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A review by rossbm
The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
1.5
What a snooze fest! Tried listening to the book as audiobook. Something like 40 hours. So repetitive. Droning on and on about the differences between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. To be honest, only got about 15 hours in before stopping.
Even now, having trouble remembering that the left hemisphere is more verbal, "digital", classifying things. while right hemisphere is more intuitive, seeing patterns, "grasping the whole". The author seems obsessed with the glorifying the right hemisphere. It's like, why don't you just marry the right hemisphere if you love it so much?
Kind of ironic that he drones on and on about the differences between the two hemispheres while praising the right hemisphere, given that it is supposedly the left hemisphere that specializes in distinguishes between individual parts.
I stopped reading/listening by the time he gets to the crux of the book, which is some kooky theory that our society and environment is dedicated to the left hemispheres tendencies and that the environment also reinforces these tendencies.
Still, some interesting things in this book, but should have been way, way, shorter and less dogmatic.
Even now, having trouble remembering that the left hemisphere is more verbal, "digital", classifying things. while right hemisphere is more intuitive, seeing patterns, "grasping the whole". The author seems obsessed with the glorifying the right hemisphere. It's like, why don't you just marry the right hemisphere if you love it so much?
Kind of ironic that he drones on and on about the differences between the two hemispheres while praising the right hemisphere, given that it is supposedly the left hemisphere that specializes in distinguishes between individual parts.
I stopped reading/listening by the time he gets to the crux of the book, which is some kooky theory that our society and environment is dedicated to the left hemispheres tendencies and that the environment also reinforces these tendencies.
Still, some interesting things in this book, but should have been way, way, shorter and less dogmatic.