I just read a review of a children's book written in 1911 (the review is from 1913) and the person reviewing the book totally missed the point of the story. The whole thing went right over the reviewer's head.
Tempted to write the latest, least expected bad book review clap-back in the history of humankind.
A thing that few seem to realize is there are a lot of books. At any time thousands rest in archives, on shelves but no living person has read them. These books are part of human history but NOT our living memory.
We assume the books everyone keeps reading are the best of their era-- but, what if some of the best stories are those forgotten?
This relates to one of my favorite impossible questions:
Like "The smallest uninteresting number" the most obscure book is a paradox. Because, of course, lots of us are curious what it is.
It occurred to me I could find some of these obscure books. I like to find and read books with little written about them. Most of the obscure books are pretty terrible. They were forgotten because they are forgettable. But this isn't always the case.
Sometimes you stumble on a gem. "Busy: The Life of an Ant" is such a gem. 3/
And I think the review I found of this book goes some way to explain the obscurity. The review is so bad that it borders on misrepresentation. I think the reviewer must have disliked the author, or not read the book, or just not liked their job or maybe didn't like ants. The review does not make the book sound appealing at all. But since it was a part of a somewhat popular series, the book survived, but then was mostly forgotten.
We read C. S. Lewis, but I could recommend "Busy" as much.
@futurebird The same phenomenon exists in music- hell, I've posted to some music hashtags here songs that fit the times amazingly but seem to have been forgotten.
The Bangles are now just "the Walk Like an Egyptian" band and not the ones who demonstrated how "A Hazy Shade of Winter" was meant to be played.
Santigold's "I'm a Lady" also comes to mind. Theres so much cool shit that's been forgotten, thanks for sharing your rediscovery!
@martin_piper@futurebird
It is 1913. At a desk, the reviewer writes one last word, puts down the pen, takes the paper, gets up, walks and hands it to the editor. This review should put that damned author in his place.
Then a sudden, indescribable, overwhelming sense of dread, of utter shame. What a terrible thing to have done! But too late - too late to correct this foul deed.
Unseen, on a bookshelf - a tiny ant blinks out of existence, having delivered her psychic message from the future.
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