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Book reviews for "Peristiany,_John_George" sorted by average review score:

The Brave: A Story of New York City's Firefighters
Published in Hardcover by Brick Tower Pr (2002)
Authors: George Pickett, Hugh Downs, and John T. Colby Jr.
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Career Experiences of a New York City Fireman
I read the book "The Brave" by George Pickett. It's about the personal life of a New York City fireman and the firefighter duties he performed throughout his career. The book is full of action, joy, sorrow, and personal accomplishments. It was an excellent book to read and hard to put down once I started reading it.

5 STAR READ!
A page turning account of life as a New York City firefighter. A little slow at the start, but captivating and exciting by the second chapter. George Pickett does a great job of taking you along on the big red trucks, down the burning halls and into the mindset of the men, who New Yorkers call The Brave. Not only a great story but an important history lesson for anyone who wants a better tomorrow for us all. A Great read! 5 Stars!!! Thanks George!!

A Reader's review
This book will leave you breathless from beginning to end. The very real story of a very real and very heroic firefighter who rose in the ranks of the NYFD prior to 9/11 on the lower east side of New York. Many members of this ladder and engine company lost their lives fighting in the great 9/11 tragedy; the book tells us where they lived, loved and came from during the early years. Pickett is a highly respected fire official, who rose in the ranks and is eloquent in describing his experiences.
A not-to-miss book. This is not a child's book, but tells it as it was. When your heart is not pumping as you read, it may be breaking--a very human true tale.


Writings of Leon Trotsky: (1933-34)
Published in Paperback by Pathfinder Press (1975)
Authors: Leon Trotsky, John G. Wright, and George Breitman
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Economic depression, war and working-class leadership
This is one of a 14-volume series of writings by Leon Trotsky, who along with V.I. Lenin was a central leader of the 1917 Russian Revolution. These volumes cover the years 1929-1940, when Trotsky led the political fight world-wide to maintain the continuity of Bolshevik's revolutionary perspective and leadership against the reactionary policies imposed by the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union. Reading Trotsky carefully, one can learn a lot about history and about today's world, as well as how to apply Marxist methods to orient oneself for working-class political action.

This volume includes more than 100 articles and letters. They cover topics ranging from the economic depression and the rising inter-imperialist tensions leading to World War II, to the Stalinist frame-up trials in the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and detailed leadership questions posed in workers movements in different countries at the time. These volumes are lively, pointed and have extensive notes and chronologies to aid the reader today.

I'd also recommend some other titles written by Trotsky at this time, including The History of the Russian Revolution, The Fight Against Fascism in Germany, Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay, and The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution, all available from the same publisher, Pathfinder Press.

Crucial Lessons for Fighting Fascism
This volume contains lessons crucial for those committed to the goal of emancipating working people and oppressed nations.

The workers movement of that time was misled by parties - social democratic and fake communist -- which preferred imperialist "democracy" over workers revolution. This allowed fascism to triumph and, together with "democratic" imperialism, brought us the second world war which slaughtered tens of millions and included the U.S. - supposedly the most "democratic" imperialists - initiating the threat of human extinction with the nuclear bombing of Japan.

Trotsky explains how Lenin's program could have resulted in workers victories over capitalism all over Europe, as well as the overthrow of the murderous Stalin regime and the regeneration of the Soviet Union on a course of world revolution and workers democracy.

Studying Trotsky's writings today is timely as imperialism is again on the march toward fascism and war.

Everything from Frida Kahlo to fighting fascism
You can see why Trotsky was reknown as a fiery public speaker -- he writes with passion, intelligence and friendly, human humour. These pieces written while living in Mexico, staying with Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Correspondence with and about them included here, too. Articles on the eve of World War II, with fascism triumphant in Germany and Italy especially thought-provoking in light of recent developments in France with LePen's electoral showing. He scathingly makes the point in polemic with "our Palestinian friends" (gives you a feel for the international scope of the debate that was raging) that it is meaningless to talk about the fascist danger without addressing the danger of ordinary democratic imperialism. How else, he points out, to join the Indian masses in their quest for independence from the Mother of parliamentary democracy? Unexpectedly fun to browse through and think about.


Writings of Leon Trotsky, 1933-34
Published in Hardcover by Pathfinder Press (1975)
Authors: Leon Trotsky, John G. Wright, and George Breitman
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Lessons for Fighting Fascism
This volume chronicles invaluable lessons of the world working-class movement during two critical years. The year 1933 saw the worst defeat for the working class ever in Germany. Hitler came to power because the Communist Party, obeying Stalin's orders, and the Socialist Party refused to band together, although they led the majority of working people.

Trotsky, whose collaborators were grouped in the International Left Opposition, declared an end to any effort to reform the world-wide Communist Parties. Instead, he called for a new world party to fight for socialist revolution in the capitalist countries and political revolution within the Soviet Union.

