McLeod’s renditions of his own pranks bring sparkle and humor to the serious message of his book.
The story of how mischief-makers hope to change the world one prank at a time.
Self-proclaimed prankster McLeod (Communication Studies/Univ. of Iowa; Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property, 2007, etc.) defines pranks as “playful critiques performed within the public sphere and amplified by media.” Pranksters, he asserts, “try to spark important debates and, in some instances, provoke social change.” That was the author’s aim when he trademarked the phrase “freedom of expression” and threatened to sue AT&T for using it without his permission. The media picked up the “serious joke,” and McLeod was satisfied that the “fake lawsuit certainly got people talking” about the meaning of free speech. The author distinguishes pranks, intended to serve as political barbs, from hoaxes, whose “goal is to make others look foolish or to seek fame,” and cons, in which criminals dupe innocent people. Although he asserts that “hoaxes tell us much about the societies that embrace them,” they don’t spark debates or serve as critiques. However, including hoaxes, criminal con artists and conspiracy theorists dilutes McLeod’s argument about the impact of pranks. In 1835, for example, P.T. Barnum’s promotion of 80-year-old former slave Joice Heth as George Washington’s devoted 161-year-old nurse drew large audiences eager to see “this renowned relic of the olden times.” Barnum’s hoax, though, was aimed at nothing else but making money. McLeod supports his analysis more strongly when he turns to the 1960s, which “exploded with the kinds of pranks and provocations that challenged social conventions” and urged audiences to question what the media told them. Performance art, street theater and the exuberant antics of the yippies characterized leftist critiques. A few pranks emerged from the right: The author tells of a prankster who, frustrated by political correctness, staged a public objection to Lucky Charms cereal on the grounds that the leprechaun stereotyped Irish people.
McLeod’s renditions of his own pranks bring sparkle and humor to the serious message of his book.Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8147-9629-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: New York Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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