Somewhat lackluster film, but I enjoyed the performances.

Excellent issue thanks to the work by and about David Foster Wallace…

Unremarkable fiction by A.M. Homes, adequate coverage of the negotiations in/over Kashmir, but over all nothing particularly interesting or well written this issue…

Diverting short story by George Saunders valiantly tries to save this issue from mediocrity (articles about Caroline Kennedy and watching the inauguration on TV were alternately snide and boring); mildly interesting article about Booker T. Washington and his biographers, eh…

The casual interview with Eric Rohmer included on this disc is wide ranging, and despite some slow spots, is very revealing about his artistic habits and ideals.

Standouts from this issue:

An interesting (if unfortunately titled) article on relief workers in Chad, near the Darfur border; highly enjoyable short fiction (“The Limner” about a deaf portrait painter) by Julian Barnes; an article on Will Oldham; and a pleasant read by Alex Ross about Elliot Carter and Messiaen.

I really enjoyed the short included with this DVD, [i]Nadja à Paris[/i], which reminded me in some ways of Alexander Payne’s segment (14e arrondissement) from [i]Paris, je t’aime[/i], about the letter carrier from Denver narrating her trip in mangled French.

Worth watching if only for the funny, well written and performed argument scene at the river after they are kicked out of the cafe.

The cases and histories the author delves into are often fascinating in themselves – be they those of famous figures like Balzac or his own patients. On the other hand, his psychoanalytic explanations for the behavior exhibited are at best dated and at worst laughable (e.g. even if he later refutes the analysis as being insufficient, he still finds it worth including an argument that a collector’s relationship to the world is a consequence of his relation to his feces as an infant).

While I admire the author for taking on this project at his advanced age (I think he was nearing 80 at the time of publication), it is a shame he will be unable to revise his writing based on more current events. I wonder what he would have made of eBay…

On page 3 we find this quote: ”...anyone can make a mistake. Even we’re not perfect. But we’re close – so close that we’ve authorized our publisher to pay $10,000 to any reader who can find even one mistake in this book. Unfortunately, our publisher has declined to accept this authorization…”

Well, that is fortunate for them because there is an arithmetic error on the SAME PAGE! Look at their answer to d) in the Pre-Test:

65218/173

While they list the correct answer: 376.98, they have 173 * 8 as 1364 instead of 1384. Suppose you wanted to compute the next decimal place in this answer? You would end up getting 376.983 instead of the correct answer 376.982.

I know most books have errata, but I wish the authors/publishers of math books would take extra care with their examples, problems, and solutions.