Hype
Hype

Author: Jon Helgason

Publisher: Nordic Academic Press

Published: 2015-01-01

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 9187675323

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In the world of books and literature, “hype” is associated with bestsellerism - the books that sell the most, are read by vast numbers, and constantly talked about in media and staff rooms. Often, it is the success in itself that generates an interest because popularity begets popularity. Quite often though, a hyped bestseller is met with a skeptic criticism of poor language, a badly constructed plot, a predictable story line, or all three. The bestseller phenomenon is sometimes conceived as a threat against “real” literature. Research into the creation, reception, and meaning of bestsellers is utterly scarce and Hype: Bestsellers and Literary Culture is an important contribution to the understanding of the literature read by the masses. Popular literature plays an important role in the lives of millions of readers, offering entertainment, social commentary, and alternate perspectives on everyday life. This volume brings together such diverse issues as the creation of hype, the role and the meaning of the author in the present-day media landscape, changes in the book trade, and the relationship between bestsellers and research into them. Further articles give an historical overview on postapocalyptic stories, desert romances and the role of the authors. This book offers new knowledge on a subject that is increasingly popular within university curricula. Although the anthology is a work of academic research the texts are of equal interest to general readers.

The Everlasting Empire
The Everlasting Empire

Author: Yuri Pines

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2012-05-27

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1400842271

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Established in 221 BCE, the Chinese empire lasted for 2,132 years before being replaced by the Republic of China in 1912. During its two millennia, the empire endured internal wars, foreign incursions, alien occupations, and devastating rebellions--yet fundamental institutional, sociopolitical, and cultural features of the empire remained intact. The Everlasting Empire traces the roots of the Chinese empire's exceptional longevity and unparalleled political durability, and shows how lessons from the imperial past are relevant for China today. Yuri Pines demonstrates that the empire survived and adjusted to a variety of domestic and external challenges through a peculiar combination of rigid ideological premises and their flexible implementation. The empire's major political actors and neighbors shared its fundamental ideological principles, such as unity under a single monarch--hence, even the empire's strongest domestic and foreign foes adopted the system of imperial rule. Yet details of this rule were constantly negotiated and adjusted. Pines shows how deep tensions between political actors including the emperor, the literati, local elites, and rebellious commoners actually enabled the empire's basic institutional framework to remain critically vital and adaptable to ever-changing sociopolitical circumstances. As contemporary China moves toward a new period of prosperity and power in the twenty-first century, Pines argues that the legacy of the empire may become an increasingly important force in shaping the nation's future trajectory.

Jesus the Crown of Our Free Will
Jesus the Crown of Our Free Will

Author: Michael Hanna

Publisher: Australian Self Publishing Group

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 81

ISBN-13: 1925346994

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Choices and destiny go hand in hand, and for the sake of our survival, we make so many choices in our lives. However, many a time, our minds, some how, come to a stand still in the midst of a crowded and blurred world, re'ecting even for a few minutes on a question seems to be closely related to an eternal notion.Yet it's a strange and unfamiliar question, because of its close af'liation with a choice that may take us to a place beyond the Grave. No matter how often we trying to brush aside any thought or rid of any concern about our destiny, everyone, sooner is the better, has to draw the red line, and take the ? nal decision of what is our reaction would be when our ?nal will at last gaze at death face to face!Nevertheless, the time has come to search into this reality and make my own choice as well, and that is to write about the other free will, or rather the most valuable spiritual gift of free will, the one philosopher tend to ignore, and dispose of. Since such writings are not possible to be all inclusive in humble limited pages, I have tried, instead, to focus and bring together the Christian one, the most relevant one.I thank You gracious Lord, for You have bestowed on such mere souls the wonderful gift of righteous rebellion.

Race in Young Adult Speculative Fiction
Race in Young Adult Speculative Fiction

Author: Meghan Gilbert-Hickey

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2021-04-22

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1496833856

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Contributions by Malin Alkestrand, Joshua Yu Burnett, Sean P. Connors, Jill Coste, Meghan Gilbert-Hickey, Miranda A. Green-Barteet, Sierra Hale, Kathryn Strong Hansen, Elizabeth Ho, Esther L. Jones, Sarah Olutola, Alex Polish, Zara Rix, Susan Tan, and Roberta Seelinger Trites Race in Young Adult Speculative Fiction offers a sustained analysis of race and representation in young adult speculative fiction (YASF). The collection considers how characters of color are represented in YASF, how they contribute to and participate in speculative worlds, how race affects or influences the structures of speculative worlds, and how race and racial ideologies are implicated in YASF. This collection also examines how race and racism are discussed in YASF or if, indeed, race and racism are discussed at all. Essays explore such notable and popular works as the Divergent series, The Red Queen, The Lunar Chronicles, and the Infernal Devices trilogy. They consider the effects of colorblind ideology and postracialism on YASF, a genre that is often seen as progressive in its representation of adolescent protagonists. Simply put, colorblindness silences those who believe—and whose experiences demonstrate—that race and racism do continue to matter. In examining how some YASF texts normalize many of our social structures and hierarchies, this collection examines how race and racism are represented in the genre and considers how hierarchies of race are reinscribed in some texts and transgressed in others. Contributors point toward the potential of YASF to address and interrogate racial inequities in the contemporary West and beyond. They critique texts that fall short of this possibility, and they articulate ways in which readers and critics alike might nonetheless locate diversity within narratives. This is a collection troubled by the lingering emphasis on colorblindness in YASF, but it is also the work of scholars who love the genre and celebrate its progress toward inclusivity, and who further see in it an enduring future for intersectional identity.

