Probably of interest only in the faculty lounge.
An academic’s take on academic writing.
Harvard English professor Garber (Dog Love, 1996, etc.) has written a lot, but here she turns her attention to a subject she deals with on a daily basis: the state of scholarship in the humanities. Unfortunately, that proximity does not make for exciting reading. In her other works, the author is intriguing, even titillating, but only diehard graduate students will be interested in these three essays (Garber calls them chapters, but they basically stand alone). The first explores the shifting border between the “amateur” and the “professional,” hopping from the Olympics to the struggle between public intellectuals and institutionally affiliated academics. The second looks at competition among the various disciplines within the academy. The last delves into the recriminations that have recently proliferated over the use of academic jargon. While Garber’s writing is typically punchy and entertaining, it cannot make up for the fact that in the first two essays she has very little of interest to say. Paragraphs here and there are clever, and the intelligence behind the arguments is unmistakable, but true insights are few and far between. Moreover, articles from the New York Times are referenced so frequently that one gets the disheartening feeling that Garber was writing over her morning coffee. The third piece (“Terms of Art”) is significantly better. Garber points out that academic neologisms and other difficult terms provoke arguments that keep language fresh, while supposedly “clear” language can be deadening. Her riffs on the novelist George Orwell and the theorist Theodor Adorno not only support her argument but also inspire on their own. One still wonders, however, whether “Terms of Art” has enough heft to support the volume. It would have made an excellent article.
Probably of interest only in the faculty lounge.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2001
ISBN: 0-691-04970-X
Page Count: 179
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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