[<<] August 2005 Jahsonic (08) [>>]
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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2005, Aug 23; 17:07 ::: Thomas Eakins
Study of a Seated Nude Woman Wearing Mask (detail) (c. 1865-66) - Thomas Eakins
image sourced here.
Naked Series: female with dark mask, poses 1-7 (c. 1883) - Thomas Eakins
image sourced here.Cowperthwaite Eakins (July 25, 1844 - June 25, 1916) was an American Barbizon painter, sculptor, and fine arts educator.
Born in Philadelphia. Studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then in Europe 1866-1870, notably with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris. Returned to the Pennsylvania Academy to teach starting in 1876, where his emphasis was on classical techniques of working from life, including use of nude models which brought puritanical criticism against him at the time. Eakins was a pioneer in the use of photography as an aid to composition.
Though his is not a household name, Eakins is regarded as one of finest realist painters and portraitists of his day, and one of the top American artists of any period. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Eakins [Aug 2005]
Homoeroticism (male-male)
Male-male examples, in the visual fine arts, range through history: Ancient Greek vase art; Roman wine goblets (The Warren Cup); the Italian Renaissance (such as Agnolo Bronzino, Caravaggio), through to the many 19th Century history paintings of classical characters such as Hyacinth, Ganymede and Narcissus; the work of late 19th century artists (such as Thomas Eakins, Eugene Jansson, Henry Scott Tuke and Magnus Enckell); through to the modern work of artists such as Paul Cadmus and Gilbert & George. Such art is, necessarily, figurative. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoeroticism#Notable_examples:_male-male [Aug 2005]see also: art - 1866 - 1883 - USA
2005, Aug 23; 17:07 ::: Electronic Tomato (1969) - Warren Chalk, David Greene
Electronic Tomato (1969) - Warren Chalk, David Greene, Archigram
image sourced here.see also: Archigram - 1969 - UK - architecture
2005, Aug 23; 16:50 ::: Villa Savoye (1928) - Le Corbusier
Villa Savoye (1928) - Le Corbusier
image sourced here.see also: Le Corbusier - 1928 - architecture
2005, Aug 23; 16:50 ::: Etants Donnés (1964 - 1966) - Marcel Duchamp
Etants Donnés (1964 - 1966) - Marcel Duchamp
image sourced here.the last major work by the artist, completed in secrecy over a 20 year period during which it was assumed he had given up art; it emerged only after his death. What the viewer is confronted by is a heavy wood door from a Spanish mission church; scaled the size of the Large Glass in "The Bride Stripped Bare . . . ," it nonetheless seems the opposite of that early work: where one is painted on glass and is transparent, the other is solid, with only two little peepholes, making it clear that there can be only one viewer at a time. What the viewer/voyeur sees when he/she peeks through those holes is this scene of the bride stripped decidedly bare, laying spread eagle on the ground. --http://www.csulb.edu/~karenk/20thcwebsite/438final/ah438fin-Info.00037.html [Aug 2005]
see also: Marcel Duchamp - 1966 - art
Very nice Rod Stewart track Python Lee Jackson - in a broken dream.mp3 via http://lastnightanmp3savedmywife.blogspot.com/2005/08/python-lee-jackson-in-broken-dream.html via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cnwb
2005, Aug 23; 14:14 ::: Rod StewartDedicated to Han
2005, Aug 23; 09:56 ::: The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction (2005) - Michaela Bushell, Helen Rodiss Paul Simpson
The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction (2005) (Paperback) - Michaela Bushell, Helen Rodiss Paul Simpson [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Cover picture: Albert Camus
Synopsis
