Download or read book Nostalgia for the Absolute written by George Steiner and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 1997-03-01 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writer and scholar George Steiner's Massey Lectures are just as cogent today as when he delivered them in 1974 -- perhaps even more so. He argues that Western culture's moral and emotional emptiness stems from the decay of formal religion. He examines the alternate mythologies (Marxism, etc.) and fads of irrationality (astrology, the occult). Steiner argues that this decay and the failure of the mythologies have created a nostalgia for the absolute that is growing and leading us to a massive clash between truth and human survival. Ultimately he suggests that we can only reduce the impact of this collision course if we continue, as disinterestedly as possible, to ask questions and seek answers in the face of our increasingly complex world.
Download or read book Nostalgia for the Absolute 1997 written by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nostalgia for the Absolute written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writer and scholar George Steiner's Massey Lectures are just as cogent today as when he delivered them in 1974 -- perhaps even more so. He argues that Western culture's moral and emotional emptiness stems from the decay of formal religion. He examines the alternate mythologies (Marxism, etc.) and fads of irrationality (astrology, the occult). Steiner argues that this decay and the failure of the mythologies have created a nostalgia for the absolute that is growing and leading us to a massive clash between truth and human survival. Ultimately he suggests that we can only reduce the impact of this collision course if we continue, as disinterestedly as possible, to ask questions and seek answers in the face of our increasingly complex world.
Download or read book Ligeti s Laments Nostalgia Exoticism and the Absolute written by Amy Bauer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Hungarian composer Gy?rgy Ligeti passed away in June 2006, he was widely feted as being one of the greatest composers of our time. His complete published works were recorded during his lifetime and his music continues to inspire a steady stream of performances and scholarship. Ligeti's Laments provides a critical analysis of the composer's works, considering both the compositions themselves and the larger cultural implications of their reception. Bauer both synthesizes and challenges the prevailing narratives surrounding the composer's long career and uses the theme of lament to inform a discussion of specific musical topics, including descending melodic motives, passacaglia and the influence of folk music. But Ligeti 'laments' in a larger sense; his music fuses rigour and sensuality, tradition and the new and influences from disparate high and low cultures, with a certain critical and ironic distance, reflected in his spoken commentary as well as in the substance of his music. The notions of nostalgia, exoticism and the absolute are used to relate works of different eras and genres, along with associated concepts of allegory, melancholy, contemporary subjectivity and the voice.
Download or read book The Absolute written by Daniel Guebel and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner.... Premio Municipal de la Novela 2021 Premio Nacional de Literatura Argentina 2018 Premio Literario de la Academia Argentina de Letras 2017 Best Novel Award by La Nación 2016 A provocative multigenerational exploration of creative genius, madness, and family relationships. With the ambition and density of style of Vladimir Nabokov or Olga Tokarczuk, this is a story both profound and handled with a light touch. The Absolute is a sprawling historical novel about the Deliuskin-Scriabin family, made up of six generations of geniuses and madmen. Beginning in the mid-18th century in Russia, across Europe and ending in late 20th-century Argentina, the characters’ lives play out in different branches of art, politics and science in such radical ways that they transform the world and its reality. The narrator’s ancestor, Frantisek Deliuskin, invents a new form of music in the 18th century; his son, Andrei Deliuskin, makes some marginal annotations to the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola that are later interpreted by Lenin as an instruction manual to carry out the Russian Revolution of 1917; Esau Deliuskin, following the course of his father, creates a socialist utopian society; and down through the generations to the narrator, whose creation takes him back in time and space to the moment of the Big Bang. The Absolute is a monumental work about the creation of art and about family, about spiritual traditions and about throwing oneself into the world not to capture life but to create it, in and through words. “This is a masterpiece at a time when masterpieces seem impossible and at the same time challenges the very idea of a masterpiece. … It’s the novel one should read if they want to know what an artist is.” —La Nación
Download or read book Methods for the Study of Literature as Cultural Memory written by International Comparative Literature Association. Congress and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2000 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume collaborators from different universities all over the world explore a wide variety of methods for the study of literature as cultural memory. In literature, the past may be (re)constructed in various ways and in very diverse forms. This immediately raises the question as to how one can describe and inventory the various discourses and metadiscourses of historical representation. In what sense can the rhetoric of literary historiography itself contribute to literature's function as cultural memory? Which methods of analysis are most appropriate for describing specific text types or genres as cultural memory? What have been the pragmatic uses and the ethical merits of the stability and continuity that literature has often provided for European, American, Asian and African cultures? What are the dilemmas they create for our teaching at the end of the twentieth century? To all these questions, a wide range of scholars here tries to find answers. In thorough and highly original contributions, they not only address theoretical problems, but also engage themselves in practical analyses of specific works.
