Book Description
In one of those rare books that allows us to see the world not as we've never seen it before, but as we see it daily without knowing, Victoria Nelson illuminates the deep but hidden attraction the supernatural still holds for a secular mainstream culture that forced the transcendental underground and firmly displaced wonder and awe with the forces of reason, materialism, and science.
In a backward look at an era now drawing to a close, The Secret Life of Puppets describes a curious reversal in the roles of art and religion: where art and literature once took their content from religion, we came increasingly to seek religion, covertly, through art and entertainment. In a tour of Western culture that is at once exhilarating and alarming, Nelson shows us the distorted forms in which the spiritual resurfaced in high art but also, strikingly, in the mass culture of puppets, horror-fantasy literature, and cyborgs: from the works of Kleist, Poe, Musil, and Lovecraft to Philip K. Dick and virtual reality simulations. At the end of the millennium, discarding a convention of the demonized grotesque that endured three hundred years, a Demiurgic consciousness shaped in Late Antiquity is emerging anew to re-divinize the human as artists like Lars von Trier and Will Self reinvent Expressionism in forms familiar to our pre-Reformation ancestors. Here as never before, we see how pervasively but unwittingly, consuming art forms of the fantastic, we allow ourselves to believe.
Customer Reviews:
What to do with this book?.......2006-06-28
I may be hopelessly low-brow, but I really don't know what to make of this book. At the end of Chapter 1, the author writes:
"But caveat lector, those in the know view the process as irreversible. What come out of the hole, the hole of this book that you must crawl into, will not be the same as what went in". I have read all the way to Chapter 9, and I still don't get it. I may be dense, but aside from some interesting ideas, I see no hermetic initiation or anything justifying the self-serving paragraph I quoted above. In any case, I certainly was expecting at least an intellectual experience worth remembering. I feel I have been deceived and that the book is nothing more than an example of a kind of intellectuality that attempts to be esoteric and mysterious. Rather snobish, if you ask me.
High vs. Low Art.......2005-11-05
Overall Victoria Nelson has written a fine book. I was particularly interested in her Chapter on the American Fantastic Mode, and her excellent description of the difference, historically and currently, between European and American High Literature (Art). Where European high culture has embraced The Fantastic, in America the Genre has been delegated to comic books, murder mysteries, ghost stories, love-based romances, and recently, science fiction. Nelson points out that American literary icons such as Hawthorne or Fitzgerald only occasionally ventured into non-realism as "entertainments" leaving "fantasy" mostly for the pulp fiction mongers. She also seems to feel the "lower" form of fiction have been unjustly disparaged. Although the intent seems to be academic, Nelson's prose style renders THE SECRET LIFE OF PUPPETS more of a pleasure read than a textbook.
Great subject!.......2003-04-10
Nice way to connect wide range of topics. It has a typographical error or two, but it's a very good read.
Spins a common thread through esoteric interests.......2002-07-01
If you have bookshelves at home covering sci-fi/fantasy/horror, mythology, AI, psychology, alchemy, animation, and semiotics, and know them only as "things I'm interested in" without being aware of any other common thread, Victoria Nelson just might convince you that you are interested in those things for the same reason she is, and that people throughout history have been: you are mapping a geography of human imagination, taking a journey that you can't help but pursue. Although the book is structured as a history of ideas, there's an autobiography being told, too, about a precocious, sensitive kid fleeing grad school to Hawaii (just as I did) only to return years later "to finish the PhD thesis I never wrote". Along the way, you'd find many great books and films you may never have heard of.
Ground down.......2002-05-17
This is a book that at times reads a bit like a Ph.D. thesis, but's it really much better than that.
