Bound and Gagged
Author: Laura Kipnis
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 1998-12-23
Total Pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780822323433
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn examination of how sexual fantasy and pornography are policed in contemporary American culture.
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Acacia
Author: David Anthony Durham
Publisher: Anchor
Published: 2008-08-26
Total Pages: 770
ISBN-13: 0307472930
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“David Anthony Durham has serious chops. I can’t wait to read whatever he writes next." —George R. R. Martin Welcome to Acacia . . . Born into generations of prosperity, the four royal children of the Akaran dynasty know little of the world outside their opulent island paradise. But when an assassin strikes at the heart of their power, their lives are changed forever. Forced to flee to distant corners and separated against their will, the children must navigate a web of hidden allegiances, ancient magic, foreign invaders, and illicit trade that will challenge their very notion of who they are. As they come to understand their true purpose in life, the fate of the world lies in their hands.
The Folding Knife
Author: K. J. Parker
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2010-02-22
Total Pages: 342
ISBN-13: 0316072109
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA new stand-alone novel from the acclaimed author of the Engineer Trilogy and The Company. Basso the Magnificent. Basso the Great. Basso the Wise. The First Citizen of the Vesani Republic is an extraordinary man. He is ruthless, cunning, and above all, lucky. He brings wealth, power and prestige to his people. But with power comes unwanted attention, and Basso must defend his nation and himself from threats foreign and domestic. In a lifetime of crucial decisions, he's only ever made one mistake. One mistake, though, can be enough.
Fantasy, Politics, Postmodernity
Author: Andrew Rayment
Publisher: Rodopi
Published: 2014-06-15
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9401211000
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“The books are true while reality is lying...” Championing the popular Fantasy genre on the same terms as its readers, Rayment casts a critical eye over the substance and methods of political critique in the Fantasy novels of Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman and China Miéville. Ranging across subjects as diverse as exquisite fundamentalism and revolutionary trains, encountering pervert-priests, dwarf hermaphrodites and sex-scarred lovers and pondering the homicidal tendencies of fairy tales and opera, Fantasy, Politics, Postmodernity develops a theoretically wide-ranging and illuminating account of how the novels of these writers do and do not sustain politically insightful critique of the real world, while bringing intellectual and ethical concerns to bear on the popular Fantasy form.
The Politics of Fantasy, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
Author: Lee D. Rossi
Publisher:
Published: 1984
Total Pages: 168
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are two of the most interesting and entertaining writers of fantasy in the twentieth century. Certainly they are two of the most popular, and in their own domain, they have been considered among the very best of popular practitioners. The literary and artistic merits of their work are in themselves enough to justify an extended discussion of their work. But they have another interest for the student of intellectual and cultural history. They present striking examples of the moral dilemma with which all conscientious intellectuals must deal. Not out of society but unhappy in it, they are among many who have attempted a mode of escape and criticism of modern society. They have been among the most sensitive registers of the moral crisis in modern capitalist society." --
Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies
Author: Jodi Dean
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2009-09-02
Total Pages: 230
ISBN-13: 0822390922
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDemocracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies is an impassioned call for the realization of a progressive left politics in the United States. Through an assessment of the ideologies underlying contemporary political culture, Jodi Dean takes the left to task for its capitulations to conservatives and its failure to take responsibility for the extensive neoliberalization implemented during the Clinton presidency. She argues that the left’s ability to develop and defend a collective vision of equality and solidarity has been undermined by the ascendance of “communicative capitalism,” a constellation of consumerism, the privileging of the self over group interests, and the embrace of the language of victimization. As Dean explains, communicative capitalism is enabled and exacerbated by the Web and other networked communications media, which reduce political energies to the registration of opinion and the transmission of feelings. The result is a psychotic politics where certainty displaces credibility and the circulation of intense feeling trumps the exchange of reason. Dean’s critique ranges from her argument that the term democracy has become a meaningless cipher invoked by the left and right alike to an analysis of the fantasy of free trade underlying neoliberalism, and from an examination of new theories of sovereignty advanced by politicians and left academics to a look at the changing meanings of “evil” in the speeches of U.S. presidents since the mid-twentieth century. She emphasizes the futility of a politics enacted by individuals determined not to offend anyone, and she examines questions of truth, knowledge, and power in relation to 9/11 conspiracy theories. Dean insists that any reestablishment of a vital and purposeful left politics will require shedding the mantle of victimization, confronting the marriage of neoliberalism and democracy, and mobilizing different terms to represent political strategies and goals.
