[lit-ideas] Re: a little more on books
- From: "Julie Krueger" <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:28:35 -0500
I saw him, shortly after he became an item on either Oprah or 60 Minutes or
something like that, giving portions of his "last" lecture. I was deeply
impressed with him. I haven't looked at the book, so I have no idea how it
developed or was developed from his thoughts upon learning that he was
dying. However .... I would strongly suggest that you look him up on
YouTube -- his much publicized lecture is there. And for me, at least, it
is powerful.
Julie Krueger
On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 3:43 PM, Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I am still trying to condense my thoughts on recent reads, but I've
> run into a snag. Allow me to briefly explain:
>
> One of the books I read was called "The Last Lecture" by a Carnegie
> Mellon professor Randy Pausch. My basic review of it _WAS_ this:
>
> I ran into this book while browsing. The title caught my eye. I had
> never heard of Randy Pausch, but the synopsis seemed like something
> possibly intriguing (something I always like to have in a book) and
> uplifting (something that is sometimes nice if not too schmaltzy a la
> Mitch Albom etc.)
>
> A man diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer writes about his 'last
> lecture'. Apparently, this is an exercise which a lot of public
> speakers go through -- even if not actually delivering it, they write
> it to see what it would be. In his case, this really would be a 'last
> lecture' -- or at least a last lecture of note. The thing that caught
> me as a surprise was that this book was really just sort of ABOUT his
> last lecture. In other words, there was very little of his last
> lecture in it. He would begin a chapter "I then said..." but he didn't
> quote himself, he just went on and on about what he had sort of said
> and then related it more to his current (at the time the book was
> written) situation.
>
> But a lecture, especially this incredible LAST one needs to be concise
> and poignant BY ITSELF. In this case, it WAS delivered and by all
> humble accounts (his) people were very impressed.
>
> But as it stands, as a book, it took on a kind of moribund tone, not
> because he was dying, or because of his writing style or his attitude
> (which was remarkably good considering his prognosis) but just because
> it seemed like such a pointless thing to do (write a book attempting
> to expand something that you should have already done perfectly - and
> apparently DID) while you were dying -- because, in my opinion, he
> didn't do it very well: that is write the book.
>
> By the end of the book I was perplexed by several things:
>
> a) he was still alive and 'well'
> b) there wasn't so much as a single quoted piece of text from this lecture
> c) there was a website advertised on the back cover called
> www.lastlecture.com which consisted SOLELY of a brief biography with
> updates about what was going on in his life and a link to buy his
> book. I visited this website about two weeks ago. The biography at
> that time gave me no indication that he was on a downward spiral or
> anything like that.
>
> I did a bit of research and learned that his 'story' had been
> Oprahized and he actually retold his 'last lecture' on there or
> something like that and he had turned into a phenomenon. As far as I
> was concerned that was even worse to know. It was all so
> distasteful...
>
> and TWO years after the fact, he was STILL ALIVE.
>
> Well, last Thursday, Randy Pausch died. And I don't feel any
> differently than I did before I found that out (five minutes ago).
>
> this concerns me in that it doesn't concern me,
> p
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