Seashore Walk: A Close-Up Look at the Plants, Rocks, Shells, and Animals of the Seashore (The Unfolding World)

Book Description

The Global Positioning System is finding its way into the surveying and mapping field at an incredible rate. Be prepared with GPS for Land Surveyors, a book written by a land surveyor, for land surveyors. Useful for any surveyor interested in GPS, and for engineers and others who want to enhance their knowledge of GPS technology. From fundamental theory to practical application and advanced technologies, the book covers GPS without being saddled with pages of complicated math, yet it is not over simplified. This user-friendly manual gives you all the tools needed to understand and use GPS in everyday practice. In a concise format, this book teaches the basics of GPS technology, common hardware, surveying methods, survey design, planning and observation, and new chapters have been added on RTK and DGPS. To help the reader fully apply the practical advice in the book, each chapter has helpful review questions and answers. This feature will be particularly useful for seminar teachers, academic instructors and students.

Customer Reviews:

The GPS Primer - updated.......2001-08-15

I found Mr. Van Sickle's 2nd edition book to be an expansion, correction and update of the 1st edition (previously reviewed). The book now has nine chapters and includes a new one on "real-time". Various corrections and updates have been placed into print which were greatly needed. The book "boils down" GPS into its basic components and explains difficult aspects in a more understandable fashion. The new, larger illustrations are generally more easier to see and of a better quality than before. Mr. Van Sickle has added questions and answers at the end of each chapter making the book more useful in the classroom. Generally, I liked the new book and would recommend it as a basic part of your GPS/Surveying library. I intend to use the book as a textbook for my upcoming semester and I know that the students will like it as much as I have, especially with the new self-checking questions and answers at the end of each chapter.

An excellent guide to an interesting topic.......1999-02-08

Jan, is a very talented individual. From his acting, to his recitals of Shakespeare, this book is a testament to his ability to distill the essence of a deeply scientific subject and reduce it to bite-size chunks of information, suitable for those lesser mortals.

Apart from being an all-round good bloke, Jan has done an excellent job and I would highly recommend it to all readers wanting a deeper understanding of this technology, without their eyes glazing over with complex formulae and math. Well done Jan.

In depth coverage on topics for land surveyors.......1999-02-02

Jan presents a very concise and complete book on the intricate details involved with all aspects of GPS, from the GPS satellite signal structure itself to the applications of the Land Surveyor in implementing this technology. This book is a great learning tool for Land Surveyors interested in learning more about the who,what,where,and why's on GPS Surveying.

A concise and practical treatise on GPS without alot of math.......1998-06-02

I found Mr. Van Sickle's book to be very concisely written yet full of practical "how tos". The flow from concept to concept is well though out. He shows his vast experience and knowledge of the subject on nearly every page. There are however, some large scriveners errors which are too large to be considered typographical errors (sometimes a whole sentence or paragraph is unrecognizable). In some cases these errors detract greatly from the content since it hard to know what he is saying. One aspect of Mr. Van Sickle's style is his ability to explain a concept, albeit difficult for most to understand, using common words and phrases. Generally, I liked the book and would recommend it as a basic part of your GPS library. One should experience various aspects of a subject from all directions to be able to fully understand anything. I will confess to learning a number of things from Mr. Van Sickle's book mostly due to his easy literary style which I had not previously understood. I have used the book as a textbook for two semesters and will continue to do so. I only hope that there is a new corrected edition available soon.

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Satellite Surveying a thinking
Alfred Leick's GPS book
GPS is too complex to understand well
Highly Technical...Wish it were more Practical

GPS Satellite Surveying
Alfred Leick
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471059307

Book Description

The revised and updated authoritative volume on GPS use in surveying

Comprehensive and thorough in its coverage, GPS Satellite Surveying, Third Edition is the updated edition of Alfred Leick’s classic introduction to the field. Written to help specialists get the most out of GPS surveying techniques and the resulting measurements, this standard industry reference provides the latest fundamental and cutting-edge material for working with GPS today.

A unique volume in the field, this Third Edition offers an unrivaled presentation of procedures that apply to the Russian GLONASS, the forthcoming European GALILEO, and U.S. GPS satellite systems. New coverage addresses emerging precise-point positioning technology, as well as the most current information on:

Geodetic reference systems
GPS modernization
Least-squares adjustments
Pseudoranges and carrier phases
The troposphere and ionosphere
The LAMBDA technique
The ellipsoidal and conformal mapping models

GPS Satellite Surveying, Third Edition is a dependable, up-to-date reference for surveyors, civil engineers, transportation engineers, geologists, geographers, technicians, and students.

