Download or read book Myths of the Mirror written by D Wallace Peach and published by . This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty years past, the governors plotted murder. Ruled by avarice, they imprisoned the winged dragons of Taran Leigh in the black cells of a stone lair. Tormented by spine and spur the once peaceful creatures howl, immense webbed wings beating beneath iron bars. Those who raised their voices in protest were banished--skyriders, the men who rode the dragons--vanished to the distant mountains of the Mirror.Now, Treasa, the daughter of exiles, seeker of secrets, dreams with the lair's dragons, her heart torn by her love for the winged creatures and a man who masters them. She must choose her path with care. The lair's black -garbed riders sense the dragon's growing savagery. Yet one, Conall, longs to grasp their power, subdue them and soar, unaware that winged flight, merged in harmony, is his for the asking. Then, a curved talon rends Conall's flesh and dragon scale, rattling against white ribs and the world shifts. As hearts once parted bind, Terasa and Conall join forces to fight for the dragon's freedom. Alliances form, old myths are revealed and new myths are born.

Download or read book The Myth of Mirror Neurons The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition written by Gregory Hickok and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology. In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey’s own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain. Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning. In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation—a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What’s going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress—from discovery to theory to revision—but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.

Download or read book Medusa written by David Leeming and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With her repulsive face and head full of living, venomous snakes, Medusa is petrifying—quite literally, since looking directly at her turned people to stone. Ever since Perseus cut off her head and presented it to Athena, she has been a woman of many forms: a dangerous female monster that had to be destroyed, an erotic power that could annihilate men, and, thanks to Freud, a woman whose hair was a nest of terrifying penises that signaled castration. She has been immortalized by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Salvador Dalí and was the emblem of the Jacobins after the French Revolution. Today, she’s viewed by feminists as a noble victim of patriarchy and used by Versace in the designer’s logo for men’s underwear, haute couture, and exotic dinnerware. She even gives her name to a sushi roll on a Disney resort menu. Why does Medusa continue to have this power to transfix us? David Leeming seeks to answer this question in Medusa, a biography of the mythical creature. Searching for the origins of Medusa’s myth in cultures that predate ancient Greece, Leeming explores how and why the mythical figure of the gorgon has become one of the most important and enduring ideas in human history. From an oil painting by Caravaggio to Clash of the Titans and Dungeons and Dragons, he delves into the many depictions of Medusa, ultimately revealing that her story is a cultural dream that continues to change and develop with each new era. Asking what the evolution of the Medusa myth discloses about our culture and ourselves, this book paints an illuminating portrait of a woman who has never ceased to enthrall.

Download or read book A Little Book of Mirror Magick written by Patricia Telesco and published by Crossing Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The simple image of oneself reflected back by a mirror can be more empowering than most of us realize. In A LITTLE BOOK OF MIRROR MAGICK, best-selling author Patricia Telesco explains how to use mirrors as a tool for personal empowerment and transformation. Combining ancient wisdom with practical approaches, this book is perfect for anyone interested in self-realization, magic, and fun! Discover how to:Improve self-image and call upon specific Gods and Goddesses.Gain insight into the past, present, and future, interpret mirror visions, and redirect energies. Prepare mirrors for truth seeking, healing, or blessings as well as make your own magic mirror. Use sample meditations and rituals to practice in personal spaces or in magic circles. Learn how to use astrology and feng shui in connection with your mirror magic practices.

Download or read book The Mirror of Lida Sal written by Miguel Angel Asturias and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First English-language edition of El espejo de Lida Sal (see HLAS 30:3268), in which the Nobel laureate melds Mayan and Guatemalan myth and folklore in 10 stories whose hallucinatory prose challenges the reader. 'Everything unfolds in a land of natural dreamscapes ... The imagination reels.' Although lacking a table of contents and translator's note, the superb translation recommends the work for classroom use

Download or read book Medusa s Mirror written by Elizabeth Catanese and published by ABDO. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evelyn heads to Mt. Olympus Theme Park to celebrate her winning a hair design contest, where she travels through a mirror in Athena's Hall of Mirrors to a myth; but when she meets Perseus on a mission to behead Medusa, Evelyn wants to try a more creative approach. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Spellbound is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.

Download or read book Mirror of the Marvelous written by Pierre Mabille and published by Inner Traditions International. This book was released on 1998 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Mabille, the marvelous is a state of extreme poetic tension in which inner and outer realities are joined. Anaïs Nin suggested this book as a source of inspiration, far ahead of its time, for would-be authors seeking to break from the realist literary mold.

