Download or read book The Mirror of Life A Parody of Our Lives Under the Scanner written by Richard K. Singh and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sit back, relax and go on a self-revealing memory trip, which will expose the folly and farcical lives, the most highly evolved species(man) exhibits to his own humiliation and personal degradation. This folly and weakness characterizes all of mankind, regardless of their place of residence and their ethnic origin. This revelation is akin to standing before a mirror and uttering in total disbelief: “ Is this how I am perceived by the outside world and more specifically, by my family and friends? Man has always prided himself as being irreproachable in matters of morality. There was a period in time, when a person kept his weakness, a closely guarded secret. He did not want to openly reveal his shortcomings to his family, friends or to the larger society. It was a social embarrassment, he was not willing to risk. His reputation and social standing in his home, amongst his friends, in his community and in society, was top on his priority list. In days gone by, the stain of social embarrassment could dog you for the rest of your life. No effort to erase this blemish by the offender, was considered worthy of being absolved. Society assumed the role of moral watch dogs, who growled menacingly at your smallest infraction. Returning home intoxicated was an unpardonable sin, especially to a home where family morals were treasures to be guarded and respected. Despite serious attempts by the transgressor to mask the offending stench of liquor, he was caught out and berated for breaking the family traditions and rules which were religiously executed for decades. The same censure and reproach were meted out to those who smoked. The patriarch in each family set out rules to be obeyed and carried out diligently by each member of the family. These rules were verbal in nature, but its adherence was written in stone. Those who defied or attempted to flout these rules, experienced the full wrath and disdain of all members of the family. All forms of social misdemeanor were viewed with disdain and contempt. The church and all religious institutions selected appropriate verses from their holy scriptures and delivered sermons to their congregations, damning these practices, which were destroying the social fabric of societies, leaving them morally tattered. Indulgences in all shapes and forms were not tolerated. Throughout the history of man, these deviant behaviors and transgressions in man were criticized and condemned. Has history taught us anything? There have been instances of genuine repentance and remorse from offenders. However, the weak and unprincipled individuals, reverted to their old ways and faced dire consequences. They were ostracized and became pariahs in their own families. How times have changed ! The old treasured values have become yesterday’s garbage, relegated to the sidewalk, awaiting the arrival and pick-up of the Waste-Management Truck. Cherished family values, once the hall mark and cornerstone of each family, have rapidly crumbled and are facing extinction from the invasion of uncensored and unstoppable modern ideologies ... the New Age Philosophy. Exercising freedom of speech/expression has taken on a totally new meaning. The once, moral public guardian, the Censor Board, has become toothless and ineffective. With the proliferation of X-Rated material and their easy availability to everyone via movie houses, the internet and now in unsupervised vending machines, one wonders how this form of obscenity, passed the scrutiny of the Censor Board ? The Censor Board needs a serious overhaul. It might be a good idea to create another body, that would oversee the decisions taken by the Censor Board, before the helpless public is bombarded with, yet another installment of obscene thrash. Vulgarity and immorality characterize to

Download or read book Erasure written by Percival Everett and published by Graywolf Press. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Percival Everett's blistering satire about race and publishing, now adapted for the screen as AMERICAN FICTION, directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies—his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer's, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father's suicide seven years before. In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is—under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh—and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.

Download or read book I Love Jesus But I Want to Die written by Sarah J. Robinson and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Download or read book The Mirror of Life written by Richard Singh and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-03 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As humans, we live our entire lives as performers on the world's stage, exhibiting behavior, which portray us in a variety of characters and emotions. The different emotions which we reflect, are the outcome of our interaction with the people we encounter in this lifetime and the environment we share. We direct and stage manage our performances, which can be box office hits or colossal flops. We personally determine the success or failure of our performances. In some instances, we perform so well that the spectators and audience are unanimous in demanding an encore presentation, which can be accompanied by a standing ovation. These are the candid, unrehearsed and spontaneous images we freely and unhesitatingly allow the Mirror of Life to store in its memory bank. As humans, we possess the capacity to enhance and refine our images, as we live out our human existence. Yet the converse can equally apply. The images of the latter blend and merge to reflect a diabolical, distorted and unidentifiable picture .a blur of what started as a well-defined face of humanity. The Mirror of Life provided a blank canvas, allowing each one of us an equal opportunity to produce a master piece. Some exploited this opportunity , while others forfeited it. Thus we determined the success or failure of our performances, earning applause or boos. The Mirror of Life will be the constant, faithful companion, recording and reflecting both the serious and humorous performances of man in natural, universal settings. The author will attempt to steady the mirror in an effort to avoid distorting the images and capturing actions in real time, both past and present. The Mirror of Life will endeavor to present these authentic and real- life performances, in a light-hearted, satirical way. Being able to laugh at ourselves and allowing others to enjoy our antics, while attempting to correct or rectify our images, defines our humanness and our resilience to life's challenges.

Download or read book Mirror Mirrored written by Corwin Levi and published by Uzzlepye Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grimms’ fairy tales, originally collected in 1812, are a timeless chronicle of the possibilities our lives all have, and the full range of human nature. The stories remain just as relevant today as when they were first published over 200 years ago. To introduce these tales to a new generation, Uzzlepye Press presents Mirror Mirrored: An Artists' Edition of 25 Grimms' Tales, a special visual edition of 25 of the stories. It includes not only almost 2,000 vintage Grimms' illustrations remixed into the book alongside the story texts, but also work from 28 contemporary artists visually reimagining these stories.

Download or read book How to Do Nothing written by Jenny Odell and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2020-12-29 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ** A New York Times Bestseller ** NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time • The New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune • Boing Boing • The Irish Times • The New York Public Library • The Brooklyn Public Library "A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto."—Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review One of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019" Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.

Download or read book It s Complicated written by Danah Boyd and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-25 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys the online social habits of American teens and analyzes the role technology and social media plays in their lives, examining common misconceptions about such topics as identity, privacy, danger, and bullying.

Download or read book Nobody s Looking at You written by Janet Malcolm and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the premier narrative non-fiction writers of her time.” —The New Republic Janet Malcolm’s previous collection, Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers, was “unmistakably the work of a master” (The New York Times Book Review). Like Forty-One False Starts, Nobody’s Looking at You brings together previously uncompiled pieces, mainly from The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. The title piece of this wonderfully eclectic collection is a profile of the fashion designer Eileen Fisher, whose mother often said to her, “Nobody’s looking at you.” But in every piece in this volume, Malcolm looks closely and with impunity at a broad range of subjects, from Donald Trump’s TV nemesis Rachel Maddow, to the stiletto-heel-wearing pianist Yuju Wang, to “the big-league game” of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In an essay called “Socks,” the Pevears are seen as the “sort of asteroid [that] has hit the safe world of Russian Literature in English translation,” and in “Dreams and Anna Karenina,” the focus is Tolstoy, “one of literature’s greatest masters of manipulative techniques.” Nobody’s Looking at You concludes with “Pandora’s Click,” a brief, cautionary piece about e-mail etiquette that was written in the early two thousands, and that reverberates—albeit painfully—to this day.

Download or read book American Theatre written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Long Approach written by Maxine Kumin and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains thirty-one poems under the headings: In the family--Out there--On the farm.

Download or read book Bluets written by Maggie Nelson and published by Wave Books. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color . . . A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists. Maggie Nelson is the author of numerous books of poetry and nonfiction, including Something Bright, Then Holes (Soft Skull Press, 2007) and Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions (University of Iowa Press, 2007). She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts.

