The past quarter-century proved to be a particularly rough and rocky road for the cultural mutant. From getting on the wrong end of political correctness at St. John's College, Santa Fe, followed by a confused odyssey as an ESL teacher, a doctoral student, a would-be scholar and poet, pundit and constitutionalist attorney, psychedelic inner space explorer, and blues piano player-and then returning to his boyhood neighborhood only to find it irretrievably morphed and mangled. The confusion experienced during the cultural mutant's long odyssey in the wilderness of not-knowing (precisely) the causes of his malaise, is exhaustively portrayed herein.
The Roman Church has lost its institutional legitimacy. Restore your Catholic faith; discern the truth, e.g., as a Weird Task Specialist via the Order of the Bewildered, Befuddled, Betwixt and Between. Bro. Jack Suss, O4B, is a non-denominational Catholic and a recovering sinner who believes in the power of soul, love, prayer, contrition, grace, goodness, and redemption. These Essays in Unlearning just may help you to condense the way of the pilgrim from out of today's cloud of unknowing, in a gentle move toward neo-anthroposophy-nothing short of Christianity for the mystic.
This volume of poetry includes selected gems chosen by the author as representative of his work, taken from a "driftscape" that spans almost half a century. It's beat poetry with existential twists that pop and sizzle, serving up a soul platter of surprises, red pill detours, and meditations for the potato head in all of us. The poems are peppered and laced with color graphics meant to be pleasing to the eye, offering respite from the text.
With More Essays in Unlearning, readers tour the abyss of our socio-cultural unmaking. Unmask yourself; accept that the world is a lie. Only then might you begin to climb out of your rut, oh well-rutted friend. Bro. Jack, O4B is the tour guide. Though he morphs into "Harland" for some few essays, he gets his "Rev. Gumpus voice" back toward the end of the book. Yes, we find that even our tour guide is a clone-prose narrator afloat among images snagged from the web. And his weird task ministry-Catholic-yet-adrift-at times perilously stupefied-resiliently carries his Soul Enticed message onward.
`To say that the scope of the book's coverage is wide-ranging would be an under-statement. Few texts come to mind that have attempted such a thorough overview of the central tenets of cultural studies' - Stuart Allan, University of West of England This is a book for anyone who wants an unfussy, authoritative critical introduction to Cultural Studies. It equips you with all that you need to know about theories of cultural studies: what they say, how they differ from one another and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each position. It provides biographical information on major theorists plus assessments of key texts. Unlike other competing books in the field, Cultural Studies - The Basics demonstrates what a Cultural Studies approach can do to illuminate basic areas of contemporary culture. Included are chapters on: - Feminism - The Body - Cultural Space - Communications Technology - Cultural Policy - Language and Culture. The book is designed to be used and read by students who face the pressures of essay dead-lines, examinations and dissertations. Above all it approaches Cultural Studies as something that needs to be used as well as studied.
At stage center of the American drama, maintains David A. J. Richards, is the attempt to understand the implications of the Reconstruction Amendments--Amendments Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen to the United States Constitution. Richards evaluates previous efforts to interpret the amendments and then proposes his own view: together the amendments embodied a self-conscious rebirth of America's revolutionary, rights-based constitutionalism. Building on an approach to constitutional law developed in his Toleration and the Constitution and Foundations of American Constitutionalism, Richards links history, law, and political theory. In Conscience and the Constitution, this method leads from an analysis of the Reconstruction Amendments to a broad discussion of the American constitutional system as a whole. Richards's interpretation focuses on the abolitionists and their radical commitment to the "dissenting conscience." In his view, the Reconstruction Amendments expressed not only the constitutional arguments of a particular historical period but also a general political theory developed by the abolitionists, who restructured the American political community in terms of respect for universal human rights. He argues further that the amendments make a claim on our generation to keep faith with the vision of the "founders of 1865." In specific terms he points out what such allegiance would mean in the context of present-day constitutional issues. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Wolverine. Logan. Weapon X. By any name, Marvel Comic's savage, brooding antihero is, in his own words, the best at what he does--killing with gratuitous precision. Paradoxically violent yet humane, the beer-swilling, cigar-smoking mutant with retractable claws is universally misjudged in the Marvel Universe yet esteemed by fans worldwide. The author explores Wolverine's development from bit character to modern legend over more than four decades, with a focus on his enduring appeal as an allegory for resilience through torment.
As Americans wrestle with debates over traditional values, defense of marriage, and gay rights, reason often seems to take a back seat to emotion. In response, legal scholar Richards reflects upon the constitutional and democratic principles--relating to privacy, intimate life, free speech, tolerance, and conscience--that underpin these often heated debates. The distillation of Richards's thirty-year advocacy for the rights of gays and lesbians, his book provides a reflective treatise on basic human rights that touch all of our lives. He places in context two key Supreme Court cases: the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision, and the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision which overturned it. Drawing upon his own experiences as a gay man, Richards interweaves personal observations with philosophical, political, judicial, and psychological insights to make a case that gays should be entitled to the same rights and protections that every American enjoys.--From publisher description.
The idea of cinephilia is a crucial one for students of the cinema, but it is often associated with a bygone arthouse era. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, corporatism, public relations and bottom-line accounting seem to govern mainstream film-making. Formula-driven Hollywood blockbusters dominate the world marketplace. In times like these can 'the love of cinema' still flourish? In fact contemporary cinema is stunningly varied and rich. From Taiwan and Iran to Brazil and the Baltic states, it is flourishing and constantly mutating. Directors like Abbas Kiarostami, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang are making extraordinary films that are the equal of the great classics, previously unrecognised works from the past are being discovered, and new definitions and boundaries of genres are being formulated. Even when this work is not widely distributed it is seen at film festivals on every continent and available on DVD; and it is being discussed in a proliferating number of print and web publications. Those who follow and share such work, as contributors from around the world demonstrate in this book, are forming new kinds of critical communities that enable significant exchanges between cultures at a time when other forces seem bent on keeping them mutually isolated. In contrast to any talk of 'the death of cinema', Movie Mutations pronounces the art form alive, well, and still developing in new and unforeseen directions. In weaving together transnational discussions and debates, Movie Mutations shows why the idea of cinephilia is just as relevant today as it ever was.
"Handbook on Evolution and Society" brings together original chapters by prominent scholars who have been instrumental in the revival of evolutionary theorizing and research in the social sciences over the last twenty-five years. Previously unpublished essays provide up-to-date, critical surveys of recent research and key debates. The contributors discuss early challenges posed by sociobiology, the rise of evolutionary psychology, the more conflicted response of evolutionary sociology to sociobiology, and evolutionary psychology. Chapters address the application and limitations of Darwinian ideas in the social sciences. Prominent authors come from a variety of disciplines in ecology, biology, primatology, psychology, sociology, and the humanities. The most comprehensive resource available, this vital collection demonstrates to scholars and students the new ways in which evolutionary approaches, ultimately derived from biology, are influencing the diverse social sciences and humanities.
