11 July 2010 | Uncategorized | salomd
Paul Collins has been writing interesting non-fiction for years. I first read his Sixpence House, an intriguing account of his attempt to open a bookstore in Wales. Since then, I’ve read several of his other works. Now he tackles Shakespeare, particularly the story of the First Folio. Printed in 1623, six years after Shakespeare’s death, the First Folio purports to collect all of the plays of William Shakespeare. Collins does not attempt a scholarly study here, but instead offers a factual, well-researched, but light-hearted survey of the story of the Folio. Through his journeys, which take him from the Folger Library in Washington, D.C., to Japan, he shows us the obsession that many collectors and scholars have had with this treasure. If you have an interest in Shakespeare or an interest in what we now call (sadly) “old books,” this is a satisfying read.
Paul Collins. The Book of William: How Shakespeare’s First Folio Conquered the World. New York: Bloomsbury, 2009. 246pp. $25.00. 1596911964.
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21 February 2010 | Uncategorized | salomd
These two seem to go together.
The Word of God is Thomas M. Disch’s last publication before he committed suicde on July 4, 2008, at the age of 48. Known to children as the author of The Brave Little Toaster, Disch’s literary output was impressive. In this strange “final” statement, Disch places himself as the main character, Tom Disch, who is disgusted with heresy and religious dogma, and, well, just about everything. He decides to take matters into his own hand. In the process, Disch comes off sounding mildly paranoid and fiercely angry, particularly at Philip K. Dick. The book is an interesting read, but it does often make one uncomfortable, as if he is reading the very-private journals of a once-great mind.
I, Lucifer does not take itself nearly as seriously. Glen Duncan has given voice to Lucifer–now Satan, the fallen angel, is a novel that owes much to John Milton’s Paradise Lost with whichi Duncan is clearly well-acquainted. The premise: Lucifer has been offered one chance for reentry into Heaven. He will have to live out a well-behaved and sometimes boring life in a human body on earth. Can he do it? Oh–the human is a filmmaker! And there is a soundtrack for the novel available online.
Thomas M. Disch. The Word of God, or Holy Writ Rewritten. San Francisco: Tachyon, 2008. 177pp. $14.95.
Glen Duncan. I, Lucifer. New York: Grove, 2002. 262pp. $13.00.
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21 December 2009 | Uncategorized | salomd
This study promises to be a study of “the science and evolution of a human invention.” Hardly. Stanislas Dehaene is, according to the jacket blurb, “one of the world’s most active researchers on the cognitive neuroscience of language and number processing in the human brain.” That sounds great, but the book doesn’t fulfill the promise of the author’s bio. The opening chapters are simplistic. The one section that is insightful regards dyslexia. Dehaene’s discussion of how we read and the biology of the eye and brain might be helpful to some, but I would defer to a much more complicated–and philosophical–work published in the 1950s by Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception. Granted, Dehaene purports to write for a more lay audience (the book is published by Viking, after all), and Merleau-Ponty’s work is a dense philosophical discussion of optics. But Reading in the Brain will probably be helpful only to the most basic reader, though I would probably recommend the book to the parent of a newly-diagnosed child with dyslexia or another reading disability. But I would also point that person to other, better, books on the subject that should be read in addition.
Stanislas Dehaene. Reading in the Brain. New York: Viking, 2009. $27.95. 0670021105.
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