Invincible and Righteous Outlaw
Invincible and Righteous Outlaw

Author: Minsoo Kang

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2018-12-31

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0824877411

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One of the most important and popular premodern Korean novels, The Story of Hong Gildong is a fast-paced adventure story about the illegitimate son of a nobleman who becomes the leader of a band of honest outlaws who take from the rich and punish the corrupt. Despite the importance of the work to Korean culture—it is often described as the story of the Korean Robin Hood—studies of the novel have been hindered by a number of myths, namely that it was authored in the early sixteenth century by statesman Heo Gyun, who wrote it not only in protest of Joseon-dynasty laws on the rights of illegitimate children, but also as a manifesto of his own radical political ideas. In Invincible and Righteous Outlaw, the first book-length study of the novel in English, Minsoo Kang reveals that The Story of Hong Gildong was most likely written by an anonymous mid-nineteenth-century writer whose primary concern was appealing to the increasing number of readers in the late Joseon looking to be entertained and that the myth of Heo’s authorship can be traced to the writing of literary scholar Kim Taejun in the 1930s. Following a detailed examination of the history and literary significance of the novel—including analysis based on Eric Hobsbawm’s work on the universal figure of the noble robber—Kang surveys the many afterlives of the hero Hong Gildong, who throughout the decades has appeared and reappeared in countless revisionist novels, films, television dramas, and comics, even inspiring the creation of a Hong Gildong theme park in South Korea. He shows how the story was altered, distorted, and reinvigorated during and after the Japanese colonial period in both the North and the South for political, social, and literary purposes. While demonstrating the continued relevance of the novel and its hero in Korean culture up to the present day, Kang makes it clear that such narratives have served mostly to distance readers from a better understanding of this classic work.

The Conclusion to the Whole Matter
The Conclusion to the Whole Matter

Author: Paul Douglas Castle

Publisher: WestBowPress

Published: 2014-02-11

Total Pages: 574

ISBN-13: 1490820477

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As the author of The Conclusion to the Whole Matter, I conclude its a risk of emotions to read this book. Because The Conclusion to the Whole Matter is a two-edged sword that cuts through myths, pagan practices, abominations, and the detestable traditions of men that are manifested in our society, and also in the churches of God. The Conclusion to the Whole Matter will stir up different emotions in all readers that read its contents, because The Conclusion to the Whole Matter will not let you see the world of Christianity as you once imagined it to be. The rose-colored glasses that most people view Christianity through may not seem so rosy after reading The Conclusion to the Whole Matter. But The Conclusion to the Whole Matter is the whole truth based on the word of God. In our society today men abhor the truththey twist and veil it in darkness and insincerity. The Conclusion to the Whole Matter unveils hidden things that professing Christians might wish would stay hidden from the light. The contents of this book are devoted to the feelings and emotions of God. The Bible consists of approximately 782,000 words. The Conclusion to the Whole Matter is summed up in six words. But its taken me approximately 190,000 words to put definition to The Conclusion to the Whole Matter. In the last days it will be 144,000 men of God and a flying angel who preach the last gospel on earth. The last gospel preached will be The Conclusion to the Whole Matter.

Beyond Religion
Beyond Religion

Author: Byron Dawson

Publisher: Archway Publishing

Published: 2024-03-26

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1665756667

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Beyond Religion is a thought provoking and critical look at religion and spirituality as concepts inherently embedded in the fabric of our society. Among others, one of the key impetuses of Beyond Religion is the author's view that faith, spirituality and even perspectives of God is due for a bit of reform. Religion and certain traditions must be updated to align contemporary social systems. The author leverages his deep fascination with the concepts of religion and spirituality, and more importantly how these concepts play out in our everyday life and our interaction with others to discuss relevant issues. Additionally, Beyond Religion explores influences of religion and spirituality within our culture, relationships, mental health, economy, and other social dynamics. The author masterfully and artfully uses the concept of Beyond Religion as the basis to engage key historical and cultural dynamics to discuss how the relationship, or lack thereof, between religion and spirituality influence our perspectives.

Not Guilty
Not Guilty

Author: Dr. Creflo Dollar

Publisher: FaithWords

Published: 2009-05-30

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 0446559598

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Many Christians have been seduced into thinking that they must earn the right to experience the forgiveness of sin and the joy of answered prayer. But Dr. Creflo A. Dollar explains that both are simply the product of righteousness.

Envisioning Eternal Empire
Envisioning Eternal Empire

Author: Yuri Pines

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0824832752

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This ambitious book looks into the reasons for the exceptional durability of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia (221 B.C.E.-1911 C.E.). Yuri Pines identifies the roots of the empire's longevity in the activities of thinkers of the Warring States period (453-221 B.C.E.), who, in their search for solutions to an ongoing political crisis, developed ideals, values, and perceptions that would become essential for the future imperial polity. In marked distinction to similar empires worldwide, the Chinese empire was envisioned and to a certain extent "preplanned" long before it came into being. As a result, it was not only a military and administrative construct, but also an intellectual one. Pines makes the argument that it was precisely its ideological appeal that allowed the survival and regeneration of the empire after repeated periods of turmoil. Envisioning Eternal Empire presents a panoptic survey of philosophical and social conflicts in Warring States political culture. By examining the extant corpus of preimperial literature, including transmitted texts and manuscripts uncovered at archaeological sites, Pines locates the common ideas of competing thinkers that underlie their ideological controversies. This bold approach allows him to transcend the once fashionable perspective of competing "schools of thought" and show that beneath the immense pluralism of Warring States thought one may identify common ideological choices that eventually shaped traditional Chinese political culture