If you've ever entertained the idea that popular films such as The Matrix, or TV shows (X-Files) might be saying something interesting about ideas in today's world at some deeper level, but you're not really sure what it is, this is the book to read. Nelson shows how Robocop, the Terminator and so on are just the latest puppets standing in for a certain way of thinking about the world, even a 'religious' way of thinking, that in fact is very ancient in Western society. It's been driven into eclipse by our modern, scientific, and materialistic society, but becomes strangely ascendant the moment we walk into a movie theatre, read a Stephen King novel, or listen to a conversation about an 'interesting' movie at the water cooler. Why? Well, buy Nelson's book.
I could imagine this book being misread as an attack on conventional religion, but it really has nothing to do with that. I could also imagine that some readers, not accustomed to slogging their way through terms such as 'Platonism', 'demiurge,' and so on, might miss out on finer moments in Nelson's work, when she casts off the robes of the academic (which don't really suit her, anyway) and speaks in plain language about her ideas.
In any case, this is a fine book well worth a careful reading in my opinion.
Average customer rating:
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The Secret Life of Bears
Manufacturer: Walter Foster Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Activities & Toys
| Sports & Activities
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General
| Ages 9-12
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ASIN: 1560105674 |
Book Description
Children of all ages will instantly fall in love with this beautifully produced gift set. inside you'll find a lovable bear, four full-color books, and appealing extras in hidden compartments. Open the "book box" to a whole new world ... the secret life of bears!
"Book box" opens up to reveal:
o plush teddy bear
o teddy's passport
o luggage and hatbox
o shelf with charming knickknacks
o wardrobe that opens
o paper hangers with paper clothes
o mini envelopes
o four miniature books--Teddy's favorites!
o colorful jigsaw puzzle
o cupboards and drawers that open
Customer Reviews:
Great Resouce of Style.......2003-08-28
19th Century background sets the stage for the first four decade of 20th century development of style. La Belle Epoque, the languid tango, the impetuous Charleston, right through the fabulous thirties, the important stylists of Haute Couture from Worth to Poiret from Lanvin to Schiaparelli are represented up to 1940 when wartime put a punctuation on the evolutions of elegant styles. This volume is extensively illustrated with many unusual and unique period engravings, photographs and advertisements. Valuable illustrations.
Book Description
Stories include - Overly Familiar, The Big One, The Spirit Is Willing, Good Sport, R.U.R Or Are You Ain't My Baby?, Touch Tone, Fool's Mate, Hard Sell, Doppelgang-Bang, Things That Go Bump In The Night.
Customer Reviews:
This book is the best! ^^;;.......2005-09-08
I feel this book is great.. I just buyed the book. I Love the monster in the bed comic book what he mad.. Do you really want a trill for a chance buy this comic book.. I rate it a 5! and look he even helped out with magic the gathering too.. I mean.. Who drew the old pictures of egg cards.. So.. But this book and have a fun day!
Ho-hum.......2004-09-10
After years of teasing us with "next week: sex and D&D" in the pages of Dragon Magazine, Phil Foglio finally got around to mixing his SF/Fantasy and sex in comic form. Was it worth the wait?
Not really. Xxxenophile, while it does deliver a lot of original ideas, it fails to capitalize on them. The resultant short stories are not really erotic nor particularly funny.
Volume 3 (the only one I've read) ranks about 2 1/2 stars.
SF humor.......2004-06-04
That's SF as in Sex Funnies. The energy level (among other things) stays up in this new installation of the files of the XXXenophiles.
This keeps the "fun" in the bodily functions. All of the vignettes are consensual and no one gets hurt. The settings are as varied as the world of science fiction can make them. The drawings are in Foglio's signature style, but with juicy, exaggerated anatomy. Despite the topic there's really nothing prurient here, it's all too cartoony.
As long as you're flexible about what's OK between consenting adults, this is wonderful visual humor.
Not his best work, but fun nonetheless.......2001-02-22
Don't let the three stars fool you. This is excellent work. Mr. Foglio has not lost his humor or his artistic ability. Mr. Foglio's enjoyment of the sexual act and his pleasure in the inherent humor of it all still shines through, much to my enjoyment. My distaste for this book comes from two parts. Firstly, the sexual situation portrayed, while interesting, are mostly not especially my cup of tea (as opposed to much of _XXXenophile 1_.) Secondly, I did not find the humor particularly humorous. A good book; it simply does not have the same quality as the first.
