Book Reviews...

The Loony Bin ( loonies@bloodaxe.com )
Tue, 27 Jul 1999 13:42:20 +0100


Hiya All...

It's amazing what goes on out in the world of the Web...

Wishes & Dreams...

- ANDREA
        xx

*********THE LOONY BIN****loonies@bloodaxe.com*********
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************ANDROMEDA******Internet Goddess************

  ------- Forwarded foolishness follows -------


April 1, 1999
Amazon's Not-Just-April Fools

A new literary form has been born on the Internet: spoof book reviews.

First the Internet changed the status quo in bookselling, and now it's
creating a new outlet for reviews. Now, anyone with a computer and a
modem can publish their own. 

Or write a spoof of one. Take the book The Story About Ping, a classic
children's story about the experiences of a duck (Ping) who travels down
the Yangtze River. Most of the reader reviews published on Amazon.com
are straightforward "what a cute book" sorts of comments. But some clown
with a lot of time on his hands added this gem:

"Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and
intuitive explanation of one of Unix's more venerable networking
utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a
very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933,
years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure
were finalized."

(Check out the full Ping spoof on the "customer comments" page at: 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/book-customer-reviews
                /0140502416/o/qid=923249312/sr=2-1/002-4700117-3678425 

Ping, if you aren't a geek, is a Unix command that checks on the status
of computers on a network. The term ping has crept into the Silicon
Valley vernacular, as in "Ping me later this week (send me an e-mail
later this week)."

Besides Ping, there are reviews for Daddy's Cap Is On Backwards by Bill
Keane, creator of the Family Circus comic strip, found at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/book-customer-reviews
                /0449148165/qid=922991993/002-3519051-4478261 

Take this one: "The REAL challenge in this insightful and philosophical
text is looking past the obvious Masonic references and deep, secretive
Objectivist undertones, so that we may apply Billy's dotted-line
adventures to our own mundane existence. For example, when we follow
Billy from the back porch, through the sandbox, down the slide, and back
into the house for cookies, we must ask ourselves, 'Why did he not drink
from the hose?' and 'Shouldn't I stop more in my day, and drink from the
hose?'"

Another delves into the supposed Masonic references and suggests that
the book's disappearance from print has to do with a conspiracy.

While these reviews can be funny, they raise a difficult issue: Should
Amazon comb the boards and take down "offensive" reviews? It's hard to
believe, but that seems to be what they're doing. When I first went to
the reviews page for Daddy's Cap Is On Backwards, there was one that
read like an academic treatise, but the topic was on the sexual
undertones of the Family Circus strip. It's now gone.

If a post is libelous, Amazon is right to take it down. Otherwise, what
happened to free speech?

After the spoofs began appearing, you could still read an official
review on the Amazon site, written by Amazon staff. No more. Even
Amazon's staff is writing tongue-in-cheek reviews. Check out Ron Hogan's
review of Humor newspaper the Onion's upcoming book, "Our Dumb Century,"
at: 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/book-reviews/
                0609804618/qid=922992603/sr=1-1/002-3519051-4478261 

Reader Reviews are already going up for the Onion's book, including one
Amazon may be plucking from the site any second now. One such review
talks about how its author is "devoted to one thing and one thing only:
elimination of the Onion by any means necessary." Oops. He goes on to
say the people who put out the newspaper are "a bunch of loads that
should have been swallowed." Eeew.  

Anyway, check out the reviews. Or, just read today's newspaper. Is it a
spoof or reality that Yahoo is buying Broadcast.com? And for how much???
Truth is stranger than fiction. 


by Jodi Mardesich
Fortune Magazine
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/fortune/technology
                        /daily/0,3467,617990401,00.html


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