Far-Right Fantasy
Author: James Aho
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-12-22
Total Pages: 183
ISBN-13: 1317334078
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFar-Right Fantasy is a straight-forward, jargon-free study of contemporary American right-wing extremism. Accessible to both professional and lay audiences, it allows activists to speak for themselves in their own words. It takes the self-announced religious motivations of extremists seriously, and illustrates this by citing numerous cases of radical politics. The book addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the standard psycho-social-cultural explanations of far-right activism. It shows how extremists are similar educationally and psychologically to their more conventional neighbors; that they get into the movement in the same way that others become peace activists or radical environmentalists, namely, through their ties with fellow workers and church-goers, family members, and classmates; and that their views are given a patina of certainty by being repeatedly corroborated within closed, non-contaminated communication systems. The book avoids being preachy or judgmental, but it does try to challenge readers morally by submitting far-right fantasy to a formal ideology critique. It does this by showing how the reforms it recommends – a marketplace free of regulation, draconian immigration restrictions; an end to the federal reserve bank and the income tax; a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution; anti-union "right to work" laws and a return to debt slavery; the privatization of schools, the post office, and the commons, and so on – contradict its ostensible goal, which is to protect and enhance middle class interests. Far-Right Fantasy is suitable for adoption as a supplemental text in political psychology and sociology, sociologies of religion and knowledge, collective behavior, and American political history.
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Politics
Author: Dan Hassler-Forest
Publisher: Radical Cultural Studies
Published: 2016
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9781783484935
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom J.R.R. Tolkien to Star Trek and from Game of Thrones to Battlestar Galactica and from The Walking Dead to Janelle Mone's Afrofuturist concept albums, transmedia world building offer us complex and immersive environments beyond capitalism. Science Fiction, Fantasy and Politics examines the ways in which these popular storyworlds offer tools for anticapitalist theory and practice. Building on Hardt and Negir's theory of global capitalism. Dan Hassler-Forest shows how transmedia world-building has the potential to offer more than a momentary escape from capitalist realism in the age of media a converagence and participator culture. This book feature eight fantastic storyworlds that offer vivid illustration of global capitalism contradictory logic. Approaching transmedia world-building both as a cultural form and as a political economy, Hassler-Forest demonstrates the limitations inherent in fandom and fan culture, which is increasingly absorbed as a form of immaterial labor. At the same time, he also explores the productive ways in which fantastic storyworlds contain a radical energy that can give us new ways of thinking about politics popular culture and anticapitalism.
Freedom and Necessity
Author: Steven Brust
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2007-04-17
Total Pages: 456
ISBN-13: 9780765316806
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIf you liked Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell-or Christopher Priest's The Prestige-or Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost-here is a classic of magic-tinged adventure you may have missed.
Fomenting Political Violence
Author: Steffen Krüger
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2018-12-30
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 3319975056
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book offers a psychosocial perspective on political violence, employing a strong current of psychoanalytic thinking. In the course of its chapters an international roster of researchers and scholars offers a richly complex and insightful view of diverse forms of political violence and its build-ups. The authors discuss the processes by which the ground for political violence is prepared, and how violent acts are facilitated. They question how social, cultural and political constellations can develop in such a way that, for certain people in this constellation, violence becomes a logical – perversely reasonable – response. This collection demonstrates what a psychoanalytic perspective can bring to existing approaches to political violence, going beyond the social movement approach by unfolding the inherent ambiguity in accepted concepts within the study of political violence.
