# Best book takedowns? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2017, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468 "2017-09-27T21:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/41 "2017-10-02T11:52:26Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m continually disappointed by how many people miss the joke in Twain’s reviews of Cooper. The “literary sins” that he criticizes in Cooper are exactly the same ones that he commits in his own writing. He’s actually taking the piss at himself. > > As for _Battlefield Earth_, I’ve long noted that there are only two places in that book where Hubbard got the science right: Herbal tea is in fact good for a stomachache, and horses do in fact operate on principles unrelated to teleporters. I have to respectfully disagree. Twain really did feel that Cooper’s prose was far too wordy, as he amply demonstrates in the follow-up I cite\*. He also lived by the rule that :the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning bug", a phrase he used outside his published works ( [Mark Twain quotations - Lightning](http://www.twainquotes.com/Lightning.html) ). He criticizes Cooper in particular for this one. \*I think he’s misguided in this – there was a revolution in writing styles between Cooper’s time and Twain’s, and that overly-wordy style passed out of popularity in preference to a more succinct style. Have a look at Poe’s style, for instance. You could very easily trim his sentences the same way Twain does Cooper’s, and to a modern reader not very familiar with the Poe original it wouldn’t seem as if anything had been removed. I’m acutely aware of this, because I just finished writing a story in that early 19th century style, and it takes effort to keep that style up (and to not fall into parody) ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/42 "2017-10-06T18:37:48Z")
Does [Molly Fischer’s](https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/profile-rupi-kaur-author-of-milk-and-honey.html)delicate evisceration of Rupi Kaur count? > [@](#): > > Milk and Honey does touch on themes like the immigrant experience and overcoming sexual trauma, but its overall shape — divided into sections called “the hurting,” “the loving,” “the breaking,” and “the healing” — is something like a breakup record. The book offers readers an equivalent array of instantly familiar moods: anger, desire, pain, self-pity, self-reflection, and cathartic bursts of affirmation. Much of it is written in the second-person voice of a pop song — to a You whose identity either goes without saying (“the very thought of you / has my legs spread apart”), or else expands to encompass Me (“if he wants to / be with you / he will / it’s that simple”). With The Sun and Her Flowers, Kaur ventures into a wider range of subjects, contemplating her parents’ lives and the passage of time. Its sections are called “wilting,” “falling,” “rooting,” “rising,” and “blooming.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/43 "2017-10-06T19:37:00Z")
Damon Knight’s essay “Cosmic Jerrybuilder” on the serialized version of A. E. van Vogt’s _World’s of Null-A_ was so devastating to van Vogt that he rewrote major sections for full publication. Van Vogt – who was considered one of the giants of the field back then – found his reputation deteriorate badly (though it’s had some resurgence). Knight’s best put down, though, was when he began, “‘This eloquent novel,’ says the jacket of Taylor Caldwell’s The Devil’s Advocate, making two errors in three words.” ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/44 "2017-10-06T20:29:23Z")
If movie reviews are included, I have a particular affinty for Roger Ebert’s review of [Alien Ressurection](http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/alien-resurrection-1997): “…Like the bugs in “Starship Troopers,” these aliens are an example of specialization. They have evolved over the eons into creatures adapted for one purpose only: To star in horror movies…” ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/45 "2017-10-07T14:42:23Z")
Stephen Greenblatt won the National Book Award for his book The Swerve, about the discovery of an important, ancient Naturalist poem by Lucretius in the Middle Ages. Marilynne Robinson won the Pulitzer for her novel Gilead. Greenblatt just published a book on the cultural history of Adam and Eve. Robinson wrote the review for the NYTimes: [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/books/review/rise-and-fall-of-adam-and-eve-stephen-greenblatt.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books®ion=stream&module=stream\_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&\_r=0](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/books/review/rise-and-fall-of-adam-and-eve-stephen-greenblatt.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbooks&action=click&contentCollection=books®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0) Robinson, about two-thirds if the way through, coldly educates Greenblatt and us readers about Milton’s views on individual spirituality and marriage, and then points out how Greenblatt’s book in this section is worthless because it is based on a superficial understanding. She ends the review with: “The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve” up is an ambitious attempt an at important cultural history. It is cursory, and, to the degree that its treatment of these influential texts and movements is uninformed, it is not a help in understanding them" Ouch. Again, Greenblatt is a Harvard scholar and shit. This isn’t going to be the end of this. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/46 "2017-10-25T21:23:47Z")
[Here’s one](http://theweek.com/articles/730426/dan-brown-bad-writer) for Dan Brown’s new book. ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/47 "2017-10-26T00:47:24Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Here’s one](http://theweek.com/articles/730426/dan-brown-bad-writer) for Dan Brown’s new book. _That_ was fun. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468/48 "2017-10-26T03:28:02Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > That reminds me–[Oh, John Ringo, no](http://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html)! I was going to post this. Too late. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-book-takedowns/797468.md?page=2)