Popular Posts
A LITERARY CRITIQUE OF THE WHALE RIDER, BY WITI IHIMAERA
Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider —International Edition (Reed Publishing, 2003), pp. 154. Ihimaera is arguably the most influential Maori author in existence, publishing the first collection of short stories by a Maori writer called Pounamu Pounamu in 1972. The following year, he followed suit by being the first Maori to author a novel— Tangi. However, his magnum opus is indubitably his 1987 The Whale Rider. Fifteen years later the film adaption was released, with the eminent Niki Caro as the supervising director and Keisha Castle-Hughe's entrancing performance as the protagonist. As one commentator accurately observed, "A film so specific to one area, and grounded so firmly in New Zealand and Maori culture, has enthralled audiences from different countries partly because of the universal theme of heroic triumph over adversity, but mainly because of Castle-Hughes' and [Rawiri] Paratene's stunningly natural and utterly convincin...
Short Stories: WHERE IS DANIEL?
The time was an early morning in the winter of 1941. Falling snow packed onto the hard labourers of Gulag 10 WLA as they begin setting off into the mines and factories somewhere in the far east. Malnourished, mistreated and muddy, the inhabitors of this typical Gulag were kept under strict control of General Victor, who gave harsh punishments to any prisoner who dared riot or worse, insult the government. It was a normal evening. The prisoners were escorted back to the Gulag through the freezing taiga by cattle carriages. They waited in line for their daily rations: Rubbery potatoes, dried bread and lime water. If one behaved well and boasted high production, he/she would sometimes be rewarded with a small knob of fresh corn, a snack the guards would gladly feast on. General Victor was feasting on a large chicken when Archie, or formally, Guard Number One burst into his room reporting misbehaviour between two prisoners. Ben (Guard Number Two) and Mile...
The Book of Heroic Failures
The Book of Heroic Failures By Stephen Pile The Book of Heroic Failures, was written by Stephen Pile and first published in 1979. This book is essentially a collection of hilarious, ironic and unusual people and events. This sole theme is that of ironic failure, each story being anywhere from a few sentences to several paragraphs. The book itself is split into eleven different sections so that the reader may dip in and out of the book at will, which is a very helpful format considering the layout of the stories. My favourite sections include the glory of the stage , stories we failed to pin down and the art of being wrong. From the poet whose footnotes were longer than his poems, to a bill ruling that the value of pi was four, there is no shortage of entertaining stories within this books pages. To those who wish to read only the best of these stories I would advise that you read some of the longer ones as more tends to go wrong, causing a domino...
Wow this book looks absolutely amazing!
ReplyDeleteHello, The Logic Demon. How is it hanging?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSomebody interested in biology should compare the following:
ReplyDeleteWhy Evolution is True, by Jerry A. Coyne
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, by Richard Dawkins
Evolution for Everyone, by David Sloan Wilson
The Lie: Evolution, by Ken Ham
Evolution: a Theory in Crisis, by Michael Denton
Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis, by Michael Denton
I am baffled by Ken Ham's stupidity. As you and I have mentioned previously, couldn't you believe in design via evolution? The fact that there still exists a large group of evolution deniers in America is very worrying.
DeleteWhile I agree "evolution deniers in America" generally are uninformed, I believe we should be careful in defining evolution in order to avoid confusion. Francisco J. Ayala provides several possible definitions of evolution:
Delete(1) the thesis "that organisms are related by common descent"
(2) "evolutionary history—the details of when lineages split from one another and of the changes that occurred in each lineage"
(3) "the mechanisms or processes by which evolutionary change occurs"
According to Ayala, definitions (2) and (3) are controversial issues and certainly not established facts, contrary to popular opinion, while Ayala accords definition (1) with the status of fact. When describing evolution as fact, we are implicitly invoking definition (1).
Furthermore, it is technically incorrect to speak of "the theory of evolution," as there are a variety of different interpretations of the evolutionary paradigm: Darwinian natural selection, Lamarckian evolution, neo-Darwinian evolution, process structuralism and so forth. Therefore, strictly speaking, we should refer to "the theories of evolution" instead.
Thanks, comrade.
DeleteNo problem Aldous!
DeleteOkay, I must apologise for being misleading in my grouping of Denton's two books alongside the embarrassing Ken Ham's pastiche of usual pseudoscience The Lie: Evolution. Unlike Ham's hillbilly fundamentalist creationist blithe dismissal of evolutionary theory, Denton is an eminently qualified biochemist who challenges the orthodox neo-Darwinian interpretation of evolutionary theory. I very much agree with his overarching thesis, as I hold to a non-Darwinian process structuralist interpretation of evolution similar to Denton. So, his work is a lot more akin to something like Simon Conway Morris's Life's Solutions: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe rather than Ken Ham's young-Earth-creationist propaganda.
DeleteHowever, the response of the scientific community to Denton's original book Evolution: a Theory in Crisis has still been pretty negative, with the famous Niles Eldredge describing it as "fraught with distortions." Denton is sort of like Michael J. Behe, who, while definitely having prestige qualifications, is rejected by the overwhelming consensus of scientists. Of course, both Denton and Behe are totally unlike Ken Ham, who regularly spoon-feeds patent nonsense to his peanut gallery of gullible fans. Poor fellow.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteyee am i part of book club now?
ReplyDelete