Lessons in the fight against capitalism, fascism, depression
The years 1933-34 saw the victory of fascism in Germany without a shot fired, and armed workers' resistance to fascism and semi-fascist governments in Austria and Spain. The Stalinized Communist International was communist no more; it showed itself to be a counterrevolutionary instrument of the Stalin bureaucracy's doubling-dealing with world imperialism at the workers' expense, moving our best fighting elements around and sacrificing them like chess pieces. In this book, the co-leader with V.I. Lenin of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, analyzes these events with one end in mind: to figure out WHAT TO DO about them, how to build revolutionary parties to lead the workers and farmers to power; to defeat fascism and "democratic" imperialism by socialist revolution and workers' power, and thereby prevent the holocaust that was World War II. If this sounds like stuff fighters for fundamental social change need today as the Yankee Empire and its European rivals-"allies" march us working people into a new Great Depression, and towards fascism and World War II, then do yourself a favor and buy this book and study it as a guide to action today.

lessons from the last Depression for the new one
The years 1933-34 saw the victory of fascism in Germany without a shot fired, and armed resistance to fascism and semi-fascist governemnts in Austria and Spain. The Stalinized Communist International was communist no more; it showed itself to be a counterrevolutionary instrument of the Stalin bureaucracy's doubling-dealing with world imperialism at the workers' expense, moving our best fighting elements around and sacrificing them like chess pieces. In this book, the co-leader with V.I. Lenin of the Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky, analyzes these events with one end in mind: to figure out WHAT TO DO about them, how to build revolutionary parties to lead the workers and farmers to power; to defeat fascism and "democratic" imperialism by socialist revolution and workers' power, and thereby prevent the holocaust that was World War II. If this sounds like stuff fighters need today as the Yankee Empire and its European rivals-"allies" march us working people into a new Great Depression, and towards fascism and World War III, then do yourself a favor and buy this book and study it as a guide to action today.


Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I.
Published in Paperback by Discovery Institute (2002)
Authors: Jay W. Richards, George F. Gilder, Ray Kurzweil, Thomas Ray, John Searle, William Dembski, and Michael Denton
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I love a good skirmish
I enjoy reading Kurzweil because he's an adventurous thinker. This book is particularly fun because some other fine minds take him to task. Ray holds up well because he's a reasonable thinker. Although some of his predicitions seem outlandish, they may not be. You can't read this book without engaging in a lot of interesting visualization about the future. Some of it is frightening, but there is hope as well. Will the future runaway on it's own or will we be in charge? I don't know, but I'm sure thinking about it, now.

Strong A.I. Versus Pessimism
This is Ray Kurzweil's third book concerning the future of reductionist artificial intelligence design and it's possible effects on us in the decades yet to come. In THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES, Kurzweil's previous book, which I enjoyed also, and this volume, he uses technological trends, including Moore's law and other tools, to show that a desktop computer will have achieved human level computational ability around the year 2020. Also, Kurzweil envisions that we will be able, sometime in the next few decades, to scan human brains and download that 'software' into these advanced computers to give them human level reasoning abilities, with the speed of computer neural nets, leaving humans behind, so to speak. Accordingly, it may also be possible to scan individual brains and load that information into an advanced computer (attached to a body of some kind), giving that person a sort of immortality. This is the gist of Kurzweil's argument, I hope I got it essentially correct.

What Kuzweil means by computers someday becoming 'spiritual' is that they may become conscious, and 'strong A.I.' is the view that "any computational process sufficiently capable of altering or organizing itself can produce consciousness." The first part of this book is an introduction to all of the above views by Kurzweil, followed by criticisms by four authors, followed in turn by Kurzweil as he refutes these criticisms.

Personally, I found most of the views expounded by the critics here to be either non-sensical, or 'beside the point'. One critic says that the life support functions of the brain cannot be separated from it's information processing function. Of course it can be, even the effects of hormones can be programmed into a downloaded brain, as well as other chemicals used by brains. Another critic states that possibly evolution is in error, and yet another criticism is that our machines will not be able to contact a divine entity and would thus be inferior.... give me a break, well...perhaps this is all true and maybe pigs will one day fly over the moon unassisted. I could go on and on, but this is the job of Ray Kurzweil and he defends himself admirably in the final chapters of this volume. Kurzweil does mention in this book that brain scanning machines are improving their resolution with each new generation, and eventually will reach a point where they should be able to image individual neurons and synapses in large areas, and allow the brain 'software' to be transferred to a suitable non-biological computing medium, my only criticism of Kurzweil here is that I think he should discuss this technology more, and where it is headed, his next book would be a great place for this.

One final point, it seems to me that when a new idea appears to be difficult and complicated to achieve, the pessimist says: "This is difficult and complicated, and may not work", whereas the optimist says: "This is difficult and complicated, but may work". Only time will tell for sure.

Excellent introduction to an ongoing debate
The work, inventions, and opinions of Ray Kurzweil in the field of artificial intelligence have captured media attention and the attention of philosophers and researchers in artificial intelligence. But not only is Kurzweil one of the most brilliant and controversial of all the individuals working in artificial intelligence, he is also the most optimistic. This optimism holds not only for the future technology of artificial intelligence, predicted by Kurzweil to give independent thinking machines in the next three decades, but also for its social impact. Kurzweil believes that artificial intelligence will work for the benefit of humankind, but that this benefit will depend to a great degree on his belief that humans will take on technology that will effectively make them cybernetic.

The controversy behind Kurzweil stems from his recent book "The Age of Spirtual Machines", which is a detailed accounting of his predictions and beliefs regarding artificial intelligence. Many individuals objected to his visions and predictions, and he answers a few of them in this book. In particular, he attempts to counter the arguments against him by the philosopher John Searle, the molecular biologist Michael Denton, the philosopher William A. Dembski, and zoologist Thomas Ray. With only a few minor exceptions, Kurzweil is successful in his refutation of their assertions.

But even if Kurzweil completely refutes the arguments of these individuals, and possibly many more against him, the countering of arguments will not by itself solve the problems in artificial intelligence research. The fact remains that much work still needs to be done before we are priveleged to see the rise of intelligent machines. Kurzweil is well-aware of this, for he acknowledges this many times in this book. He points to reverse engineering of the human brain as one of the most promising strategies to bring in the robotic presence. The success or failure of this strategy will take the mind-body problem out of purely academic circles and bring it to the forefront of practical research in artificial intelligence. The 21st century will thus see the rise of the "industrial philosopher", who works in the laboratory beside the programmers, cognitive scientists, robot engineers, and neurologists.

Each reader of this book will of course have their own opinions on Kurzweil's degree of success in countering the arguments of Searle, Denton, Dembski, and Ray. But one thing is very clear: Kurzweil is no arm-chair philosopher engaging in purely academic debates on the mind-body problem. He is right in the thick of the research and development of artificial intelligence, and if the future turns out as he predicts, he will certainly be one of the individuals contributing to it. He and many others currently working in artificial intelligence are responsible for major advances in this field in just the last few years. Their ingenuity and discipline is admirable in a field that has experienced a roller coaster ride of confidence and disappointment in the preceding decades. All of these individuals have proved themselves to be superb thinking machines.


North and South (North and South Trilogy, Vol 1)
Published in Audio Cassette by Random House (Audio) (1987)
Authors: John Jakes and George Grizzard
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The Greatest Series on the civil war
North and South is an excellent book that grabs the reader from the opening page and sends him/her into the 19th century america. When I read the book I can feel the pain of the characters. I can better understand history while being entertained. John Jakes is by far the best historical author I have read.

Fantastic Historical Read
I just finished North and South and can't wait to move on to Love and War. When I first picked up the book, I didnt realize the book was almost entirely taking place in the years that led up to the outbreak of war. I absolutely loved the prologue, the story of Orry and George at West Point, life in the south at Mont Royal, and Charles and Billy becoming so similar to their brothers. This book was great in that not only did you learn about what the times were like but you also get a fantastic fictional story out of it. The characters and storylines are so strong you can almost feel what it was like to live in both the north and the south and you can commiserate with the characters. I liked the way Jakes writes: it flows and is an easy read. This was the first book I read by Jakes and I look forward to finishing the North and South series and also beginning the Kent Family series. I recommend this one highly.

Cannot be put down!
North and South may be over 700 pages in lenght, but it is a book that simply cannot be put down. The way that the characters flow in and out of major events before the civil war is a true work of art. The characters themselves seem so real that you fall in love with each of them as you follow the individual trails of their lives. I was sad to see the book come to an end, but with parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy remaining to be read, I didn't have time to feel much sadness! The TV series "North and South" is based fairly close to the book. The only exception is Orry's injury in the movie is his leg, whereas in the book, well...I guess you'll have to read it for yourselves!


Vulpes the Red Fox
Published in Paperback by Puffin (1996)
Authors: Jean Craighead George and John George
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A fine nature read from two master storytellers
This was Jean Craighead George's first book and is, as are the majority of her eighty or so others, a masterpiece of nature writing. Originally published in 1948, the book has, thankfully, been reprinted so that it may be enjoyed by young readers once again. Ms. George also wrote DIPPER OF COPPER CREEK, also reprinted, and several other out-of-print but nonetheless wonderful nature stories, with her ex-husband John George, before going on to write such classics as MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN and the JULIE OF THE WOLVES books. The story concerns a young red fox in the woods of Maryland named Vulpes (all of the Georges' characters were named after their Latin scientific identifications) and his abilities outwit and outrun the hunters who are after him. Gorgeous wash illustrations by Ms. George herself and a spellbinding climax at the end make this a wonderful addition to any nature lore- or children's- book collection.

Jean Craighead George is brilliant!
If you love nature get all of the books Mrs.George has written. I love this book as well as all the others. Her writting relates to me, I love animals and beleive we need to express their beauty. She is my favorite author and I hope to get all of her books and read them and enjoy every moment. Her writting puts beautiful pictures in my mind. I hope to share them with others and have them enjoy these masterpeices. Vulpes is rather sad but it is still a lovely novel. She shows the hardships and better sides of being a fox. After you read this book it will enlighten you. Even if animals arent your favorite things it will show you how beautiful nature really is. If you absolutely love nature like I do you will enjoy this book just as much. Its not any ordinary book its an open feild of pleasure just like all the others she has written. Get it now and I hope you treasure it like I did and still do.

Great Novel
If you love foxes, this is the book for you. This excellent novel is about a young fox who grows up in the wild. The details are great and the story is well written. As a fox lover my self, I couldn't put this book down. This novel is great for young teenagers who want to know more about what it is like for a red fox to grow up in the wild. The great detail makes you think you are there in the story with the fox. I would read it over and over!


The Pilgrim's Progress
Published in Paperback by Hungry Minds, Inc (1968)
Authors: John Bunyan and George F. Willison
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The Christian Walk
In this classic work, John Bunyan paints a detailed picture of the Christian life/walk, giving true-to-life insights and experiences. The despair, sorrows, trials and temptations that a believer may face are depicted in an allegorical manner, as well as the hope, joy, and salvation found in Jesus Christ. The main character Christian (once named Graceless) sets out on a lifelong journey from the City of Destruction, where his family disowned him, and encounters many persons and difficulties along the way to the Celestial City (heaven). The characters he meets are given names that reflect their mindset or what temptation they bring. At times he stumbles and at times he perseveres, but all by the grace of God. The second portion of the book tells of the conversion and subsequent sojourn of the wife (Christiana) and children of Christian. The discussions of Christian in the first part and Christiana and her companions in the second part are very interesting, as they defend their faith and explain their purpose to those they meet along the way. The book is quite different from your ordinary novel, and has many interesting words of wisdom for the Christian life. Readers should be aware that some of the language is antiquated and has unfamiliar usages, so its a little bit of an adjustment to read.

Well worth the effort
"The Pilgrim's Progress" is a classic Christian text written by John Bunyan. Written in an allegorical format, the two-part story focuses first on "Christian", then on his wife "Christiana" and sons. Convicted of their own sinfulness, the characters set out on the journey to salvation at the Heavenly Gate. Characters such as "Honesty", "Great-Heart", and "Faithful" aid the pilgrims on their journey, whereas they face trials from the Slough of Despond, Vanity Fair, and the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Getting through the book takes some work, less because of the story and more because of the depth of the allegory. Also, the dialogues between characters regarding salvation and righteousness often require a careful read. However, the story is exceptionally creative and thought-provoking, and the lessons that can be gleaned from it are timeless and worth the effort that needs to be expended. I recommend reading this one at least twice.

THE REAL AND MORAL WORLDS EVERTED
A letter to Marvin Minsky about this book:

I urge you tolook at a remarkable book by the English Puritain John Bunyan(1628-1688), "The Pilgrim's Progress", which is one of the great evangelical Christian classics, though clearly that is not why it interests me and should interest you (although I AM interested in the puzzle that is the religious sense, which even the irreligious feel, and this book can give remarkable insight into that as well).

Rather its fascination lies in the pilgrimage it depicts, or in the fact that human traits, vices, virtues, &c are PERSONIFIED as particular individuals who are their living and speaking epitome, and who are encountered along the way in revealing situations.

Bunyan's hero is appropriately named Christian. Someone once wrote that "Christian's journey is timeless as he travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, meeting such characters as Pliable, Talkative, Giant Despair, Evangelist, Worldly-Wiseman, Faithful, Ignorance and Hopeful."

At first this personification is merely amusing, even a bit annoying (as caricatures or truly stereotypical people can be); but after a while I found myself enthralled because I realized that the effect of this odd literary device was to give unmatched insight into the nature of such traits. The force of the whole thing comes from the fact that one journeys about in - literally INSIDE of - what is both a comprehensive and finite moral and psychological landscape (a "psycho-topography"), very much as though one were INSIDE the human mind and your "Society of the Mind" was embodied in the set of actors. This is more or less the opposite or an inversion of the 'real world' of real people, who merely SHARE those attributes or of whom the attributes are merely PIECES; in "Pilgrim's Progress", by contrast, the attributes are confined in their occurrence to the actors who are their entire, unique, pure, and active embodiment, and humanness, to be recognized at all, has to be rederived or mentally reconstructed from the essential types.

The effect, for me, was something like experiencing a multidimensional scaling map that depicts the space of the set of human personality types, by being injected directly - mentally and bodily - into it by means of virtual reality technology.

So Bunyan's book has something of the interest to a psychologist, neuroscientist, or philosopher that Edwin Abbot's "Flatland" has to a mathematician.

I don't mean to overpraise "Pilgrim's Progress", of course; it was written for theological rather than scientific purposes, and has conspicuous limitations for that reason. But its interest to a student of the mind who looks at it at from the right point of view can be profound.

- Patrick Gunkel


New Grub Street (Oxford World's Classics)
Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press (1999)
Authors: George Gissing and John Goode
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Whither Arnold's "Sweetness and Light?"
I found Jasper Milvain, the "alarmingly modern young man," to be the most interesting character in Gissing's New Grub Street for a number of reasons, the most significant of which is that he evinces what can only be considered a modernist's consciousness in his approach to writing. That is, while it soon becomes clear to the reader that Milvain represents the antithesis of what Edwin Reardon personifies-i.e., the work of literature as an emanation of author's native genius-and thus one of the intercalated plots of the novel involves the incremental success of Milvain as a modern man of letters, and the concomitant gradual abjection of Reardon. In a manner of speaking, then, Milvain and Reardon's fates emerge from a common source, namely some sea change in the reading public's (the consumer's) preferences and tendencies.

Milvain identifies as vulgar the most lucrative market for the product of the man of letter's labor. The vulgarians, or "quarter educated," drive the market (479), and since they have been determined to desire nothing more than chatty ephemera, they have successfully opened an insuperable gulf between material success in writing and artistic success. Reardon's psychologically penetrating novels just aren't in demand. Therefore, there emerges quite an interesting conceptual shift within the nascent hegemony of the quarter-educated as established by their purchasing power: what was once considered healthy artistic integrity has transmuted into a peculiar kind of petit bourgeois hubris, if, in the new paradigm, the writer is more an artisan than an artist. Therefore, Reardon's artistically-compromised and padded three-volume novel, written with no other end in mind than to pander to the vulgar reader, nonetheless achieves only modest success because, the fact that it is indistinguishable from countless other similar works glutting the market aside, his novel is infected from his irrepressible integrity, and thus his novel becomes a strange sort of counterfeit, a psychological narrative masquerading as a popular novel. Reardon thus becomes a sort of Coriolanus among writers.

Milvain, on the other hand, is a sort of Henry Ford among writers; he reveals his particular genius when offering advice to his sister Maud about how to write religious works for juveniles: "I tell you, writing is a business. Get together half-a-dozen fair specimens of the Sunday school prize; study them; discover the essential points of such a composition; hit upon new attractions; then go to work methodically, so many pages a day" (13). In other words, Jasper has managed to streamline and to mechanize the writing process. He studies previous works, abstracts formulae from them, isolates the elements of these formulae, and then deploys and rearranges these elements to give his own writing a patina of originality. By treating writing as an exercise in manipulating formulae, Jasper exchanges "authenticity" (whatever that word means anymore) for the convenience and efficiency of not having to grapple with his own potentially mutable and recalcitrant genius. Jasper did not invent writing, just as Ford did not invent the automobile. But like Ford did with automobile manufacture, Milvain discovers those aspects of writing that lend themselves to mechanical reproduction. Thus he is able to capitalize on his time and effort, and effectively becomes the very machine Reardon believes himself to be but never actually becomes because of his lingering notions of artistic integrity (352).

Also of interest is the fact that Albert Yule is a sort of synthesis of Milvain and Reardon. Like Milvain, Yule attempts to streamline his own literary production by delegating some of the labor to his daughter Marian. However, like Reardon, Yule clings to the superannuated notion of the necessary individuality of writing: "[h]is failings, obvious enough, were the results of a strong and somewhat pedantic individuality ceaselessly at conflict with unpropitious circumstances" (38). In other words, Yule fails to recognize the obsolescence of the lone, learned genius within the realm of literary production. A market of vulgarians who demand occasional literary confections simply does not expect Works of individual genius. Moreover, even if they were in demand, works of individual genius are too ponderously inefficient to keep pace with the rate at which they are consumed. Therefore, Yule straddles the either/or proposition personified by Reardon and Milvain: One may preserve his artistic integrity and write "for the ages"--hence Yule, Biffen, and Reardon's fetishization of Shakespeare, Coleridge and authors of classical antiquity--and starve in the process, or one may write "for the moment" and actually turn a respectable profit.

The shadow of Charles Darwin indeed looms large over the events and characters of New Grub Street. The growth market brought about by the advent of the "quarter-educated" vulgar class, and their discretionary income coupled with their callow aesthetic sensibilities and truncated attention spans, represents a nascent economic, if not ecological niche, for certain social creatures to occupy. However, it's not simply a matter of being able to adapt one's skills to the tastes of these consumers. One must also be a prodigious enough writer to keep pace with an equally prodigious rate of consumption. Individuals like Milvain and Whelpdale are adequately adapted to this niche in that they satisfy the demands of this niche in terms of both content and output. Reardon panders to the vulgar taste only grudgingly and after long resistance and thereby cannot meet the production demands of this niche. Biffen absolutely refuses to pander at all. Alfred Yule does attempt to pander, but his mode of literary production is too inefficient to meet production demands, and he is also largely ignorant of vulgar literary taste. While more in touch with the vulgar reader than her father, Marian Yule is as inefficient in her literary production as her father. Therefore, each of the characters named above are equally maladaptive, albeit for various reasons, and thus their extinction by the novel's end strikes the reader as somehow inevitable. Whereas Milvain and Reardon's widow Amy are left to come together as the triumphant niche occupants and thus reproduce themselves in their offspring, should they decide to produce any.

The Hateful Spirit of Literary Rancour
George Gissing's 1891 novel, "New Grub Street," is likely one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Certainly, in its descriptions of literary life, be it in publishing, or in my own realm of graduate scholarship, the situations, truths, and lives Gissing portrays are still all too relevant. "New Grub Street" itself points to the timelessness of Gissing's portrayals - as Grub Street was synonymous, even in the eighteenth century with the disrepute of hack writing, and the ignominy of having to make a living by authorship. One of Gissing's primary laments throughout the novel is that the life of the mind is of necessity one which is socially isolating and potentially devastating to any kind of relationships, familial or otherwise. "New Grub Street" gives us a world where friendship is never far from enmity, where love is never far from the most bitter kinds of hatred.

The anti-heroes of "New Grub Street" are presented to us as the novel begins - Jasper Milvain is a young, if somewhat impoverished, but highly ambitious man, eager to be a figure of influence in literary society at whatever cost. His friend, Edwin Reardon, on the other hand, was brought up on the classics, and toils away in obscurity, determined to gain fame and reputation through meaningful, psychological, and strictly literary fiction. Family matters beset the two - Jasper has two younger sisters to look out for, and Edwin has a beautiful and intelligent wife, who has become expectant of Edwin's potential fame. Throw into the mix Miss Marian Yule, daughter of a declining author of criticism, whose own reputation was never fully realized, and who has indentured his daughter to literary servitude, and we have a pretty list of discontented and anxious people struggling in the cut-throat literary marketplace of London.

Money is of supreme importance in "New Grub Street," and it would be pointless to write a review without making note of it. As always, the literary life is one which is not remunerative for the mass of people who engage upon it, and this causes no end of strife in the novel. As Milvain points out, the paradox of making money in the literary world is that one must have a well-known reputation in order to make money from one's labours. At the same time, one must have money in order to move in circles where one's reputation may be made. This is the center of the novel's difficulties - should one or must one sacrifice principles of strictly literary fame and pander to a vulgar audience in order to simply survive? The question is one in which Reardon finds the greatest challenges to his marriage, his self-esteem, and even his very existence. For Jasper Milvain and his sisters, as well as for Alfred and Marian Yule, there is no question that the needs of subsistence outweigh most other considerations.

"New Grub Street" profoundly questions the relevance of classic literature and high culture to the great mass of people, and by proxy, to the nation itself. For England, which propagated its sense of international importance throughout the nineteenth century by encouraging the study of English literature in its colonial holdings, the matter becomes one of great significance. The careers of Miss Dora Milvain and Mr. Whelpdale, easily the novel's two most charming, endearing, and sympathetic characters, attempt to illustrate the ways in which modern literature may be profitable to both the individual who writes it and the audiences towards which they aim. They may be considered the moral centers of the novel, and redeem Gissing's work from being entirely fatalistic.

"New Grub Street" is a novel that will haunt me for quite some time. As a "man of letters" myself, I can only hope that the novel will serve as an object lesson, and one to which I may turn in hope and despair. The novel is well written, its characters and situations drawn in a very realistic and often sympathetic way. Like the ill-fated "ignobly decent" novel of Mr. Biffen's, "Mr. Bailey, Grocer," "New Grub Street" may seem less like a novel, and more like a series of rambling biographical sketches, but they are indelible and lasting sketches of literary lives as they were in the original Grub Street, still yet in Gissing's time, and as they continue to-day. Very highly recommended.

Grimly Realistic Novel of Literary Life in 1880s London
"New Grub Street," published in three volumes in 1891, is George Gissing's grimly realistic exploration of literary life in 1880s London. While it is a remarkably vivid novel, it is also an accurate and detailed depiction of what it was like to be a struggling author in late nineteenth century England, "a society where," as Professor Bernard Bergonzi points out in his introduction, "literature has become a commodity, and where the writing of fiction does not differ radically from any other form of commercial or industrial production."

"New Grub Street" is the contrapuntal narrative of two literary figures, Edwin Reardon, a struggling novelist who aspires to write great literature without regard to its popular appeal, and Jasper Milvain, a self-centered, materialistic striver whose only concern is with achieving financial success and social position by publishing what the mass public wants to read. As Milvain relates early in the novel, succinctly adumbrating the theme that winds through the entirety of "New Grub Street":

"Understand the difference between a man like Reardon and a man like me. He is the old type of unpractical artist; I am the literary man of 1882. He won't make concessions, or rather, he can't make them; he can't supply the market. I-well, you may say that at present I do nothing; but that's a great mistake, I am learning my business. Literature nowadays is a trade. Putting aside men of genius, who may succeed by mere cosmic force, your successful man of letters is your skillful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets. . . . Reardon can't do that kind of thing, he's behind his age; he sells a manuscript as if he lives in Sam Johnson's Grub Street. But our Grub Street of today is quite a different place: it is supplied with telegraphic communication, it knows what literary fare is in demand in every part of the world, its inhabitants are men of business, however seedy."

Gissing brilliantly explores this theme through the lives of his characters, each drawn with stunning depth and verisimilitude. There is, of course, Reardon, whose failure as a novelist and neurasthenic decline destroys his marriage and his life. There is also Reardon's wife, Amy, a woman whose love for Reardon withers with the exsanguination of her husband's creative abilities. While the manipulative and seemingly unfeeling Milvain pursues his crass aspirations, he also encourages his two sisters, Dora and Maud, to seek commercial success as writers of children's books. And intertwining all of their lives are the myriad connections each of the characters has with the Yule family, in particular with the nearly impoverished Alfred Yule, a serious writer and literary critic, and his daughter and literary amanuensis, Marian.

It is Marian--struggling to reconcile the literary demands and expectations of her father with the desire to lead her own life, struggling to escape the claustrophobic world of the literary life--who ultimately, pessimistically challenges the verities of that life while sitting in its physical embodiment, the prison-like British Museum library:

"It was gloomy, and one could scarcely see to read; a taste of fog grew perceptible in the warm, headachy air. . . . She kept asking herself what was the use and purpose of such a life as she was condemned to lead. When already there was more good literature in the world than any individual could cope with in his lifetime, here she was exhausting herself in the manufacture of printed stuff which no one even pretended to be any more than a commodity for the day's market. What unspeakable folly! . . . She herself would throw away her pen with joy but for the need of earning money. . . . This huge library, growing into unwieldiness, threatening to become a trackless desert of print-how intolerably it weighed upon the spirit."

It is Marian, too, who ultimately becomes the romantic victim of Milvain's aspirations, the powerful language of Gissing's anti-romantic subplot twisting into almost gothic excess as he extends the metaphor of London's fog to Marian's sleepless depression:

"The thick black fog penetrated every corner of the house. It could be smelt and tasted. Such an atmosphere produces low spirited languor even in the vigorous and hopeful; to those wasted by suffering it is the very reek of the bottomless pit, poisoning the soul. Her face colorless as the pillow, Marian lay neither sleeping nor awake in blank extremity of woe; tears now and then ran down her cheeks, and at times her body was shaken with a throe such as might result from anguish of the torture chamber."

"New Grub Street" is deservedly regarded not only as Gissing's finest novel, but also as one of the finest novels of late nineteenth century English literature. Grimly realistic in its depiction of what it was like to be a struggling writer in late nineteenth century London, it is also remarkable for its historical accuracy and its literary craftsmanship. If you like the realism of writers like Harding and Zola, then "New Grub Street" is a book you must read!


The Beatles Anthology
Published in Hardcover by Chronicle Books (05 October, 2000)
Authors: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, and Beatles
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Straight from the horses mouth(s)..
First off- the book itself is just beautiful; an amazingly well designed book. It's just HUGE, and every page is a treasure; lovely to look at. My big problem was the cost- I wouldn't mind so much if all (or even SOME..) of the proceeds went to charity. Do the Beatles (and the inexplicable Yoko) not have enough money?

That said, I enjoyed the book a lot. The book is laid out in a way that makes you feel that you're sitting around a table with The Fab Four, just shooting the breeze. Their stories are fascinating, especially the way their memories don't...quite....gel. John, unfortunately, comes off as something of an egomaniac, and a rather pompous one at that. It seems that everything of any worth (in his opinion) was his idea. I'm still a fan of his music, I'm just a little less a fan of the man.

My only real beef with the book is the lack of a narrative voice- The Beatles mention John's car accident, Mary Quant, etc., but there is no narrator to let the unenlightened in on what happened, who that person was, etc. Otherwise, Beatles fans will spend many a happy hour reading this book.

Fantastic!
So very many books were written about the Beatles, and so many TV documentries were made about them. Anthology is definitely the best one yet, and I don't think there will ever be another book as complete and sincere as it. For the first time the Beatles tell their own story (yes, even John - material from old intreviews with him are beautifuly collected and edited into the book), along with some help from George Martin, Derek Taylor and Neil Aspinall and some old quotes from Brian Epstein, Mel Evans, Pete Best and others, and that makes Anthology a truly unique experience. The story is told from such a personal viewpoint that you will feel like you're part of the band. George, Ringo, Paul and John will become your closest friends for the period of reading the book.

