Talk:Charles Berlitz
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[edit] normal explanations
"he offered normal explanations for anomalous phenomena"? That's a new one. Can you name a few? --Hob Gadling July 4, 2005 22:40 (UTC)
- That particular phrase was taken from another encyclopedia. We can do better than that.DanielDemaret 10:16, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
- Nothing. Aha. --Hob Gadling 16:53, July 14, 2005 (UTC)
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- I can see how that might be misinterpreted. "well known alleged anomalous phenomena" might be better?DanielDemaret 09:32, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] article not objective
"Many of the "facts" cited in his books are highly questionable." I think this sentence reflects the opinion of the author. I have a completely different opinion, so I think that this sentence should be modified or removed, because it's not "neutral". Luca - Italy
- Better? :-) --Hob Gadling 10:46, July 27, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] "a brilliant linguist"
This article must be a joke. 1. A linguist is not somebody who speaks many languages. 2. Berlitz' "Native Tongues: The Book of Language Facts" doesn't betray his linguistic capacities, to put it mildly. It's just a pile of half-baked language-related pseudo-facts. Never saw a bigger list of nonsense, at least off-line.
Frank
- That text was taken from a web dictionary a long time ago.DanielDemaret 11:51, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
- It is true that it is not enough to speak many languages to be a linguist. However, he did write a books about linguistics and also about language teaching.DanielDemaret 09:30, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Reference.com
There are many reviews of his books in reference.com, if anyone is interested DanielDemaret 10:18, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Criticism
Wow. This article's a corker. As a big fan of Wikipedia, & regular reader, I've yet to come across such an involuble junk-piece. The writing is god-awful (too many flaws to list), and the writer is inexcusably light/sympathetic to Berlitz's failings. A glib reference to Berlitz's quip "my critics said I should have received the award for fiction" IS NOT sufficient reference to his casual relationship to the truth. Such insufficient reference to the substantive criticisms of Berlitz either reflect a poor writer and/or a Berlitz sympathiser. Come on. "The Bermuda Triangle" was the 70s' "Da Vinci Code". This article needs to be scrapped.
M
- (above written by 124.168.76.208)
I have corrected/trimmed down som parts due to your partly correct criticism. Correction and improving the article is better than scrapping. However, the likeness to the "da vince code", I don't see, perhaps since I have read both books that you mention. For example, "The Bermuda Triangle" , like almost all of Berlitz books, lists different causes that other people have proposed, but keeps a boringly neutral stance to all proposals. Brown is more exciting, in sharp contrast, since he claims that all that he writes in "the da vinci code" is true.DanielDemaret 21:55, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Berlitz has been very influential
He has almost single handedly created two of the most enduring myths of the 20th century - the Bermuda Triangle and the Roswell Incident (though his crucial role in popularising the latter is strangely often forgotten). I think this deserves a mention. TharkunColl 08:10, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
- He made the myths a lot more well known, that should perhaps be mentioned. This goes for most of his books, not just the two you mentioned. At the same time he made strange structures in far away places better known. But since the myths clearly existed before he wrote the books, the word "created" would be a tad misleading. When it comes to the particular example of the Bermuda Triangle, he found out about it when helping people booking plane tickets. Nobody wanted a plane that crossed the area, and he decided to find out why this strange request appeared repeatedly. DanielDemaret 07:55, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
