The Kingdom of Speech is a captivating, paradigm-shifting argument that speech -- not evolution -- is responsible for humanity's complex societies and achievements. I was scrolling through thousands of my library's digital offerings when I saw this and thought, "Hmmm...I've never read any Tom Wolfe; maybe I should give him a try." With the public Everett was the easy winner. Scientific investigation leaves itself room to be modified in deal with new input as a matter of course. Seems a lot of 1 star reviews don't like Wolfe's take down on Darwin. I’m not sure how much Wolfe believes, or disbelieves, in evolution, but he does criticize it here. He wrote a best-seller with the title Don’t Sleep—There are Snakes,” which was Piranha for “Good Night.” If Chomsky’s theory was not defeated it was highly qualified. Tom Wolfe, whose legend began in journalism, takes us on an eye-opening journey that is sure to arouse widespread debate. Excellent. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. . Protocol requires if new evidence emerges that credibly challenges established conclusions, scientists reexamine the issue at hand and alter theories as required to accommodate new data. Did Wolfe touch a lot of raw nerves with this book? It helped me understand how little understood language is so that I could more properly assess the potential of NLP. But praise for this book should really end there. It had no recursion, a word coined by Chomsky to describe the ability of language to use complex sentences implying many ideas. That is how they do things in the disciplines that are interested in facts that can be measured. Start by marking “The Kingdom of Speech” as Want to Read: Error rating book. The Kingdom of Speech is traversing the right territory, but it is too loose, too glib, and, in a few places, too glaringly flawed to be that book. And there is nothing in Scripture more frightening than the promise that every word we have spoken is known to God and will be heard again. With that said, I was happy to find that I had not yet read all of Wolfe's non-fiction (thanks to. It is an artifact and it explains man’s power over all other creatures in a way Evolution all by itself can’t begin to.” Speech is the dividing line between man and other animals; only speech gives the human beast the ability to make plans . First, he rounds up the usual emperors in their usual new clothes, parades them before us, and pokes them with sticks that wouldn't hurt so bad i. I was scrolling through thousands of my library's digital offerings when I saw this and thought, "Hmmm...I've never read any Tom Wolfe; maybe I should give him a try." I normally would give this a 4 star rating, but I noticed there are a lot of pained 1 star reviews, so I upped my rating to a 5 to bring back some balance to the total average. The Kingdom of Speech is a captivating, paradigm-shifting argument that speech - not evolution - is responsible for humanity's complex societies and achievements. This is a bit like his classic attacks on pretentious flim flammery, This book is, simply put, the heresy of an uneducated washed-up author. Combining the vagueness of informal language with the pomposity of formal language, Wolfe's style is grating and awkward for non-fiction writing, but this book is short enough that it didn't accumulate into intolerable for me. Five stars for making fun of Darwin (for the despicable way he double-crossed Alfred Wallace) and Chompsky (for being an armchair intellectual nincompoop). Wolfe's logic is completely lacking and shows how not arrive at a theory through proper scientific method. They made no artifacts other than the bow and arrow, the existence of which among them was part of the mystery. If you have always been suspicious of the Chomsky hagiography gang, you will enjoy this book. The Kingdom of Speech is a captivating, paradigm-shifting argument that speech -- not evolution -- is responsible for humanity's complex societies and achievements. . Tom Wolfe takes a crack of the beauty of this aspect with this “The Kingdom of Speech.” I do like Tom Wolfe, so reader beware I’m probably biased. After Wolfe's death I looked for books he authored that I hadn't read. Tom Wolfe one day stumbled across a 2014 essay by eight "heavyweight Evolutionists," the famed-linguist Noam Chomsky being notability among them, and was startled by their conclusion that, after 150 years of scientific research and academic speculation, what we know about speech and language remains "as mysterious as ever." (I mean, these gods are worshipped so devotedly so as to make you ill). [1] This is a book that treats Charles Darwin as a toplofty prig and Noam Chomsky as a haughty fake—which is to say it aims to harpoon two of the biggest whales of modern secular thought. For a reporter-then-novelist to write about evolution is like me writing a treatise on brain surgery. Yes! (Have you even read the book? It had no recursion, a word coined by Chomsky to describe the ability of language to use complex sentences implying many ideas. The Kingdom of Speech: Tom Wolfe / Little, Brown Pub. Groundbreaking journalist and bestselling novelist Tom Wolfe, author of The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, and I Am Charlotte Simmons, now applies his virtuosity to the source of all of humanity's achievements. Tom Wolfe tries to take down Charles Darwin and Noam Chomsky with baffling (and terrible) results. Five stars for making fun of Darwin (for the despicable way he double-crossed Alfred Wallace) and Chompsky (for being an armchair intellectual nincompoop). Tom Wolfe, whose legend began in journalism, takes us on an eye-opening journey that is sure to arouse widespread debate. He also appears unable to meaningfully back/cite/logically argue any of his lofty claims. And above all is the glad fact that the name of the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the savior of mankind, called faithful and true, is “clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God” (Revelation 19:13-14). Wolfe is a Darwinian (I think), but he believes on good evidence that Darwin stole his theory from Wallace, who had written Darwin asking him to forward his paper sketching a theory of evolution to Charles Lyell. I recommend this book to you if you have more than half a brain, so that you can muse at the shortcomings. A senior highschool student could come up with stronger arguments FOR his claims. Refresh and try again. 26 Video Lectures on the History of the Church by Dr. Patrick, A complicated and brilliant book. Slaughters holy scientific cows left, right and center. Combining the vagueness of informal language with the pomposity of formal language, Wolfe's style is grating and awkward for non-fiction writing, but this book is short enough that it didn't accumulate into intolerable for me. It is written at breathtaking speed, motivated by the power of language, with some great protagonists and antagonists, showing that science is also, but not only, a social affair. Of all the nerve. The text, while clearly under-researched, still touches on enough important. Most troublesome of all, Wolfe acted like an annoyed child each time he had to “correct” himself with the “new politically correct” terms for indigenous people, making it partway through the word “native” EVERY TIME. This is one. No where in any credible theory of scientific endeavor does it say that the interpretation of the facts is final. So after the silence of a century, during which grave scholars had admitted that they knew nothing of the origin of speech, the idea grew that speech was the ultimate cultural accomplishment, the tool that enabled man to master nature. I hope to write more about this later. If you are or were part of the gang, you should probably read it. And there is the mystery involved in the sudden ability of two-year-olds to speak their language, recursively, a phenomenon that supports Chomsky’s language organ thesis. Those two books also dealt with a smaller topic - the conflict between American independent thought and the tendency of American intellectuals to follow European "isms," one of Wolfe's particular bugaboos. The maestro storyteller and reporter provocatively argues that what we think we know about speech and human evolution is wrong. A story beautifully told, yet one in which it clarifies the nature and function of language still does not tell us much about the origin of language and speech. In his new book The Kingdom of Speech, Tom Wolfe argues that speech and not evolution is responsible for the many achievements of humans.Wolfe, the author of The Right Stuff and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, went on NPR the other day to talk about the book. This is the type of rhetoric that damages the p. This book is, simply put, the heresy of an uneducated washed-up author. Another key shortfall: speech and language are not the same thing! Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Those two books also dealt with a smaller topic - the conflict between American independent thought and the tendency of American intellectuals to follow European "isms," one of Wol. Satirist Tom Wolfe is back with another contrarian broadside against sacred cows. 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