Download or read book Truly Askew written by Alistair McHarg and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reality is absurd. Impossible. Ludicrous. Despite this, humanity labors tirelessly in a misguided attempt to make sense of it. The folly of this enterprise grows ever more apparent as one attempts to crack the cosmic code; knowing more leads inevitably to understanding less. Embracing the chaotic irrationality of existence, and taking delight in it, is preferable to being disappointed, even enraged, by the mystery. Learning to view preposterousness not as an enemy but an ally offers enormous advantages to those keen on enjoying life. The level of acceptance required to accomplish this did not come naturally to me. At the advanced age of 36, fate unceremoniously dumped me on the path of spiritual growth, slammed the door, and locked it. The demon in charge of my education was Manic Depression (Bipolar Disorder). Mania raged in the full flower of its righteous, unhinged glory; complete with random strikes of lightning and unrepentant wrath. Pieces of my bourgeois life fled magically; marriage, house, money, jobs, even family. Racing recklessly around a yawning void, I finally summoned the courage to fight. With determination born of terror, desperation, and more than a little spite, I plunged headfirst into talk therapy. There was no other option. Defeating one of the most severe forms of mental illness demanded a search for the source of my fears. I embarked on an internal odyssey. To fully understand what had happened, and to help others as well, I wrote a memoir about my experience (Invisible Driving). This proved to be a fantastically difficult undertaking, both technically and emotionally. Upon completion, I bathed for some time in the illusion of mastery. I thought my struggles were done. Complacency brought a different internal monster to the foreground: addiction. After plowing my car into a cement barricade, fate slammed yet another door and ushered me into the nicotine-stained church basements of Alcoholics Anonymous. In AA I found camaraderie, discipline, and practical philosophy. Having been "softened up" by many years of therapy, I absorbed ideas quickly and was soon regarded as a de facto teacher. While I had assiduously avoided this role all my life, I learned to love it simply because, for the first time, I was well positioned to be of service. That was 18 clean and sober years ago (I even gave up cigarettes). The spiritual path led me to the point where I avoid self-destructive behavior in favor of health and usefulness. Being a writer, this naturally led to sharing my experience publicly; hence, Truly Askew. Buried within the ramshackle humor, tactless sincerity, and unrepentant iconoclasm of these 72 vignettes and 240 quotes, is a thoroughly authentic story of recovery and redemption I hope will delight, amuse, reveal, and provoke. All stories and essays were originally written individually and assembled chronologically later. Some are autobiographical snapshots, some dive into the experience of bipolar disorder and substance abuse, while others speak directly to the recovery process. There are even a few satirical sketches which first appeared in my mental health humor column. Interspersed are epigrams, adages, and aphorisms. These enigmatic tidbits are united by my quest for immutable truth. Many are absurd, self-contradictory, funny, odd, counterintuitive, maddening, and uncooperative in a host of other ways. I did not set out to make them difficult, they are truly askew because life is truly askew. Frankly, the true of life is often most evident in the askew-ness of it. The vignettes guide you along my journey of discovery; the quotes glow with the insight and happiness that came of it.
Download or read book Women Reading and the Cultural Politics of Early Modern England written by Edith Snook and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the representation of reading in early modern Englishwomen's writing, this book exists at the intersection of textual criticism and cultural history. It looks at depictions of reading in women's printed devotional works, maternal advice books, poetry, and fiction, as well as manuscripts, for evidence of ways in which women conceived of reading in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. Among the authors and texts considered are Katherine Parr, Lamentation of a Sinner; Anne Askew, The Examinations of Anne Askew; Dorothy Leigh, The Mothers Blessing; Elizabeth Grymeston, Miscelanea Meditations Memoratives; Aemelia Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum; and Mary Wroth, The First Part of the Countess of Montgomery's Urania. Attentive to contiguities between representations of reading in print and reading practices found in manuscript culture, this book also examines a commonplace book belonging to Anne Cornwallis (Folger Folger MS V.a.89) and a Passion poem presented by Elizabeth Middleton to Sarah Edmondes (Bod. MS Don. e.17). Edith Snook here makes an original contribution to the ongoing scholarly project of historicizing reading by foregrounding female writers of the early modern period. She explores how women's representations of reading negotiate the dynamic relationship between the public and private spheres and investigates how women might have been affected by changing ideas about literacy, as well as how they sought to effect change in devotional and literary reading practices. Finally, because the activity of reading is a site of cultural conflict - over gender, social and educational status, and the religious or national affiliation of readers - Snook brings to light how these women, when they write about reading, are engaged in structuring the cultural politics of early modern England.
