“I’ve been reading this one first thing in the morning for several months now.
Okay, confession, while I take a dump. The sections are short, alright? It worked out. You didn’t need to know that, but it’s your own fault for asking.
I’m like 99% sure some of what’s in here is bullshit. There’s this great story about a dude who used a jet engine to clear snow off his driveway, and his elderly neighbor came by to ask him not to, and he was pissed and just roasted her alive in an instant. I’m aware that my definition of a “great story” is probably different from yours. Sue me.
I can’t find any evidence that this actually happened. There are citations in the book, but I didn’t bother with them.
Interestingly enough, in a review I did of Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, I went off at length about the statistic that one of the most common causes of death for pregnant women is homicide. In short: “one of” means it’s a top 5, pregnant women are generally in an age category where fatal disease drops off from youth and doesn’t pick up again quite yet, and although it’s a top cause of death, it’s ridiculously far behind the top causes like accidental death. Oh, and “pregnant” women included women up to 12 months after they’d given birth, which extends the window quite a bit. It’s an example of what I’d call the difference between fact and truth. Factual? Yes. Truthful? No.
As I read Final Exits, I found a similar stat that said homicide is a leading cause of death for female office workers, which I also take umbrage with for the same reasons as the pregnancy stat, but I’ll also add in that the way the stat is presented would suggest that the office environment is somehow responsible. This warrants further discussion. Because A) If they weren’t killed in the office or while doing work activities, does the office have anything to do with it? B) Isn’t like 80% of the workforce in an office? So if we’re looking at homicides based on work environment, wouldn’t most murdered women be office workers as that comprises the largest group of people?
Point being, it’s sort of the same stat with the same problems. Another way of looking at the problem with a poor use of statistics, and I don’t want to lambaste Solnit and let this one go. Because we all know that Pete’s book reviews are the place where culture is judged.
Final Thoughts re: Final Exits: Pretty fun, but as the stats and stories started to stack up, I became more and more suspicious. Which killed a lot of the fun. “