Customer Reviews:

Satellite Surveying a thinking.......2006-03-04

This book is all that I had thought. The explanation is clear and the autor becames it easy to understand. The best aquisition that I have done since I begun to study GPS.

Congratulations to Alfred Leick.
Cartograph Engineer

Alfred Leick's GPS book.......2000-06-05

I am surpised by the previous reviews. I am going to press on this book solely because of the excellent way in which the author has reviewed the subject. The text is as easy to understand and clearly explained as any book could be on such a complicated subject. The insertion and detailing of formulae is related to the text with similar clarity. The author naturally assumes some knowledge of the subject by the reader. If you are at this level the rest is relatively painless. The author's use and command of the English language is as good as his knowledge of the subject of GPS. For those of us that have listened to rooms full of GPS boffins speaking their own dialect this book provides a definitive translation.

GPS is too complex to understand well.......1999-07-27

GPS looks like a "Black Box",I want to understand the thoery,method and programming a GPS data processing software.

Highly Technical...Wish it were more Practical.......1999-03-25

Probably an important book for your GPS library, but it's easy to get lost in all the complex equations. Not for someone who is interested in the basics or who wants an overview. If you want the nitty-gritty details, this one's for you.

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Practical surveying with GPS
James P Reilly
Manufacturer: P.O.B. Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Vistas for Geodesy in the New Millennium (International Association of Geodesy Symposia)

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Vistas for Geodesy in the New Millennium (International Association of Geodesy Symposia)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540434542

Book Description

This volume contains 102 papers from the IAG Scientific Assembly, held on the premises of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest from 2nd to 7th September, 2001. These assemblies are designed to give an integrated view of geodetic activities to a broad spectrum of researchers and practitioners in geodesy and geophysics. At this meeting, which emphasized new vistas, a total of 380 papers were presented; 100 were selected for review and publication in this volume. They are representative of this meeting in the sense that they present current research areas in geodesy to the interested geophysicist and new research challenges to the geodetic specialist.

ProLink Holdings Corp. adds two pioneers in the GPS industry.(global positioning satellite)(John Godshall appointed as chief technology officer)(Steven ... from: Fairfield County Business Journal

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ProLink Holdings Corp. adds two pioneers in the GPS industry.(global positioning satellite)(John Godshall appointed as chief technology officer)(Steven ... from: Fairfield County Business Journal

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000FI96B6
Release Date: 2006-04-20

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Fairfield County Business Journal, published by Thomson Gale on March 13, 2006. The length of the article is 470 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: ProLink Holdings Corp. adds two pioneers in the GPS industry.(global positioning satellite)(John Godshall appointed as chief technology officer)(Steven N.Tanis appointed as vice president )
Publication: Fairfield County Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 13, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 45 Issue: 11 Page: S9(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Accuracy of GPS surveying technique and its possible application to the Wegener Project / by (Reports / Dept. of Geodesy, Mathematical and Physical Geodesy)

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Accuracy of GPS surveying technique and its possible application to the Wegener Project / by (Reports / Dept. of Geodesy, Mathematical and Physical Geodesy)
Janusz Zieliński
Manufacturer: Delft University of Technology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007C8WKQ

Global positioning system (GPS) use in the Colorado Department of Transportation

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Global positioning system (GPS) use in the Colorado Department of Transportation
Paul Grout
Manufacturer: Dept. of Transportation, District 2?
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

GPS methodology for cadastral surveying and mapping in Albania (Albania series)

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GPS methodology for cadastral surveying and mapping in Albania (Albania series)
Grenville Barnes
Manufacturer: Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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Gps: A Guide for Land Surveyors
Jan Van Sickle
Manufacturer: Professional Pubns Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0912045876

A look at the benefits of post-processed differential GPS (SuDoc I 19.76:93-196)

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A look at the benefits of post-processed differential GPS (SuDoc I 19.76:93-196)
John T. Gann
Manufacturer: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Books and Open-File Reports Section, distrigutor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010GXHI

