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Pancake grew up in the hollows of West Virginia and each of the carefully wrought stories in this collection deals with the seemingly desperate lives of the working poor in that part of the country. They are remarkably crafted stories, written with a deep sense for the locale and the people from which they are drawn. They are also models of precision, the kind of stories that deserve to be read over and over, studied for the way in which they use foregrounding and the mundane details of everyday life--albeit everyday life that quietly screams with the desperation of poverty, deadening work, drinking, promiscuity, and brutality-to draw complex portraits of people who endure, even when endurance is no more than a substitute for hope. As he writes in "A Room Forever," the story of a tugboat mate spending New Year's Eve in an eight-dollar-a-night hotel room where he drinks cheap whiskey out of the bottle and eventually ends up with a teen-aged prostitute: "I stop in front of a bus station, look in on the waiting people, and think about all the places they are going. But I know they can't run away from it or drink their way out of it or die to get rid of it. It's always there."
The best of these stories are "Trilobites," "The Honored Dead," "Fox Hunters," and "In the Dry." But there really isn't a weak story in the bunch. Every story is captivating, every one an exemplar of what good short story writing should be. At the end, the only thing that disappoints, that leaves the reader discomforted, is the thought that Pancake died so young, that these are the only stories we have by a truly remarkable writer.
Having grown up in West Virginia, there were parts of these stories that spoke to me from a sort of "native" perspective. But more to it was the emotion that was the core, the skin and the stitching of each of these stories.
It's a good book to own. To read from when you feel like being taken to another place for a while. And to carry a piece of that place with you once you put the book down.
basically what happens is two boys go to a used and weird book store spend some cash and get a mind nd state enchancing book. then they finally get to sate 26 then they go back to the book shop. the book shop owner mr kulklash tells them that they can go into state 26. then they get a book that mentions in waka waka lore that they will save them. they have a few more things happen and then they save the waka wakaians and allen mealstorm gos back to mars and invites the narrater to stay with him for the summer
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Yet I found myself liking this book very much . . . and revisiting if often . . . in addition, I liked the accompanying black-and-white photos . . . they were all of the variety that cried out to me, "SLOW DOWN!" . . . for example, one that I'm looking at now while I type shows a guy lying on the ground with a newspaper on his face . . . the lesson, or "thought" if you will, is that we should, "Learn to take a five-minute vacation."
You'll be inspired as you read this book . . . also, if you're looking for a great gift idea at [price] to give to somebody else (including your kids), this is it!
There were many memorable thoughts . . .
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This book has tons of great information and creative ideas (Melt chocolate on your coffee burner! Use a condiment shaker filled with flour to lightly flour work surfaces! Wedge a wine cork below the handle of a lid so you can have something to grab onto without burning your hand!) Very useful and practical information.
The book is divided into 3 parts:
The first part is an ultra compact summary of the computer graphics needed to understand the rest of the book. This part is virtually impossible to understand for people new to graphics - so I recommend reading Foley, et al: Computer Graphics - Principles and Practice first.
The second part covers rendering and is an introduction to shadows, mapping, ray tracing and radiosity.
The third part covers animation techniques such as bones and blending.
The book tries to cover as many things as possible and the consequence is, at times, that it does not use enough space on some things to make them comprehendable. I guess, this is probably only intended as a survey of alternative techniques and references to the original articles are given for interested readers.
Finally, the book contains a fair number of errors (one every couple of pages) many of which is in vital equations. There has been no corrections done to the book since its original release in 1992 and the official errata isn't good either.
For the sake of other readers I have therefore compiled an unofficial errata list for the book and I recommend that all readers take a look at it. Find it by searching for "watt errata" on Google.
Here are a couple of editorial observations:
Shooting from the Hip
The book is sprinkled with loose analogies that weaken the author's credibility. For example, on page 141 AtKisson says people are in a "lemming-like stampede over the cliffs of history." This is a weak analogy because lemmings don't jump off cliffs. What's more, AtKisson missed an opportunity to dig into the possibility that population crashes are a part of nature. According to the Canadian Science Journal, Lemmings don't jump off cliffs and their population increases up to 500 times then crashes to almost nothing as part of a natural cycle. Dr. Charley Krebs figured this out and came up with something called the Krebs Effect or Fence Effect.
Economic Translation
AtKisson doesn't talk much about debt. The US consumer is more in debt than at any time since WWII. Most of the bad, unsustainable consumerism that he talks about is made possible by car loans, home equity loans, cheap mortgages and credit cards. Raising interest rates is very simple way to kill wasteful consumer spending, conserve natural resources -- and keep the world in an economic depression. The Fed could do it tomorrow.
Getting to the Point
AtKisson writes at length about the sustainable lifestyle, but waits until page 173 (Seven Principles of Sustainability) to describe what the lifestyle is.
Unnecessary Paraphrasing
Karl-Henrik Robert's 23rd draft of System Conditions was good enough to send to every household and school in Sweden but for some reason, AtKisson rephrased it for his readers. Surprisingly, when I looked up the actual wording in the footnotes, it turns out to be precise, agreeable and actionable.
Irony and Sarcasm
I don't know why AtKisson closes with a quote from Henry Ford.
I believe in AtKisson's central message. If the book were more tightly written I'd give it more stars.