Voices from the Underworld
Voices from the Underworld

Author: Fabian Graham

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2020-02-11

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1526140594

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In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell’s ‘enforcers’, the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations. Voices from the Underworld offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple’s spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham challenges common assumptions on the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham’s innovative approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities. Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the de-stigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in the future study of mystical and religious traditions.

Alice
Alice

Author: Ivy Anderson

Publisher: Heyday.ORIM

Published: 2016-01-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1597143766

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The collected memoirs of a 1913 San Francisco sex worker, their effect on society at the time, and where they fit in today’s world. In 1913 the San Francisco Bulletin published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by Alice Smith. “A Voice from the Underworld” detailed Alice's humble Midwestern upbringing and her struggle to find aboveboard work, and candidly related the harrowing events she endured after entering “the life.” While prostitute narratives had been published before, never had they been as frank in their discussion of the underworld, including topics such as abortion, police corruption, and the unwritten laws of the brothel. Throughout the series, Alice strongly criticized the society that failed her and so many other women, but, just as acutely, she longed to be welcomed back from the margins. The response to Alice's story was unprecedented: four thousand letters poured into the Bulletin, many of which were written by other prostitutes ready to share their own stories; and it inspired what may have been the first sex worker rights protest in modern history. An introduction contextualizes “A Voice from the Underworld” amid Progressive Era sensationalistic journalism and shifting ideas of gender roles, and reveals themes in Alice's story that extend to issues facing sex workers today. Winner of the California Historical Society Book Award “Essential reading for anyone interested in the rich history of sexual commerce in the United States.”—Gretchen Soderlund, author of Sex Trafficking, Scandal, and the Transformation of Journalism, 1885-1917 “Not only for Bay Area history buffs, Alice will enlighten all readers to early shifts in gender roles and societal correlations today.”—Cassie Duggan, Literary Hub

Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur
Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur

Author: Salomon Kroonenberg

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2013-06-15

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1780230540

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When people go looking for hell, they go underground. Dante, Aeneas, and Odysseus all journeyed beneath the earth to find the underworld, a place where the dead are tortured according to their sins. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had to deal with a huge underground pit infested with demons below her high school called the Hellmouth. And when Homer Simpson ate the forbidden donut for which he’d sold his soul to the devil, he was sucked through a fiery hole in the ground. Though humans actually haven’t gone more than 7.5 miles into the earth, we associate this mysterious underground realm with darkness and death, and the depths of the earth’s interior remain an inspiration for writers and artists trying to imagine hell. Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur uses subterranean mythology as a point of departure to explore the vast world that lies beneath our feet. Geologist Salomon Kroonenberg takes us on an expedition that begins in Dante’s Inferno and continues through Virgil, Da Vinci, Descartes, and Jules Verne. He investigates the nine circles of hell, searches a lake near Naples for the gates of hell used by Aeneas, and turns a scientific spotlight on the many myths of the underworld. He uncovers the layers of the earth’s interior one by one, describing the variety of gasses, ores, liquids, and metals that add to the immense variety of color that can be found below us. Kroonenberg views the inside of the earth as a living ecosystem whose riches we are only beginning to discover, and he warns against our thirst for natural resources exhausting the earth. From the underground rivers and lakes that have never seen the light of day to the story of Saint Barbara—the patron saint of mineworkers—Kroonenberg’s pursuit of the geological foundations of hell is a fascinating journey to the center of the earth.

Affective Trajectories
Affective Trajectories

Author: Hansjörg Dilger

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2020-02-28

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1478007168

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The contributors to Affective Trajectories examine the mutual and highly complex entwinements between religion and affect in urban Africa in the early twenty-first century. Drawing on ethnographic research throughout the continent and in African diasporic communities abroad, they trace the myriad ways religious ideas, practices, and materialities interact with affect to configure life in urban spaces. Whether examining the affective force of the built urban environment or how religious practices contribute to new forms of attachment, identification, and place-making, they illustrate the force of affect as it is shaped by temporality and spatiality in the religious lives of individuals and communities. Among other topics, they explore Masowe Apostolic Christianity in relation to experiences of displacement in Harare, Zimbabwe; Muslim identity, belonging, and the global ummah in Ghana; crime, emotions, and conversion to neo-Pentecostalism in Cape Town; and spiritual cleansing in a Congolese branch of a Japanese religious movement. In so doing, the contributors demonstrate how the social and material living conditions of African cities generate diverse affective forms of religious experiences in ways that foster both localized and transnational paths of emotional knowledge. Contributors. Astrid Bochow, Marian Burchardt, Rafael Cazarin, Hansjörg Dilger, Alessandro Gusman, Murtala Ibrahim, Peter Lambertz, Isabelle L. Lange, Isabel Mukonyora, Benedikt Pontzen, Hanspeter Reihling, Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon

Texting the Underworld
Texting the Underworld

Author: Ellen Booraem

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1101593350

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Perpetual scaredy-cat Conor O'Neill has the fright of his life when a banshee girl named Ashling shows up in his bedroom. Ashling is--as all banshees are--a harbinger of death, but she's new at this banshee business, and first she insists on going to middle school. As Conor attempts to hide her identity from his teachers, he realizes he's going to have to pay a visit to the underworld if he wants to keep his family safe. "Got your cell?" "Yeah . . . . Don't see what good it'll do me." "I'll text you if anything happens that you should know." "Text me? Javier, we'll be in the afterlife." "You never know. Maybe they get a signal." Discover why Kirkus has called Booraem's work "utterly original American fantasy . . . frequently hysterical." This totally fresh take on the afterlife combines the kid next door appeal of Percy Jackson with the snark of Artemis Fowl and the heart of a true middle grade classic.

The Darkest Night
The Darkest Night

Author: Gena Showalter

Publisher: HQN Books

Published: 2016-01-18

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1459294602

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Though they carry an eternal curse, the Lords of the Underworld are irresistibly seductive—and unimaginably powerful… Don't miss a single book in this stunning paranormal series from New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter! All her life, Ashlyn Darrow has been tormented by voices from the past. To end the nightmare, she has come to Budapest seeking help from men rumored to have supernatural abilities, not knowing she'll be swept into the arms of Maddox, their most dangerous member—a man trapped in a hell of his own. Neither can resist the instant hunger that calms their torments…and ignites an irresistible passion. But every heated touch and burning kiss will edge them closer to destruction—and a soul-shattering test of love… Book 1 of Lords of the Underworld.

音鳴
音鳴

Author: Maningning C. Miclat

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13:

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Diana and the Underworld Odyssey
Diana and the Underworld Odyssey

Author: Aisha Saeed

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0593178394

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The world's #1 female Super Hero, Wonder Woman, is back in another breathtaking adventure! This time, Diana will travel to the Underworld to take on Hades--but will she make it out alive? After Diana thwarts a stunning attempt to defeat the Amazons and Themyscira for good, she has finally been granted permission to start training as a warrior! Except, the goddess Artemis brings news that children all over are disappearing without a trace. Diana is the only one who can be trusted to save them--even if she must confront Hades, Persephone, and all of the undead souls and mythical creatures of the Underworld. That is, until she discovers that a far more sinister villain is out to capture her--and will do whatever it takes to find her. With her warrior training barely underway, will young Wonder Woman be able to rely on her strength from within to save the missing children and defeat Hades? Or will she instead be dragged to the Underworld--forever?

Eating the Underworld
Eating the Underworld

Author: Doris Brett

Publisher: Random House Australia

Published: 2011-11-30

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1742755895

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An extraordinary personal journey through cancer and treatment. "...Extraordinary...Its bravery, irony, humour and intelligence - everything shines through the transparent prose...a remarkable literary voice, or melding of three voices--the autobiographical, the poetic, and the allegorical." - Dr. Oliver Sacks "The life of an individual is as complex as a maze of reflecting mirrors. The life of a family is even more so." Doris Brett is an award-winning writer and poet. 'I forget who said that the prospect of impending death concentrates the mind wonderfully . . . clarifying is the word I keep thinking of. But this is not the clarifying of a mist gently evaporating to reveal answers. This is the clarifying of paint-stripper; a solvent that stings and burns with its harshness, but reveals what was truly there all the time.' When Doris Brett was diagnosed with cancer several years ago, she began writing a private journal - a traveller's diary through a life-threatening illness. The journal, however, rapidly grew into something much more than that. Cancer became the catalyst for an inner journey - a journey through self. Evocatively told via three voices - the diarist, the poet, and the voice of fairytale and myth - this memoir explores the intricate dynamics of family, truth and memory. Poignant and compelling, Eating the Underworld is a sharply observed, often unexpectedly funny book about change, transformation and the constant renewal of self throughout our lives. 'As with any descent into a feared and terrifying country - whether it is the country of illness or the country of a grieving heart - we have entered the underworld. And we have eaten of its fruit . . . the knowledge of ourselves, the knowledge of others. We cannot remain unchanged.

Voices of the Bulge
Voices of the Bulge

Author: Michael Collins

Publisher: Zenith Press

Published: 2011-09-12

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1610602684

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The powerful German counteroffensive operation code-named “Wacht am Rhein” (Watch on the Rhine) launched in the early morning hours of December 16, 1944, would result in the greatest single extended land battle of World War II. To most Americans, the fierce series of battles fought from December 1944 through January 1945 is better known as the “Battle of the Bulge.” Almost one million soldiers would eventually take part in the fighting. Different from other histories of the Bulge, this book tells the story of this crucial campaign with first-person stories taken from the authors’ interviews of the American soldiers, both officers and enlisted personnel, who faced the massive German onslaught that threatened to turn the tide of battle in Western Europe and successfully repelled the attack with their courage and blood. Also included are stories from German veterans of the battles, including SS soldiers, who were interviewed by the authors.