This book caught me in the story from the beginning. Yes there were some boring parts but seriously, who would have thought that a Civil War vet and an inmate of an insane asylum created 10,000 of the entries that are in the OED. No wonder we have such a crazy language, 10,000 definitions were submitted by a crazy man! It all makes sense now!
Have you ever gone into the library to see the print version of the OED. They are seriously massive. No wonder they began being known as the 'Big Dictionary.' I love that that chapter starts out with the OED definition of Elephant. It's a great play on words.
I enjoyed the definitions at the beginning of a lot of the chapters (murder, mystery, etc) because it was like a sneak peak as to what we would be reading all the while tying it back to the reason we are reading about this story- the OED. I think this is a book that would be fun to read while doing research papers because it connects with the idea of research but has some fun mysterious elements that students could read about. It is interesting to see what students would think about Dr. Minor and had he not been insane (or if he had been treated) how things would have turned out. It's an interesting topic that would be a lot of fun in a classroom!
And for your enjoyment, here is a hysterical song about the OED and this book thanks to youtube. Oh how I love youtube!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IZYzxNOUtw
Katie, I totally agree. I mean, who doesn't like reading about venereal diseases? haha! But I thought that the fact that he was crazy, yet posing as a sophisticated, well educated man who contributed to such a work of literary art was... unbelievable! I have always wanted to study psychology because I have always been fascinated by how the mind actually works. I think that "crazies" are actually pretty smart. It's just a matter of the projects they put their brains to that end up getting them jailed :P Really though, think of some of the murders, break-ins, master-minded insane things that people have done. Who thinks like that? No one!!! Normal people, who I define as people with morals, values and general beliefs, would never think like that. I think that psychos, crazies, master-minds of evil think that way because they're actually more intelligent. It's just that they see the wrong in killing another human being, or they didn't think that far ahead, or... I'm so babbling and this has become an uneducated response but do you see where I'm going with this? I truly think it's fascinating how the mind works, especially in the minds of those we deem "crazy".
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Professor Trogdon's research scavenger hunt as well and definitely want to use that with my future students!
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