Download or read book The Portrait of a Mirror written by A. Natasha Joukovsky and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning reinvention of the myth of Narcissus as a modern novel of manners, about two young, well-heeled couples whose parallel lives converge and intertwine over the course of a summer, by a sharp new voice in fiction Wes and Diana are the kind of privileged, well-educated, self-involved New Yorkers you may not want to like but can't help wanting to like you. With his boyish good looks, blue-blood pedigree, and the recent tidy valuation of his tech startup, Wes would have made any woman weak in the knees—any woman, that is, except perhaps his wife. Brilliant to the point of cunning, Diana possesses her own arsenal of charms, handily deployed against Wes in their constant wars of will and rhetorical sparring. Vivien and Dale live in Philadelphia, but with ties to the same prep schools and management consulting firms as Wes and Diana, they’re of the same ilk. With a wedding date on the horizon and carefully curated life of coupledom, Vivien and Dale make a picture-perfect pair on Instagram. But when Vivien becomes a visiting curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art just as Diana is starting a new consulting project in Philadelphia, the two couples’ lives cross and tangle. It’s the summer of 2015 and they’re all enraptured by one another and too engulfed in desire to know what they want—despite knowing just how to act. In this wickedly fun debut, A. Natasha Joukovsky crafts an absorbing portrait of modern romance, rousing real sympathy for these flawed characters even as she skewers them. Shrewdly observed, whip-smart, and shot through with wit and good humor, The Portrait of a Mirror is a piercing exploration of narcissism, desire, self-delusion, and the great mythology of love.

Download or read book Living Myths written by J. F. Bierlein and published by Wellspring/Ballantine. This book was released on 1999 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals how key myths of the world present timeless truths that enrich our understanding of the world and the role humans play today.

Download or read book Breath on the Mirror written by Dennis Tedlock and published by Harper San Francisco. This book was released on 1993 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shares the myths of the contemporary Mayans of Guatemala, in tales of tricksters, lords of the underworld, warriers, kings, Spanish invaders and missionaries, and even anthropologists.

Download or read book The Magic Mirror written by and published by Bounty Books. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Mirror of the Gods written by Malcolm Bull and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2006-04-27 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text takes the story from the Renaissance to the Baroque. Each chapter focuses on a particular god and recounts the tales of that deity, not as they appear in classical literature but as they were re-created by artists like Botticelli, Titian, Poussin and Rembrandt.

Download or read book Mirror Mirror written by Mark Pendergrast and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all human inventions, the mirror is perhaps the one most closely connected to our own consciousness. As our first technology for contemplation of the self, the mirror is arguably as important an invention as the wheel. Mirror Mirror is the fascinating story of the mirror's invention, refinement, and use in an astonishing range of human activities -- from the fantastic mirrored rooms that wealthy Romans created for their orgies to the mirror's key role in the use and understanding of light. Pendergrast spins tales of the 2,500year mystery of whether Archimedes and his "burning mirror" really set faraway Roman ships on fire; the medieval Venetian glassmakers, who perfected the technique of making large, flat mirrors from clear glass and for whom any attempt to leave their cloistered island was punishable by death; Isaac Newton, whose experiments with sunlight on mirrors once left him blinded for three days; the artist David Hockney, who holds controversial ideas about Renaissance artists and their use of optical devices; and George Ellery Hale, the manic-depressive astronomer and telescope enthusiast who inspired (and gave his name to) the twentieth century's largest ground-based telescope. Like mirrors themselves, Mirror Mirror is a book of endless wonder and fascination.

Download or read book A Different Mirror for Young People written by Ronald Takaki and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2012-10-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A longtime professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Ronald Takaki was recognized as one of the foremost scholars of American ethnic history and diversity. When the first edition of A Different Mirror was published in 1993, Publishers Weekly called it "a brilliant revisionist history of America that is likely to become a classic of multicultural studies" and named it one of the ten best books of the year. Now Rebecca Stefoff, who adapted Howard Zinn's best-selling A People's History of the United States for younger readers, turns the updated 2008 edition of Takaki's multicultural masterwork into A Different Mirror for Young People. Drawing on Takaki's vast array of primary sources, and staying true to his own words whenever possible, A Different Mirror for Young People brings ethnic history alive through the words of people, including teenagers, who recorded their experiences in letters, diaries, and poems. Like Zinn's A People's History, Takaki's A Different Mirror offers a rich and rewarding "people's view" perspective on the American story.

Download or read book Mirror and Pattern written by Carobeth Laird and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Distant Mirror written by Barbara W. Tuchman and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 1987-07-12 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “marvelous history”* of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years’ War, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August *Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October, in The Wall Street Journal The fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knight—in all his valor and “furious follies,” a “terrible worm in an iron cocoon.” Praise for A Distant Mirror “Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell how it was. . . . No one has ever done this better.”—The New York Review of Books “A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer.”—The Wall Street Journal “Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition.”—Commentary

Download or read book A Japanese Mirror written by Ian Buruma and published by Atlantic Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-08-06 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this scintillating book, Ian Buruma peels away the myths that surround Japanese culture. With piercing analysis of cinema, theatre, television, art and legend, he shows the Japanese both 'as they imagine themselves to be, and as they would like themselves to be.' A Japanese Mirror examines samurai and gangsters, transvestites and goddesses to paint an eloquent picture of life in Japan. This is a country long shrouded in enigma and in his compelling book, Buruma reveals a culture rich in with poetry, beauty and wonder.