tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119816335163312523.post8651136168044051756..comments2023-04-27T04:39:45.647-04:00Comments on JT Thinks About Stuff: Book Review: Isaac's StormJThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12170062950345779215noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119816335163312523.post-88736497838937628352017-04-14T10:56:23.062-04:002017-04-14T10:56:23.062-04:00My main objection to Thunderstruck was the artfici...My main objection to <i>Thunderstruck</i> was the artficiality. Larson didn't even make it clear that the events he was describing were a decade apart until well into the book, which was a clear attempt to finesse the problem.<br /><br />The attributing-thoughts-and-motives problem is merely irritating in a book that's essentially neutral. It's especially vexing in <i>Isaac's Storm</i>, because <i>Isaac's Storm</i> has a thesis to push, and Larson assigns the thoughts and motives in such a way as to bolster the thesis. It's as if I'd written a book proposing that Winston Churchill was actually Jack the Ripper, and in it described Churchill as feeling "tormented, repressed rage against all women" and "dreams of blood and ichor"--without mentioning that there was no documentation for these assertions. If I'm allowed to "base my observations on human nature", I can "prove" anything.JThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170062950345779215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119816335163312523.post-87779081014013240492017-04-13T20:28:33.393-04:002017-04-13T20:28:33.393-04:00I really liked Devil in the White City and Dead Wa...I really liked <i>Devil in the White City</i> and <i>Dead Wake</i>, but I didn't like <i>Thunderstruck</i>, partly because it was a clumsily artificial attempt at mixing two essentially unrelated stories that didn't illustrate each other even thematically, but mostly because Larson was clearly attributing thoughts and motives to people that he couldn't possibly have known. MPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119816335163312523.post-32744251238705806472017-04-03T22:32:43.660-04:002017-04-03T22:32:43.660-04:00Quite so. I had hoped for better from a writer who...Quite so. I had hoped for better from a writer whose works I had hitherto enjoyed.JThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170062950345779215noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3119816335163312523.post-69678632040881525292017-04-03T20:33:38.512-04:002017-04-03T20:33:38.512-04:00All three of those end-notes are just weaselly way...All three of those end-notes are just weaselly ways of saying "I made it up." Few writers have the intellectual honesty of Samuel Johnson, who in his <i>Dictionary</i> gave the derivation of "tatterdemalion" as "<i>tatter</i> and <i>I know not what</i>."MPnoreply@blogger.com