Download or read book The Book of Illusions written by Paul Auster and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico-supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever. This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another. With The Book of Illusions, one of America's most powerful and original writers has written his richest, most emotionally charged work yet.
Download or read book The Science of Illusions written by Jacques Ninio and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A specialist in visual perception, Ninio (Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques, Paris) presents many classic and new illusions, explains the underlying logic of the various types, and suggests their value for neurological and physiological research. He does not provide an index. La Science des Illusions was published in 1998 by Editions Odile Jacob. Philip has translated widely from the French, including an autobiography of Francois Jacob. c. Book News Inc.
Download or read book The Ultimate Book of Optical Illusions written by Al Seckel and published by Sterling Publishing Company. This book was released on 2006 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains color and black-and-white illustrations of over three hundred optical illusions, each with brief, explanatory text.
Download or read book Empire of Illusion written by Chris Hedges and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2009-07-28 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.
Download or read book The Illusion of Conscious Will written by Daniel M. Wegner and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-08-11 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.
Download or read book Champions of Illusion written by Susana Martinez-Conde and published by Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of visual illusions with explanations of the science behind them, gathered from the Best Illusions of the Year contest. --
Download or read book The Age of Illusions written by Andrew Bacevich and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought-provoking and penetrating account of the post-Cold war follies and delusions that culminated in the age of Donald Trump from the bestselling author of The Limits of Power. When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington establishment felt it had prevailed in a world-historical struggle. Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation,” its “sole superpower,” the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable. In the decades to come, Americans would put that claim to the test. They would embrace the promise of globalization as a source of unprecedented wealth while embarking on wide-ranging military campaigns to suppress disorder and enforce American values abroad, confident in the ability of U.S. forces to defeat any foe. Meanwhile, they placed all their bets on the White House to deliver on the promise of their Cold War triumph: unequaled prosperity, lasting peace, and absolute freedom. In The Age of Illusions, bestselling author Andrew Bacevich takes us from that moment of seemingly ultimate victory to the age of Trump, telling an epic tale of folly and delusion. Writing with his usual eloquence and vast knowledge, he explains how, within a quarter of a century, the United States ended up with gaping inequality, permanent war, moral confusion, and an increasingly angry and alienated population, as well, of course, as the strangest president in American history.
Download or read book The End of Illusions written by Andreas Reckwitz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in a time of great uncertainty about the future. Those heady days of the late twentieth century, when the end of the Cold War seemed to be ushering in a new and more optimistic age, now seem like a distant memory. During the last couple of decades, we’ve been battered by one crisis after another and the idea that humanity is on a progressive path to a better future seems like an illusion. It is only now that we can see clearly the real scope and structure of the profound shifts that Western societies have undergone over the last 30 years. Classical industrial society has been transformed into a late-modern society that is molded by polarization and paradoxes. The pervasive singularization of the social, the orientation toward the unique and exceptional, generates systematic asymmetries and disparities, and hence progress and unease go hand in hand. Reckwitz examines this dual structure of singularization and polarization as it plays itself out in the different sectors of our societies and, in so doing, he outlines the central structural features of the present: the new class society, the characteristics of a postindustrial economy, the conflict about culture and identity, the exhaustion of the self resulting from the imperative to seek authentic fulfillment, and the political crisis of liberalism. Building on his path-breaking work The Society of Singularities, this new book will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, politics, and the social sciences generally, and to anyone concerned with the great social and political issues of our time.
Download or read book Optical Illusions written by Gianni Sarcone and published by QEB Publishing. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fool your brain with mind-boggling illusions, then get hands-on and make your own to wow your friends! Learn all about the science behind these wacky phenomena, from moving liquid on a page, to shapes that disappear in front of your eyes with this clever guide. The brain is an amazing thing, but it doesn't always get things right when it comes to sight. This book is here to explain why, with astounding images, baffling puzzles, and simple reveals which show the reader how each trick works. Covering a range of optical topics, from shapes and movement, to light and reflection, this cool manual contains templates at the back which reveal answers and help you to create your own astounding illusions.
Download or read book The Mighty Big Book of Optical Illusions written by Craig Yoe and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of hundreds of thought-provoking optical illusions.
