Excesses is a very successful attempt to break out of the closets in which we conceptualize our identity and our eros. Lingis has travelled to, and participated in, some of the last remaining oases of "primitive" cultures. He combines an obvious poet's eye with a not-so-obvious philosophical ability to discriminate systematically and to generalize. We are helped to see the shape—and limitations—of one of our own cultural identity through the amazing contrasts which Lingis sets up like screens for our inspection.
"The vitality of Petersson's book is drawn directly from the sculpture of Bernini, an artist now regarded as the true successor of Michelangelo. It differs from others by bringing the reader inside the sculptural process, from genesis to completed form. Frequently Bernini had to solve uniquely interesting problems and his innovative talents never faltered." "As well as presenting the brilliant, flamboyant Bernini, the book simultaneously displays Rome in the throes of its Counter-Reformation renewal, the second birth of the city with the full panoply of its arts, culture, and aberrant activities during Bernini's years in the service of eight popes. In later life he expanded his fame by spending an eventful half year in Paris at the invitation of Louis XIV. The proud and touchy Bernini, then the most celebrated artist in Europe, was in a pitched battle with the arrogant and aggressive French. Yet in Paris as in Rome it is the artistic works that have lasted and are widely known as having redirected the course of European sculpture."--BOOK JACKET. Book jacket.
From the antiquity of Homer to yesterday's Naked Lunch, writers have found inspiration, and readers have lost themselves, in a world of the imagination tinged and oftentimes transformed by drugs. The age-old association of literature and drugs receives its first comprehensive treatment in this far-reaching work. Drawing on history, science, biography, literary analysis, and ethnography, Marcus Boon shows that the concept of drugs is fundamentally interdisciplinary, and reveals how different sets of connections between disciplines configure each drug's unique history. In chapters on opiates, anesthetics, cannabis, stimulants, and psychedelics, Boon traces the history of the relationship between writers and specific drugs, and between these drugs and literary and philosophical traditions. With reference to the usual suspects from De Quincey to Freud to Irvine Welsh and with revelations about others such as Milton, Voltaire, Thoreau, and Sartre, The Road of Excess provides a novel and persuasive characterization of the "effects" of each class of drug--linking narcotic addiction to Gnostic spirituality, stimulant use to writing machines, anesthesia to transcendental philosophy, and psychedelics to the problem of the imaginary itself. Creating a vast network of texts, personalities, and chemicals, the book reveals the ways in which minute shifts among these elements have resulted in "drugs" and "literature" as we conceive of them today.
NINA When I was twenty-eight years old, I wrote my own winning lottery ticket. A simple idea thrust me onto the fast track to wealth, and into a world I had only ever dreamt about. I submerged myself in the unfamiliar, a life that seemed all too alluring ... until it lost its appeal. I made my fortune, built my castle, and then exiled myself within its comforts once reality set in. Far too late, I discovered I was drowning in a sea of hungry sharks. Given the choice to sink or swim, I chose the latter ... and it cost me everything. Devin McIntyre, the most dangerous shark of them all, was the last nail in my naïve coffin. His beautiful smile and amazing cock tainted me in ways I could have never imagined. I craved him. I needed him. I loved him. Miserable with the outcome of my prosperity, I set out to change what disgusted me most--the first decision being to rid myself of Devin. Little did I know that taking that first step would make me a slave to a man far more tempting ... or that my addiction to Devin would threaten to ruin it all. DEVIN I was a prick, but I never hurt anyone that didn't deserve it. Well ... until Nina. I was a very smart man who made a very bad decision, but the mistakes I was paying for were not just my own. My behavior toward her, no matter how unforgivable, had always been about protecting her--from me, from my wife, and from the long line of mistakes I would never be able to rectify. Nina was finally done with me, and I knew it was for the best. I could finally keep her safe from depraved people like me. I needed her as far removed from the situation as possible. I tried to force myself to be content with her decision to move on ... until I found out whom she was moving on with.
Drug-taking and drug control are alike; both are often done to excess. Against Excess shows how we can limit the damage done by drugs and the damage done by drug policies.
