[Fwd: Re: book: wittgenstein's poker]

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Sun Oct 28 20:40:31 PST 2001



>
>Sounds interesting, ravi. Possibly extending the list-irrelevance, I saw
>at the bookstore the other day a book called "A Philosophical
>Investigation"--a "futuristic thriller" with a serial killer who uses
>the name Wittgenstein.

It's disappointing. I tried to read it, found it dull.


>
>On the other end of the spectrum (what spectrum I'm not totally sure)
>economists on the list may have seen advertized this mystery series by
>two neoclassical economists pen-named "Marshall Jevons" (I think) where
>they supposedly use stuff like marginal utility and diminishing returns
>to solve crimes. I've never read one, basically because I fear it will
>promote a Gary Becker type view that the "[neoclassical] economic way of
>thinking" applies to all decision making, plus my guess that they are
>probably poorly written mush.

Hm. I will look it up anyway.


>
>Somehow related, I've tried to read Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose(?)
>and another one of his along the same lines a couple times and have
>never been able to get past the first few pages. They sounded like they
>would be great but just never has clicked for me, yet.

The Name of the Rose is a genuinely wonderful book. A medievalist friend of mine says it's deeply scholarly and entirely accurate. The bad guy, Bernardo Gui, is a historical figure. I have never been able to read his other stuff (Foucault's Pendulum, the Isle of Whatever).

jks

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