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Log inOmnia bona quoad perfora
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Omnia bona quoad perfora
by Petrichor Wed Nov 06, 2013 1:38 pm
"Throughout “The Frackers,” feet are dragged, new leaves turned over, jaws dropped, wounds licked, torches passed, fences swung for, wrenches thrown, noses paid through, hardball played, helms taken, cats let out of bags, sunsets ridden into.
How good does nonfiction writing have to be? It’s a complicated question; there are so many variables. One answer, though, is: better than this. Isn’t there cliché-isolating software publishers can put to use? If not, why not? We need an app for this.
Second-rate writing and second-rate thinking tend to arrive in tandem, like the Captain & Tennille. “The Frackers” has little of nuance to say about geology or engineering. You will not come away with a more sophisticated notion of how hydraulic fracturing or horizontal drilling works.
Close examination of fracking’s environmental issues is abjured as well. Mr. Zuckerman raises these issues only briefly, and only to dismiss them by scampering safely up the middle. “Many of the environmental threats can be addressed or are overstated,” he says. “But progress has been too slow, there have been damaging missteps, and some say there’s too little regulation.”
Other recent books drive you along dirt roads this one will not. The science is vastly more rigorous in Tom Wilber’s “Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale” (2012). And “The End of Country: Dispatches From the Frack Zone” (2011), by Seamus McGraw, about natural gas extraction in northeastern Pennsylvania, is soulful and well reported.
“The Frackers” reminds you that books are a bit like promising oil or natural gas fields. As the Latin phrase has it, “Omnia bona quoad perfora.” All prospects look good until drilled."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/books/the-frackers-by-gregory-zuckerman.html?hp&_r=0
How good does nonfiction writing have to be? It’s a complicated question; there are so many variables. One answer, though, is: better than this. Isn’t there cliché-isolating software publishers can put to use? If not, why not? We need an app for this.
Second-rate writing and second-rate thinking tend to arrive in tandem, like the Captain & Tennille. “The Frackers” has little of nuance to say about geology or engineering. You will not come away with a more sophisticated notion of how hydraulic fracturing or horizontal drilling works.
Close examination of fracking’s environmental issues is abjured as well. Mr. Zuckerman raises these issues only briefly, and only to dismiss them by scampering safely up the middle. “Many of the environmental threats can be addressed or are overstated,” he says. “But progress has been too slow, there have been damaging missteps, and some say there’s too little regulation.”
Other recent books drive you along dirt roads this one will not. The science is vastly more rigorous in Tom Wilber’s “Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale” (2012). And “The End of Country: Dispatches From the Frack Zone” (2011), by Seamus McGraw, about natural gas extraction in northeastern Pennsylvania, is soulful and well reported.
“The Frackers” reminds you that books are a bit like promising oil or natural gas fields. As the Latin phrase has it, “Omnia bona quoad perfora.” All prospects look good until drilled."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/books/the-frackers-by-gregory-zuckerman.html?hp&_r=0
Petrichor- Posts : 1725
Join date : 2012-04-10
Re: Omnia bona quoad perfora
by garam_kuta Wed Nov 06, 2013 2:28 pm
hmmm.. one needs to be careful ; wouldn't be nice to say 'Omnia bona quoad perfora' in a dating/bride looking context 
garam_kuta- Posts : 3768
Join date : 2011-05-18
Re: Omnia bona quoad perfora
by Rishi Wed Nov 06, 2013 2:38 pm
>>>LMAOgaram_kuta wrote:hmmm.. one needs to be careful ; wouldn't be nice to say 'Omnia bona quoad perfora' in a dating/bride looking context
This reminds me of what I read in a book by an NRI settled in England. He went to Mumbai. Dated a girl there. Took her to his hotel room.
He saw two young men standing in front of the room. 'Who are they?' he asked the girl. 'My brothers. They are there to protect me in case you try something ', she said.
Rishi- Posts : 5129
Join date : 2011-09-02
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