Download or read book Signs of the Signs written by William Brevda and published by Bucknell University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-16 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of signs in American literature and culture. It is mainly about electric signs, but also deals with non-electric signs and related phenomena, such as movie sets. The 'sign' is considered in both the architectural and semiotic senses of the word. It is argued that the drama and spectacle of the electric sign called attention to the semiotic implications of the 'sign.' In fiction, poetry, and commentary, the electric SIGN became a 'sign' of manifold meanings that this book explores: a sign of the city, a sign of America, a sign of the twentieth century, a sign of modernism, a sign of postmodernism, a sign of noir, a sign of naturalism, a sign of the beats, a sign of signs systems (the Bible to Broadway), a sign of tropes (the Great White way to the neon jungle), a sign of the writers themselves, a sign of the sign itself. If Moby Dick is the great American novel, then it is also the great American novel about signs, as the prologue maintains. The chapters that follow demonstrate that the sign is indeed a 'sign' of American literature. After the electric sign was invented, it influenced Stephen Crane to become a nightlight impressionist and Theodore Dreiser to make the 'fire sign' his metaphor for the city. An actual Broadway sign might have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In Manhattan Transfer and U.S.A., John Dos Passos portrayed America as just a spectacular sign. William Faulkner's electric signs are full of sound and fury signifying modernity. The Last Tycoon was a sign of Fitzgerald's decline. The signs of noir can be traced to Poe's 'The Man of the Crowd.' Absence flickers in the neons of Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles. The death of God haunts the neon wilderness of Nelson Algren. Hitler's 'empire' was an non-intentional parody of Nathanael West's California. The beats reinvented Times Square in their own image. Jack Kerouac's search for the center of Saturday night was a quest for transcendence. This book will interest readers who want to learn more about the city, the history of advertising, electric lighting, nightlife, architecture, and semiotics. In contrast to other cultural studies, however, Signs of the Signs is primarily a work of literary criticism. Lovers of literary light will appreciate this book the most.

Download or read book The History of Court Fools written by John Doran and published by . This book was released on 1858 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The history of Court fools written by ... Doran and published by . This book was released on 1858 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fool s Paradise written by Steven Gaines and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-12-29 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed bestselling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow comes a remarkably revealing profile of the Miami Beach no one knows–a tale of fabulous excess, thwarted power, and rekindled lives that will take its place among the decade’s best works of social portraiture. Created from a mix of swampland and dredged-up barrier reef, Miami Beach has always been one part drifter-mecca and one part fantasyland, simultaneously a catch basin for con men, fast-talk artists, and shameless self-promoters, and a Shangri-La for sun worshippers and hardcore hedonists. In Miami Beach it’s often said that "if you’re not indicted you’re not invited." But the city’s mad, fascinating complexity resists easy stereotyping. Fool’s Paradise is more than just a present-day profile of a dark Eden. Gaines journeys back into the city’s social and cultural history, unearthing stories of the resort’s past that are every bit as absorbing–and jaw-dropping–as those of its present. The book begins with a snapshot of the city’s current excess (this is, after all, a sun-washed hamlet that boasts, on a per capita basis, more bars–and breast implants–than any other place in America), then plunges into the Beach’s origins, chronicling the audacious rise of such hoteliers as the Fontainebleau’s Ben Novack and the Eden Roc’s Harry Mufson, the sharp-elbowed tactics of Al Capone and Frank Sinatra, and the Mac-10 shooting sprees of the Marielito and Colombian drug lords. From there, the narrative shifts to two wildly eccentric souls who gave their lives to preserving the city’s architectural dazzle and creating its color palette, introduces us to "the Most Powerful Man in Miami Beach," and arrives finally in the modern day, where we meet, among others, a kinky German playboy who once owned a quarter of South Beach and publicly flaunts his sexual escapades; a fabulously successful nightclub promoter whose addictive past seems to have given him a portal into the night world’s id; and a gaggle of young sexy models, dreamers, and schemers on a mission to achieve significance. Evoking the Beach’s surreal blend of flashy Vegas and old Hollywood glamour, as well as its manic desperation and reckless wealth, Gaines persuasively demonstrates that though the Beach is–in the words of its most famous drag queen–"an island of broken toys . . . a place where people get away with things they’d never get away with anyplace else," it casts an irresistible spell.