Anthology covers every (well, probably almost every) aspect of the Beatles' life and musical career. It starts as four seperate stories as every band member describes his childhood, then melds into the story of the band. All the interviews from the wonderful Anthology TV series are in the book, but so are many more. There are far more details - especially about the music itself, which was neglected in the series. While in the series some albums were hardly mentioned, in the book the Beatles refer to almost every song, telling a thing or two about its background. Also, more touchy subjects which were avoided in the series appear here - such as, the (phony) death of Paul McCartney, the (real) death of Stuart Sutcliffe, the unfortunate Hell's Angels incident and the terrible case of Charles Manson and his connection to the White Album. The photographs and documents shown in the book are facsinating as well.

And no, it's NOT too long. The only problem with the book is its weight, which makes it quite uncomfortable to read. Anthology is a superb book, which reminded me why I used to love the Beatles so much and got me to hear all their albums again - twice.

The Whole Story From the Mouths of the Beatles Themselves
The Beatles story is an incredibly fascinating one. In so many ways their history is not merely of a musical group, even a great one. The Beatles transcended mere music. From 1962-1970, the entire period of their recording career, the Beatles recorded hundreds ofbrilliant songs, groundbreaking albums and lived enough advenutre to fill a lifetime. When this book was published, the three surviving Beatles had lived more than twice as many years since the breakup as the entire time the group was together. It is really remarkable to read (or see in the video) McCartney, Starr and Harrison talking about the Beatle's times from the perspective of late middle age. The story itself will be familiar to any Beatle's fan. The early days in Britain, the crazy days of Beatle mania, the acid drenched mid-sixties when the times began to influence the Beatle's sound and the Beatle's music so headily influenced the times. The flirtation with Indian religion, the death of Brian Epstein, Yoko Ono, the slowly growing rigt and finally the acrimonious breakup. All in an incredible 8 years. What makes this book unique, even from earlier books that quote the Beatles is the perspective of time which has clearly mellowed the three surviviors. Lennon's quote's are necessarily taken from before his death in 1980 and it is interesting to see how his failure to reach middle age lends a different perspective to his memories of the Beatles, in his case memories less than fifteen years old. How fascinating to hear Paul and George discussing the making of "Let it Be" where the bitterness was clear. Paul essentially apologizes and it is nice to know he and George settled their differences before Harrison's death late last year. Not only do I recommend this book, it cannot be missed by anyone interested in the Beatle's history in their own words. No other auto-biography will be as comprehensive for one reason. It will require much of the book to focus on pre and post Beatles years. As I stated, the Beatles recording career lasted 8 years. Today a top band would record at most three albums in that time. Don't miss the book or the video collection


Suicide: A Study in Sociology
Published in Paperback by Free Press (1966)
Authors: Emile Durkheim, George Simpson, and John A. Spaulding
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Classic Sociology Text
Durkheim sometimes gets a bad rap for his politics, but this is a good book that laid the foundations for much of the sociological work that has followed it. Using the case study example of suicide rates, Durkheim undertakes to show that social structure has a profound and powerful influence on almost everything that individuals do. While the translation is sometimes awkward, Durkheim's work is impressive in its methods, ambitions, and execution. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the hstory of sociology or just the power of social structure.

Synthesis of intimately personal and powerfully public
Emile Durkheim's classic work tells us more than just details about suicide. Studying a powerfully individual phenomenon from a sociological perspective was, in its own right, an impressive undertaking. But what interests me more for sociology of media is the way Durkheim handled statistics. In the first chapter, he gives a series of examples that illustrate the danger in placing too much unexamined value in numerical data. He shows first that married people commit suicide more than singles, but then notes that single people include children who are unlikely to commit suicide. Therefore this data does not necessarily indicate a causal relationship between marriage and suicide. He adjusts the data, taking only people of marriage age and computes the data again. This time, single people commit suicide more than married people. However, Durkheim then notes that single people will automatically include a larger portion of mentally or physically defunct people. He therefore concludes that there is not sufficient data to make a conclusion about a causal relationship between suicide and marital status. This is really little more than mental exercise, but it is a critical one for any one employing survey methods and statistical analysis. The researcher must be vigilant in analyzing data to ensure avoiding errors in logic.
Durkheim's study in sociology contributes much more than this detail to the social sciences, but for my purposes of analyzing the sociology of media, this is the most critical point.

Fascinating&Intelligent...From a man, who loved his subject
Emile Durkheim is called a Father of Sociology, and rightly so. He was the first man to work on all of the problems and issues, unresolved by other known sciences at the time ( in 19-century), to combine many of the already known scientific methods in one, and to call it sociology. Surely, there were other theorists, his contemporaries, who were starting to wander in the same direction at the same time with Durkheim, but he was the one, who put his own and other people's theories to practice. That is what "Suicide" is all about: gathering data and putting it to test with the theory (suicide, being the subject of the study in this case, of course). The best part about Durkheim's work presented in "Suicide" is that it is still an incredibly potent and groundbreaking manuscript. One, who reads it today, can't help but notice that human nature and human problems have largely remained the same: they are universal and ageless and they still need to be studied by competent sociologists.


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