When Research Bogs Down
Today I am wrestling with the problem of how much
research is enough. I am writing a book about the history of museums that will survey
3000 years of collecting and display, and I’ve now spent almost six months
researching the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612). I feel like I’m in
some sort of Renaissance wormhole; it is really interesting but how do I get
out of it? When is enough information enough? (At this point, this is a very
rhetorical question—I know I am long past the point of having plenty of
information on this guy. He should take up something like 2-3 pages in my book at
most, and yet I have over 40 pages of notes, and I’m finding that as I pick up
new sources they are repeating things about him that I already know.)
It is hard to shake a process that has worked on
projects that are much more tightly focused than this one. When I wrote about
American trade on the Northwest Coast at the turn of the nineteenth century, it
was necessary to read all the primary sources that I could identify as well as
all of the secondary literature. Capt. Sam Hill’s biography required that I
read every single thing ever written by him or about him, in addition to the
contextual works of historians working on related topics. I have developed certain
habits that have worked well for me in those books: I read the source
materials, mark the passages that I think I might quote directly or that have
essential knowledge for background, then set them up on my bookstand and enter
them into my computer. * (I am attaching a picture of my bookstand and computer
on my table today, where I have dolled up my workspace with flowers and candles
to entice me to stay in one place and work earnestly.)
After thirty years of following this practice, I now
need to shake it up a bit. This week I must put Rudolf back into the ground
where he belongs and move on. (I still have to deal with other royals too,
because they were important collectors, but King Charles I of England has got
to be dealt with much more expeditiously, and what about the Russians?) One of
the important things to do now is back away from the details and see the book
as a whole, and this section as one part of it. It is also crucial to
acknowledge that everything I have learned won’t be in this book; my job as the
author is to decide what you as the reader will find most interesting, and what
will best bring my best grandiose notions forward.
If, when I have finished writing it and you have
finished reading it, you find that you want to know more about Rudolf, I will
recommend additional reading.
*I need to make a note here that this process frequently gives me real
concerns about the potential of accidentally plagiarizing another writer. It is
important that I use different fonts or colored fonts to keep their words separate
from mine in my text files.
