Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1.0 out of 5 stars
weak philosophy, weaker plot, will give you perpetual headaches..., January 25, 2006
After reading this book,to claim that any work by this man would be the next step after James Joyce is ludicrous and basically impossible to claim for any sane mind. Unfortunately the author of the former review is likely to be the author of the book as well. Sad for him.
First of all, John Ryskamp is not well versed in any of the topics he is touching upon within the context of this pseudo-novel. His so called disproof of relativity does not contain a tinge of intellectual contribution. I would like to see him discussing his view in a paper published at Arxiv database or some noteworthy journal like Physical Review Letters other than the customer reviews of amazon. If you would like to see a serious discussion of special relativity, you start with Anajibidan Das's work 'The Special Theory of Relativity : A Mathematical Exposition'. Moreover there is Misner-Thorne and Wheeler's seminal work which is incredibly cogent in delineating what the space-time fabric is all about.
With that said, if a person who is apparently unable to define what a point in space means, embarks upon disproving relativity, he does not prove to be ridiculous only; he becomes pathetic. Making things worse, a recent experiment at MIT by David Pritchard et al. showed with extreme precision that E=mc^2 is accurate. This equation is a direct result of the theory of special relativity.
Finally, there is only one American author who has accomplished something so that his name is worthy of mentioning along with Joyce, and he is Thomas Pynchon. But even he is very far away from reaching the literary genius of Joyce. American culture is still immature to produce another James Joyce. Moreover, being a competent author does not allow one to trascend his name to someone like Joyce automatically. For that, a pure genius accompanied with immense cultural sophistication is required with a commensurate output. Both of these traits, however, as you can construe when you read the text, something this author heavily lacks. Dont waste your money on this pseudo-novel.
P.S.: I have no affiliation with the author and I am generally generous with my ratings. My lowest rating is 2 stars since I respect the honest work/creation of an author even if I have a real dislike for him/her. But this work stinks, there is nothing to appreciate in it.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No question, the greatest work written by an American, August 9, 1998
By A Customer
I've seen the galleys of NS, which is the book Ryskamp fans have been waiting for for, oh, about 20 years (remember the Artforum piece, which was the last thing Warhol ever read? or those Harvard articles?). It will cause a very big sensation because of its horrific Clinton sex scene. NS is called "idiosyncratic" by Curt White, but every new kind of art is called that. Instead, look for "doubling" in this book. The author got it from Balzac via Proust. Everything in the book appears twice--not just characters, but also phrases, scenes, ideas. That is what creates the halluciogenic impression. Things in it which seem indeciperable, arcane or "idiosyncratic", just reflect that modus operandi--although sourcing it will be difficult just as in Eliot (a mighty influence on this book). NS has already been compared to Mann and Melville, but that's pretty faint praise. Homer is closer, and is quoted at the beginning, and stolen from throughou! t, the book. Check out the wild scene from Brothers K with R conversing with Mondrian while a horse is beaten to death in the background. Very bizarre and moving in a strange way. Or that fantastic scene from Proust w/ Nico dressed as a man (as was Mlle. Lea). Not only does NS contain the relativity disproof, but also publishes the New Bill of Rights for the first time. The first edition is certainly worth getting, since FC2 authors don't sell so they never print many copies. JR has two more in waiting which are in typescript in Berkeley. One is THE NONEXISTENT, the next step after Joyce. The other is a group of small masterpieces cal1ed: the 20th century. I don't know who's bringing them out or when. The 21st century begins with the publication of Nature Studies.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alas! The First Great American Novel, October 4, 2006
This work contains stunning insights on human, animal, ecological, intellectual, planetary, & celestial categories. If for nothing else read it for that. Great literature is amazing because no matter where you open it, you're on the right page and it reads wonderfully. These manuscripts seem to be written with the understanding that no particular element in the work is responsible for the ultimate raison d'etre- it's existence, the reason for its creation, and any understanding of comprehending the work itself. No character, no event, no plot, nothing is the crux. However everthing is and isn't at the same time the crux of the novel. Everthing is and isn't its' raison d'etre. You can completely disgard any element and the piece still carries on!
This novel reads like a painting: you can start it from any point. Pick it up and read. You will shortly happen accross some stunning insight on human nature reading like this one: "human beings are by turns insouciant and psychotic, dreamy and Hitlerian, they are like unto the generation of leaves: like the leaves, they flourish for a little while on the bounty of the earth, then flaunt their brilliant colors like plumage, then in a moment droop and fade away." OR:
"There is but one truth in our time: the growth of an ecological consciousness."
The novel is riddled with amazing insights throughout. Check this one out:
"the constitution is not the state, not the gov't, not the administration, or the bureaucracy, The Constitution is the Individual." "Language is our first form of mass production."
There may be areas of this book you simply won't or can't understand. Those places can be completely passed over. Other places in this novel will tell you the same thing in a way you will understand it. The structure of this book is rather plastic- like a big moving clay glob out in space. When you strike(meaning the process of reading it), it moves in and another part bulges out and around to cover up where you "stuck" it! It's like a big jelly globule-cloud.
Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this novel; but also don't underestimate its complexity! It is both to extreme degrees! So much so that a child would understand it but a professor will not! It is a novel written in almost a "magazine" type tone, but it can at times appear like trying to decipher algebraic set theory! I believe that the revolutionary part of this novel, what sets it apart from other novels, is that Ryskamp has replaced characters with scientific ideas and self inventions. Much like Duchamp did to painting- you no longer had carrots, roses, apples, and people's faces in paintings from past art, now you had chocolate grinders, mechanical/industrial imagery on glass. Just read past all the German, French, and Scientific references that you may or may not understand- you can look that stuff up later. You will still understand the gist of this book regardless of how hard the author seems to throw you off. The strength of this novel rests in the effectiveness of all the metaphores, illusions, allusions, and dynamic tensions that run throughout it- a natural process in itself. Ryskamp masterfully presents the human condition with the "flow," dynamics, quirks, of reality/nature. This novel is a kind of documentary of the dynamics/tensions between man and nature. Metaphore, an important tool, is the bridge between reality and illusion. This is why Nature Studies is so different from any other American/English novel. I don't care if you're reading Mann, Melville, or Joyce. All those novels are static in comparison- they are like a pretty vase on a mantle- static. If this novel could be compared to sculpture I'd have to compare it to the Sistine Cieling or say the Moses- Michelangelo. Look at all the other sculptures of the Renaissance and then look at Michelangelo's!!!! Mr. T says it best, "Ha, I pity the fool!" I went to Florence this summer 2006 and no sculptor compares to Michelangelo- yesterday or today! Though this Nature Studies is a fiction novel, still all the intellectual ideas you read in this novel about science and law introduced by the author is completely sound can be taken as texts in those fields. Everything from the mentioning of the New Bill of Rights to Einsteins Relativity and even case laws in this manuscript should be taken very seriously- it's all solid stuff!
Steven C. Pishdad
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