Talk:Phylum Monsters

What is a review?
A 1-line listing in an index is not a review. Dust-jacket promotional copy is not a review. A review explains and explores the theme of the book, talks about influences that the book has and would have on other books, and generally is more than 2 paragraphs long. A review is not a plot summary teaser. It also helps if the "reviewer" can spell, use English correctly, and has *read the book*.

Anyone reading "Phylum Monsters" would immediately be struck by the parody of the automobile industry represented by the Big 7 creches, and would muse on the dehumanization represented by turning human beings into the produce of mass-marketing. And the failures described in the book are reminescent of the massive recall campaigns by the auto makers. This is glaringly obvious and yet none of the "reviews" I've seen so far talk about this. And no, you can't use *this* paragraph in defense of notability because its on the Wikipedia which does not consider itself a reliable source; it's also "original thought" (in the Wikipedia sense of the term). --Wtshymanski (talk) 14:27, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

A word from the author
Sigh, I had hoped to stay out of this, since my interest in WP is about 00.0001 percent. But someone drew my attention to this and I thought I would take 20 seconds to set the record straight. Years ago, when I was a prolific WP contributor, under my own name, of course, unlike 99.9% of the vandals and jackals who constitute the main element of contributors here, I did write what I thought were NPOV and straightforward articles about two of my earlier books. I was just about to start one about Phylum Monsters when some geniuses came up with an "improved" template that they were urging people to use to fit in *all* articles about novels. There were, if I recall, about ten Headers, under which we were supposed to put in the appropriate material. The first header was Explain the title. So I started the article by filling out the first header. Hence the blurb-like material still lurking there. Having done that, I then lost interest, permanently, in WP and departed for Citizendium, where life has been vandal- and cretin-free, as well as being stress-free: you ought to try the experience -- you will no longer cringe when the thingee at the top of the page tells you that a new message has been sent to your Talk page.... Hayford Peirce (talk) 00:09, 28 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I've removed the headers. And hear, hear, viva el Zendium! Rothorpe (talk) 00:56, 1 March 2009 (UTC)


 * PS -- I forgot to say above that I personally don't give a hoot about whether the article is deleted or not. As in most things about WP, my attitude is "N'importe quoi!" Hayford Peirce (talk) 19:36, 1 March 2009 (UTC)