Download or read book Harpsong written by Rilla Askew and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-11-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harlan Singer, a harmonica-playing troubadour, shows up in the Thompson family’s yard one morning. He steals their hearts with his music, and their daughter with his charm. Soon he and his fourteen-year-old bride, Sharon, are on the road, two more hobos of the Great Depression, hitchhiking and hopping freights across the Great Plains in search of an old man and the settlement of Harlan’s long-standing debt. Finding shelter in hobo jungles and Hoovervilles, the newlyweds careen across the 1930s landscape in a giant figure eight with Oklahoma in the middle. Sharon’s growing doubts about her husband’s quest set in motion events that turn Harlan Singer into a hero while blinding her to the dark secret of his journey. A love story infused with history and folk tradition, Harpsong shows what happened to the friends and neighbors Steinbeck’s Joads left behind. In this moving, redemptive tale inspired by Oklahoma folk heroes, Rilla Askew continues her exploration of the American story. Harpsong is a novel of love and loss, of adventure and renewal, and of a wayfaring orphan’s search for home—all set to the sounds of Harlan’s harmonica. It shows us the strength and resilience of a people who, in the face of unending despair, maintain their faith in the land.
Download or read book Only Glory Awaits written by Leslie S. Nuernberg and published by Emerald House Group. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is the true story of a young English woman, who faced adversity and affliction with strong belief that Christ is indeed sufficent in all circumstances--and no matter what the cost, the truth of Christ must prevail.
Download or read book Awards Third Division National Railroad Adjustment Board written by United States. National Railroad Adjustment Board and published by . This book was released on with total page 1536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Surviving a Blue Zoo written by Donald Rice and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Blue Zoo represents our planet and we, the animals, living in the zoo. We encounter countless challenges while being on exhibitexhibits that depend on ones personal beliefs. Those beliefs define how, when, and the degree of ones acceptance or rejection of zoo life. Situations and poems written in this book include possible actions and reactions to choices made while surviving in the Blue Zoo.
Download or read book Women and Religion in the Atlantic Age 1550 1900 written by Emily Clark and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-11 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing the study of early modern Christianity into dialogue with Atlantic history, this collection provides a longue durée investigation of women and religion within a transatlantic context. Taking as its starting point the work of Natalie Zemon Davis on the effects of confessional difference among women in the age of religious reformations, the volume expands the focus to broader temporal and geographic boundaries. The result is a series of essays examining the effects of religious reform and revival among women in the wider Atlantic world of Europe, the Americas, and West Africa from 1550 to 1850. Taken collectively, the essays in this volume chart the extended impact of confessional divergence on women over time and space, and uncover a web of transatlantic religious interaction that significantly enriches our understanding of the unfolding of the Atlantic World. Divided into three sections, the volume begins with an exploration of ’Old World Reforms’ looking afresh at the impact of confessional change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries upon the lives of European women. Part two takes this forward, tracing the adaptation of European religious forms within Africa and the Americas. The third and final section explores the multifarious faces of the revival that inspired the nineteenth century missionary movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Collectively the essays underline the extent to which the development of the Atlantic World created a space within which an unprecedented series of juxtapositions, collisions, and collusions among religious traditions and practitioners took place. These demonstrate how the religious history of Europe, the Americas, and Africa became intertwined earlier and more deeply than much scholarship suggests, and highlight the dynamic nature of transatlantic cross-fertilization and influence.
