TWOI on Wiki

[John Jones <100h@rewrite.aisboard.org>]

From Anner Whitehead:

"Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm concerned about this idea of putting chapters from The World of Irises up on the wiki. 

I think the question which badly needs to be raised is this: What parts are we talking about here? 

My conviction is that the quality of information that the AIS publishes or republishes in any medium or arena is every bit as important --and arguably more so-- as the quantity of information sent forth; moreover, the presumption that accretions of error or unsoundness or confusion will in time be canceled through the organic growth of the encyclopedia in many hands --as I have best understood the argument to be-- strikes me as unsupported by subsequent developments.

Now, I ask: "What is there in TWOI which still represents our best understanding of the subject, which best represents the current policies of the Society, which is iterated in the best possible way?" 

I'm not sure there is a lot of this sort of thing in the book. 

People are quite obviously not finding TWOI so essential to their joie de Iris vivre that they will actually buy the thing, at any price, and this lack of enthusiasm has been apparent for longer than the effect of social media and related has been operational in demand.

I've never given anyone a copy of the thing, because I found it a tedious, limited, and offputting resource. It has no heart. 

Now, anent  a couple of particulars: First,obviously we should not publish outdated science or outdated material about chemicals or whatever, I mean, that would be irresponsible unless we were promoting the notion of TWOI as an historic document integral to the history of horticultural science, which would be farcical. Whether the chapters on the begats or chromosome science and such are still valid and of compelling interest is a question I must leave to those more learned on the subjects.

But as a self-taught student of the biology of Iris, one who joined the AIS so I could join SIGNA, I can remember to this day how confusing and bizarre  and uninspiring I found the first chapters of the book, the systematics. And it was not because I was stupid or bone ignorant. I'd read Mathew's book, and Kohlein, and was full of enthusiasm, and yet there was something amazingly opaque aboutTWOI, and the presentation therein of the AIS Classification system. It just did not persuade me, especially the idea of classifying Iris species according to horticultural size categories-- among other things. I do understand that the system reflects an enormous amount of work and negotiation and compromise on the part of those who developed the horticultural categories, derived the abstract definitions of proportion and so forth which embody what we consider ideal, and I honor that, you betcha, but we can do so much better in explaining all this to non-scientists than did TWOI. 

And as an historian of the history of the Society, and of the genus Iris, I am obliged to opine that John Wister's essay--which was actually reprinted from Garden Irises--can no longer to be considered adequate. It was always simplistic, and it contains a lot of what we might call the romantic myth of the birth of Iris interest in the USA. I have, of course, published on this subject, reflecting research which was in part motivated by my own frustration with Wister's insular, and not entirely reliable, account. 

We have learned a lot of things in the years since TWOI was published. I'd like to think we have a better idea of the complexity of the history of Iris, and of the Society. I remember when I was working on my piece on the Rev. Harrison, whom Wister mentions only in passing. As his amazing story revealed itself to me, and I sat at this desk, working to tell it, I felt as if a window had suddenly been thrown open in the room, and a warm breeze was blowing in, bringing with it the smell of flowers and farms, of city gardens, of human life, and sweat-- of a wider world of irises. I like to believe that the AIS is and always will be a vital part of this richer world.

I see I am becoming impassioned. Eh! I love books, you know this, but do please hear me: Give them only the good stuff, always and forever.


Cordially,

Anner M. Whitehead"









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