First, I think Thom Stark deserves recognition for his achievement. A three hundred page review of a two hundred page book is an extraordinary thing. I always thought there was an unwritten rule that book reviews should not exceed the length of the books they are reviewing, but Stark has boldly challenged that rule.
How’s that an extraordinary achievement? Nowadays, books are written on computer. It wouldn’t be very hard for Stark to copy/paste a lot of stuff from his book on The Human Faces of God to his review of Copan, with minor editing. Does Rauser imagine Stark did this all from scratch?
There's nothing particularly extraordinary about filling 300 pages with puffery and promotion of one's own personal opinions except, perhaps, the considerable restraint demonstrated by stopping at 300 pages.
Maybe it's a case of: the lady doth protest too much, me thinks?
ReplyDeleteActually, Richard Carrier broke that barrier in his reply to my book.
ReplyDeleteSo it was not unprecedented.
ReplyDeleteWhat Carrier lacks in quality he makes up for in quantity.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing particularly extraordinary about filling 300 pages with puffery and promotion of one's own personal opinions except, perhaps, the considerable restraint demonstrated by stopping at 300 pages.
ReplyDeleteIn Him,
CD