Blog #3 David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

Ever since I read Outliers the summer of Sophomore year, Malcolm Gladwell has been one of my favorite, if not my favorite author. Gladwell has a way of storytelling that can not be reproduce. One review of David and Goliath and about all of Gladwell's book were that they were a bit too predictable. What this reviewer meant was that “Malcolm Gladwell is one of those authors who you remember reading, but may not quite recall which book a particular phrase came from. They're all pretty similar. But that's the beauty of Gladwell. He's developing a coherent canon and, really, do you want to be surprised all the time? The world is disconcerting enough already.”

I think this reviewer makes a good point, but he is also wrong about some things. While it is true that yes, his books may be similar, yes you may confuse some quotes between his books, but his books are very different. Personally, I have read one and a half other Malcolm Gladwell books, and I would agree that his books are a bit predictable and similar, but that is only because they follow a distinct pattern that Gladwell has perfected.

The way Gladwell writes, in my eyes, goes something like this: First, he picks a topic or thesis, a debatable, controversial idea or reason. Next, he does TONS of research, and I mean tons! Each book typically has ten to fifteen chapters, if not more, each chapter being a different story, each story needing its own varying amount of research! After he has enough research per chapter/story, he writes an intro. The intro is usually a topic closely related to the title of the book. The purpose of the intro is to introduce the book, but more importantly the topic of the book. In David and Goliath, Gladwell opens up with the biblical story of David and Goliath. He talks about how Goliath is a massive Philistine warrior, heavily armed and heavily equipped, who challenges the Israelis to a one on one for the kingdom. When no Israeli volunteered, David, a little herder boy, volunteered, King Solomon was skeptical, but he had no other choice. David stepped out to where Goliath could see him, started running at him with a stone, chucks it at Goliath’s most vulnerable spot, his forehead between his eyes, and kills Goliath. After telling the story of David and Goliath, Gladwell begins to analyze the story to make his point about underdogs and why David won. What Gladwell likes to do is intertwine stories with analyses of those stories to fit his thesis. So what Gladwell does is analyze everything about David and Goliath. When David appears over the ridge with his slingshot and staff, Goliath sees him and says “ Am I dog, that you should come to me with sticks?” Sticks. Goliath sees sticks, yet David only has one stick. Gladwell points out that some research shows that one of the reasons Goliath was so big was that he had a tumor in his pituitary gland that made him keep growing and growing, but once the tumor grew too large, it started to affect other functions, and the most common type of functional loss with this state is blurred or double vision. Goliath could not see. Goliath had strength, he had size, but David had speed, accuracy, and most importantly, the act of surprise.

What I really like about Gladwell is how he weaves the stories into the analyses. He writes in a way that is coherent, yet does not require the reader to read the book chapter by chapter, in order. I think Gladwell is a great, one of my favorite authors, and look forward to continuing this book and reading why underdogs win.