Download or read book Melancholy and the Archive written by Jonathan Boulter and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melancholy and the Archive examines how trauma, history and memory are represented in key works of major contemporary writers such as David Mitchell, Paul Auster, Haruki Murakami and Jose Saramago. The book explores how these authors construct crucial relationships between sites of memory-the archive becomes a central trope here-and the self that has been subjected to various traumas, various losses. The archive-be it a bureaucratic office (Saramago), an underground bunker (Auster), a geographical space or landscape (Mitchell) or even a hole (Murakami)-becomes the means by which the self attempts to preserve and conserve his or her sense of history even as the economy of trauma threatens to erase the grounds of such preservation: as the subject or self is threatened so the archive becomes a festishized site wherein history is housed, accommodated, created, even fabricated. The archive, in Freudian terms, becomes a space of melancholy precisely as the subject preserves not only a personal history or a culture's history, but also the history of the traumas that necessitates the creation of the archive as such.
Download or read book Masters of Deception written by Al Seckel and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2004 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rings of seahorses seem to rotate and butterflies seems to transform into warriors right on the page. Astonishing creations of visual trickery by masters of the art, such as Escher, Dali, and Archimbolo make this breathtaking collection the definitive book of optical illusions. Includes an illuminating Foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hofstadter.
Download or read book The Palace of Illusions written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2009-02-10 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking us back to a time that is half history, half myth and wholly magical, bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni gives voice to Panchaali, the fire-born heroine of the Mahabharata, as she weaves a vibrant retelling of an ancient epic saga. Married to five royal husbands who have been cheated out of their father's kingdom, Panchaali aids their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war. But she cannot deny her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna—or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy—as she is caught up in the ever-manipulating hands of fate.
Download or read book The Peace of Illusions written by Christopher Layne and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a provocative book about American hegemony, Christopher Layne outlines his belief that U.S. foreign policy has been consistent in its aims for more than sixty years and that the current Bush administration clings to mid-twentieth-century tactics--to no good effect. What should the nation's grand strategy look like for the next several decades? The end of the cold war profoundly and permanently altered the international landscape, yet we have seen no parallel change in the aims and shape of U.S. foreign policy. The Peace of Illusions intervenes in the ongoing debate about American grand strategy and the costs and benefits of "American empire." Layne urges the desirability of a strategy he calls "offshore balancing": rather than wield power to dominate other states, the U.S. government should engage in diplomacy to balance large states against one another. The United States should intervene, Layne asserts, only when another state threatens, regionally or locally, to destroy the established balance. Drawing on extensive archival research, Layne traces the form and aims of U.S. foreign policy since 1940, examining alternatives foregone and identifying the strategic aims of different administrations. His offshore-balancing notion, if put into practice with the goal of extending the "American Century," would be a sea change in current strategy. Layne has much to say about present-day governmental decision making, which he examines from the perspectives of both international relations theory and American diplomatic history.
Download or read book Incredible Visual Illusions written by Al Seckel and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incredible Visual Illusions is the most comprehensive and amazing collection of optical illusions ever assembled, with close to three hundred different illusions, many of which have never before been published. You will be amazed as images flash and scintillate before your eyes, other images disappear right before your eyes, other images disappear right in front of your eyes, size and shape lose their meaning, and you see motion where there is no motion. The variety of different effects is almost endless, and many appear for the first time in this volume.
Download or read book The Master of Illusions written by Sandro Del-Prete and published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of illusions by Sandro Del-Prete, each illustration is accompanied by a description.
Download or read book House of Illusions written by Pauline Gedge and published by . This book was released on 2008-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pauline Gedge is a master at recreating the golden age in Egypt. Her heroin, Thu, a peasant girl from the village of Aswat, possesses both beauty and intelligence. To her good fortune Thu is found and brought to the center of society. She is chosen and trained for the court of Pharaoh Ramses. Her talent and guile win her a post in the harem. -- Thu rises in favor, is betrayed in a court intrigue that threatens her life and falls from grace. Pharaoh spares her life but banishes her to serve the priests at the lowly temple of Wepwawet near the first cataract. -- House of Illusions opens on Gedge's vividly recreated Egypt, sixteen years after Thu's banishment. During her exile she writes an account of her court life and the betrayal for which she seeks revenge. These events took place three thousand years ago. Daily life and custom are woven into the story. In a world without soap and little water, natron serves quite well. Gedge is able to get into the mind of the courtiers and their attitudes to their servants. While beneath them, these inferior beings are very much a part of the family of the house. -- The mysterious Hathor, Thoth, Amun and Ma'at are part of the Egyptian pantheon. They enter the daily life of the characters and the mystery begins to make sense. Never again will the reader scoff at these queer religious notions. The harmony and truth Ma'at embodies is the guiding principal Thu believes in seeking her revenge.
