This is the first study of Freud's texts to incorporate the intellectual findings of Adolf Grünbaum, the archival material published by Jeffrey Masson (the recently published correspondence between Freud and Wilhelm Fliess) and Lewin's profile of long-term cocaine users. Wilcocks challenges literary critics who have granted Freud's writings "scientific" status, and claims that the works are no more than the rhetorical deceptions of a talented writer. Through a careful examination of the Freud-Fliess correspondence and of Freud's case histories, and through a novel comparison of Freud's rhetorical devices with Poe's rhetoric of deception in the essay "Maelzel's Chess-Player," Wilcocks reveals that Freud was a talented but disturbed master of deception, including self-deception.
Maelzel's Chess Player is an essay by Edgar Allan Poe exposing a chess player called The Turk. The latter had become famous in Europe and the United States and toured widely. Yet most of his fame was attributed to fraudulent automation methods of chess-playing, which became the main topic of the presented book.
"This work contains a detailed discussion of the sizeable body of literature surrounding the Turk along with an extensive analysis of its hidden operation. A collection of published games played by the Turk, many, again, unknown for 200 years, is also included, along with numerous other games known to have been played elsewhere by the Turk's hidden directors."--BOOK JACKET.
A Most Fascinating Journey! It has long been recognized that there are only three major areas of human endeavor which produce prodigies: music, chess and mathematics. This does not occur by happenstance. There are links on many levels. Now, for the first time, Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa examines the yet unexplored relation of chess to music. Mathematics is a main common denominator, a fact that is highlighted accordingly. The thesis of this extraordinarily researched book is that chess is art in itself. It can create art and is strongly related to mathematics and music. As becomes clear, this relationship has already been introduced by some legendary players such as Mikhail Tal and Vladimir Kramnik . Great artists such as John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Arnold Schönberg, to name but a few, have also been fascinated by the very same idea. Surprisingly, this has not been explored in detail so far – only some sporadic articles exist, by authors specializing in either music or chess. There are chapters that address issues which are specialized in chess and music, while others cover related issues of general, social and artistic nature. Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa can be appreciated by readers who have a good, general, though non-specific background, in both fields. That is, no technical knowledge of music is required, with the only prerequisite to fully appreciate the text being the understanding of standard chess rules. The text could be equally enlightening to students of music or mathematics, as an added intellectual insight into these two disciplines. The text is supplemented by many chess diagrams, charts, and over 50 full-color images. So, turn on the music, set up chessboard, get out the calculator and let the author take you on a most fascinating journey that is Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa.
This title tells the true story of the Turk, the infamous 18th-century automation. The story links an unlikely cast of historical characters, from Napoleon, Beethoven and Poe to the pioneers of the computer age, and provides an accessible way of examining the complex relationship between magic, man, mind and machine, from the Enlightenment to the computer age.
Napoleon Vs. the Turk is an exciting minute-by-minute drama loosely based on the real Turk and its match against Napoleon. It was first performed at the 2006 Toronto Fringe Festival, directed by Luke Davies. 1809. Napoleon Bonaparte has invaded Austria and is working out a treaty at Schonbruun Palace. Also visiting Schonbruun is The Turk, a mechanical man seemingly able to play chess and defeat many seasoned players. Napoleon, a chess enthusiast, challenges the Turk to a game. But as Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the last steward of the famous Turk, drunkenly recalls, all is not what it seems. Before the match, Maelzel feuds with his love, Lotte, who wants to stop the match and for Maelzel to give up the Turk. Meanwhile, the brilliant chess player Allgaier matches wits with defeated Austrian general Sterzl, in a conflict that could spell disaster for Napoleon and Maelzel. Author Bio Tom Robertson has written and produced plays in Toronto, Canada, since graduating from Queen's University in 2002 where he studied Drama and History. His past work includes collaborating on Ninja Heaven, an 'action play', at the National Film Board Cinematheque stage in 2005, Napoleon Vs. The Turk, which was performed at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2006, and writing for the production Sit On It, a monthly live 'sit-com'. He is the winner of the J.C.W. Saxton Prize for Playwriting from Queen's University for his play, Horses, and won first prize in the 2004 Toronto Fringe Festival 24-hour Playwriting Contest with his play, Let's Start Over. Tom makes his living as Senior Project Manager for Shaw Communications.
In 1769, the court of Empress Maria Theresia witnessed one of that era's most amazing feats of engineering: a machine that could play chess. Artfully constructed by a Hungarian nobleman named Wolfgang von Kempelen, the chess-machine played a unique game against each opponent, far surpassing the abilities of all its fellow automata. Throughout its eighty-five year career, audiences across Europe and the Americas flocked to see the mechanical marvel seemingly capable of human intelligence; Napoleon, Charles Babbage, and Benjamin Franklin were among its challengers, and Edgar Allen Poe wrote an essay attempting to explain how it worked. Despite its demise over a hundred fifty years ago, its mystery continues to fascinate, and its audience's reaction to its Orientalist trappings casts fresh light on our present sense of the 'exotic'. Written and Illustrated by Jane Irwin, author of the Vögelein graphic novels, Clockwork Game retells the true story of the world's first chess-playing automaton, blending reality and fiction into a singular graphic novel.
The father of the detective novel and an innovator in American Gothic fiction, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) made his living as America's first great literary critic. Today he is best remembered for his short stories and poems, haunting works of horror and mystery that remain popular around the world. This anthology presents Poe's finest works in a rich selection of poetry and prose that features his only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Short stories include "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Purloined Letter," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and more than a dozen others. In addition to a few selections of Poe's nonfiction writing, the compilation offers "The Conqueror Worm," "Annabel Lee," "The Raven," and many other memorable poems.
