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Review of The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce

December 29, 2018

Writing a review of The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce, by Paul Torday, is an exhilarating experience. I get to talk about the brilliance of the novel and the hopeless mediocrity that surrounds us.

Indeed, it’s interesting to give you a quick briefing of how I discovered The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce.

I saw the book at the local library. As I sometimes do with authors I haven’t read before, I took a quick look at Goodreads reviews. The average rating of The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce is (at the time of this review) 3.49/5. The thing is, I have the experience to know that if a book (or a film) features bad ratings by the social masses, it might mean it’s actually good.

Taking a look at one or two reviews, I felt certain it was a book I wanted to read. People complained that there was no resolution to the story. Others gave the book 2 stars because… the protagonist was in denial.

The level of ignorance and mediocrity is appalling, when it comes to unsophisticated readers.

And so, let’s see what I thought about Torday’s novel. This is a review of The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce. It’s also another chance for me to express my dismay at the social mediocrity that has enthralled the world. Ironically enough, the two processes are metatextually related as you will see.

review of The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce
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How to Read Better: a Guide to Understanding Fiction

November 20, 2018

I have complained many times on this blog about mediocre fiction. I’ve also complained about the loss of the art of reading. Put simply, the average person has lost the ability to read. Combining the two, we need to realize that, in order to read better fiction, we must also learn how to read better.

In other words, there is a chain of causes and consequences. It goes in a way like this:

how to read better

As you can see, there is a feedback loop here. Reading a book poorly will cause you to leave some erroneous feedback. That is, it will lead you to either downplay the importance of a high-quality book, or overestimate the merits of a mediocre one.

Subsequently, this will distort the book’s intrinsic value. In a world replete with noise, a mediocre book read by mediocre readers receives far more attention than a higher-quality book misunderstood by its mediocre readers. Inevitably, this facilitates the creation and propagation of mediocre literature, which leads back to poor reading.

It is a very vicious cycle. And, since art imitates life (which imitates art in another vicious cycle), this leads us to societal mediocrity.

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Review of Travels in the Scriptorium

October 10, 2018

Travels in the Scriptorium: the Basics

A review of Travels in the Scriptorium, by Paul Auster, should begin by mentioning a fact: it is not your regular story. Moreover, it is not your regular Paul Auster story. Those familiar with Paul Auster’s work should realize a thing or two by this statement.

For others, let me underline some things. Travels in the Scriptorium is not a story with a typical beginning, narrative evolution, or ending. So far so good. Now, hold tight. Paul Auster’s novella is not a story at all.

Let me repeat that, just so that it sinks in. Travels in the Scriptorium is not a story.

What is it, then, you will ask. Well, let’s see.

Travels in the Scriptorium
On the surface, the story revolves around madness. Deep down, it’s about controlled madness
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