Nicholas Nicastro
Author of Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe
Series
Works by Nicholas Nicastro
Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe (2008) 127 copies, 22 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1963
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Cornell University (BA, English)
New York University (MA, Filmmaking)
Cornell University (MA, Archaeology)
Cornell University (PhD, Psychology) - Short biography
- [from author's website]
Novelist Nicholas Nicastro was born in Astoria, NY in 1963. His education includes a B.A. in English from Cornell University (1985), an M.F.A. in filmmaking from New York University (1991), an M.A. in archaeology and a Ph.D in psychology from Cornell (1996 and 2003). He has also worked as a film critic, a hospital orderly, a newspaper reporter, a library archivist, a college lecturer in anthropology and psychology, an animal behaviorist, and an advertising salesman. His writings include short fiction, travel and science articles in such publications as The New York Times, The New York Observer, Film Comment, Archaeology, and The International Herald Tribune. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Astoria, Queens, New York, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
The Battle at Sphacteria was a devastating one for Sparta. Not because they sustained big losses in soldiers or territory, but because it sullied the Spartan reputation for being an indomitable military force that never surrendered, regardless of the cost. It makes for a great story, of course, so I was quite enthusiastic going into The Isle of Stone.
The story follows two brothers; the oldest conceived during the rape of his mother by an escaped helot, and though no one knows it isn't her show more husbands she neglects the boy out of shame and humiliation. The other, her first true son sired by her husband, is coddled to the point of being spoiled by Spartan standards. It is an interesting duo and the most intriguing part about this book is seeing the comparison between these two characters.
Unfortunately, just about every other aspect of this book is dismal. The text is nauseatingly "male," with all the rapt fascination with sex, genitals, and feces you might expect from something that might be described that way. Though there are a couple strong female characters, it doesn't keep the book from feeling despicably phallic. I suppose the author is trying to put the reader into the mind of a male Spartan soldier, but man, it's all third-person, the narrator could really have been a bit more neutral. Much of the book just made my skin crawl, and I really could have done without the group masturbation among 7-year-old boys, thank you very much.
The battle scene, which makes up half the book, is quite a bit better, but I still didn't find overall book to be terribly enjoyable. It probably does a decent job of bringing the Spartan mentality to life though, so perhaps that is something... show less
The story follows two brothers; the oldest conceived during the rape of his mother by an escaped helot, and though no one knows it isn't her show more husbands she neglects the boy out of shame and humiliation. The other, her first true son sired by her husband, is coddled to the point of being spoiled by Spartan standards. It is an interesting duo and the most intriguing part about this book is seeing the comparison between these two characters.
Unfortunately, just about every other aspect of this book is dismal. The text is nauseatingly "male," with all the rapt fascination with sex, genitals, and feces you might expect from something that might be described that way. Though there are a couple strong female characters, it doesn't keep the book from feeling despicably phallic. I suppose the author is trying to put the reader into the mind of a male Spartan soldier, but man, it's all third-person, the narrator could really have been a bit more neutral. Much of the book just made my skin crawl, and I really could have done without the group masturbation among 7-year-old boys, thank you very much.
The battle scene, which makes up half the book, is quite a bit better, but I still didn't find overall book to be terribly enjoyable. It probably does a decent job of bringing the Spartan mentality to life though, so perhaps that is something... show less
On the whole, I enjoyed this novel, despite what I consider flaws. The last sentence is a zinger!
The story concerns two brothers, Antalcidas and Epitadas, their births and education in the Rearing [agoge] where the former earns the nickname "Stone", as he shows himself to be a past master at throwing them accurately. In the Peloponnesian War, the brothers serve together on the Island of Sphacteria, survive its blockade and siege, finally surrendering to the Athenians with their men. This is show more unheard of for Spartans! After Spartans return home, they are shunned as "tremblers", or cowards. One brother distinguishes himself at a later battle in the war and is lauded by his city.
