Talk:Bruce Chatwin

Latest comment: 5 years ago by DePiep in topic Cult-like following
Good articleBruce Chatwin has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
February 26, 2016Good article nomineeListed
February 1, 2017Peer reviewReviewed
On this day...Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on January 18, 2018, and January 18, 2024.
Current status: Good article

Cite errors

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There are numerous citation errors in the article due to the mix of citation styles. I have fixed some but can we please settle on one style and then the remaining errors can be resolved. - Sitush (talk) 19:06, 13 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Melly

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I am a little curious regarding why Diana Melly's autobiographical work does not feature at all. She writes quite extensively about Chatwin and I think it deserves a mention in a Further reading section, if nothing else. - Sitush (talk) 19:08, 13 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

Cult-like following

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  • Quote: According to his biographer Nicholas Shakespeare, Chatwin's work developed a cult-like following in the years immediately after his death. By 1998 a million copies of his books had been sold. However, his reputation diminished following revelations ...

The expressions "cult following", "cult hero" and similar fill me with concern, almost every time I ever see them these days. The Wikipedia definition of "cult following" is "a small but very passionate fanbase"; however, it's usually used in the sense of an overnight sensation, ie. great popularity achieved suddenly (but not necessarily enduring popularity). This certainly seems to be the way it's used in the quote above. A million copies sold hardly suggests a small following, in anyone's language. For one's reputation to diminish from the literal meaning of "cult following" (a small following) would mean that one has sunk into oblivion and obscurity, and that's untrue of Bruce Chatwin. So, can we come up with more appropriate wording here? -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 22:24, 6 February 2019 (UTC)Reply

Agree. "cult" primarily has the notion of "a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object" (1st google search definition), the word "religiuous" is crucial i.e., could be irrational or group behaviour or organised. Even when the word is used by a biographer (raising the RS status?), we still don't know how the biographer meant it or concluded it. Then there is the word "-like", which reduces preciseness aka introducing safety-opt-out by the author. And "followers": how is that concluded? What meaning? (disclosure: I may feel personally attacked by this wording for appreciating Chatwin's work). -DePiep (talk) 10:05, 7 February 2019 (UTC)Reply
Changed [1]. ping JackofOz -DePiep (talk) 20:00, 23 March 2019 (UTC)Reply