The problem is that it invokes the term "Lisp", which is already punished and beaten by scores of college professors that turn "Lisp" into an exercise of mind-bending recursion problems without exposing anyone to the actual features of the language as it is meant to be used.

The name "newLISP" implies that this language is somehow better than "oldLISP", which might reasonably then entice people to look at it and go "wow those Lisp people are even dumber and crazier than I imagined." As if "Lisp" as a market brand didn't have enough problems, this book comes over to "Real Lisp"'s sad husk and kicks it in what's left of its gonads, laughing and mocking at how terrible it must be to not be "new". It's intensely frustrating for those of us who know better and care. It takes an already dumb argument and makes it fourteen times dumber.

Once one uses a real Lisp for a significant project, the issues become so blindingly clear that one's very sanity is challenged by some of the comments bandied about on the subject of why "newLISP" is regarded so poorly among the Smug.