This new Rough Guide will make you a literary buff in the time it takes to say Jack Kerouac. Even if you already know your Hunter S Thompson from your Jim Thompson, you'll still find it hard to resist a book which tells you which cult novel has been implicated in assassinations, which world famous novelist offered to throw himself off a train to prove his devotion to his literary idol and which cult poet and prose stylist inspired a Broadway musical and the Velvet Underground. There's a critical guide to over 150 cult authors - from Kathy Acker to Yevgeny Zamyatin, including potted biographies, their must reads, and their surprising influences. Reviews of 100 cult novels - seminal works by authors who never quite achieved cult status themselves but still produced one classic work. Finally, there's a cult collection - a feast of literary trivia which categorises writers by the diseases they suffered for their art, reveals 12 literary giants who wrote standing up, and pores over the little known fictional epics of Sarah Bernhardt and Benito Mussolini.see also: SF fiction - cult - fiction - cult fiction
2005, Aug 23; 10:30 ::: Very nice beatsinspace.net mix of early hip hopTracklisting 1. Afrika Bambaataa and the Jazzy 5 - Jazzy Sensation (Manhattan Version) - Tommy Boy
2. Spoonie Gee meets the Sequence - Monster Jam - Sugar Hill
3. The Furious Five - Step Off - Sugar Hill
4. The Treacherous Three - Put The Boogie In Your Body - Enjoy
5. Family - Family Rap - Sound of New York
6. The Treacherous Three - At The Party - Enjoy
7. - The Pop - Chocolate Star
8. Bohannon - Let's Start II Dance Again - Phase II
9. New York Citi Peech Boys - Life Is Something Special - Island
10. David Joseph - You Can't Hide (Inst) - Mango
11. Instant Funk - Everybody - Sal Soul
12. - Long Train Running -
13. Extras - Haven't Been Funked Enough - Coko
14. Liz Torres - Mama's Boy (Dub) - State Street
15. Glimmer Twins - Rated R - Buffalo Jams
*Brennan Green on the mix::
16. Brennan Green - Section 75 - Bare Funk
17. Brennan Green - Section 75 Drive - Bare Funk
18. Universal Being - Elephant Disco Fusion - Holistic
19. Carlos Hernandez - Roller Giggles - BNO
20. Pointer Sisters - Pinball Number Count - Ninja Tune
21. Research - River Art - Dossier
22. Candi Station - Evidence (Pepe Bradock Mix) - Honest Jon
23. - -
24. Labi Siffre - I Got The... - Milestone
25. Johnny Hammond - Tell Me What To Do - Milestone
26. Lopazz - I Need Ya (Brennan Green Mix) - Output
27. Ministry - Burning Inside (Brennan Green edit)
28. Disconnection - Bali Hai - Y
29. Nick Chacona - Me So Loco - Mood Music
30. Infantwo - Modern Robot Chorus - Modal
2005, Aug 23; 09:56 ::: Underground music
Radio Nova presents: Underground Moderne (2001) - Various [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Generally speaking underground music is music which has developed a cult following, independent of their commericial success.
For example, The Velvet Underground remains one of the most influential bands of their time, with an influence that has outlasted their short existence and meagre record sales.
Since then, the term underground music has been applied to several artistic movements, notably to the early psychedelic movement of the mid 1960s.
The term is also currently used to describe contemporary music of non mainstream musical exponents with actual specific genre or style being unimportant in determining the underground status. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_music [Aug 2005]
see also: music - cult - Velvet Underground - commercial - underground music - underground
2005, Aug 23; 09:08 ::: I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night (1966) - Electric Prunes
I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night (1966) - Electric Prunes [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The Electric Prunes were a late 1960s American rock and roll group, best known for the psychedelic hit "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night". The band was basically a front for songwriters Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, and producer Dave Hassinger. The group started as Ken Williams, James Lowe, Michael Weakley & Mark Tulin and called themselves The Sanctions, and later, Jim and the Lords. Soon, Dick Hargrave joined on organ, but left to pursue graphic arts. Their lineup changed many times (including one with Kenny Loggins) as they grew into The Electric Prunes. The classical line-up, i.e. the one that spawned their biggest hit "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night", included Jim Lowe on vocals, James "Weasel" Spagnola and Ken Williams on guitar, Mark Tulin on bass and Preston Ritter on drums. Their second single, "Get Me to the World on Time", was also successful, though their first two albums were largely unsuccessful. Their third LP was Mass in F Minor, a psychedelicized collection of prayers. Then the band broke up soon after their last album around 1968 and were totally dissolved by 1970. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Prunes [Aug 2005]