Book Description

Differential geometry plays an increasingly important role in modern theoretical physics and applied mathematics. This textbook gives an introduction to geometrical topics useful in theoretical physics and applied mathematics, covering: manifolds, tensor fields, differential forms, connections, symplectic geometry, actions of Lie groups, bundles, spinors, and so on. Written in an informal style, the author places a strong emphasis on developing the understanding of the general theory through more than 1000 simple exercises, with complete solutions or detailed hints. The book will prepare readers for studying modern treatments of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, electromagnetism, gauge fields, relativity and gravitation. Differential Geometry and Lie Groups for Physicists is well suited for courses in physics, mathematics and engineering for advanced undergraduate or graduate students, and can also be used for active self-study. The required mathematical background knowledge does not go beyond the level of standard introductory undergraduate mathematics courses.

Customer Reviews:

Differential geometry.......2007-07-21

Marian Fecko's textbook covers well fundamental elements of modern differential geometry and introduction to the Lie groups (not only) from geometrical point of view. Geometrical formulations of the classical mechanics, gauge theory and classical electrodynamics are discussed.

The textbook expects the reader to be familiar with mathematical analysis on the level of the standard course usual in the physics undergraduate study programs. Understanding of the parts dealing with physical applications (classical mechanics and electrodynamics) expects knowledge of fundamental principles of these subjects. Organization of the book allows the reader to concern on particular part, i. e. understanding of later parts doesn't require reading of all previous parts (reading of parts concerning on the classical dynamics does not require reading of parts dealing with electrodynamics). However, relations between different subjects of the theory are explained instructively.

The main advantage of this textbook is that reader "builds" the subject himself by solving the exercises usually appended by hints. It makes all the elements of the theory natural to the reader during study. This way is a little bit more time consuming when compared with other textbooks dealing with this subject. It provides good starting point for study of mathematical aspects of the general relativity and field theories. I recommend this book to everybody who wants to understand fundamental concepts in differential geometry in detail.

not for starter or self-learning.......2007-03-27

The book covers a good range of topics in Differnetial geometry with lots of exercises. One literarily has to do the exercises to develop the concept. Ecah chapter ends with a concise summary of the key equations. The problem is that all the exercises are mixed with the main context. It lacks any exposition or concept development for most of the topics, no definition, no prove, and every page is filled with exercises. This style make it difficult for someone to learn the subjects the first time or to use it as a reference.

Separately, there are too few graphs to assist the reader to visualize the ideas. The prints are also small making it hard to read.

Nakahara's book (Geometry, topology and physics) is a much better choice on the same subject.

Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists (World Scientific Lecture Notes in Physics)

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Good, with problems
Very readable presentation of diff. geometry

Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists (World Scientific Lecture Notes in Physics)
C. J. Isham
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 9810235623

Book Description

This edition of the invaluable text Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists contains an additional chapter that introduces some of the basic ideas of general topology needed in differential geometry. A number of small corrections and additions have also been made.

These lecture notes are the content of an introductory course on modern, coordinate-free differential geometry which is taken by first-year theoretical physics PhD students, or by students attending the one-year MSc course "Fundamental Fields and Forces" at Imperial College. The book is concerned entirely with mathematics proper, although the emphasis and detailed topics have been chosen bearing in mind the way in which differential geometry is applied these days to modern theoretical physics. This includes not only the traditional area of general relativity but also the theory of Yang-Mills fields, nonlinear sigma models and other types of nonlinear field systems that feature in modern quantum field theory.

The volume is divided into four parts: (i) introduction to general topology; (ii) introductory coordinate-free differential geometry; (iii) geometrical aspects of the theory of Lie groups and Lie group actions on manifolds; (iv) introduction to the theory of fibre bundles. In the introduction to differential geometry the author lays considerable stress on the basic ideas of "tangent space structure", which he develops from several different points of view - some geometrical, others more algebraic. This is done with awareness of the difficulty which physics graduate students often experience when being exposed for the first time to the rather abstract ideas of differential geometry.

Customer Reviews:

Good, with problems.......2006-01-02

Wow! What a great Table of Contents. It has all the stuff I've been wanting to learn about. So I bought the book in spite of seeing only one review of it. After one day, I'm now only at page 26, but I already have read enough to make some comments about it.
The main point about this book is that it is, as the author specifically states, LECTURE NOTES, not, I repeat, not a textbook. What are the implications of this (outside of a somewhat more chatty style than a textbook)? ["chatty" isn't quite what I mean; "smooth" might be a better word'] There are two which are noticable to me. 1) A lot of math knowledge is taken for granted. 2) It has a somewhat sloppy style to it.

