DRH's CD, a book in need of an editor
Tomoyuki Tanaka
browsing amazon.com yesterday i realized our "polymath" has
produced a music CD. mostly piano music.
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Amazon.com: Reviews: Le Ton Beau De Marot : In Praise of the
Music of Language
From Kirkus Reviews , February 15, 1997
[...]
But despite Hofstadter's multifarious ingenuity, his central
insights--e.g., the sublime complexity of language--seem banal.
The complexities which Hofstadter explores will for the most
part seem familiar, not just to philosophers of language
and literary critics, but to thoughtful lay readers.
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(Reviewer: Robert Carlberg from Seattle)
Generally I love Hofstadter, but..., June 28, 1999
...I found this book infuriatingly in need of an editor!!! I bought a
remaindered copy for $4 at Half-Price Books, but after reading it I
realized I didn't get much of a bargain.
Doug starts out by praising himself for being in total control of this
book -- typesetting, page design, content, direction... Well, he
shouldn't be so smug. The typography is a jumbled mess, the chapter
introductions are amateurish, the page breaks are artificial and
distracting, the content wanders off the subject into numerous,
endless (and pointless) digressions, and most of the 30,000 versions
of the poem he translates are laughably bad.
There's a worthwhile message in here somewhere, buried under six tons
of authorial effluvia -- something about the art of translation being
a balance between form and content. But of the 632 pages here, only
about 120 serve this purpose. Hofstadter has apparently become such a
powerhouse author that he is allowed to wield total control, but it's
a two edged sword and he proves himself no Galahad.
Doug man, you need an editor.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
> D.R.Hofstadter: "alien" "inscrutable" "Oriental mind"
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>> in "Metamagical Themas" (1985) Hofstadter self-righteously
>> preached nonsexist language (word choices, etc) with
>> hypersensitivity.
>>
>> in "Le Ton beau de Marot" (1997) Hofstadter casually makes
>> fun of Asians with the phrases such as
>> "inscrutable" "the Oriental mind" and other outdated
>> (and inherently racist) stereotypes.
>>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
> from Douglas Hofstadter's book "Le Ton beau de Marot" (1997)
>
> "Could it be that the very idea of transculturation
> itself is a Western one, and strikes the Oriental mind
> as alien?" (Page 148)
>
> "By virtue of being overly Oriental, it would be
> extraordinarily disorienting!" (Page 149)
>
> have you read another book that's published in the last 20
> years or so that uses the words like "inscrutable" and "the
> Oriental mind" (or other racist stereotypes) to make fun of
> Asians?
>
> if so, could you let me know?
> i'm esp. interested in books by non-comedians.
>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>> NYT's review article of Douglas Hofstadter's book "Le
>> Ton beau de Marot"
>> http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/970720.20altert.html
>> (Prof. Alter, using lenient language, points out
>> Hofstadter's superficial understanding of literature
>> and translation.)
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------