Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Reviews of House written by people who know something(?) about medical practice.

"It appeared that in speaking, as in mountain climbing, he had never recieved lessons; he spoke as no one speaks, saying only the core of things." —"Iron"

River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
by Rebecca Solnit

"...They flocked to see the Diorama imitating a nearby church they could have visited in actuality for free. This is one of the great enigmas of modern life: why the representation of a thing can fascinate those who would ignore the original."

What I would call an impressionist biography of Muybridge—with as much attention given to the background of things he experienced only indirectly as those which were of primary importance. Solnit succeeds in conveying the rapidity and importance of technological changes in Muybridge's lifetime and his role in those changes, as well as telling tangential but much more interesting stories along the way. Her tendency towards the lyric occasionally undermines her arguments by making them seem too flippant and insubstantial, but overall, the depth of thought given to her subject(s) is rewarding even when it may seem unwarranted.

The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (Arkana)
by Arthur Koestler
"...Gravity, to Copernicus, is the nostalgia of things to become spheres."

A good, excellently sourced and researched, and ocassionaly poetic general introduction to the course of Renaissance astronomy from Copernicus through Kepler to Galileo (and a touch of Newton), but Koestler's moral attitudes towards mid-20th century science, his motives (the fact that often scientists have been wrong in both method and conclusion should justify the legitimacy of paranormal research), and his willingness to generalize "astronomy" to "science," render some of his own conclusions about the past and future course of science somewhat suspect.

The Age of Wire and String: Stories (American Literature (Dalkey Archive))
by Ben Marcus
"Experts believe that our bodies grow heavier after being noticed, lighter when touched, and remain the same when left alone."