Download or read book The Absolute Book written by Elizabeth Knox and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DISCOVER THE ENCHANTING EPIC THAT WILL TRANSPORT YOU TO OTHER WORLDS . . . 'AN INSTANT CLASSIC' GUARDIAN 'BEWITCHING' THE TIMES 'MIND-BLOWING' LAINI TAYLOR 'ASTOUNDING' FRANCIS SPUFFORD 'GORGEOUSLY WRITTEN' DEBORAH HARKNESS _______ Taryn Cornick barely remembers the family library. Since her sister was murdered, she's forgotten so much. Now it's all coming back. The fire. The thief. The scroll box. People are asking questions about the library. Questions that might relate to her sister's murder. And something called The Absolute Book. A book in which secrets are written - and which everyone believes only she can find. They insist Taryn be the hunter. But she knows the truth. She is the hunted . . . _______ The Absolute Book is a tale of sisters, ancient blood, a forgotten library, murder, revenge and a book that might just have the answer to everything. 'An instant classic . . . A work to rank alongside other modern masterpieces of fantasy such as Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series or Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Everything fantasy should be: original, magical, well read, compelling' GUARDIAN 'Astonishing. Gripping. Hugely ambitious. An extraordinary conclusion. Admire the sheer scope and grandeur' DAILY MAIL 'A marvellous argument for stories. There are Norse gods, references to Merlin, a tour through purgatory and a strange parallel world where magic is real and humans are bit players in the clash of supernatural realms. Bewitching' THE TIMES 'Contains multitudes, spanning the geographies of Canada, Britain and New Zealand; the cosmologies of fairies, demons and angels; and the genres of thriller, domestic realism and epic fantasy . . . I'm in awe of it' NEW YORK TIMES Review of Books 'Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, THE ABSOLUTE BOOK has something for everyone . . . Here is a cinematic tale that is by turns dark and dreamlike, yet ultimately hopeful' DEBORAH HARKNESS, author of A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES 'Fantastical' THE TIMES 'Savour and absorb the world Knox conjures' SUNDAY TIMES 'Gorgeous. The payoffs and reveals are mind-blowing' LAINI TAYLOR, author of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE 'An angelic book, an apocalyptic book, an astounding book' FRANCIS SPUFFORD
Download or read book Camus Answer written by Robert Trundle and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work investigates whether Camus' idea of living without conceptual absolutes is an attainable goal.
Download or read book Nostalgia Is Heartless written by Sarah Lahey and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A thrilling and immersive work of speculative climate fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews The second installment in the topical, award-winning Heartless Series, Nostalgia Is Heartless delves into a world on the brink of climate catastrophe. Pregnant, unemployed, and living back home with her father, scientist Quinn Buyers wonders how she got to this point. Her famous scientist mother is still mysteriously missing, the planet is at risk from a massive solar storm, the pesky Transhumans want to take a colony to Titan, and her assisted living companion, a robotic meerkat, is showing clear signs of anxiety and depression. But her biggest challenge is her partner. How can she reconcile her long-distance relationship with this reserved, enigmatic cyborg? This time, Quinn’s adventures take her across the globe to Antarctica . . . where it rains all day, every day. Full of humor and whimsy, Nostalgia Is Heartless will delight readers as they follow Quinn’s race to save her family, her planet, and—hopefully—her love life.
Download or read book Consumed Nostalgia written by Gary Cross and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. For many of us, modern memory is shaped less by a longing for the social customs and practices of the past or for family heirlooms handed down over generations and more by childhood encounters with ephemeral commercial goods and fleeting media moments in our age of fast capitalism. This phenomenon has given rise to communities of nostalgia whose members remain loyal to the toys, television, and music of their youth. They return to the theme parks and pastimes of their upbringing, hoping to reclaim that feeling of childhood wonder or teenage freedom. Consumed nostalgia took definite shape in the 1970s, spurred by an increase in the turnover of consumer goods, the commercialization of childhood, and the skillful marketing of nostalgia. Gary Cross immerses readers in this fascinating and often delightful history, unpacking the cultural dynamics that turn pop tunes into oldies and childhood toys into valuable commodities. He compares the limited appeal of heritage sites such as Colonial Williamsburg to the perpetually attractive power of a Disney theme park and reveals how consumed nostalgia shapes how we cope with accelerating change. Today nostalgia can be owned, collected, and easily accessed, making it less elusive and often more fun than in the past, but its commercialization has sometimes limited memory and complicated the positive goals of recollection. By unmasking the fascinating, idiosyncratic character of modern nostalgia, Cross helps us better understand the rituals of recall in an age of fast capitalism.
