User talk:A. Parrot/sandbox

Decoding

I've started reading this but am puzzled by some obscure notes such as "%p t w l m y s q l i w p 3 d r 3 w t%". I don't mind waiting until these are replaced but maybe it would help to explain or expand on them. Andrew D. (talk) 10:21, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

@Andrew Davidson:: Yes, I'm sorry about those. As I said in my talk-page message, they originated as my notes to myself. To clarify, they represent tables/illustrations that I tentatively plan to include; I haven't done it yet because I still don't know how best to implement them. I've changed the notes to make clearer what they're supposed to represent. In any case, they don't represent any planned additions to the article text, so they shouldn't affect a read-through. A. Parrot (talk) 17:02, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Reading

My initial comment is that it reads extremely well. You needn't worry any more about the Britsh/American issue, I see no problems there, except, OK, that the British past tense of "fit" is "fitted". I have wondered, and wondered again as I read the last paragraphs, whether we all make too much of the rivalry and plagiarism issues ... but I suppose that Champollion and Young set us the example. I wish you success with the tables/diagrams you plan to insert! I'll read again and I may have some additional comments. Andrew Dalby 17:32, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

@Andrew Dalby: Thanks. I'm still not sure how to implement the tables, or whether they'll be tables or just images, but I'll figure something out. As for the rivalries, you have a point, but I think it's an inescapable issue. All the sources address it, and there was a good deal of acrimony at the time—a lot of people really disliked Champollion, often with far less justification than Young or Bankes had. And the disputes carried on through the generations; Robinson quotes some ferocious defenses of Champollion by Hermine Hartleben and Peter le Page Renouf, both writing decades after the fact. In any case, there will be much more to the article than what I've put in this sandbox, so the section on disputes won't seem so prominent. A. Parrot (talk) 00:14, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

I have never deciphered a foreign script :) But I have translated one or two difficult texts, at which several others have also worked, and I know that after puzzling over the thing for months or years I have internalized the problems and possible solutions to the extent that I may no longer recall which insights came into my mind from someone else. I can imagine that this happened to both Young and Champollion, and I can also imagine that Champollion, being on the outer fringes of the scholarly world, was keener to assert his achievement than a professor with tenure needs to be.

This is just random reflection, of course. We go with the sources, and the sources lead us towards a focus on the rivalry/plagiarism issue. Andrew Dalby 09:07, 4 August 2019 (UTC)