I felt the author was not completely sure whether he was writing a straight historical novel, a comedy [because of humorous remarks and incidents ranging from the silly to the sardonic], a melodrama, or, since most of these Spartans are pictured as caricatures: a satire. I caught all four genres at one time or another. Spartans were presented as mostly negative stereotypes, giving an insight into the stereotypical ultra-macho view of the Spartan mindset. Antalcidas, the protagonist, and his cultured helot servant Doulos [the word is Greek for servant] are developed more than any of the others, who are exaggerated "types". Most unusually, helot and master develop a real friendship. The action skipped back and forth in time and location; the references to modern times could have been left out with no loss to the novel. Much of the action was presented from the Athenian side: in their Assembly, on Pylos, and aboard an Athenian ship blockading the island. The final face-off between Athenians and Spartans was well done. The interchange on Athenian politics among some of the oarsmen on the Athenian trireme "Terror" was hilarious. The thoughts of the premature cyanotic baby, Molobrus, rejected by the Ephorate and thrown unceremoniously into a chasm, right before his death, was moving. The author could have left out the reference to masturbation in little boys, Antalcidas's relationship with his mentor as eromenos, and other crudeness.
Recommended with reservations. show less
The story concerns two brothers, Antalcidas and Epitadas, their births and education in the Rearing [agoge] where the former earns the nickname "Stone", as he shows himself to be a past master at throwing them accurately. In the Peloponnesian War, the brothers serve together on the Island of Sphacteria, survive its blockade and siege, finally surrendering to the Athenians with their men. This is show more unheard of for Spartans! After Spartans return home, they are shunned as "tremblers", or cowards. One brother distinguishes himself at a later battle in the war and is lauded by his city.
I felt the author was not completely sure whether he was writing a straight historical novel, a comedy [because of humorous remarks and incidents ranging from the silly to the sardonic], a melodrama, or, since most of these Spartans are pictured as caricatures: a satire. I caught all four genres at one time or another. Spartans were presented as mostly negative stereotypes, giving an insight into the stereotypical ultra-macho view of the Spartan mindset. Antalcidas, the protagonist, and his cultured helot servant Doulos [the word is Greek for servant] are developed more than any of the others, who are exaggerated "types". Most unusually, helot and master develop a real friendship. The action skipped back and forth in time and location; the references to modern times could have been left out with no loss to the novel. Much of the action was presented from the Athenian side: in their Assembly, on Pylos, and aboard an Athenian ship blockading the island. The final face-off between Athenians and Spartans was well done. The interchange on Athenian politics among some of the oarsmen on the Athenian trireme "Terror" was hilarious. The thoughts of the premature cyanotic baby, Molobrus, rejected by the Ephorate and thrown unceremoniously into a chasm, right before his death, was moving. The author could have left out the reference to masturbation in little boys, Antalcidas's relationship with his mentor as eromenos, and other crudeness.
Recommended with reservations. show less
More like 3.5. An engineer, Nonius, is tasked by Agrippa to bring water to a slum section of the Sebura, a "red-light district", without demolishing any of the houses there. He becomes infatuated with a concubine of a senator who is blocking the completion of his task. He is distracted by her, and also by the senator's wife, and goes to court to prove his lady love, Amaris, is freeborn. Because Agrippa feels he is not the man for the job, he is taken off it, and his foreman is put in charge. show more The foreman, Byzantus turns out to be inept and he is reinstated. Amaris reveals her true feelings for Nonius when he mentions marriage. I really didn't understand Amaris' psyche except maybe her selfishness and really, that of many of the characters showing the same emotion; the "river through Rome" being desire, which all characters exhibited in one way or another.
I thought the story about putting in the feeder pipes interesting, as well as the descriptions of Rome, but I really disliked the pages and pages of very graphic descriptions of sex and the gruesomeness of the one character's gelding. I did like the last few pages, with the ending. Recommended with reservations. show less
I thought the story about putting in the feeder pipes interesting, as well as the descriptions of Rome, but I really disliked the pages and pages of very graphic descriptions of sex and the gruesomeness of the one character's gelding. I did like the last few pages, with the ending. Recommended with reservations. show less
When I first learned about Eratosthenes from some long-forgotten astronomy book in my youth, roughly age 10, I fell in love with the name: Air-uh-TOSS-the-knees. I've always enjoyed pronouncing long words and names like that. Once I had the name down pat, it wasn't too difficult to attach meaning to it. And once I knew what he had done more than two thousand years ago, I was amazed.