GOOD DIRTY FUN!.......2000-04-05
If you like comedy, erotica, and adult books, you could not be happier than with Xxxenophile. Funny, damned witty, and very sexy. Well worth your dime.
Average customer rating:
- The evolution of a writer
- Politics, stories, and concrete poetry -- best of everything
- Face it, the guy's funny
- Hillarious!
- Typical O'Rourke: humorous, informative, clever.
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Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (O'Rourke, P. J.)
P. J. O'Rourke
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Essays
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ASIN: 0871136538 |
Amazon.com
Readers can be excused for a little motion sickness when reading this collection of pieces from P.J. O'Rourke. To go from preaching "Armed Love" (whatever that is) to being anointed as the ultra-libertarian Cato Institute's favorite humorist in only 25 years is an astounding transformation.
Still, whether it's New Left juvenilia or high-octane auto journalism scrawled in the Age of Cocaine, one thing holds true: O'Rourke writes one hell of a sentence. Here's P.J.'s impression of Nixon explaining Vietnam to a bunch of hippies: "To be really out front, I get off on ego trips, power games. But, like that's where I'm at ... I mean you can put me down for kicking your ass but don't put me down for being an ass-kicker 'cause that's my movie." Then fast-forward 17 years: "Sure, everyone says the Sixties were fun. Down at the American Legion hall, everybody says World War II was fun, if you talk to them after 10:00 p.m." Age and Guile is fun, whatever time it is.
Book Description
Readers may be shocked to discover that America's most provocative (and conservative) satirist, P. J. O'Rourke, was at one time a raving pinko, with scars on his formerly bleeding heart to prove it. In Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut, O'Rourke chronicles the remarkable trajectory that took him from the lighthearted fun of the revolutionary barricades to the serious business of the nineteenth hole. How did the O'Rourke of 1970, who summarized the world of "grown-ups" as "materialism, sexual hang-ups, the Republican party, uncomfortable clothes, engagement rings, car accidents, Pat Boone, competition, patriotism, cheating, lying, ranch houses, and TV" come to be in favor of all of those things? What causes a beatnik-hippie type, comfortable sleeping on dirty mattresses in pot-addled communes - as P. J. did when he was a writer for assorted "underground" papers-to metamorphosize into a right-wing middle-aged grouch? Here, P. J. shows how his Socialist idealism and avant-garde aesthetic tendencies were cured and how he acquired a healthy and commendable interest in national defense, the balanced budget, Porsches, and Cohiba cigars. P. J. O'Rourke's message is that there's hope for all those suffering from acute Bohemianism, or as he puts it, "Pull your pants up, turn your hat around, and get a job." "From the fictionalized accounts of his career as a hard-drinking hippie to the Benchley-in-the-age-of-macho lampoon of fly fishing, Mr. O'Rourke shows an incorrigible comic gift and an eye for detail that keeps the wild stuff grounded." - The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
The evolution of a writer.......2003-06-07
I first got into PJ O'Rourke when I started reading his book "Republican Party Reptile" and realized that I could laugh heartily at his wit, as opposed to the often divisive rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News Channel. O'Rourke is equally scathing in his approach to "born-again" nutjobs as he is to "pinko" enviromentalists, and his is a style of writing I wouldn't mind trying to emulate in my own belated (and as yet unpublished) career as a writer.
"Age and Guile" caught my fancy because I had heard it was a collection of his pieces from over the years, and I tried to find it at the local library and various bookstores, but was unlucky in my pursuit. I ended up checking out a Books-on-Tape version of the book, read by Norman Deitz, and I was quite pleased.
