Kawhia tides, Taranaki pathways (review)

Bruce — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:30:06 +0000

Tides of Kawhia and Pathways of Taranaki are novels by New Zealand author Tom O'Conner. According to the author's profile, these two books form part of a trilogy. Although nominally about "the life and times of Te Rauparaha", this historical Ngati Toa leader is not the focus. The third-person narrative is more concerned with the fictional contemporary character of Te Rou Rou, the slave who becomes a warrior (the antithesis of Maximus in Ridley's Gladiator). The first book, Tides of Kawhia (Reed 2004, ISBN 0-7900-0978-1, 356 pages), starts before Te Rou Rou (or just "Rou") is born as the result of a fleeting encounter between his slave mother and a visiting warrior (who is subsequently slain). Tribal agreement ensures that Rou is trained in the art of war to avenge his father given a background of constant inter-tribal bickering. It is well into the book before Rou begins to play a role, by which time the reader has been presented with a grim picture of life in pre-European Maori society. Rou is born into a world where, if you buy into the story, life is a cocktail of violence; class struggle; hardship from being tapu; cannibalism; rape; hunger; and petty vengeance. I found the writing too repetitive at times, getting the impression that when there was nothing else to write about another fight was called for. But it did leave me with the kind of insight you don't get from reading history books. For example, how would it feel to live ...

Medicine and the Internet: a short history

Bruce — Fri, 03 Oct 2003 14:52:20 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

A third edition of Medicine and the Internet (ISBN 0-19-851063-2) was published in May 2002. But where did it come from? "Medicine and the Internet: Introducing Online Resources and Terminology" (Oxford University Press) I started writing on the use of the Internet in medicine in early 1994 while working as a junior hospital doctor, beginning a monthly column with an essay On stethoscopes and modems (Jobs for Doctors 1994; 27: 4). At that time there was very little professional awareness of the Internet, although Usenet was an important source of self-help material. In October 1994 I published the first version of the Medical FAQ List, an official 'news.answers' posting comprizing an annotated list of "frequently asked questions" (FAQs) documents on medicine and health-related topics posted to Usenet. This undertaking, combined with a concurrent role as moderator of medical information for a medical bulletin board, set the grounds for a new book proposal that I began working on in November 1994. The proposal (January 1995) was originally entitled Medicine in Cyberspace: UK doctors and patients on-line, and was made to both Oxford University Press and Churchill Livingstone. Although both publishers offered contracts, neither liked the 'cyberspace' title; C-L wanted to call it Medical information on the Internet and other on-line services. For a number of reasons I choose to work with Oxford. C-L found an alternative author to write their version but, much to their embarrassment, continued to list McKenzie as author in their initial publicity! Writing the book while working as a ...

bioneural.net » book

Kawhia tides, Taranaki pathways (review)

Medicine and the Internet: a short history