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jensbrede's review against another edition
2.0
The central ideas are worth contemplating but reading the whole collection will, for most readers, be a waste of time. In short get a good summary of the work, I found the introduction by Miran Bozovic in the present edition quite comprehensive (although too positively biased toward Bentham, i.e. I suggest a more critical discussion of the ideas put forth), and save yourself the time of reading through the actual letters and the "architectural principles".
fil's review against another edition
2.0
Shockingly different from what I thought this would be. The first time I heard about the Panopticon, it was portrayed as a glass prison but Bentham’s letters shows it to be much, much more. A circular building with a god-like inspector placed in the middle, present in the minds, if not in actuality, of every single prisoner incarcerated there. Incredibly, he also saw it as a viable mad-house (to use his term), hospital or school!
At times extremely tedious to read: discussing design, building materials, placement of passages, windows, stairwells and other minutia. The boredom was relieved with a few mind-boggling statements, like the preference to not intermix prisoners who might have been declared innocent with those who are, without a doubt, guilty. There were few of these but they did keep me alert enough to finish reading the whole thing.
Sometimes the desire to read a certain book far outweighs the pleasure of actually reading it.
At times extremely tedious to read: discussing design, building materials, placement of passages, windows, stairwells and other minutia. The boredom was relieved with a few mind-boggling statements, like the preference to not intermix prisoners who might have been declared innocent with those who are, without a doubt, guilty. There were few of these but they did keep me alert enough to finish reading the whole thing.
Sometimes the desire to read a certain book far outweighs the pleasure of actually reading it.
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