Two things about Eratosthenes impressed my pre-adolescent self. First, when my fourth grade teacher was show more teaching the class that Christopher Columbus had to argue with a group of flat-earth scholars -- that the world was round and he wouldn't fall off the edge if he sailed west -- I knew that school lesson was bunk. People had known the earth was round for more than a thousand years before Columbus. In truth, they were debating how big it was and how long the journey might last. Knowing that Eratosthenes (and others) had measured it already gave me my first sense of skepticism. The teacher and the school book were wrong. I never completely trusted a source again. Teachers, experts, supervisors, issue advocates, politicians, judges, and any other authorities are fallible. Be skeptical!
Second, Eratosthenes helped me realize the power of reasoning. Think how you would measure your waistline. You'd use a tape measure, right? Now, imagine how you would measure the circumference of the planet. Is your tape measure long enough? Are you prepared to swim great distances? Eratosthenes, a librarian in Alexandria about 200 BC, measured the earth using only shadows, angles, and math. He was brilliant to conceive the experiment, and despite feeding a few errors into his calculations, he was remarkably accurate, too. Columbus actually low-balled his 15th century circumference estimates because he hoped the world was smaller than Eratosthenes figured.
Eratosthenes' estimate for the distance between the Earth and the Sun was remarkable, as well: it was magnitudes greater than others' guesses ... and reasonably accurate.
These thoughts came to mind while reading Circumference, and new book by Nicholas Nicastro. Precious little is known about Eratosthenes himself and most of his work is known to us only from the surviving texts of other ancient writers. Nicastro makes up for that by filling his slim volume with information about the world in which Eratosthenes lived. You could easily read about Eratosthenes' method in five pages or less, but Nicastro describes the politics and culture of Alexandria, the famous library in which Eratosthenes worked, and the state of geodesy (the science of earth's size and shape) since his time. I grew impatient reading the political "fluff" at times, but those sections (which I read through quickly) might be enjoyable to readers more interested in Egypt and Greece. On the other hand, I savored the discussion regarding western civilization's developing concept of geography and places still unknown.
This book was a quick and pleasant read. I read it, ironically, during a transcontinental flight when I could see the curvature of the earth out my window. How might Eratosthenes enjoyed seeing that?
Find more of my reviews at Mostly NF. show less
Two things about Eratosthenes impressed my pre-adolescent self. First, when my fourth grade teacher was show more teaching the class that Christopher Columbus had to argue with a group of flat-earth scholars -- that the world was round and he wouldn't fall off the edge if he sailed west -- I knew that school lesson was bunk. People had known the earth was round for more than a thousand years before Columbus. In truth, they were debating how big it was and how long the journey might last. Knowing that Eratosthenes (and others) had measured it already gave me my first sense of skepticism. The teacher and the school book were wrong. I never completely trusted a source again. Teachers, experts, supervisors, issue advocates, politicians, judges, and any other authorities are fallible. Be skeptical!
Second, Eratosthenes helped me realize the power of reasoning. Think how you would measure your waistline. You'd use a tape measure, right? Now, imagine how you would measure the circumference of the planet. Is your tape measure long enough? Are you prepared to swim great distances? Eratosthenes, a librarian in Alexandria about 200 BC, measured the earth using only shadows, angles, and math. He was brilliant to conceive the experiment, and despite feeding a few errors into his calculations, he was remarkably accurate, too. Columbus actually low-balled his 15th century circumference estimates because he hoped the world was smaller than Eratosthenes figured.
Eratosthenes' estimate for the distance between the Earth and the Sun was remarkable, as well: it was magnitudes greater than others' guesses ... and reasonably accurate.
These thoughts came to mind while reading Circumference, and new book by Nicholas Nicastro. Precious little is known about Eratosthenes himself and most of his work is known to us only from the surviving texts of other ancient writers. Nicastro makes up for that by filling his slim volume with information about the world in which Eratosthenes lived. You could easily read about Eratosthenes' method in five pages or less, but Nicastro describes the politics and culture of Alexandria, the famous library in which Eratosthenes worked, and the state of geodesy (the science of earth's size and shape) since his time. I grew impatient reading the political "fluff" at times, but those sections (which I read through quickly) might be enjoyable to readers more interested in Egypt and Greece. On the other hand, I savored the discussion regarding western civilization's developing concept of geography and places still unknown.
This book was a quick and pleasant read. I read it, ironically, during a transcontinental flight when I could see the curvature of the earth out my window. How might Eratosthenes enjoyed seeing that?
Find more of my reviews at Mostly NF. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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