Probably of interest only in the faculty lounge.
An academic’s take on academic writing.
Harvard English professor Garber (Dog Love, 1996, etc.) has written a lot, but here she turns her attention to a subject she deals with on a daily basis: the state of scholarship in the humanities. Unfortunately, that proximity does not make for exciting reading. In her other works, the author is intriguing, even titillating, but only diehard graduate students will be interested in these three essays (Garber calls them chapters, but they basically stand alone). The first explores the shifting border between the “amateur” and the “professional,” hopping from the Olympics to the struggle between public intellectuals and institutionally affiliated academics. The second looks at competition among the various disciplines within the academy. The last delves into the recriminations that have recently proliferated over the use of academic jargon. While Garber’s writing is typically punchy and entertaining, it cannot make up for the fact that in the first two essays she has very little of interest to say. Paragraphs here and there are clever, and the intelligence behind the arguments is unmistakable, but true insights are few and far between. Moreover, articles from the New York Times are referenced so frequently that one gets the disheartening feeling that Garber was writing over her morning coffee. The third piece (“Terms of Art”) is significantly better. Garber points out that academic neologisms and other difficult terms provoke arguments that keep language fresh, while supposedly “clear” language can be deadening. Her riffs on the novelist George Orwell and the theorist Theodor Adorno not only support her argument but also inspire on their own. One still wonders, however, whether “Terms of Art” has enough heft to support the volume. It would have made an excellent article.
Probably of interest only in the faculty lounge.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2001
ISBN: 0-691-04970-X
Page Count: 179
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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