Reviews for Fax You; Urgent Images

The average rating for Fax You; Urgent Images based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-23 00:00:00 Christopher Rooney A good read, excellent ideas. It's worthy of 4 stars as a regular book, but the audio wasn't quite as good since the PDF is needed occasionally & that, unlike the audio book, is tied up under DRM so I couldn't access it. WTF? I found it on Recorded Books' site without any DRM. Oy! He starts off by defining "elegance" as a quality that contains: symmetry, seduction, subtraction & sustainability. It's pleasing due satisfying our desire for patterns & it often engages our mind by not giving us all the answers, so scratches our curiosity bump. What makes the Mona Lisa so fantastic is the slight blurring of the eyes & mouth so her expression is enigmatic, changing at each look, rather than static. Beethoven doesn't complete the pattern until the last chord, just constantly builds toward it. Elegance is simple, but simple isn't always elegant. Simple can remove too much which can leave us either frustrated or uninterested, so there's a fine balance. In hindsight, it generally seems obvious & gives the maximum gain for the minimum effort with a sustainable outcome. There are a lot of examples in the book showing a variety of elegant solutions in everything from music & paintings to architecture & traffic patterns. Some were quite surprising since they go against our nature for action & often are hampered by our brain bugs. He quoted a variety of studies & even allowed the reader to participate in some of them which was quite engaging - rather elegant. He delves into some Eastern philosophies, examining parts of them in the search of elegance. I was particularly interested in "shibumi", the title of a novel by Trevanian about an assassin. It's the core philosophy of his life, so I found the use of it in construction quite ironic. It epitomizes some of the art of elegance through subtraction, the most economic use of form & function. There were a lot of ideas that can help in my own life. Not only should I have a To-Do list, but also a Stop-Doing. Possibly move the lower part of the To-Do list to the Forget-About-It pile to free up resources. Look at the forest, not just the elephant in the foreground. How did he get there & where is he going? I also found that, even though I've never used the word, I've strived for it in many ways. The bowls I turn out of green, found wood are a prime example. I rarely stain or put any decorative touches on them, preferring to create flowing curves & finishes that accentuate the innate beauty of the natural wood. Elegance is also a term that applies to much of Roger Zelazny's writing. He's long been one of my favorite authors & now I can put a label on the appeal of his work. He doesn't tell the entire story. He tells just enough, hints at more through allusions, but those are often somewhat open to interpretation. The lack of detail intrigues & engages me far more than an overly descriptive story would. For instance, we're never sure if Conrad is just a long-lived mutant or the immortal Pan in This Immortal or possibly some combination. He scoff's at Phil's cyclic history idea, but he's not a particularly reliable narrator & a proven liar. Interesting & well narrated. Highly recommended, but I think text format might be best.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-12-04 00:00:00 Ian Wellsby Interesting book on why we need elegance and how to achieve it. Elegance is defined as "cleverly apt and simple" and is achieved through symmetry, seduction, subtraction, and sustainability. I liked the big idea of the book and enjoyed the many examples, but did not always see the connection between the two. "The power of elegance is achieved when the maximum impact is exacted with the minimum input." (need to work on my wordiness) Why we need elegance: "Because by nature we tend to add when we should subtract, and act when we should stop and think. Because we need some way to consistently replace value-destroying complexity with value-creating simplicity. Because we need to know how to make room for more of what matters by eliminating what doesn't." (This is probably the main point I took from the book.)