The Reviewer: Other Pickings - September 5, 1999

The Reviewer
ISSUE NO. 1.05	SEPTEMBER 5, 1999
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	OTHER PICKINGS
	THE KNOWLEDGE WEB FROM ELECTRONIC AGENTS TO STONEHENGE AND BACK--AND OTHER JOURNEYS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE By James Burke Simon & Schuster Hardcover, 320 pages List Price: $25.00 ISBN: 0684859343
	Reviewed by Subir Ghosh Science historian and presenter of the popular television series Connections, James Burke, shows how seemingly unrelated ideas and innovations bounce off one another, spinning a vast, interactive web on which everything is connected to everything else: Carmen leads to the theory of relativity, champagne bottling links to wallpaper design, Joan of Arc connects through vaudeville to Buffalo Bill. How would you relate say the term "vivisection" with Stonehenge? The idea may not be not as preposterous as it sounds. It is easy getting lost in the web of knowledge. Burke attempts to make things easier still for the reader not to get lost. An archetypal encyclopaedia with its methodical and alphabetical can be a bit cumbersome and high-dosed to be considered for light reading. Burke does not fall into that proverbial trap. The circular narratives that he spun Connections into the popularity charts, is back in this book. Burke derives his from the concept of links and hypertexts used in the Internet. When mentioning certain key figures or events, he includes a footnote that points the reader not to the bottom of the page or the end of the book, but to another point in the text where the figure or event comes into play again. As one surfs through the interconnections between disparate events and phenomena, the reader is left spellbound - and hooked for good. Burke, in weaving this web through the history of knowledge and knowledge about history, makes intersections explicit. A person, idea, event or phenomenon that is repeated over and over again are the "gateways". Each such reference is indicated with the other instances where the same person, idea, event or phenomenon crops up again. With "twenty different journeys across the great web of change" and 142 such gateways, Burke offers readers "at least 142 different ways" to browse through.
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	SATIRIC VERSES By S H Venkatramani Macmillan India Paperback, 183 pages Rs 195.00 ISBN 0333932900
	Reviewed by Subir Ghosh The fun is in the pun when the limericks from a corporate communications executive, apprehensive as he is of the steady erosion of humour from people's lives, attempt to liven up things just a bit. "The politician", the author avers , "is not very consistent/ in his values, but he has to be insistent;/about whatever he wants done/ be it work, or be it fun;/ he will manage by all means without being penitent." On the Prime Minister's job the limericker feels "the job of a police constable/ will certainly be much more stable;/ than that of a PM/ who may not last till am;..." and the leader of course "at his sweet will he can flippantly utter generalities/ he can negotiate his passage out of extreme difficulties;/ you can never fix/ him on specifics;/ your amazement about the genre can never begin to cease." This collection is an attempt to look at the entire panorama of prominent public persons in every walk of Indian life ranging from politics and business to cinema and sports." The general ones are laced with sarcasm, but the ones on individuals are definitely flattering, full of adulation. If one is not, it is the five-line jingle on supercop KPS Gill: "To tackle insurgency, he was supremely fit, / in maintaining law and order in Punjab, he was a terrific hit;/ his role in the state/ has inspired debate;/ and when it comes to women, he gets to the bottom of it!" Gill had been taken to court by a senior female civil servant who had alleged that this police officer had slapped her bottom at a party. Gill had been censured by the Indian Supreme Court for his misdemeanour.
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	THE BLACKWELL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WRITING SYSTEMS By Florian Coulmas Blackwell Pub Paperback, 640 pages $34.95 ISBN 063121481X
	Covering over 400 of them, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Writing Systems is a vital reference resource not only for the serious scholar of writing but for anyone with a passing interest in the history of writing. Sociolinguist Florian Coulmas, editor of The Handbook of Sociolinguistics and associate editor of The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, draws on disciplines ranging from psychology to epigraphy to present a work that is both far-reaching in its scope and deep enough to be of interest to serious theorists. The encyclopaedia itself consists of articles and entries of various lengths, all laid out in a typical A-to-Z format, with copious cross-referencing providing a wealth of threads for the inveterate browser. The entries themselves range from short definitions of concepts to longer articles on more complex topics, such as morphogenesis (the idea that all writing can be traced back to a single system), orthographic reform, and dyslexia. Over 400 figures and 1,600 tables illustrate not only the world's orthographies but also such things as the Mormon alphabet, the elements comprising Mayan logograms (written signs representing whole words), and Babylonian clay tablets. All this, plus a comprehensive bibliography, makes The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Writing Systems an indispensable reference work for scholars and a thoroughly enjoyable browse for anyone interested in human communication. © Amazon.com
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