A technically precise and philosophically thoughtful treatise.
An impressively thorough survey of the development of biotechnology and the potential dangers it poses.
Quintyn, an associate professor of biological anthropology at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, observes that the breakneck speed of biotechnological advancement has outpaced not only its regulatory oversight, but also society’s ability to fully digest the scientific and moral challenges such progress presents. Although the promise of new science has been extraordinary, most people lack an adequate understanding of its implications, according to the author: “In this dangerous era of light-speed scientific advancement, especially in biotechnology, can humankind endure the long-term cost in detrimental changes to human and nonhuman life-forms?” For example, molecular scientists, committed to correcting the apparent defects of nature in the creation of genetically modified organisms, routinely overlook “complex bioenvironmental interactions” that could present future problems, Quintyn asserts—just as genetic engineering could “unintentionally cause deleterious alterations to a human embryo’s genome.” Moreover, the author frets about the slippery slope that could lead from legitimate therapeutic uses of genetic modification to elective enhancement and all the moral issues it raises. The author argues that there’s a line that runs from the “old eugenics” that grew from racial and economic oppression to what he sees as its new iteration, which genuinely aspires to the betterment of humankind but tends to produce other ethical dilemmas. Over the course of this book, Quintyn’s discussion is as rigorous as it is wide-ranging, and his mastery of the subject matter and his ability to translate technically forbidding topics into accessible prose are remarkable. The author’s discussion of how scientists are either blind to the issues he raises—too focused on technological progress to pause to consider moral objections—or willing to resort to semantic obfuscation to downplay them is particularly astute.
A technically precise and philosophically thoughtful treatise.Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4808-9919-3
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Archway
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.
The acclaimed director displays his talents as a film critic.
Tarantino’s collection of essays about the important movies of his formative years is packed with everything needed for a powerful review: facts about the work, context about the creative decisions, and whether or not it was successful. The Oscar-winning director of classic films like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs offers plenty of attitude with his thoughts on movies ranging from Animal House to Bullitt to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Big Chill. Whether you agree with his assessments or not, he provides the original reporting and insights only a veteran director would notice, and his engaging style makes it impossible to leave an essay without learning something. The concepts he smashes together in two sentences about Taxi Driver would take a semester of film theory class to unpack. Taxi Driver isn’t a “paraphrased remake” of The Searchers like Bogdanovich’s What’s Up, Doc? is a paraphrased remake of Hawks’ Bringing Up Baby or De Palma’s Dressed To Kill is a paraphrased remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho. But it’s about as close as you can get to a paraphrased remake without actually being one. Robert De Niro’s taxi driving protagonist Travis Bickle is John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards. Like any good critic, Tarantino reveals bits of himself as he discusses the films that are important to him, recalling where he was when he first saw them and what the crowd was like. Perhaps not surprisingly, the author was raised by movie-loving parents who took him along to watch whatever they were watching, even if it included violent or sexual imagery. At the age of 8, he had seen the very adult MASH three times. Suddenly the dark humor of Kill Bill makes much more sense. With this collection, Tarantino offers well-researched love letters to his favorite movies of one of Hollywood’s most ambitious eras.
A top-flight nonfiction debut from a unique artist.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311258-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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