A woman in the shape of a monster
By the Numbers: An Analysis of the Reviews Deleted in the Goodreads Policy Change.
Reblogged from Great Imaginations:
Ceridwen analyzes data from 12 of the 21 reviewers who had content deleted in the Goodreads policy change.
1
It's not quite as journalistic as I expected, the stories often have some editorialized comments regarding morality. But once I got over that, I found it pretty enjoyable. A bit of probably unintended hilarity with the juxtaposition of cheerfully bucolic 1960s Manila with the grisly crimes told hire. Knifings at ice-cream parlors and hooligans fighting over bowling competitions. You couldn't make this stuff up.
I liked it a lot! The first half is definitely the best part--I wanted to read about the wizard school forever.
The middle lagged a bit for me but every scene with Peter and Harriet in it is PERFECT. I cried. ;;;;
I quite liked this, though I wonder if the metaphorical aspects of the match do not translate well to the reader who is not versed in the fundamentals of Go at least. The issue of ko moves made during a sealed play, for example, plays a crucial role in the climax. It's also very interesting to note how Go theory has changed over the years, and how moves that were radical then are pretty much standard now. A scene where the narrator puts forward the notion that Go is essentially Japanese and that other cultures may not be able to grasp its true nature is the only thing that bothered me. Overall I found it enjoyable, immensely subtle, and moving.
The writing is very compelling and the entire book is a study on great 1st person POV but I don't quite now what to make of this story and its philosophy, to be honest. Maybe I need to read more westerns to be able to get the nuances.
The Rule of Four
I know that one of the reasons I responded positively to this was because it reminded me of reading Umberto Eco in college. This book suffers from the fact that it was marketed as an intellectual thriller when it simply should've been targeted towards those afflicted with college nostalgia. This has more in common with Gilmore Girls than The Da Vinci Code, WHICH IS WHY I LIKE IT. The beginning has whiffs of bestseller boilerplate but it has acute things to say about the futility and nobility of scholarship.
Soooo good. I love these kinds of microhistories and this is a wonderful portrait of Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, two of New York's preeminent of New York's preeminent forensic scientists and the pioneers of modern Toxicology. READ THIS AND FIND OUT HOW MUCH OF YOUR FAVORITE CRIME PROCEDURALS OWE FROM THEM.
