew-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-sheryl-crew-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk sheryl-crew-digest Wednesday, October 23 2002 Volume 05 : Number 207 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [sheryl-crew] Unauthorized Biography ["John D. Wilkinson, III" Subject: Re: [sheryl-crew] Unauthorized Biography I've read nearly all of the book, and I'm kind of ambivalent about it. It does have a lot of interesting information, and the author did a lot of homework. On the other hand, he was not able to interview Sheryl, her management, or her family. I felt a strong lack of that in the book. Buskin talks about the "Rashomon" phenomenon (from the Akira Kurosawa movie, basically, that every witness to an event will tell a different story; it is explained in the foreword to the book), but really does not deal well with the consequences. He strikes me as average, as far as biographers go, but he was working under a big handicap (not being able to interview Sheryl). He paints a fair picture, but it's necessarily incomplete. I would buy the book again, just for the information, the story that he has pieced together, and the photographs. But it is not what it could have been, and not what I hoped that it would be. It tells Sheryl's story, but it does not really capture Sheryl the person. John ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 19:37:02 EDT From: XMystery79@aol.com Subject: Re: [sheryl-crew] Unauthorized Biography In a message dated 10/22/2002 7:33:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, johnd3@compuserve.com writes: > management, or her family. I felt a strong lack of that in the book. > Buskin talks about the "Rashomon" phenomenon (from the Akira Kurosawa > movie, > basically, that every witness to an event will tell a different story; it > is > explained in the foreword to the book), but really does not deal well with > the consequences. He strikes me as average, as far as biographers go, but > he was working under a big handicap (not being able to interview Sheryl). > He paints a fair picture, but it's necessarily incomplete. > > I would buy the book again, just for the information, the story that he > has pieced together, and the photographs. But it is not what it could have > been, and not what I hoped that it would be. It tells Sheryl's story, but > it does not really capture Sheryl the person. > > John > Thanks for sharing your opinion. Do you think that an official biography from Sheryl would be as "fair" as Buskin's book was? Perhaps there are certain advantages to biographies as opposed to books where the artist is in total control of what is written. In some ways Sheryl seems to be very in control-that's just who she is as a person. Maybe if she was invovled the book would have taken a different tact...for example maybe she would have said the TNMC incident was off limits...who knows. I do think that hearing from Sheryl's side would have made this a definite must read...but he was working with what he had and from what I understand did a pretty good job at it. ------------------------------ End of sheryl-crew-digest V5 #207 *********************************