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Sin

Parent categories: morals

Related: bad - blasphemy - hell - immoral - religion

Key work of art: Seven Deadly Sins (1933) - Otto Dix

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) - James Hogg [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Illustration by William Blake.

Definition

This page is concerned with the common meaning of "sin" related to immoralities.

Sin is a concept used primarily in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) describing a transgression against the will of God, and often held to require repentance and penance; in some theologies it may also entail the risk of damnation.

Some religions hold that a sin is an act which does damage to the soul.

The Seven Deadly Sins are:

--http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin

Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood - Mark A. Vieira

Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood - Mark A. Vieira [Amazon.com]
Prudes and the faint-of-heart shield your eyes! The stunning Sin in Soft Focus contains some of the most breathtaking black-and-white stills ever taken, all from the debaucherous decade before the Hollywood production code was established. With chapters devoted to "The Warners Grit," "The MGM Gloss," and "The Paramount Glow," and to horror films, gangster movies, and the sexy scandal of Mae West, Mark A. Vieira illustrates the story of classic Hollywood's most delightfully lascivious period--brought to a stop when Joseph Breen began enforcing the puritanical production code of 1934.

The text of this book is fascinating even for those familiar with the films of the era, but the mesmerizing photographs are what will keep readers glued to the pages. Oversized and abundant stills capture stars like Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Mae West, Joan Blondell, James Cagney, and Greta Garbo in striking clarity, dashing poses, and of course, shockingly revealing outfits. Voyeurs seeking more on this naughty era will also want to read Thomas Doherty's Pre-Code Hollywood. --Raphael Shargel --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Lust: The Seven Deadly Sins - Simon Blackburn

[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

A distinguished thinker offers an unabashed defense of everyone's favorite sin, part of Oxford's series on the seven deadlies. Blackburn (The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy; Being Good) defines lust as acute sexual desire, untrammeled by any other elements that might make it, well, sinfullike aggression, selfishness or (though he doesn't mention it) self-destructiveness. This premise, along with the unquestioned secularism of modern philosophy, leave him free to consider a broad historical range of ideas about lust-from Plato and the Stoics through Augustine and "the Christian Panic" to Sartre and Martha Nussbaum-with care and discernment, but with no real vulnerability to their arguments. Because lust is broadly condoned in our culture, most readers will find that Blackburn's condescension comes across quite sympathetically. He is a witty writer and a canny reader, particularly adept at pitting temporally disparate thinkers (e.g., Hume and Stephen Pinker) against each other. A juicy group of illustrations, all works of fine art (including the torso of Mick Jagger), add to the book's allure. But Blackburn is so confident of being on the side of the angels that he creates devils that aren't really there, like the feminist concept of "objectification," which he conflates with lust itself. And since he insists that lust is a holiday from moral constraints, it turns out not subject to judgment. "So everything is all right," he concludes cheerily; it is only the inhibition of lust "by bad philosophy or ideology, by falsity, by controls, by corruptions and perversions and suspicions" that we need fear. This book is not so much a defense of sexual desire as a comprehensive excuse for it, like a note from the doctor. --From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.com

Legendary Sin Cities - Paris, Berlin & Shanghai (2005) - Marrin Canell, Ted Remerowski

Legendary Sin Cities - Paris, Berlin & Shanghai (2005) - Marrin Canell, Ted Remerowski [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Plot Synopsis: Of all the remarkable events of this century perhaps the most fascinating has been the spontaneous growth, flowering and then decay of a handful of great cities. These cities were places where art, culture and political liberties co-mingled with corruption, brutality and decadence. Everything and just about anyone could be bought and sold. The immigrant would struggle beside the artist. Gamblers, thieves and prostitutes co-habited with soul-savers, the rich and the powerful. The exhilarating combination of the seamy with the sublime made these places a magnet for all the lost souls and refugees of the world. Pushing the limits of tolerance and freedom, they defined the social, political and sexual culture of the 20 th century. Their names ring out: Paris of the '20s, Berlin of the '20s and '30s and Shanghai of the '30s. In the period between the wars, these were the LEGENDARY SIN CITIES of the world. Contemporary footage mixed with rare and richly evocative archival films, stock shots and stills give resonance to the stories of an extraordinary cast of characters: novelists and artists, musicians and journalists, rogues and sinners. Added to the mix are excerpts from feature films, married with the music of those remarkable times. What results is a richly drawn portrait of a time and place that helped define our century. --via Amazon

Product Description
Unique documentary series of 3 programs produced by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) that separately profile the spontaneous growth, flowering and decay of Paris, Berlin and Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, 3 cities that pushed the limits of tolerance and freedom during the period between the world wars and defined the social, political and sexual culture of the 20th Century. --from the publisher

See also: Paris - Berlin - Babylon - city - sin - documentary film

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) - James Hogg

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) - James Hogg [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Illustration by William Blake.

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner was published by the Scottish author James Hogg (1770-1835) in 1824. A classic gothic tale of good vs. evil set in a pseudo-Christian world of angels, devils, and demonic possession, this novel is on the rise in academic circles and has received wide acclaim for its probing quest into the nature of religious fanaticism and Calvinist predestination.

On the surface the novel is a simple tale of a man meeting the devil and the various misadventures that subsequently follow, but on closer inspection the reader begins to doubt and question the most basic events in this tremendously complex novel. The "Devil", known only to the reader and Robert Wringham himself as Gil Martin appears to Robert after being told that he is one of the Just; a group of people who will go to heaven when they die no matter what. Extremely vulnerable at this point, Gil Martin could be the Devil. However, in Roberts fragile state, he has no companionship whatsoever, and so Gil Martin could infact be a figment of Roberts imagination. The novel is told by three main narrators, all of whom contradict each other and offer their own explanations for everything that has happened.

The novel has been cited as an inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which examines the duality of good and evil. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Memoirs_and_Confessions_of_a_Justified_Sinner [Apr 2006]

See also: 1800s literature - British literature - private - good - evil - 1820s - sin - gothic novel

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