The Disappearing Spoon – Sam Kean
Little Brown and Company, 2010
Chemical Elements/Miscellanea/Non-Fictional
Throughout history we recognize its figures and events but never the elements involved. Sam Kean masterfully speaks for those lost elements in one book of historical events and each story a true piece of history and each element an unsung hero or villain.
Part 1: You Ready For This?
We continue along each story whether it is Sam’s personal story or a historical event as ghosts. The reader is put into the event as the author walks you through. It gives the same impression of being walked into school for the first time by a parent. In some cases it is a story you may recognize but you may learn something new. You feel pressured if not invested to continue along or so to speak, “Stumble even further inside the rabbit hole.” The beauty of the book is the chapters have no real correlation to each other meaning each chapter representing a different element has a certain uniqueness to them. This includes the introduction chapter in the beginning which attracts your mind because, face it, it is human nature to be curious about things we don’t know or understand especially when put in a comedic way so you don’t pass out mid-sentence. The thesis relates to his experiences in life as well as weaving with others so you understand that he is trying to make chemistry not boring or rather, make chemistry not chemistry. I guess, my point is he adds a twist to cold hard facts to make them warm fuzzy facts. In this sense the point comes across clearly that the elements have always been there whether a background character or our main pro/antagonist. It’s blowing your mind isn’t it? Chemistry is actually interesting and funny at the same time...
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...bject disappear or an element can be morphed into the perfect liquid at the right temperature. After a while I realized not only was I challenging the author, but challenging the world as we know it. Of course fact won the war in the end, and I was satisfied. Not only did I get my answers but I gained a new understanding for the book. A respect developed while I read the book a second time purely for enjoyment. In the end I was left with a smile on my face as well as depressive look, because I was happy for an opportunity to have read the book yet sad all the same due to finishing it. A bittersweet ending if you will, but completely worth the time. Overall The Disappearing Spoon is a selection that will be around for generations to come, and I hope for the time to reread it again. I look forward to reading future works of Sam, and I will wait as long as it takes.
Rubenstein Richard, The Cunning of History. Harper and Row, 1975. Retrieved on December 04, 2013.
...onally transposing indirect to direct quotation, putting words into people mouths and blending two separate eye witness's accounts. How can one read a novel for knowledge gaining purposes when the structure appears so flawed? The use of modern and old English are combined in the sentence structure. The highly academic vocabulary not only is confusing, but breaks the flow of the book when that is the evident purpose for the format of the book. The confusing order in which Starkey retells events and the ineffective and useless information that is put in for building character personalities.
After reading the opening chapters, I was surprised by the laid back, casual attitude Foster displayed. He did not go about explaining certain aspects of previously written novels in a way that was hard to understand. Foster explained things in great deal, but in good taste. He did not go on with boring information; he simply got his point across in a way that made me want to know more. Not only was his way of thinking and expressing his thoughts interesting, but the subjects he tapped into were interesting also. Foster connected things that surround our average day lives to literature, and the effect it brings to the literature. For example, Foster discusses vampires in on of the first few chapters. The majority of people have seen numerous movies about vampires, making it easy to connect with what he was talking about. His overall tone and strategy of writing was relatable and the least bit overwhelming, which quickly grabbed my attention and made me interested in things I would not normally be interested in.
The author is graphic in his detail of the people and the places of importance during this time in history. The book is written more from a Northern point of view and so I didn’t get quite the same perspective of the Southern side but still learned more than I knew before.
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
...olds the story of a man dignified in history. This book is truly an admirable piece of litature.
Since the beginning of history there has always been conflict and disagreement, which led to battle and confrontation. Ever since these hostilities have emerged, the problems that spark the conflicts and the battle itself have been illustrated in textbooks and plastered all over the internet, yet no one really takes the time to think of the many soldiers and people who risk their lives for our safety and freedom. To gain a tighter grasp on history and what these veterans have done for us, we interviewed army veteran, Christian Werthmuller, who participated in Black Operations, Operation Desert Storm, and the Iraq War.
This article uses the technique of scholarly questions and answers to help readers understand the context of the article. One question raised in relation to the primary source the song of Roland is, “But are such pieces of literature – medieval though they are- reliable for their military history’? This question is asked after examining the primary source. The question asked was then explained by recalling “basic methodology pertaining to the primary source”. By the article raising questions it allows the reader to think deeper into the topic by allowing them to relate prior knowledge to what is being asked, making a correlation between given information, and prior understanding of the topic. Burkholder’s also uses primary sources, which could help develop a research paper. The use of primary sources in the article strengthens the author’s arguments. Some primary sources used are the song of Roland, Paul Davis’s 100 Decisive Battles, and De Re Militari. For each primary source Burkholder breaks down particular quotes and makes arguments with relevance to the thesis. This helps readers to check the reliability of the article, and use the primary sources to better understand how the information relates to the over all thesis. Additionally, the author cites with using primary sources specific movies such as King Authur (2004) and Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002), deconstructing how the two films relate directly to history and how accurate specific scenes in the movie are. One interesting technique used by the author is a critical analysis of how the entertainment industry is beneficial for history, and how it’s non-beneficial. In one interesting example Burkhodler provide three compelling reasons to illustrate how films are beneficial to an accurate appreciation of historical events. These points of view
2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.
Flory, Harriette, and Samuel Jenike. A World History: The Modern World. Volume 2. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 42.
...ther than reciting facts of the documentation, he makes the city of Chicago come alive in a way that many could not accomplish. Throughout the book it was told with abundant cross-cutting and foreshadowing. It wasn’t until after the fair when people began to realize just how many people have simply vanished during the fair. The numbers were astounding. The big question was, were the missing people during that time connected with Dr. Holmes and his killings. Many people assumed it was him because this man was a serial killer with epic proportions. After years have passed, a detective was given the assignment to uncover the truth behind Holmes and what motivated him and his psychopathic mind. The information he found was shocking. In the end it seems to tell a story of the ineluctable conflict between good and evil, daylight and darkness, the White City and the Black.
Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd. ed. Vol. B. New York and London:
Stump, Colleen Shea, Kevin Feldman, Joyce Armstrong Carroll, and Edward E. Wilson. "The Epic." Prentice Hall
Chopsticks are a set of well-known eating utensils which are widely used in parts of Asia. They are nothing more than just two identical thin sticks with pointed or blunt ends which are made of wood, bamboo, plastic, silver, etc.. It is very simple to operate chopsticks, I would say, just hold them and use them. Apart from liquid food such as soup and porridge, I eat with chopsticks for nearly all meals. I found this practice relatively dominant particularly in Chinese community where it is not always convenient to obtain an alternative to chopsticks. Using chopsticks, this bodily practice has been typically associated to Asian culture (not merely Chinese culture since Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. are also commonly reviewed as typical
History is no more confined to a monolithic collection of facts and their hegemonic interpretations but has found a prominent space in narratives. The recent surge in using narrative in contemporary history has given historical fiction a space in historiography. With Hayden White’s definition of history as a “verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse” literature is perceived to be closer to historiography, in the present age (ix). History has regained acceptance and popularity in the guise of fiction, as signified by the rising status of historical fiction in the post colonial literary world.