Postby Gubbet » Fri Jun 18, 2021 3:33 am
Xplaya is always undone but how unpleasant he is. I don't know why he is so unpleasant or extremely cold and robotic, but I will give him 2 things; he is independent minded and he is rarely personal beyond the surface (probably a weird positive effect of his coldness).
He doesn't know it, but I have read all his print work including his booklet on Cabdi Ciise Sultan Guuleed story.
It helped me understand internal Isaaq perspective.
Beyond the ethnographic benefits understanding Isaaq cultural lore, I found Xplaya to be aa scribe not a historian.
He narrates, he is not a researcher. Basically he is an archivist, he isn't doing scholarly or intellectual analysis.
I don't know what it is it about the Snet Isaaq, but Gurey is the only guy that I have legitimately identified as somebody who has that nerdy, scholarly, rigor.
I don't believe anyone is "born" with it, you gain through nurture and schooling and environmen, but there are people that are naturally intellectually curious, nerdy almost unbearably inquisitive that need to know WHY not just "WHAT."
Gurey is like that. Not Xplaya and others. They just copy, relate, rinse and repeat.
Khalid, look at when I touch something; even if I tried to force myself, I can't for the life of me just say WHAT it is and go. Impossible. 99% of what I present is not even anymore about WHAT the thing is but evrrything else that it helps explain.
I came across one of his booklets on archives, it was about his disagreement with Idaajaa and he was word by word paraphrasing two British books.
Everything was great at face value, he was documenting correctly, he was doing his ethnography about the oral history and the poems.
It was great.
Except the two British books weren't authoritative and wallahi, they were indivodual random travelors, and I had already had those same two books included as part of a critical analysis on a related issue and knowing the context, relevance, and scope (essentially more than "face value" understanding), I found his very use of them as corroboration on that issue cancelling.
I wonder of this criticism can even reach him so he is at least aware of my review whether he agrees with it or not.