see also: 1966 - USA - music - garage rock - underground music - psychedelic
2005, Aug 23; 09:08 ::: The Intruder (1962) - Roger Corman
The Intruder (1962 - Roger Corman [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
image sourced here.The Intruder is the greatest irony of Roger Corman's film career. In 1962, after cranking out dozens of exploitation quickies and gaining recognition for his widescreen Edgar Allan Poe series, he put up his own resources to produce a serious work of drama on the explosive issue of racism and integration. Shot on location in a small town in Missouri, where he and his crew faced bigotry first hand when the locals found out exactly what they were actually shooting, the film went on to win rave reviews and film festival prizes and became Corman's first film to lose money. --Sean Axmaker for Amazon.com
The Intruder is a 1962 American film directed by Roger Corman, after a story by Charles Beaumont starring William Shatner. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intruder [Aug 2005]
Charles Beaumont (January 2, 1929 - February 21, 1967) was a prolific U.S. author of science fiction who frequently wrote for The Twilight Zone TV series. He was born in Chicago, Illinois as Charles Leroy Nutt to an abusive mother who frequently dressed him in girls' clothes and once killed one of his pets as punishment. Beaumont was an outgoing, spontaneous person, prone to take trips out of country at a moment's notice. At age 34, Beaumont began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease; He died in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 38. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Beaumont [Aug 2005]
see also: 1962 - USA - racism - Roger Corman
2005, Aug 23; 08:30 ::: Cult fictionKathy Acker, J G Ballard , Iain Banks , John Barth , Poppy Z Brite, Charles Bukowski, Anthony Burgess , William S Burroughs , Albert Camus , Angela Carter , Nik Cohn , Colette , Dennis Cooper , Douglas Coupland , Don DeLillo , Philip K Dick , Fyodor Dostoevsky , Nick Earls , Bret Easton Ellis , James Ellroy , William Faulkner , John Fowles , William Gibson , Andre Gide , William Golding , Alasdair Gray , Radclyffe Hall , Knut Hamsun , Joseph Heller , Herman Hesse , Carl Hiaasen , S E Hinton , Nick Hornby , Aldous Huxley , John Irving , Erica Jong , James Joyce , Franz Kafka , Jack Kerouac , Ken Kesey , Stephen King , Milan Kundera , Hanif Kureishi , Harper Lee , Elmore Leonard , Doris Lessing , Mark Leyner , H P Lovecraft , Carson McCullers , Ian McEwan , Patrick McGrath , Jay McInerney , Colin MacInnes , Norman Mailer , Henry Miller , Yukio Mishima , Michael Moorcock, Walter Mosley , Vladimir Nabokov , Anais Nin , Jeff Noon , Joyce Carol Oates , Chuck Palahniuk , Mervyn Peake , Sylvia Plath , Richard Price , Thomas Pynchon , Ayn Rand , Luke Rhinehart , Anne Rice , Tom Robbins , Marquis de Sade , J D Salinger , Jean Paul Sartre , Hubert Selby , Will Self , Bruce Sterling , Robert Stone , D M Thomas , Hunter S Thompson , Jim Thompson , Gore Vidal , Kurt Vonnegut Jr , Irvine Welsh , Jeanette Winterson , Tom Wolfe --accessed on http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Guides/IfYouLike/cultfiction.asp, [Jan 2004]see also: cult - fiction - cult fiction - transgressive fiction - grotesque literature - cult fiction - literature
2005, Aug 23; 07:30 ::: The Stranger (1942) - Albert Camus
The Stranger (1942) - Albert Camus [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
First sentence:
"Maman died today..."Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. J'ai reçu un télégramme de l'asile : « Mère décédée. Enterrement demain. Sentiments distingués. » Cela ne veut rien dire. C'était peut-être hier.
The Stranger, also translated as The Outsider, (the original French version is called L'Étranger) (1942) is a novel by Albert Camus.