Regarding point one, make sure you have a lot of math under your belt before picking up this book. By page 18 the author uses these terms without defining them: Differentiable Manifold, semigroup, Riemannian Metric, Topological Space, Hilbert Space, the " " notation, vector space, and Boolean Algebra. Fortunately for me, I have a fairly extensive math education, and self-studied Functional Analysis, so I wasn't thrown for a loop; but for many others -- brace yourselves!

Regarding point two, Here are two examples:
1) Here is a quote: "The collection of all open sets in any metric space is called the topology associated with the space." Sounds like a definition to me! Fortunately the author gives a (sloppy) definition a few lines later. By the way, the only thing the reader learns about what an 'open set' is, is that it contains none of its boundary points. All the topology books I have read define open sets to be those in the topology. This is another point of confusion for the reader. In fact, points of confusion abound in that portion of the book.
2) On page, 17, trying somewhat haphazardly to explain the concept of a neighborhood, the author defines N as "N := {N(x) | x is an element of X}" This is already a little disconcerting: x is already understood to be an element of X. So he is saying that N is defined as N(x) (which he defines to be a collection of subsets of X). This is all he has to say on the matter until, on page 26, he writes "each N, an element of N(x)". Now N isn't both N(x) and an element of N(x). This is a point which the author does not clear up. He then starts using N all over the place, yet the reader isn't sure of what he's refering to.

A couple of other things:
-When he defines terms, they is not highlighted, and are embedded in a sentence, making it difficult to find them later.
- The index is pitifully small. Typical for English texts, I know; but this *is* the 3rd millinium!

On the other hand, I have good things to say about the book, too.
I like his style of writing. If it were just more precise, it would be fine for me. I like it better than the normal higher math texts, which tend to be too laconic for me. Notice that I make a distinction between the somewhat chatty style, which I like, and the sloppiness, which is confusing. One can be chatty, yet clear. So far, the undefined math terms which I listed above were not central to the text; and one would not miss much by just reading past them. The author includes many 'comments' sections throughout the book. These are wonderful so far. They are full of comments and examples which really clear up a lot of points. His examples are very good, too, although he is very terse in stating them. The paperback is nice looking. The paper, font, etc. make for easy reading (except for the sub/super-script font, which is too small for me).

To wrap this review up, I had already pretty much learned the stuff covered in the book so far, but judging from what I have read, I will be able to learn a lot from the rest of it; and, unlike some other math books I have studied, the experience won't be too painful.
p.s. See other reviews of it on the UK Amazon site.

Very readable presentation of diff. geometry.......2000-08-18

I have found Isham's treatment of differential geometry very clear, while maintaining quite an abstract nature. Isham takes care to motivate his definitions and include comments where comments are due. No problems are included but the book sometimes omits the simpler results and lets you work them out by yourself. A very readable introduction indeed.

Ads/Cft Correspondence: Einstein Metrics and Their Conformal Boundaries: 73rd Meeting of Theoretical Physicists and Mathematicians .. (IRMA Lectures in Mathematics & Theoretical Physics)

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Ads/Cft Correspondence: Einstein Metrics and Their Conformal Boundaries: 73rd Meeting of Theoretical Physicists and Mathematicians .. (IRMA Lectures in Mathematics & Theoretical Physics)

Manufacturer: A S M International, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3037190132

Differential Geometry for Physicists (Advanced Series on Theoretical Physical Science, Vol 6)

Average customer rating:

not all that bad
very good book

Differential Geometry for Physicists (Advanced Series on Theoretical Physical Science, Vol 6)
Bo-Yuan Hou
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9810231059

Customer Reviews:

not all that bad.......2002-05-15

as a whole, the book isn't all that bad; however the authors' writing (syntax) is, at times, profusely irritating. the mathematician, of course, would desire more, by way of rigour and (more) detailed proofs. it packs in a lot of interesting mathematics, but does justice to none of the topics presented herein.

the book's main aim is to be comprehensive, hinting at the flavour of almost all of the current trends in mathematics motivated by physics.

i could suggest other books similar in content to the one here: husemoller on fibre bundles, bott and tu on de Rham cohomology via differential forms, griffiths and harris on the Chern-Weil theory of characteristic classes, gilkey on the index theorem (be aware that 'the' index theorem appears in many different guises in the literature); connes on noncommutative geometry (although the book by madore would suit readers of the present volume better, as it appears to be closer in spirit i.e. with a view toward physical applications).

in other words, there are many other good (if not better) books out there.

very good book.......2000-02-26

written for physicists but worth reading for mathematicians. the book is a good intuition builder on the subject.

