Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The printed word speaks the strongest message, 29 May 1999
By A Customer
Throughout our high school years, sadly when we are at our weakest analytically, we inquired as to why we had to read books like the Handmaid's Tale or the yawning Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ralston Saul finally answers the question. His argument, that the printing press and the novel are the driving forces behind much of the postive social change and negative propaganda, reteaches the much needed lesson, that even in the age of the perceived electronic media domination, the printed word, wrapped by a hardboard or paper cover, still contains the eloquent voice and raw power to evoke the most devastating and critical analyses of our societies. With his printed word, Ralston Saul has shown us that the true definition of the freedom of speech is not the ability to say what we want, but to question those people and institutions in power. Voltaire's Bastards does just that; it questions the rhetoric and consequences of corporatism, management schools, military dogma, false capitalism, vaucuous and inconsistent ideology, contempt of public eduction, and, in the end, our own (and his own I'm sure) participation in any or all of these areas. Too bad, I am unable, now in my role as a high school teacher, to convince so few of my students of the sheer rebelliousness of reading a novel or book such as Voltaire's Bastards. Hopefully, they will when they are ready.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant and a joy to read, 8 Jan 1999
By A Customer
If I could take only one book to a desert island this might be it. It can be read and re-read. If you have that niggling feeling that western society may have lost the plot, is perhaps too clever for its own good, but cannot quite put your finger on why, this book is for you. If you are becoming less and less satisfied with glib categorisations such Left, Right, Capitalist, Extrepreneur, Communist, Manager, Leader, etc etc and have a sneaking suspicion that a whole other dimension has been overlooked, as if we persist in rationalising a 3 dimensional world within a 2 dimensional comic strip, you will find this book a breath of fresh air. Such is Saul's clarity of perspective it is as if he is writing one or two centuries hence while most of us are trapped by our tools, in particular the tool of reason and narrow expertise which "is able to get away with presenting itself as the solution to the problems it creates". This profound essay is not a quick read but it is very accessable, witty and lucid. One of Saul's principal themes is the virtue of doubt; you do not need to concur with Saul to be enlightened and entertained by this marvellous book.
|
|
|
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Read this book immediately., 3 May 1999
By A Customer
I have no patience for those who say that Saul's argument is long-winded and boring. Of course it's long; there's so much wrong with the world stemming from rationalism. I have developed the annoying habit of referring to this book whenever I discuss politics. My copy is quite thoroughly marked up, and I am finding it difficult to think of different ways of distinguishing the absolutely, amazingly brilliant arguments from the merely absolutely brilliant ones. I cannot say enough good things about this book, and I insist that you purchase it immediately and read it from cover to cover.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
(2)
(16)
£6.54
(14 customer reviews)
(