The Plot
The novel tells the story of an alienated man, who eventually commits a murder and waits to be executed for it. The book uses an Algerian setting, drawn from Camus' own upbringing.At the start of the novel, Meursault goes to his mother's funeral, where he does not express any emotions and is basically unaffected by it. The novel continues to document the next few days of his life through the first person point-of-view. In these days, he befriends one of his neighbors, Raymond Sintes. He aids Sintes in getting revenge on a woman he was involved with. Later, the two confront the woman's brother ("the Arab") on a beach and Sintes gets cut in the resulting knife fight. Meursault afterwards goes back to the beach and shoots the Arab five times.
At the trial, the prosecution focuses on the inability or unwillingness of Meursault to cry at his mother's funeral, considered suspect by the authorities. The killing of the Arab apparently is less important than whether Meursault is capable of remorse. The argument follows that if Meursault is incapable of remorse, he should be considered a dangerous misanthrope and subsequently executed to prevent him from doing it again, and by executing, make him an example to those considering murder. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_%28novel%29 [Aug 2005]
Inspired by Wayland
see also: Albert Camus - misanthropy - alienation - literature - France - 1942
2005, Aug 23; 07:02 ::: Underground cultureUnderground culture, or just underground, is a term to describe various alternative cultures which either consider themselves different to the mainstream of society and culture, or are considered so by someone. The word underground is used because there is a history of resistance movements under harsh regimes where the term underground was employed to refer to the necessary secrecy of the resisters. For instance, the Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes by which African slaves in the 19th century United States attempted to escape to freedom. Also "The underground" was a common name for World War II resistance movements, by extension, the term was subsequently applied to counter-cultural movement(s) many of which sprang up during the 1960s. The phrase "underground railroad" also turned up again in the 1970s being used in reference to the clandestine movement of people and goods by the American Indian Movement in and out of occupied Native American reservation lands.
These 1960s and 1970s underground cultural movements had some connections to the "beat generation" which had, in turn, been inspired by the philosphers, artists and poets of the Paris Existentialist movement which gathered around Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus in the years after World War II. Sartre and Camus were members of Combat a French resistance group formed in 1942 by Henri Frenay. Frenay, Sarte and Camus were all involved in publishing Underground newspapers for the resistance. The French underground culture which inspired Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg in America in the 1940s was steeped in socialist thinking before the cold war began, but this wasn't the monolithic socialism of the totalitarian Soviet state, but rather the free-thinking and expressive socialism of artists and dreamers attempting to re-think society.
Jack Kerouac (In Esquire magazine in 1958) said:
"The same thing was almost going on in the postwar France of Sartre and Genet and what's more we knew about it--But as to the actual existence of a Beat Generation, chances are it was really just an idea in our minds--We'd stay up 24 hours drinking cup after cup of black coffee, playing record after record of Wardell Gray, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Willie Jackson, Lennie Tristano and all the rest, talking madly about that holy new feeling out there in the streets- -We'd write stories about some strange beatific Negro hepcat saint with goatee hitchhiking across Iowa with taped up horn bringing the secret message of blowing to other coasts, other cities, like a veritable Walter the Penniless leading an invisible First Crusade- -We had our mystic heroes and wrote, nay sung novels about them, erected long poems celebrating the new 'angels' of the American underground--In actuality there was only a handful of real hip swinging cats and what there was vanished mightily swiftly during the Korean War when (and after) a sinister new kind of efficiency appeared in America, maybe it was the result of the universalization of Television and nothing else (the Polite Total Police Control of Dragnet's 'peace' officers) but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity, the generation itself was shortlived and small in number." It took a few years more, however, for the culture Kerouac describes to grow in numbers and redefine itself variously as the underground culture or the freak scene etc.Since then, the term has come to designate various subcultures such as punk rock culture, and mod culture and underground hip hop.
Perhaps the best way to define it is a quote by Frank Zappa:
"The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground."Applied to the arts, the term underground typically means artists that are not corporately sponsored and don't generally want to be. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_culture [Aug 2005]
see also: underground - culture
2005, Aug 22; 13:37 ::: Tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann (1817) - E. T. A. Hoffmann
Tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann (1817) - E. T. A. Hoffmann [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Ranging from macabre fantasies to fairy tales and tales of crime, these stories from the author of The Nutcracker create a rich fictional world. Hoffman paints a complex vision of humanity, where people struggle to establish identities in a hostile, absurd world.
E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1817 short story "The Sandman" features Olympia, a doll-like mechanical woman. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot#History [Jul 2005]
see also: 1810s - robot - uncanny - E.T.A. Hoffmann
2005, Aug 22; 13:37 ::: R.I.P Robert Moog (1934 - 2005)
Dr. Robert A. Moog (May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was a pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
A native of New York City, he died of a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor at the age of 71 in Asheville, NC. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moog [Aug 2005]
Analog Days : The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (2002) - Frank Trocco, Trevor Pinch, Robert Moog [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
In Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (Harvard University Press; October 30, 2002; $29.95), Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco tell the story of the invention of the Moog electronic synthesizer, the people who created it, and its impact upon music and popular culture. The book focuses on what Pinch and Trocco call the "analog days"--the early years of the synthesizer, between 1964 and the mid-1970s, before the technology went digital. The authors trace the development of the Moog synthesizer from its first conception as a huge modular instrument for studio use though to the Minimoog--the first portable keyboard instrument typical of today's synthesizers. As they relate the history, Pinch and Trocco show how electronic sounds, once considered marginal or weird, entered our mainstream culture, producing a revolution in the way that music is produced and consumed. Harvard Press press release
see also: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/PINANA.html
See also: analog - Moog - electronic music
2005, Aug 22; 13:37 ::: Black music in the 1970s and 1980s
Pieces of a Man (1971) - Gil Scott-Heron [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The 1970s saw a general decline in the popularity of black bands. Album-oriented soul continued its popularity, while musicians like Smokey Robinson helped turn it into Quiet Storm music. Funk evolved into two strands, one a pop and soul fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone, and the other a more experimental psychedelic and metal fusion led by George Clinton and his P-Funk ensemble.
Black musicians achieved generally little mainstream success, though African Americans had been instrumental in the invention of disco, and some artists, like Gloria Gaynor and Kool & the Gang, found crossover audiences. White listeners preferred country rock bands, singer-songwriters and, in some subcultures, heavy metal and punk rock.
The 1970s also saw, however, the invention of hip hop. Jamaican immigrants like DJ Kool Herc and spoken word poets like Gil Scott-Heron are often cited as the major innovators in early hip hop. Beginning at block parties in Harlem, hip hop music arose as one facet of a large subculture with rebellious and progressive elements. At block parties, DJs spun records, most typically funk, while MCs introduced tracks to the dancing audience. Over time, DJs began isolating and repeating the percussion breaks, producing a constant, eminently dance-able beats, which the MCs began improvising more complex introductions and, eventually, lyrics.
In the 1980s, black pop artists included Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie,Whitney Houston, and Prince Rogers Nelson, who sang a type of pop dance-soul that fed into New Jack Swing by the end of the decade. These artists are the most successful of the era. Hip hop spread across the country and diversified. Miami bass, Chicago hip house, Los Angeles hardcore and DC go go developed during this period, with only Miami bass achieving mainstream success. [UK: electro funk]
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) - Public Enemy [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
At the very end of the decade, however, two groups crossed over to white audiences. Public Enemy's politically revolutionary lyrics found more controversy than hip hop had previously seen, while N.W.A. simultaneously placed West Coast hip hop at the top of the genre's charts and popularized gangsta rap. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_music#The_1970s_and_1980s [Aug 2005]
See also: black music - 1970s music - 1980s music
2005, Aug 22; 13:37 ::: Hip: The History (2004) - John Leland
Hip: The History (2004) - John Leland [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Publishers Weekly
What is hip? Leland has researched contemporary answers to that question for Spin, Details and the New York Times, and now probes deeper for a rigorous historical analysis that goes beyond the usual hot spots of the Lost Generation and the Harlem Renaissance, encompassing colonial plantations, animation studios, pulp magazine racks and the latest hipster hangouts. The story of hip is largely the story of American race relations, and Leland addresses the ways whites and blacks have interpreted and imitated one another from many angles, as assuredly perceptive when he analyzes Al Jolson's blackface persona as he is exploring the dynamic between bop jazz and Beat Generation writers. Refusing to either champion or condemn "the white boy who stole the blues," Leland presents readers with an accessible model of complex social forces. The breadth and sophistication of his argument is admirable, but it wouldn't be as convincing without his engaging tone, which shuns condescension to invite readers into a genial conversation—Leland even jokes about how the nature of hipness might date his book. Leland needn't worry: though hip will always be a matter of perception, few will be able to read this eclectic history without agreeing it's on to something. 49 b&w photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–Forget diversity training and sociology lectures: here's a surefire way to excite teens about the forces at work in American history. Industrialization, Prohibition, immigration, civil rights, and class consciousness come alive when viewed through hip's lens, making it seem like one long, wild story whose new chapters build, riff, and expand on the old. This fast-paced volume is also a jumping-off point: whether explaining that "hip" comes from the Wolof word "hipi" ("to open one's eyes"), brought to America by West African slaves, or pointing out the resemblance between Bugs Bunny and the hard-boiled detectives of pulp fiction, Leland will lead YAs beyond Kerouac to "Original Gangstas" Thoreau and Whitman, the "thug vitality" of the 19th-century Bowery boys, and the over-the-top "bling" worn by Ma Rainey half a century before Lil' Kim showed up. Running throughout is a solid awareness that "hip" involves cultures borrowing, and often stealing, from one another. Unlike other observers of this phenomenon, however, Leland sees this less as a form of oppression and more as a form of play. While not always convincing, the argument is appealing, full of good will and good sense. Both a practical and a fun purchase, Hipmay quickly become the most well-read book in your nonfiction collection.–Emily Lloyd, formerly at Rehoboth Beach Public Library, DE
2005, Aug 22; 13:37 ::: Dore's Illustrations for "Paradise Lost" (1866) - Gustave Doré
Dore's Illustrations for "Paradise Lost" (1866) - Gustave Doré [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
All 50 of Doré's powerful illustrations for John Milton's epic poem, recounting mankind's fall from the grace of God through the work of Satan. Among the events depicted: the expulsion of Satan from Heaven, Adam and Eve in Paradise and the nine-day fall of Lucifer's legions to Hell. Appropriate quotes from the text are printed with each illustration. A plot summary of the entire poem is included.John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, most famous for his blank verse epic Paradise Lost. He is also remembered for authoring the brief epic Paradise Regained, the closet drama Samson Agonistes, the monody Lycidas, and Areopagitica, a prose work that defends the freedom of the press. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton [Aug 2005]
Paradise Lost (1667) is an epic poem by the 17th century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost [Aug 2005]
See also: John Milton - Lucifera - heaven - hell - 1866 - Gustave Doré - poetry - illustration
2005, Aug 22; 10:22 ::: Pair of Dice LostCast member Justin Cammy, now a professor, described the show like this:
You Can't Do That on Television was the first post-modern children's program of my generation. It subverted all recognizable forms and deconstructed the pre-teen's understanding of such important institutions as the family, the school and the video arcade. When the school teacher did not know any better than to call Milton's masterpiece "Pair of Dice Lost," the program functioned as an ideological clarion call to future college students like you who would go on to demand the displacement of an ossified Western canon with more relevant investigations of low culture."--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Do_That_on_Television [Aug 2005]See also: postmodernism - child
2005, Aug 22; 08:50 ::: The Songs of Bilitis (1894) - Pierre Louÿs
Willy Pogany illustration for Pierre Louÿs' Bilitis
image sourced here. [Aug 2005]
The Songs of Bilitis (1894) - Pierre Louÿs [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Notes:
New York , privately printed for subscribers , Macy-Masius 1926.
Traduzione di Alvah C. Bessie
Naturalmente la copertina e le immagini sono della quasi anastatica ristampa della Dover Publications, New York 1988. --http://www.sademarchese.org/louys/BILITISPOGANY/pogan.htm [Aug 2005]William Andrew (Willy) Pogany (1882-1955), prolific illustrator of children's and adult books. Born Vilmos Andreas Pogany in Szeged, Hungary in 1882, came to America via Paris and London.