This book examines the evolution of the phenomenon and explores the genesis of overtourism and the system dynamics underlining it. The 'overtourism' phenomenon is defined as the excessive growth of visitors leading to overcrowding and the consequential suffering of residents, due to temporary and often seasonal tourism peaks, that lead to permanent changes in lifestyles, amenities and well- being. Enormous tensions in overtourism affected destinations have driven the intensification of policy making and scholarly attention toward seeking antidotes to an issue that is considered paradoxical and problematic. Moving beyond the 'top 10 things you can do about overtourism', this book examines the evolution of the phenomenon and explores the genesis of overtourism as well as the system dynamics underpinning it. With a rigorous scientific approach, the book uses systems-thinking and contemporary paradigms around sustainable development, resilience planning and degrowth; while considering global economic, socio-political, environmental discourses. Researchers, analysts, policy makers and industry stakeholders working within tourism as well as those within the private sector, community groups, civil society groups and NGOs will find this book an essential source of information.
Investigates how nineteenth-century British literature grappled with a new understanding of aging as both an individual and collective experience. The Aesthetics of Senescence investigates how chronological age has come to possess far-reaching ideological, ethical, and aesthetic implications, both in the past and present. Andrea Charise argues that authors of the nineteenth century used the imaginative resources of literature to engage with an unprecedented climate of crisis associated with growing old. Marshalling a great variety of canonical authors including William Godwin, Mary Shelley, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, and George Gissing, as well as less familiar writings by George Henry Lewes, Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, Agnes Strickland, and Max Nordau, Charise demonstrates why the imaginative capacity of writing became an interdisciplinary crucible for testing what it meant to grow old at a time of profound cultural upheaval. Charise’s grounding in medicine, political history, literature, and genre offers a fresh, original, thoroughly interdisciplinary analysis of nineteenth-century aging and age theory, as well as new insights into the rise of the novel—a genre usually thought of as affiliated almost entirely with the young or middle-aged. “Charise’s brilliantly argued, clearly written book is an important intervention in nineteenth-century British literature, age studies, and medical humanities. It brings these areas of inquiry together in what seems a seamless way—as if they have always traveled together or ought to have. Through an investigation of what she calls the ‘aesthetics of embodiment that shaped nineteenth-century visions of aging,’ Charise has given us an original and groundbreaking study of literary, historical, anthropological, and philosophical texts.” — Devoney Looser, author of The Making of Jane Austen
Looking at the discourse on female weight reduction in American culture, Confessing Excess analyzes contemporary dieting and the weight loss literature by taking up the themes of confession and surveillance. Spitzack argues that dieting is characterized by confession (of "excess") which women internalize and which necessitates ongoing surveillance or monitoring of the body. Informal conversations and in-depth interviews also juxtapose women's everyday dieting experiences with the discourse of dieting texts. By evaluating the cultural construction of women in this manner, the author illuminates the power strategies that offer self-acceptance at the price of self-condemnation.
Compared to other wealthy countries, America stands out as a gluttonous over-consumer of both food and fuel. The United States boasts an obesity prevalence double the industrial world average, and per capita carbon emissions twice the average for Europe. Still worse, the policy steps taken by America in response to obesity and climate change have so far been the weakest in the industrial world. These aspects of America's exceptionalism are nothing to be proud of. Is it possible that America is hard-wired to consume too much food and fuel? Unfortunately, yes, says Robert Paarlberg in The United States of Excess. America's excess is driven in each case by its distinct endowment of material and demographic resources, its unusually weak national political institutions, and a unique political culture that celebrates both individual freedoms over social responsibility, and free markets over governmental authority. America's over-consumption is shown to be over-determined. Because of these powerful underlying circumstances, America's strongest policy response, both to climate change and obesity, will be adaptation rather than mitigation. As the damaging consequences of climate change become manifest, America will not impose adequate measures to reduce fossil fuel consumption, attempting instead to protect itself from storms and sea-level rise through costly infrastructure upgrades. In response to the damaging health consequences of obesity, America will opt for medical interventions and physical accommodations, rather than the policy measures that would be needed to induce better diets or more exercise. These adaptation responses will generate serious equity problems, both at home and abroad. Responding to obesity with medical interventions will fall short for those in America most prone to obesity - racial minorities and the poor - since these groups have never enjoyed adequate access to quality health care. Responding to climate change by building more resilient infrastructures at home, while allowing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 to continue their increase, will impose greater climate disruption on poor tropical countries, which are far less capable of self-protection. Awareness of these inequities must be the starting point toward altering America's current path.