Introductory Differential Geometry for Physicists

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Introductory Differential Geometry for Physicists
Antoine Visconti
Manufacturer: World Scientific Pub Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9971501864

Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists

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Modern Differential Geometry for Physicists
Chris J. Isham
Manufacturer: Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 8177643169

Average customer rating:

Excellent overview and graphical explanation
Excellent overview and graphical explanation
Good attempt
Covers a lot of ground . . . but not always well
flawed and incomplete

Topology and Geometry for Physicists
Charles Nash , and Siddhartha Sen
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0125140800

Book Description

Applications from condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics and elementary particle theory appear in the book. An obvious omission here is general relativity--we apologize for this. We originally intended to discuss general relativity. However, both the need to keep the size of the book within the reasonable limits and the fact that accounts of the topology and geometry of relativity are already available, for example, in The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time by S. Hawking and G. Ellis, made us reluctantly decide to omit this topic.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent overview and graphical explanation.......2004-01-16

This book shows you the geometric view of some advanced mathematical topics. It can greatly assist your intuition of what is going on in a mathematical setting when reading a true mathematics book. Armed with this book the other advanced text in Topology, Algebraic Geometry and Differential Geometry make more sense from a Physics point of view.

Excellent overview and graphical explanation.......2004-01-16

Good attempt.......2002-07-10

When reading this book one can both admire these authors and feel sympathy with them. They have made an honest effort to explain the concepts of differential geometry and topology in a way that is understandable and appreciated by the physicist reader. But the book falls short in many places, although there are some places where they do a fine job. They have taken on a very difficult project in this book, for it is quite straightforward to expound on the formalism of mathematics, but explaining it in a way that grants insight into its conceptual meaning is another matter altogether. Many physicists complain, with justification, that the way mathematics is presented in textbooks is not sufficient for giving them a deep appreciation of the underlying ideas involved. This, they argue, is what is needed for devising new physical theories and results based on these ideas. Physicists must assimilate very complex mathematical ideas very quickly in order to formulate these theories in a reasonable time frame. This is especially true in high energy physics, which in the last two decades has used mathematics like it has never been used before. Indeed, the mathematical complexity of high energy physics is dizzying, and if progress is going to be made in this field by the students of the 21st century, they are going to need mathematics books and documents that are more than just formal expositions. But, again, writing these kinds of books is very hard to do, and has yet to be done in a book to this date, although there are helpful discussions scattered throughout the mathematical literature.

Some of the concepts that need more in-depth explanation include: the theory of characteristic classes, sheaf theory, the theory of schemes in algebraic geometry, and spectral sequences in algebraic topology. There are of course many others, and some of the ones that the authors do a fairly good job of explaining in this book include: 1. the reason that the continuity of a function is defined in terms of inverses of open sets; 2. The orientability of a manifold; 3. The fundamental group and its relation with the first homology group. 4. The discussion on Morse theory.

Covers a lot of ground . . . but not always well.......2002-05-12

Unlike many physics students, I grant a lot of leeway to books on mathematics for physicists. I think it's all right for an author to engage in hand-waving arguments if this enhances physical intuition or even to make the occasional statements without proof if this allows more ground to be covered. However, if a proof actually is presented, I expect this proof to be correct. In this book, proofs are sometimes only for special cases of theorems stated more generally and often contain logical errors.

flawed and incomplete.......2002-01-12

Nash's book commits the sin many mathematical physics textbooks out there commit: "oh, we're writing for dimwit physicists, lets just give them a few scrawny examples and assure them everything else works alright." I'm sorry but writing for physicists is NOT an excuse for writing a sloppy textbook. Would you feel alright not knowing how an integral is defined? Would you use a numerical evaluation software to calculate integrals in serious research without understanding the algorithm it uses? If you do then you're a pretty shoddy physicist. I'm not saying this out of some "macho" sentiment many purist physicists have - I'm simply saying this because I feel the way this book teaches you diff. geometry is wrong - it teaches you to draw pictures and go by the pictures. When the pictures run out, so does your understanding.