In London, he produced his four masterpieces, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1910), Richard Wagner's Tannhauser (1911), Parsifal (1912) and Lohengrin (1913). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Pogany [Aug 2005]
Pierre Lissac illustration for Pierre Louÿs' Bilitis
image sourced here. [Aug 2005]The Songs of Bilitis, Les Chansons de Bilitis in French, was a forgery published in 1894 by Pierre Louÿs in Paris. The collection of poems in ancient Greek was ascribed to a courtesan and contemporary of Sappho, Bilitis, to whose 'life' Louÿs dedicated a small section of his book. He claimed the 143 prose poems, excluding 3 epitaphs, were entirely the work of this ancient poetess - a place where she poured both her most intimate thoughts and most public actions, from childhood innocence in Pamphylia to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years. Although for the most part The Songs of Bilitis is original work, many of the poems in the collection were reworked epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, and Louÿs even borrowed some verses from Sappho herself. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_of_Bilitis [Aug 2005]
See also: 1894 - 1926 - illustration - Bilitis - lesbian - Pierre Louÿs
2005, Aug 22; 08:50 ::: The Catcher in the Rye (1951) - J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye (1951) - J.D. Salinger [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Amazon.com
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Book Description
The classic 1951 novel by J.D. Salinger is analyzed.The title, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on J.D. Salinger, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. --via Amazon.com
Jerome David Salinger
Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic coming-of-age story that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. A major theme in Salinger's work is the agile and powerful mind of disturbed young men, and the redemptive capacity of children in the lives of such men. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger [Aug 2005]Plot
The book covers the 48 hours in Holden's life after being kicked out of Pencey Prep, right before the Christmas holidays, circa 1949. Having already been kicked out of other schools and not wanting to face his parents, he decides to set off and spend a few days alone in New York City after visiting the only teacher he's ever trusted. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye#Plot_Summary [Aug 2005]Inspired by Wayland
See also: banned books - literature - USA - 1951
2005, Aug 21; 23:32 ::: The Naked and the Undead : Evil and the Appeal of Horror (1999) - Cynthia A. Freeland
The Naked and the Undead : Evil and the Appeal of Horror (1999) - Cynthia A. Freeland [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
The Naked and the Undead examines the fascination of horror by using methods of contemporary cognitive film theory. Cynthia Freeland argues that many horror films provide serious reflections on the nature of good and evil, and that as they do so they advance traditional kinds of artworks that dealt with the tragic or the sublime.
She also shows that horror movies, contrary to popular belief, often provide subversive views about gender roles, with strong heroines, ironic reflections about male heroism, or perverse eroticism. Along with challenges to patriarchy, horror also offers critiques of such institutions as law, medicine, the family, and religion. But horror is not all serious; in fact she argues that the graphic spectacular horror of 90's series like Nightmare on Elm Street and Hellraiser can be ironic and parodistic. Also contrary to popular belief, horror audiences are often sophisticated and highly critical in their reactions to films.
The book is divided into three sections. The first focuses on the Gothic heritage of horror in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and explores variations on the themes that novel raises about monstrous mothers and mad scientists. This section includes discussions of the Alien film series and of David Cronenberg's films like The Brood and Scanners.
The second section focuses on the legacy of Bram Stoker's Dracula, looking at various film versions of the original novel as well as the more recent popular Anne Rice novels. The author argues that vampires are alive and well in the tradition of the slasher movie by looking at films like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and The Silence of the Lambs.
The third and final section explores the nature of evil in horror by looking at several kinds of movies: films with a vague and cosmic sense of monstrousness like The Shining and Eraserhead; and then films with over-the-top graphic visual horror like Hellraiser and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. --http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/nakedundead.html [2004]
See also: Cynthia Freeland - horror - 1999 - ambivalence
2005, Aug 21; 23:32 ::: A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) - Jesus Franco
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) - Jesus Franco
See also: virgin - 1973 - Jess Franco - paracinema
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