02-04-2017, 12:36 AM
Quote:I was at the conference and she is an incredibly knowledgeable and well-spoken scholar. Also very approachable and patient with questions
I must say that she is a fortunate young scholar, too, to be treated so well by the 'Voynich community'.
For example, no-one started a rumour that she should be ignored on the wholly imaginary grounds that she was 'just trying to make a name' for herself.
No-one attempted to start a boycott of her opinions or writing.
The audience paid attention, and recognised that her opinions were informed by some depth of study.
We saw no effort to start a 'snigger' session as a way to prevent her opinions being treated with attention - whether or not one agrees with them.
When she spoke in response to a question, she wasn't set upon by hecklers, one after the other.
Her academic credentials were not publicly sneered at. No-one implied, let alone asserted, that she was a liar.
Much of what has disenchanted the scholarly fraternity has been reactions such as these to information uncongenial to someone's pet theory.
Had this scholar been treated as others have been by the more ambitious, and less well schooled Voynicheros, I daresay after a few years at most she would probably have just tossed up her hands and left the 'community' to its own ways.
So on behalf of all scholars whose personal character, competence and qualifications have been attacked where their work could not be - may I say thanks to the other Voynicheros who were in that audience.
Well done, you.
