On Malcolm Gladwell
There has been so much hype about Malcolm Gladwell's new book Blink that it serves us well to pay heed to Farhad's assesment:
There's just no arguing with Gladwell. A good Malcolm Gladwell piece is a kind of magic trick; you read it for the giddy pleasure in learning some delicious anecdotes about our society (like the psychology behind the failure of New Coke, or the secrets to improv comedy) and for the thrill in seeing the writer tie these disparate artifacts into a grand theory. Does the grand theory hold up? Maybe, maybe not. But that's an unfair question, a bit like asking if the magician really sawed his assistant in half.
I generally agree with Farhad (who is a wonderful critic and journalist). But is it really an unfair question? I have some major problems with Tipping Point, Gladwell's last overhyped, brilliantly written collection of gee-whiz anectodes. I have not read Blink. But I will enter it with a critical and unblinking eye.
Anyone else out there have thoughts on Gladwell?
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