The early material is amatuerish, to be fair, but there are nuggets of wit to be found amongst the "juvinelia". The Truth About The Sixties was actually one of my favorite parts of the book, I found it very involving and fascinating to hear. The rest of the book tickled my funny bone. I just don't have enough good things to say about this book.
So, I ordered it on Amazon, and I've recieved it, and it's joined my collection of P.J. O'Rourke books. A liberal at heart myself, I agree with a previous reviewer that O'Rourke celebrates individual freedom and doesn't care for those who try and take it away. I only hope I can be as good at conveying that in my own writing, he's certainly one hell of a teacher.
Politics, stories, and concrete poetry -- best of everything.......2001-11-17
PJ O'Rourke has always been one of my favorite cultural and political commentators. An unrepentant Libertarian Republican who used to be an unrepentant Marxist radical, O'Rourke is a conservative who writes with all the wit and verve that, supposedly, only liberals are capable of. P.J. O'Rourke is the Al Franken of the American Right, if Al Franken were actually funny. Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut is made up of O'Rourke's previously uncollected writings over the past three decades. As such, the book begins with a few choice pieces from his angry days as a Marxist journalist in the early '70s (where, it must be said, O'Rourke still writes with a wit that proves that funny is funny not matter what the ideology) moves on to cover his brief period as an adherent to Concrete Poetry (an art form that he admits still having no idea what to make of) and finally closes with a few of his recent essays as Rolling Stone's Foreign Affairs Editor. Best of all, O'Rourke includes a few short stories that he wrote and published while editor of National Lampoon. The stories, all dealing with his past as a '60s radical, are a perfect mixture of radical nostalgia and modern day clear headedness and, along with an unexpected pathos for his lost characters wandering through the political wilderness of protest, they also rank amongst the most hilarious of O'Rourke's writings, perfectly displaying his trademark style of detached irony and self-depreciating wit (one can always sense O'Rourke saying, "Can you believe they actually pay me to write this stuff?"). Perhaps most nicely, the pieces in this collection are arranged by chronological order so that the reader literally goes through O'Rourke's political and literary evolution with him over the course of the book. As such, we're provided with a nice view of the political odyssey of both O'Rourke and America over the past 30-odd years. If one thing remains the same it is that O'Rourke, whether conservative or liberal, consistently refuses to accept anything at face value. He remains, always, the eternal skeptic. And we, as readers, are all the better off for it.
Face it, the guy's funny.......2000-06-12
First and foremost: it is worth noting (and it pains an saddens me that this is the case) that the phrase "Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut" is the first time I have seen a three-item list with correct grammar in a book printed in America after World War II.
Second, and not quite so foremost: P. J. O'Rourke is a very, very funny guy. He is completely politically incorrect, in most cases, and is therefore more than happy to pull out the jokes, puns, and other humorous concepts his more liberal colleagues have left to the dust.
Third, and not really far up there on the scale, but still worth mentioning: in most ways, P. J. O'Rourke is a tremendous boon to the right-wing American. He's not afraid to take pot-shots at just about anything, including fellow members of the right (Pat Buchanan is roasted almost as often as Bill Clinton), and he's not afraid to admit his mistakes, such as endorsing Clinton in 1992.
Combine those, and for most of this book you have a tremendously funny read, an almost literary roasting of such things as book tours, drinking, stupid sports, Whitewater, various makes and models of automobile, and the like. Unfortunately, it's the part that falls outside the realm of "most" that keeps this from being one of the finest political collections of the past decade. There are times when O'Rourke, who seems to be sitting right on the Libertarian partyline, veers far off to the left, and if he is to be trusted he was stuck out there in at least one case by the head of the Cato Institute (making me wonder how Libertarian they truly are), and he also has many of the strange and illogical hang-ups that keep me from ever wanting to vote Republican. He also, and he is well aware of it, asks a lot of our indulgence in the book's second section, a collection of short stories published (well, most of them) in the National Lampoon during his tenure as editor in chief there. Anyone who still wonders why I abhor the very idea of self-publishing need only read the section "The Truth About the Sixties and Other Fictions" in this book. It's shameless, awful, contorted, constipated prose, and O'Rourke is fully aware of this, and even says so in a few places.