This book is supposed to teach differential geometry. However, very little can be learned from it unless one already knows differential geometry: definitions are sometimes not general and sometimes not present at all, theorems are often stated only for special cases and even more often than that not proved at all. Sure, the book offers nice geometrical intuition, but this is not enough. An example: the book "proves" Stoke's theorem around page 40. Now, even a rigorous and condensed book would have problems doing that, considering the amount of "machinery" one needs to build up for it (tensors, differential forms, manifolds and so forth). This means the book makes a mess of it - big time.
There are many fine diff. geometry books out there, some for physicists, some not, which you should check out - Nakahara's text is so much better. For geometrical intuition I suggest picking up Schutz's book. Several books from the GTM (Graduate texts in mathematics series, the yellow ones) are really very accessible, such as Introduction to Topological Manifolds/Smooth Manifolds. Another good one is Allen Hatcher's Algebraic Topology for homotopy, homology and cohomology. For a good and responsible exposition, do yourself a favor and look for something else.

Differential Geometry for Physicists (Monographs and Textbooks in Physical Science)

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Differential Geometry for Physicists (Monographs and Textbooks in Physical Science)
A. Trautman
Manufacturer: Humanities Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8870880877

Book Description

Introduced by Julian Barnes, Reliable Essays is the definitive selection of Clive Jamess outstanding essays, chosen from thirty years of spellbinding prose. Including such classic pieces as his Postcard From Rome and his memorable observations on Margaret Thatcher, it also contains brilliantly funny examinations of characters like Barry Humphries, while elsewhere showcasing Jamess more reflective and analytical side. From Germaine Greer to Marilyn Monroe, from the nature of celebrity to German culpability for the Holocaust, Reliable Essays is an unmissable cultural index of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

Not a player.......2007-08-21

"Reliable essays". Disregard the insipid choice of book title. Proof positive that you can't host TV shows and then moonlight as an intellectual is on nearly every page of this awful "Best of".

Clive James, like H.L. Mencken before him, is an autodidact. And there the similarities begin and end completely. When the great Mencken impressed readers with the breadth of his knowledge, he did so in a concise and sensible manner: any erudition he imparted was always while en route to explaining a far simpler thing, and he never said more than he needed to. In short, Mencken merely *mentioned* the things he knew. James, on the other hand, who suffers the immense handicap of coming from TV, feels the necessity to take everything he knows and spray the reader from head to toe with it. From the very first paragraph of this book, one can pluck the following example:

"It's the Orwell style. But you can't call it Orwellian, because that means Big Brother, Newspeak, the Ministry of Love, Room 101, the Lubyanka, Vorkuta, the NKVD, the MVD, the KGB, KZ Dachau, KZ Buchenwald, the Reichsschrifftumskammer, Gestapo HQ in the Prinz-Albrecht Strasse, Arbeit Macht Frei, Giovinezza, Je suis partout, the compound at Drancy, the Kempei Tai, Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, The Red Detachment of Women, the Stasi, the Securitate, cro-magnon Latino death squad goons decked out in Ray-bans after dark, the Khmer Rouge torture factory whose inmates were forbidden to scream, Idi Amin's Committee of Instant Happiness or whatever his secret police were called, and any other totalitarian obscenity that has ever reared its head or ever will."
[p. 3]

Got all that? The impression generated here is that of someone who plainly doesn't *feel* educated. Nor do they feel like educating others. A "look at me" passage of this variety imparts no useful information to the reader: it is merely a shopping-list of disjointed esoterica that could only impress other intellectual spivs eager to do some name-dropping of their own. If it sounds educated, the sound is a hollow ringing.

Moreover, it's one thing to try and pull the ladder up after you when you're learned, it's another to do so when you're the type to make goofy mistakes. For example: "the NKVD, the MVD, the KGB" are all the same organisation - these are just three of seven name-changes for what eventually became the KGB. So why not also mention the Cheka, GPU, OGPU and NKGB? (It's as if James were asked to name three rock bands and he lists Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Starship.) Also, the claim that "Orwell was the first to use the term 'cold war'" [p. 15] is clearly incorrect. Walter Lippmann was the first to promulgate the term (in 1947), and he appears to have borrowed it from the 14th-century writer Don Juan Manuel.

