05/29/07 Nora Pierce

I heard the show and thought it was a great interview, interesting to hear the background of the writer. I've read the book and found it very poignant. It is an excellent book - the writing is spare, and Pierce has the ability to create moods with the minimum of economy, a great talent. I highly recommend this book.

I know absolutely nothing about the book, but I must say that its title makes me uncomfortable. I think Oscar Wilde all but depleted the category of book titles, "The Abstract Noun of the Object of a Preposition" in titling his best known work after such a pattern ("The Importance of Being Earnest"). It was the double-entendre, perhaps, that redeemed it. Or the play itself - which is entirely possible, in any case. I just think there are other title forms both relatively unexplored and under-appreciated. What about the simple predicate nominative statement, "Maps are Insufficient"; add to that a rhetorical device, like litotes if it's too plain: "Maps Are Not a Little Insufficient"; try a reversal of some sort, perhaps, like "Maps Are Lacking in Sufficiency" (there you have a bit of the "Earnest" thing Wilde so cleverly conceived); or use the participle of some interesting verb, bring in a thesaurus, as in "Cartography is Plagued by Insufficiency". Predicate nominatives are just one such form...