Download or read book Post communist Nostalgia written by Maria Todorova and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the end of the Cold War was greeted with great enthusiasm by people in the East and the West, the ensuing social and especially economic changes did not always result in the hoped-for improvements in people's lives. This led to widespread disillusionment that can be observed today all across Eastern Europe. Not simply a longing for security, stability, and prosperity, this nostalgia is also a sense of loss regarding a specific form of sociability. Even some of those who opposed communism express a desire to invest their new lives with renewed meaning and dignity. Among the younger generation, it surfaces as a tentative yet growing curiosity about the recent past. In this volume scholars from multiple disciplines explore the various fascinating aspects of this nostalgic turn by analyzing the impact of generational clusters, the rural-urban divide, gender differences, and political orientation. They argue persuasively that this nostalgia should not be seen as a wish to restore the past, as it has otherwise been understood, but instead it should be recognized as part of a more complex healing process and an attempt to come to terms both with the communist era as well as the new inequalities of the post-communist era.
Download or read book Yearning for Yesterday written by Fred Davis and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future of Nostalgia written by Svetlana Boym and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-08-05 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can one be nostalgic for the home one never had? Why is it that the age of globalization is accompanied by a no less global epidemic of nostalgia? Can we know what we are nostalgic for? In the seventeenth century, Swiss doctors believed that opium, leeches, and a trek through the Alps would cure nostalgia. In 1733 a Russian commander, disgusted with the debilitating homesickness rampant among his troops, buried a soldier alive as a deterrent to nostalgia. In her new book, Svetlana Boym develops a comprehensive approach to this elusive ailment. Combining personal memoir, philosophical essay, and historical analysis, Boym explores the spaces of collective nostalgia that connect national biography and personal self-fashioning in the twenty-first century. She guides us through the ruins and construction sites of post-communist cities -- St. Petersburg, Moscow, Berlin, and Prague-and the imagined homelands of exiles-Benjamin, Nabokov, Mandelstam, and Brodsky. From Jurassic Park to the Totalitarian Sculpture Garden, from love letters on Kafka's grave to conversations with Hitler's impersonator, Boym unravels the threads of this global epidemic of longing and its antidotes.
Download or read book Absolute Beginner written by Patsy Kensit and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-10-10 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patsy Kensit is one of our most-loved actresses, a child star who grew up in the public eye and has remained there ever since. Her life has been a roller-coaster mix of adventure, drama and heartache, and it is only now that she finally feels ready to share her journey so far in this autobiography. In Absolute Beginner Patsy describes her extraordinary childhood, moving between the glamour of filming movies with Elizabeth Taylor and Mia Farrow and the tiny London council flat she shared with her parents and brother. Even as her career was taking off, she was living with the devastating knowledge of her beloved mother's incurable cancer and was forced to hide her father's criminal past. She also writes about the ups and downs of life as an actress in a career that has spanned four decades, from her roles in films like the iconic Absolute Beginners, Lethal Weapon 2, 21 and Oscar-nominated Angels and Insects to playing the uber bitch Sadie King in Emmerdale and starring in Holby City. Vivid, intimate and touching, Absolute Beginner reveals the real Patsy – a warm and funny woman who is the ultimate survivor.
Download or read book Donovan s Brain written by Curt Siodmak and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-21 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The SF classic novel of the terror that lurked in DONOVAN’S BRAIN. DEAD...Doomed by disease, then mangled in a plane crash, there was no doubt that Donovan was dead. YET...floating in a tank of nutrient, linked to complex apparatus, Donovan’s brain still lived... ALIVE...someone walked with Donovan’s gait, wrote his signature, knew his foulest secrets—and carried out his last, weirdest plan! “Donovan’s Brain is terrific!”—THE NEW YORK TIMES
Download or read book Shooting the Works written by W. S. Di Piero and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: W. S. Di Piero is one of the most capable and wide-ranging poet-critics of his generation. His essays are contemplative, analytical, and interdisciplinary, critical yet arising out of his own artistic practice. Di Piero looks at interrelations between the arts, and at the ways in which the arts express aspects of contemporary culture as well as the individual temperaments and gifts of their makers. These essays are elegant and passionate tributes to the intersection of art and self.
Download or read book Performing Consciousness written by Per Brask and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-02-19 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its inaugural issue in April, 2000, the journal Consciousness, Literature and the Arts has regularly published essays on the intersection of theatre and consciousness. Often these essays have seen theatre as a spiritual practice that for both the performer and her audience can bring about experiences that help heal the world, a shift in consciousness. This practice, though spiritual, is not ethereal but is rooted in doing, in actions, in breathing. That is, theatre is seen as an art form understood as part of a whole, as taking place in total Consciousness as well as expressing consciousness(es), making both breathing a source of meaning and shamanic journeying part of the creative process that brings into “being” imaginative resources for the actor that undermines traditional understandings of character/self/ego. All the pieces collected here, then, reveal a concern with consciousness and the theatre, the ways that performance can be a spiritual practice, a means a reaching higher levels of consciousness, as well as the ways the theatre may have healing effects on audiences by engaging them in wider and deeper levels of imagination, the levels where dualities disappear.
