On the Road with Joseph Smith

[pelagius]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Combination of the two perhaps.

You could probably make it through "On the Road ..."; its only 130 pages and noone dies at the end [spoiler alert].

[tooblue]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I am saying that perhaps the reason RSR is lukewarmly received is because it leaves JS as much an enigma as before the book was written.

It seems that this is not the definitive biography. Maybe one will never be written.

Do we really believe there is such a thing as a definative biography? Maybe one can't be written except by the man himself.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Originally Posted by tooblue

Do we really believe there is such a thing as a definative biography? Maybe one can't be written except by the man himself.

Autobiographies are not inherently more accurate than biographies.

[ilmf]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Combination of the two perhaps.

I could spend a bunch of time using the search feature, but why wouldn't you want to read about the Prophet's death? (I'm missing an inside joke, I'm sure).

[tooblue]

Originally Posted by Sleeping in EQ

Autobiographies are not inherently more accurate than biographies.

Nor are they inherently less accurate. The real question is what is one looking for from a biography? The truth? Hope ... peace of mind ... rationalization?

Humans are storytellers. All of us, whether telling the story of someone else or our own story, embellish, omit and obscure in favor of the dramatic. We can no more suppress such aspects of our nature than we can live without air.