Anyway, this painful inferiority complex suffuses the entire book. James could never, for example, write the simple sentence: "It is a surrealist image." He has to say that "It is a surrealist image which might have been cooked up by Dali in the presence of Bunuel, by Andre Breton in the presence of Eluard" [p. 183]. It's equally difficult to simply say "My conversation with Norman Mailer ended" when highbrow pretensions demand that you say: "My colloquy with the patriarch was soon suspended." [p. 181]

This brings us to the small matter of prose style. "Postcard from Rome", for example, is allegedly one of James' most celebrated essays. Visiting the city seems to trigger his Roman pun reflex:

"Rome lay below. Those strings of lights were roads all leading to the same place."

"A lot of water has gone over the viaduct since then ..."

"Out on the old Appian Way it was as cold as Caligula's heart."

"While terrorists maim and murder at will, the cops are chasing contraltos. It's a clear case of fiddling while Rome burns."
[p. 135 et seq.]

... And so on. If I were parodying the James style right now I suppose I'd be adding some Latin and stating that this essay is the reductio ad absurdum of the expression "When in Rome ..."

It gets worse. James follows Margaret Thatcher to China. The reflex triggers again. This time it's Sino-punnery, heavily leavened with more intellectual spivvery. Thatcher's airplane lands:
"... out of a pale sky as delicately transparent as the finest ch'ing-pai ware of the Sung Dynasty".

Thatcher has:
"... gratified them by looking her best, in a plum blossom and quince-juice silk dress finely calculated to remind Chinese guests of a mo ku painting of the Late Northern Sung."

We're informed that:
"That rings a bell with the Chinese - a large bronze chung bell of the Western Chou period, decorated with projecting knobs and interlaced dragons"

As for Thatcher herself:
"Nothing like that skin had been seen since the Ting potters of Hopei had produced the last of their palace-quality high-fired white porcelain with the creamy glaze; her hair had the frozen flow of a Fukien figurine from the early Ch'ing; and her eyes were two turquoise bolts from the Forbidden City's Gate of Divine Prowess, an edifice which ..."
[p. 144 et seq.]

... but by now, who cares? As Emerson once said of Thomas Babington Macaulay, no one ever knew so much that was so little to the purpose.

Then there is the question of plain sense. What are we to make of the statement that Vladimir Nabokov "was solipsistically proprietorial about Russia, the novel and art itself" [p. 103]? Or of the post-Holocaust claim that "we're different now. But nobody is that different now. Because nobody was that different then" [p. 261]? Or the assertion that 'China is a big place. Here, at the edge, it is a bit like the West, but the edge, we had learned, is a long way from the middle' [p. 158]?

The first words printed on the opening page of this book are from a press review. Michael Schmidt beams: "When I come across a Clive James essay in a periodical, I save it for last, knowing it will be a treat." This giddy compliment confirms that Clive James has probably earned the kind of admirers he deserves - grown-ups who react to his writing in the same way that a 10-year-old reacts to a box of gooey chocolates. And for the same reasons.

******************************************************

Done? Almost. Why not end with another Clive James' shotgun-blast of trivia? Did you know that ...

"Germaine Greer is a storm of images; has already been promoted variously as Germaine de Stael, Fleur Fenton Cowles, Rosa Luxemburg and Beatrice Lillie; and at the time of writing needs only a few more weeks' exposure in order to reoccupy the corporeally vacant outlines of Lou-Andreas Salome, George Sand, Marie von Thurn un Taxis-Hohenlohes and Marjorie Jackson (the Lithgow Flash)."
[p. 197]

When Princess Di died, Clive was here to Speak For All Of Us.......2005-04-25

From Clive's blessed sacred obituary for Princess Diana: "No. It was the first word of that cataclysmic Sunday morning: 'no' pronounced through an ascending sob, the consonant left behind in the chest voice as the vowel climbed into the head voice, the pure wail of lament whereby anyone, no matter how tone deaf, for one terrible moment becomes a singer."

Oh the humanity! Clive then goes on to brag about his cherished dinner dates with Di. Seriously. (I swear I'm not making this up.)

Reliable Essays: The Best of Clive James

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Reliable Essays: The Best of Clive James
Clive JAMES
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUOJB2

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