Every life is worth a book.
This earnest sentiment spoken by Shirley Tanzer represents a common workaday thought for people who do oral history. The value of the life of their subjects seldom escapes them as they sit with their interviewees through continuous sessions of recorded enquiry and reminiscence. They just do it, carrying on with untroubled confidence, showing no need of theoretical justification for asking about significant personal thoughts and experiences. There appears to be no issue. And yet there should be, because just as commonplace are the moments when life of subject becomes an impediment to other, prior purposes, and in fact loses out to what are thought of as overriding objectives.