jakej's Reviews (94)

Bryson's apex as a pop history writer.

I would rank the sections 2 > 1 > 3. The first section did a great job of introducing the scenario and dealing with academic politics, and the second section was the most 'speculative' I have seen Asimov get, very very well done. However, the third section seemed to just exist to wrap up the central question of the story, none of the characters were particularly interesting (in fact, a lot seemed to be cribbed from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, what with the idea that

moon colonists would be 'free-spirited'

).

My experience reading The Temple of the Golden Pavilion was peculiar. I picked it up from a bookstore in Kyoto after visiting the temple. I read the first half while in Tokyo, put it down for a few months, and then finished it back in the United States. 

 

While reading it I would continually drift off into daydreams, flooded with memories of Japan or of my own life years ago. Instead of pulling me along as a smartly paced novel would, Temple advanced at a glacial pace, content to patiently wait for me as I veered off course. 

 

Ultimately Temple has sufficiently aroused my interest in Mishima as an author, even though it didn’t convince me of his greatness. Although I was occasionally unable to parse the story’s vocabulary and ideas, much of the book is sublime, rendering an ineffable, brooding atmosphere with gorgeous prose and a simplicity of narrative. I am excited to read more of his work, or even reread Temple one day.

The information is solid but the organization could use some improvement. Most of the chapters are haphazard in structure (why are "Sloops, Schooners and Pirate Films" grouped together?). The chapters on Captain Kidd and Sir Henry Morgan are the most pleasant to read, as we get a clear chronological story covering each of these pirates.

Somehow everything is magnitudes more gut-wrenching when recounted in spare, narrative prose, than when brought to life in all its verisimilitude in uncountable war movies.

BAP takes the first three parts to wax poetic on high level aesthetics and ideals, orientation and life force. He takes a sharp turn in part 4 to a 'white nationalism handbook' and loses much of the foundation - there's precious little that's grandiose about 4chan memes and trying to root the spooks out of the Boy Scouts. He loses the spirit of Dionysus.

Well worth a read - at it's best is a transcription of the metaphoric state of the bodybuilder.

Reads much more like a synthesis than a burgeoning voice - you'll need to read Žižek, Guattari, Deleuze, Jameson, etc. to get genuine understanding. Well worth a read though.

Some bullet points that caught my interest: