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Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
3 reviews
dominicangirl's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Self harm, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Gun violence
thisiscourt's review
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm
Moderate: Murder, War, and Gun violence
Minor: Suicide
firstbreaths's review
informative
medium-paced
2.0
This is a relatively short book (only 7 hours on audio, even before cranking it up to 2x the speed) but it took an inordinately long time for me to get through it. Mostly, I was bored (ironically there was not enough focus on the process of creating the OED for my liking), but I was also frustrated by the scholarship.
Winchester spends a lot of this book wildly speculating on the cause of Minor’s mental illness and/or trying to shock readers with the most salacious details of his delusions, which made me feel uncomfortable. None of this is helped by the lack of an actual story which I think prompted much of the wild speculation: by my account, Minor was simply an ill man who happened to occupy his time reading books on behalf of the dictionary’s editors, and while his contribution was clearly valuable, I’m not sure it’s all that special.
Oh, and it seems like a pretty simple ask to avoid mentioning that you’re ‘glad’ someone had a serious mental health condition because it allowed them to contribute to a dictionary.
A shame, because I typically love this kind of micro history.
Winchester spends a lot of this book wildly speculating on the cause of Minor’s mental illness and/or trying to shock readers with the most salacious details of his delusions, which made me feel uncomfortable. None of this is helped by the lack of an actual story which I think prompted much of the wild speculation: by my account, Minor was simply an ill man who happened to occupy his time reading books on behalf of the dictionary’s editors, and while his contribution was clearly valuable, I’m not sure it’s all that special.
Oh, and it seems like a pretty simple ask to avoid mentioning that you’re ‘glad’ someone had a serious mental health condition because it allowed them to contribute to a dictionary.
A shame, because I typically love this kind of micro history.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual content, Slavery, Self harm, and Gun violence
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