Customer Reviews

Out of Harm's Way

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(47)

 

 

It's sad in this day and age to see such an gross abuse of prose. Whatever one thinks of the author's controversial political stance, one thing that is undeniable is his poor command of the English language.

Jack Thompson writes as if English were a second language to him, from his ridiculous proclamations to a proclivity for grandstanding that would make Cotton Mather blush.

There are plenty of good books out their about violence and videogames. This isn't one of them.

How he can claim to be a crusader against the evils of the video-game and other forms of modern pop-media and claim to speak truths, yet not engage in any rational dialogue between himself and those people he so vehemently attacks is beyond me.

I respect a person's right to say what he wants to say, and I respect the way Mr. Thompson feels, however I cannot in good conscience give this book any higher than 1 star due to the fact that he claims what he says is full-truths and yet does not include any dissenting opinions of others in his book. Any good lawyer knows that for an argument to be complete it must include dissenting opinions and address those concerns in a respectable fashion. Otherwise all the claims you make is nothing more than a load of tripe, and is not worth hard earned money as you learn nothing from the reading.

[...]

There's always that man you hear about, and because his name kept popping up on the news, I found this book used at [...] and decided to give it a read. In all honestly, I wasn't suprised when I didn't agree with anything Mr Thompson had to say. But after reading it, I do believe the man is entitled to his own opinions.

As far as the book itself, it's terribly one sided. It reads as if theres a debate, yet only pushes his point of view without mentioning anything else. So in that aspect, I was rather disappointed. I also felt that the book lacked serious content. It seemed as if most of the book he was rehashing the same material. In my opinion, if you have to rehash your material over and over to get people to listen to you, I really don't feel you should be writing a book.

I only bought this book because the antics of this man make me laugh and I wanted to see what new conspiracy theories he came up with.

What I got, however, was the same recycled dribble he throws out to every single gaming news site that will listen to him. Not only that, but the book is extremely self indulgent. From the title, I thought it would be mainly about his crusade against what he labels pornography. The majority of the chapters are just another was to promote himself and try to get in with all the other God-fearing, republican, heavy-metal-equals-satan types out there.

He relies on his scare tactics of using half- and un-truths towards gamers and the like. It's people like him who make parents fear their own children and it's scary.

Don't read this book unless you're interested for the same reason I was. Other than that, it's a pure waste of time and just read the news reports on the gaming sites. It's the same stuff.

Sorry, Jack, but you can't please all the people. Especially not the gamers, like me.
[...]

Jack Thompson is the man of the moment, and certainly one of the most interesting people in current affairs today.I, like many others have heard of the sensation surrounding Jack, and was interested in hearing the reasons behind Jacks quest - who was the man behind the mask?
Unfortunately, I was expecting an honest biography. What I got was the same tired old politics - more hysterical ranting that anything based on truth.
If you HAVE to read this book, please buy a second hand copy - [...]. It's poorly written, and frankly uninteresting. If you can, search the internet and find the same subject matter in a more compressed and less biased format. (there was a particularly good radio show on Chatterbox internet radio.)Jack doesn't need more money, but he does deserve discrediting.

[...] this book just isn't worth the time. The style of writing is bland at best, and really shows that whoever actually put the words to paper isn't an experienced writer. Worse yet the editing seems rushed as errors abound, further degrading an already poor read. It's also almost insulting at points due to its lack of objectiveness, like if you don't agree with the opinions in the book you're a monster.

This book just isn't worth your time or money.

One of the worst books I've laid my eyes on. The book is full of lies and foolish propaganda that only the least educated folks would believe. This book could be useful if shredded into little pieces and used as cat litter.

I found this book to be far too one-sided in it's arguements. If the author truly wanted to present their debate in a meaningful manner they failed miserably. The view that opposes the author is not even mentioned clearly, and for the most part not at all. I would like to know more about where the author had published his research, but I think that would be a useless point since this seems like nothing more than opinion.

Having borrowed this book from my aunt (who was so disgusted with the misrepresented facts and prejudiced opinions she wanted to throw it away) and read it this week, all I can say is this:

I am the brother of 2 other boys who WERE victims in a high school shooting. They, having also read the book, were offended that "Jack" could ever think that any person could blame something such as a book, poster, video game, statue, art, movie or television show for their actions.

[...]

The book, poorly written and with no apparent solution besides laying blame would be better listed as a satire of the topic it's trying to (mistakenly) uphold.

Despite all of the controversy surrounding this book, it seems unclear as to how he can justify all of his accusations against the media. His case could have been done exceptionally well, but it wasn't. Rather than provide a clear argument on behalf of those concerned with family values, Thompson remarks in a fairly childish manner without any real evidence beyond his own suspicions. This, coming from a lawyer, has me very concerned. It isn't necessarily the language, I will not say he is incapable of putting a sentence together by any means, but his argument is lacking. I wish he could have done better.

If you're looking for a book on family values for the media, this isn't it. There is certainly a feel of Ad Nauseum throughout the book. The book simply reaffirms only what Jack Thompson believes, as if he wrote it for himself.