Download or read book CliffsNotes on Atwood s The Handmaid s Tale written by Mary Ellen Snodgrass and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2007-08-20 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format. In CliffsNotes on The Handmaid's Tale, you come to realize that for every utopia, there's a corresponding dystopia. This tale of a bleak future depicts a time where women are valued only for their reproductive capacities. While this cautionary tale of repression and totalitarianism is horrifying, there are moments of poetic warmth and humor. It is a brilliant satire. This concise supplement to Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale helps you understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author. Features that help you study include Chapter-by-chapter summaries and commentaries A timeline of critical events that leads to the climax of the novel A character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters Critical essays on women's roles in the novel, and the use of literary devices, themes, and settings A review section that tests your knowledge Classic literature or modern-day treasure—you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Download or read book Pym A Novel written by Mat Johnson and published by One World. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “THE SHARPEST AND MOST UNUSUAL STORY I READ LAST YEAR . . . [Mat] Johnson’s satirical vision roves as freely as Kurt Vonnegut’s and is colored with the same sort of passionate humanitarianism.”—Maud Newton, New York Times Magazine NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Vanity Fair • Houston Chronicle • The Seattle Times • Salon • National Post • The A.V. Club Recently canned professor of American literature Chris Jaynes has just made a startling discovery: the manuscript of a crude slave narrative that confirms the reality of Edgar Allan Poe’s strange and only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Determined to seek out Tsalal, the remote island of pure and utter blackness that Poe describes, Jaynes convenes an all-black crew of six to follow Pym’s trail to the South Pole, armed with little but the firsthand account from which Poe derived his seafaring tale, a bag of bones, and a stash of Little Debbie snack cakes. Thus begins an epic journey by an unlikely band of adventurers under the permafrost of Antarctica, beneath the surface of American history, and behind one of literature’s great mysteries. “Outrageously entertaining, [Pym] brilliantly re-imagines and extends Edgar Allan Poe’s enigmatic and unsettling Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. . . . Part social satire, part meditation on race in America, part metafiction and, just as important, a rollicking fantasy adventure . . . reminiscent of Philip Roth in its seemingly effortless blend of the serious, comic and fantastic.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post “Blisteringly funny.”—Laura Miller, Salon “Relentlessly entertaining.”—The New York Times Book Review “Imagine Kurt Vonnegut having a beer with Ralph Ellison and Jules Verne.”—Vanity Fair “Screamingly funny . . . Reading Pym is like opening a big can of whoop-ass and then marveling—gleefully—at all the mayhem that ensues.”—Houston Chronicle

Download or read book Long Way Down written by Jason Reynolds and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An intense snapshot of the chain reaction caused by pulling a trigger.” —Booklist (starred review) “Astonishing.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A tour de force.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Honor Book A Printz Honor Book A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017 A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017 A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017 An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother. A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES. And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator. Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

Download or read book Pattern Recognition written by William Gibson and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2004-06-24 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Part-detective story, part-cultural snapshot . . . all bound by Gibson's pin-sharp prose' Arena -------------- THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE BLUE ANT TRILIOGY - READ ZERO HISTORY AND SPOOK COUNTRY FOR MORE Cayce Pollard has a new job. She's been offered a special project: track down the makers of an addictive online film that's lighting up the internet. Hunting the source will take her to Tokyo and Moscow and put her in the sights of Japanese hackers and Russian Mafia. She's up against those who want to control the film, to own it - who figure breaking the law is just another business strategy. The kind of people who relish turning the hunter into the hunted . . . A gripping spy thriller by William Gibson, bestselling author of Neuromancer. Part prophesy, part satire, Pattern Recognition skewers the absurdity of modern life with the lightest and most engaging of touches. Readers of Neal Stephenson, Ray Bradbury and Iain M. Banks won't be able to put this book down. -------------- 'Fast, witty and cleverly politicized' Guardian 'A big novel, full of bold ideas . . . races along like an expert thriller' GQ 'Dangerously hip. Its dialogue and characterization will amaze you. A wonderfully detailed, reckless journey of espionage and lies' USA Today 'A compelling, humane story with a sympathetic heroine searching for meaning and consolation in a post-everything world' Daily Telegraph 'Electric, profound. Gibson's descriptions of Tokyo, Russia and London are surreally spot-on' Financial Times

Download or read book New York Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1981-08-03 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.

Download or read book The Moral Uncanny in Black Mirror written by Margaret Gibson and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This erudite volume examines the moral universe of the hit Netflix show Black Mirror. It brings together scholars in media studies, cultural studies, anthropology, literature, philosophy, psychology, theatre and game studies to analyse the significance and reverberations of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian universe with our present-day technologically mediated life world. Brooker’s ground-breaking Black Mirror anthology generates often disturbing and sometimes amusing future imaginaries of the dark side of ubiquitous screen life, as it unleashes the power of the uncanny. This book takes the psychoanalytic idea of the uncanny into a moral framework befitting Black Mirror’s dystopian visions. The volume suggests that the Black Mirror anthology doesn’t just make the viewer feel, on the surface, a strange recognition of closeness to some of its dystopian scenarios, but also makes us realise how very fragile, wavering, fractured, and uncertain is the human moral compass.