The blurb/review is not the book… I’m mean, how many book blurbs have you read only to read the actual 60-120k+ book to realize it didn’t live up to the blurb. It’s not always the case, but enough of the times it makes me worried about how I’ve selected to distill my novel down for potential readers.
Also, book reviews. I know the reviewer is giving opinions through their own unique lens. I do it too, when I write a review. I try to give a “shit sandwich” that doesn’t focus too heavily on my unique lens.
AND it is a wonderful tool as a writer to remember when crafting a story because a character’s limited POV and “rose colored glasses”/“blinders” can create tension (and miss direction).
Yes! I strongly prefer user reviews, but you have to look at more than one of them to get an actual idea of how the book really is. Agree completely about everyone having their own lens, especially individual user reviews!
The flip side of this is with flat-earthers who say science is only about models and not direct observation. Their direct observation tells them the Earth is flat and stationary, while all the scientific models can’t be accurate because they’re “just models” and not reality.
That one gets me if I allow myself to think about it too much. After all, it's not like you can't also gather first-hand, direct empirical evidence all by yourself as to the shape of the planet. I love that you can follow physics first principles and test them out for yourself, but you have to be diligent enough to do the work.
I have a strong suspicion that flat earthers are not about this.
Many of them try to do the work of direct observation but then either deny the results or fail to take all factors into account for what they’re seeing.
In Japan, casual restaurants display realistic but plastic versions of all the dishes. Pretty handy if you can speak or read the menu, you just point. What you see is pretty close to what you get
At first I thought they were real and that the restaurant made one of everything on the menu each day and laid them out in the window. Then I realized that didn't make a lot of sense when I saw desserts like ice cream or sushi so I started looking closer and it was like food art. Sometimes you could see the dust tho
I like it. I wonder how many of these sorts of analogies there have been throughout time, if we added them all up. I bet it's in the hundreds, if not thousands.
The blurb/review is not the book… I’m mean, how many book blurbs have you read only to read the actual 60-120k+ book to realize it didn’t live up to the blurb. It’s not always the case, but enough of the times it makes me worried about how I’ve selected to distill my novel down for potential readers.
Also, book reviews. I know the reviewer is giving opinions through their own unique lens. I do it too, when I write a review. I try to give a “shit sandwich” that doesn’t focus too heavily on my unique lens.
AND it is a wonderful tool as a writer to remember when crafting a story because a character’s limited POV and “rose colored glasses”/“blinders” can create tension (and miss direction).
Great post, Andrew!
Yes! I strongly prefer user reviews, but you have to look at more than one of them to get an actual idea of how the book really is. Agree completely about everyone having their own lens, especially individual user reviews!
Speaking of lenses, I believe it was also Daniel Nest who famously said, "The Lens Is Not The Eye." He was ahead of his time.
Actually, that's a misquote. The correct quote is about a guy named Len who was being blamed for something. It goes like this:
"The Len is Not the I."
Daniel was simply disassociating himself from Len? That checks out.
The flip side of this is with flat-earthers who say science is only about models and not direct observation. Their direct observation tells them the Earth is flat and stationary, while all the scientific models can’t be accurate because they’re “just models” and not reality.
That one gets me if I allow myself to think about it too much. After all, it's not like you can't also gather first-hand, direct empirical evidence all by yourself as to the shape of the planet. I love that you can follow physics first principles and test them out for yourself, but you have to be diligent enough to do the work.
I have a strong suspicion that flat earthers are not about this.
Many of them try to do the work of direct observation but then either deny the results or fail to take all factors into account for what they’re seeing.
The toughest part about making those observations in the first place: learning how to make them.
In Japan, casual restaurants display realistic but plastic versions of all the dishes. Pretty handy if you can speak or read the menu, you just point. What you see is pretty close to what you get
So you're saying the menu IS the meal?
Visually, don't try eating them. There's a whole industry in recreating the dishes to look real
I really do like the "truth in advertising" idea, though. I'll buy something even if it doesn't look super appetizing if it looks REAL, you know?
At first I thought they were real and that the restaurant made one of everything on the menu each day and laid them out in the window. Then I realized that didn't make a lot of sense when I saw desserts like ice cream or sushi so I started looking closer and it was like food art. Sometimes you could see the dust tho
All models are wrong, but some are useful.
Also a great mental model!
"When one prisoner escapes and returns to tell the others about the exciting reality out there, the other prisoners think he has gone crazy:"
The American novelist Howard Fast ("Spartacus") wrote a story with this premise, which was set in a mid-20th century movie theatre.
I like it. I wonder how many of these sorts of analogies there have been throughout time, if we added them all up. I bet it's in the hundreds, if not thousands.