A clearly written but uneven work about human survival.
An analysis argues that the science of finance provides the key to humanity’s continued survival.
Criniti contends that “money has become an essential survival tool for everyone in our globalized civilization.” In that case, it becomes an absolute imperative to master finance—“the science of management of wealth”—since it is prosperity that most effectively draws people safely back from the “edge of survival.” The author expounds on this insight in biological terms—specifically Darwinian evolutionary theory—by arguing that humans have evolved in such a way that technological progress and wealth are now the key features of their fitness. These governable variables demonstrate that evolution, at least for humans, has itself evolved. Criniti describes the demands of the future in idiosyncratic terms: “Robotic forms and other technology are slowly filling this planet through the use of money. You need money to purchase the robotic parts for a cyborg, and you need money to make an android. If the nonliving come alive one day, then they may also need money to survive. The survival of the richest would then continue.” The author’s approach is a comprehensive one—for example, he devotes a large amount of time to defining life, death, and survival, though the book could have taken notions such as these for granted. At one point, while discussing survival in the wilderness, he defines wilderness. He even discusses at length the thorny issue of “why we should want to survive.”
Criniti’s prose is unfailingly lucid and offers some rich and informative details along the way. But he would have been better off deferring to convention, since some of his definitions can be counterintuitive. For example, he includes “thinking” as a criterion of life and simply stretches what counts as thinking beyond all reason: “All living things (such as bacteria, fungi, or plants) must make big decisions at some point in their life cycles.” The author’s overall strategy is to replace rigorous arguments with peremptory definitions and assertions. For example, he claims “everything must subordinate to the goal of survival,” a philosophically dubious statement, and encourages readers who disagree to discontinue perusing the book. In addition, he claims his work “may also serve as a direct learning tool to help you create your own path to economic and financial independence,” but he provides no specific or actionable counsel. Overall, Criniti’s book is a collection of thoughts leading up to a few sweeping and arguable main points. He dramatically promises to disclose uncomfortable truths about human nature, but that warning will strike many readers as a bit histrionic: “If you do not have the stomach to read about the horrors of survival or the truth about the current human predicament, then I suggest that you do not read this book. The conclusions are not easy to accept, and acceptance may only come after breaking down the inner walls of safety that our minds put up to protect us.”
A clearly written but uneven work about human survival.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9884595-4-0
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly moving.
An actor and comedian tells the story of her journey from being an unpaired “animal” to a “new mammal mother” in love.
After Slate completed her first book, “the issue of finding a partner…never rested and never allowed rest for [her] either.” Senses heightened, she had stepped into her most animal self and was on a quest to “fulfill [her] mammal instincts.” Loneliness and emotional vulnerability made her seek connection with neighborhood dogs and insights from books that promised to bring soulmates. When love did finally find her, the anxiety that he would reject her for being herself and “drinking tequila on a Saturday afternoon…then [having] a bath with my friend” was intense. After the pair became a couple and Slate became pregnant with the baby she called “the lifeform,” her neuroses—which the author mocks through an imaginary session with a psychologist—went into overdrive. Yet even as she wrestled with her fears, Slate also discovered that the body that was so often a “bay of doubt” was also becoming a “harbor of well-being” for the life-form to which she was attached. Then, during a time of “plague and disruption,” the author “exploded [her] vagina” to give birth, becoming not only a mother, but a “mammal with a soul that [was] born anew every day.” Though still haunted by a “purple-dark hole marking me in the afternoons,” Slate had become secure enough in the “nest” she had built for herself to see the hole more as a “bluish egg-thing” portending possibility. At times whimsical in its flights of fancy and always surprising in the moments of lyrical grace it offers, Slate’s book celebrates the transformative power of surrendering to love and life.
Delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly moving.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780316263931
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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