Download or read book Fools Playing Fools written by Joseph Allen and published by Rogue Phoenix Press. This book was released on 2020-01-22 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No sooner has handsome, partially disabled Ned Savage moved into the apartment next door to Hugo Miller than he is apparently murdered with a heavy candlestick to his head while he is collapsing into anaphylactic shock in his living room, due to a fungus that is commonly found on marijuana plants. The action happens in and around several productions of “Twelfth Night” in NYC and at a nearby Shakespeare festival. Hugo, Gabriele and Ruth travel to California to see a high-tech cannabis operation, to London to visit Ned’s pregnant wife (a secret marriage), and to Istanbul to meet a famous author who has invested in Ned’s career. Ned’s sexuality and his pregnant wife’s preferences aren’t clear, and Gabriele Cortese is part of a love triangle involving both of them. But the keys to the solution are found on a stormy night filled with lightning and fools in New York City.

Download or read book The History of Court Fools written by Dr. Doran (John) and published by London : R. Bentley. This book was released on 1858 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Works of Alexander Pope Esq written by Alexander Pope and published by . This book was released on 1847 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Works of Alexander Pope Esq with Notes and Illustrations by Himself and Others To which are Added a New Life of the Author an Estimate of His Poetical Character and Writings and Occasional Remarks by William Roscoe Esq written by Alexander Pope and published by . This book was released on 1847 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Games of the Heart written by Eva Shaw and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-07-30 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: See, I’m usually the one who solves problems, being that I’m a minister and all. Yes, you heard it right. I might not look like one - i.e. rounded on all the right edges and a propensity to wearing clothes showing a smidge of cleavage. And it’s true if you’ve heard that I have Victoria’s Secret’s site as my homepage. Like it or not, that’s me, Pastor Jane Angieski. I’m fully licensed, fully educated, and fully confused most of the time. Truth is that if I could have just resisted the lure of dark chocolate I’d have stayed happily ignorant about sex slaves, black-market babies, cheatin’ preachers, and an assortment of lowlifes that have intruded on my cluttered, fluttered, and frazzled life. And with that restraint, I would never have been rejected, arrested, and nearly exterminated. Or fallen in love. But wait, like always, I’m getting ahead of the story and how it all happened. Sensuality Level: Behind Closed Doors

Download or read book Practically Joking written by Moira Marsh and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Practically Joking, the first full-length study of the practical joke, Moira Marsh examines the value, artistry, and social significance of this ancient and pervasive form of vernacular expression. Though they are sometimes dismissed as the lowest form of humor, practical jokes come from a lively tradition of expressive play. They can reveal both sophistication and intellectual satisfaction, with the best demanding significant skill and talent not only to conceive but also to execute. Practically Joking establishes the practical joke as a folk art form subject to critical evaluation by both practitioners and audiences, operating under the guidance of local aesthetic and ethical canons. Marsh studies the range of genres that pranks comprise; offers a theoretical look at the reception of practical jokes based on “benign transgression”—a theory that sees humor as playful violation—and uses real-life examples of practical jokes in context to establish the form’s varieties and meanings as an independent genre, as well as its inextricable relationship with a range of folklore forms. Scholars of folklore, humor, and popular culture will find much of interest in Practically Joking.

Download or read book The New International Encyclopaedia written by and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 972 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States written by American Film Institute and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 962 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After more than fifteen years, this initial volume of the American Film Institute Catalog series is again in print. The 1920s set covers the important filmmaking period when "movies" became "talkies," and the careers of many influential directors and actors were launched. Films such as Wings, The Phantom of the Opera, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Jazz Singer are included in this volume.

Download or read book The works of Alexander Pope with notes and illustrations by himself and others To which are added a new life of the author c by W Roscoe written by Alexander Pope and published by . This book was released on 1847 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Everybody s written by and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 1102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Bioscope written by and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 1792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Drone Chase written by Pam Withers and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ray will need every ounce of his drone skills and outdoor smarts to recover his missing bear cub before poachers get to it first. When his orphan bear cub goes missing, sixteen-year-old drone enthusiast Ray McLellan decides to use his airborne spying skills to find it. Little does he know that an evil bear-poaching gang operating in the surrounding forest has drones, too — and a cold welcome for those who would attempt to take them down. As a New York City kid recently forced to move to the Great Bear Rainforest by his parents, Ray doesn’t have a lifetime of outdoor instincts or familiarity with the valley and its wildlife. That makes him very different from his grumpy grandfather, who — like his new school friends — berates his city-kid uselessness at every opportunity. Can Ray use his drones and smarts to prove himself, find his cub, and expose what’s going on in the woods?

Download or read book The New International Encyclop dia written by Daniel Coit Gilman and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 978 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: