Three well-written but fleeting vignettes from some of the darkest edges of the internet.
Three intriguing pieces of journalism about the new threats of a digital age.
O’Hagan (The Illuminations, 2015, etc.) is known as a three-time Man Booker Prize–nominated novelist, but he’s also a razor-sharp London-based reporter, as evidenced by these three stories from “the wild west of the Internet, before policing or a code of decency.” His subjects are diverse and mostly well-known. In the first, “Ghosting,” the author describes how he assumed the unenviable position of ghostwriting the autobiography/manifesto of Julian Assange, the infamously imperiled WikiLeaks founder. “It needs to be more like Ayn Rand,” said Assange during one of their strange meetings. “I don’t know if I can help you with that,” was the author’s straightforward reply. Describing his subject as “a cornered animal,” O’Hagan delivers a troubling portrait of paranoia, trespasses, and consequences that feels unique because of the writer’s unique proximity to his subject. The second work, “The Invention of Ronald Pinn,” is equally dark, chronicling O’Hagan’s successful attempt to create a real identity for a long-dead man. He succeeded in generating an income with Bitcoins and buying heroin and counterfeit money online. “To the moderators of Silk Road or Agora,” writes the author, “the world is an inchoate mass of desires and deceits, and everything that exists can be bought or sold, including selfhood, because to them freedom means stealing power back from the state, or God, or Apple, or Freud. To them, life is a drama in which power rubs out one’s name; they are anonymous, ghosts in the machine, infiltrating and weakening the structures of the state and partying as they do, causing havoc, encrypting who they are.” The third story, “The Satoshi Affair,” finds O’Hagan tapped to reveal the identity of Craig Wright, an awkward Australian computer scientist, as “Satoshi Nakamoto,” the cryptic inventor of Bitcoin, only to find that even his real subjects can be frauds after all.
Three well-written but fleeting vignettes from some of the darkest edges of the internet.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-27791-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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