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The book does a good job at describing the origins of systems of measurement and how they were devised. While it's not an exhaustive account by any means, it paints a broad picture of the processes that led to our modern understanding of measurement. More importantly, the book spends a fair amount of time discussing how society has applied and regarded these; politics and economics are closely entwined with how we measure the world.

While it's clear that the author is ultimately tracing a path towards modernity, following from near eastern thought to the scientific revolution and the enlightenment to contemporary use of fundamental forces as definitions, there is a lot that is left unexplored. There is commentary about identity and how measurements were used to justify things such as as eugenics and colonialism, while also acknowledging the positive evolution of thought, but it feels lacking if only because we are not told about competing belief systems and approaches. When we hear about land surveys being used to cheat indigenous people of their lands (and rarely preserving them) we do not hear about competing systems of measurement and worldviews.

The text is primarily Eurocentric with portions, in modern times, dedicated to advancements in the United States of America. It beggars belief that there is barely nothing worth mentioning regarding the cultural views and innovations/systems in East Asia, the Middle East, Africa or Central and South America. It is only briefly that we hear of China or the Babylonians or whomever else which, given the author's compelling examinations of Western perceptions and thought and society, makes the end result poorer than if it tried to be more comprehensive.

Add to that unnecessary first-person segments interspersed among the text that would have been better served with the more detached tone otherwise found in the text. This is best exemplified by the dedication of a large part of a chapter to an episode where the author spends time with an anti-metric vandal who is also deeply religious and a brexiter. The point about cultural clash could have been made without making the author part of the story.

Still, the book is still interesting to read on the whole. It weaves together many different times, figures, and places into an entertaining and informative narrative.

The stories in the collection are of the earlier part of Tanizaki's career and feature much of the usual attention to detail, sumptuous language, and his sexual and thematic proclivities.

Both the first story, Qillin, and the titular story at the end are set in different periods of Chinese history are both fine explorations of decadence and remind the reader of Tanizaki's extensive sinophilia and understanding of history. There are interesting analogies and images used in both though they lack in subtlety when compared to his later works.

It is the middle story, the novella titled Killing of O-Tsuya, that stands out in the collection. While, like the other two, it lacks the more matured and nuanced writing of his later works, it is a gripping tale of excess and degradation that showcases the flair that Tanizaki has for writing complex characters susceptible to passions and practiced (and often, indifferent) cruelty and brutality. Some parallels—or even creative seeds—to other, later, works such as Shunkin and Naomi can be found here.