But if you skip that section, and immediately stop reading any time you find one of those places where conservatives suddenly dismiss anything relating to logic (I have often theorized it's remnants of too many drugs during the sixties), this is most definitely a worthwhile book. Both the automobile and sports sections brought forth guffaws. And if you've ever heard me guffaw, you'll know that's soemthing to stay away from.
Hillarious!.......1999-12-28
If you or someone you know and love is looking for great material for a speach competition, try the stories "Dynamite" and "Another Tale of Uncle Mike." I used them to get to the state competition. The book is all-around hillarious with great little tips such as how to out-drink an Irish wedding party when they have a few hours head-start. It also has some great lines such as "none of us were seriously hurt, except for Terry, who had part of a hash pipe blown up his nose, something they had a hard time understanding at the emergency room." Buy it and laugh.
Typical O'Rourke: humorous, informative, clever........1999-07-06
I first discovered P.J.O'Rourke in the pages of various automotive publications. In addition to being a well-known political humorist, he is also an automotive enthusiast, as am I. This book, the second of his that I have read, is quite good once you get past the somewhat slow start. The second half of the book ("Drives to Nowhere," "Bad Sports") is wonderful. O'Rourke is a master of simile, metaphor, and analogy. Only the fiction writer Tom Robbins compares to him in this regard, in my opinion. I had my wife read a selection from the book, and she enjoyed it so much that she started reading it aloud to me. We laughed so hard our jaws hurt and our eyes teared! Whether you agree with his political bent or not, you cannot help but to enjoy the man's way with words; he is a true wordsmith. He can really "turn a phrase," as the trite expression goes. I can't wait to read more of his prose.
Average customer rating:
- Not the same side-splitting humor as Holidays in Hell
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Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut: Twenty-Five Years of P.J. O'Rourke
P. J. O'Rourke
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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Eat the Rich
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ASIN: 0871136090 |
Book Description
From the hippie joys and hazards of communal living to the conservative think-tank dinners in Washington, from his fear of the dark to his love of cars, P.J. O'Rourke takes us through the experiences which have shaped his irreverent attitude towards, well, just abut everything.
For readers unfamiliar with O'Rourke's humour, here are essays directed against all of his favourite targets; for those who are already fans, this book includes many previously unpublished pieces--it's the Portable P.J. for every library.
Customer Reviews:
Not the same side-splitting humor as Holidays in Hell.......2003-02-28
Much of P.J. O'Rourke's self-deprecating humor is funny, down-to-earth and insightful. But beware - when he writes in this manner he is joking on the level. So when you read the introduction to Age and Guile and see how low of an opinion he has of the material published in this book, TAKE HIS WORD FOR IT - THIS ISN'T VERY GOOD MATERIAL. If you're considering buying this book because you enjoyed P.J.'s other works, re-consider. This material earns at most an occasional, light chuckle and more frequently induces sleep. Some of P.J.'s other works, particularly Holidays in Hell, elicited much more appropriate reactions from this reader for a book with the word "humor" printed on the back cover. Several of P.J.'s travel essays from that book can be expected to cause the kind of painful laughter that makes it difficult to breathe, see or even stand, and in some readers will even cause loss of bladder control. So if you haven't read Holidays in Hell, then I recommend you buy that book instead of this one. Unless you're having trouble sleeping.
Average customer rating:
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Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut
P.J. O'Rourke
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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General
| Classics
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20th Century
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ASIN: 0330348019 |
Books:
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- Understanding Research in Second Language Learning: A Teacher's Guide to Statistics and Research Design (Cambridge Language Teaching Library)
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- Voicing Our Visions: Writings by Women Artists
- Zippy Stories
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