Download or read book Steven Spielberg and Duel written by Steven Awalt and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-03-14 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the early 1970s, Steven Spielberg has directed more than two dozen films, many of which have achieved classic status. In addition to critical and commercial successes that include E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Lincoln, Spielberg’s name has become synonymous with such thrilling adventure films as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, and Minority Report. Before he became a world-renowned filmmaker, however, Spielberg established himself on television, helming episodes of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery; Marcus Welby, M.D.; and Columbo. But it was the small-screen version of a Richard Matheson short story that brought the young director’s work to the attention of critics and viewers alike. In Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career, Steven Awalt provides an exhaustive study commemorating the film that decisively launched the career of a major film artist. Through in-depth research and interviews with the film’s creative and technical crew, the author tracks the film from genesis through production to release. Awalt conducted lengthy one-on-one interviews with Spielberg, Matheson, assistant director James Fargo, editor Frank Morriss, composer Billy Goldenberg, former MCA/Universal president Sidney J. Sheinberg, and writer-producer Steven Bochco, among others. Spielberg provided access to many rare documents from his archives, including multiple drafts of Duel’s teleplay, the shooting schedule, shooting logistics breakdowns, and production correspondence. The first book-length examination of this important production in the director’s early career, Steven Spielberg and Duel also includes the original teleplay by Matheson, four additional scenes created for the international theatrical release of the film, photos, and storyboards of the film’s final sequence. A fascinating look behind the scenes of an acclaimed work, this book will interest not only scholars and film historians but anyone interested in the work of Richard Matheson and Steven Spielberg.
Download or read book Proactive Images for Pre Service Teachers written by Jeremy Delamarter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-23 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides tools to help pre-service teachers and teacher-preparation programs identify, evaluate, and respond to misaligned expectations early in the teacher-preparation sequence. Plato tells the story of prisoners who mistake the shadows on the wall of their cave for flesh-and-blood reality. These “shadow narratives” dominated their expectations, and when confronted with a three-dimensional reality that bore little resemblance to the shadows, the prisoners were blinded by the light. Surrounded by images and rhetoric that reduce the fullness of teaching to flat, two-dimensional representations, today's pre-service teachers tend to develop expectations of teaching that resemble the shadows more than they resemble reality. These misaligned expectations often lead to practice shock: the painful and disillusioning cognitive dissonance that comes about when unsustainable expectations collide with real-world practice. Intended as a proactive manual for mitigating practice shock, this book shines a light on the shadows by giving pre-service teachers the tools to examine, confront, and revise their own misaligned expectations of teaching before they reach the point of crisis.
Download or read book Reubin O D Askew and the Golden Age of Florida Politics written by Martin A. Dyckman and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inside the reinvention of Florida politics Florida Book Awards, Bronze Medal for Florida Nonfiction Reubin Askew was swept into the governor’s office in 1970 as part of a remarkable wave of progressive politics and legislative reform in Florida. A man of uncompromising principle and independence, he was elected primarily on a platform of tax reform. In the years that followed, Askew led a group of politicians from both parties who sought—and achieved—judicial reform, redistricting, busing and desegregation, the end of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, the Sunshine Amendment, and much more. This period was truly a golden age of Florida politics, and Martin Dyckman’s narrative is well written, fast paced, and reads like a novel. Dyckman also reveals how the return of special interests, the rise of partisan politics, unlimited campaign spending, term limits, gerrymandering, and more have eroded the achievements of the Golden Age in subsequent decades.
Download or read book Awards of The First Division written by United States. National Railroad Adjustment Board and published by . This book was released on with total page 1074 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Indians Environment and Identity on the Borders of American Literature written by L. Smith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-08-04 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors discussed in this book, including James Fenimore Cooper, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Leslie Marmon Silko, place this cross-cultural contact in nature, not only collapsing cultural and racial boundaries, but also complicating divisions between 'wilderness' and 'civilization.'
Download or read book Pink Floyd and Philosophy written by George A. Reisch and published by Open Court. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With their early experiments in psychedelic rock music in the 1960s, and their epic recordings of the 1970s and '80s, Pink Floyd became one of the most influential and recognizable rock bands in history. As "The Pink Floyd Sound," the band created sound and light shows that defined psychedelia in England and inspired similar movements in the Jefferson Airplane's San Francisco and Andy Warhol's New York City. The band's subsequent recordings forged rock music's connections to orchestral music, literature, and philosophy. "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall" ignored pop music's ordinary topics to focus on themes such as madness, existential despair, brutality, alienation, and socially induced psychosis. They also became some of the best-selling recordings of all time. In this collection of essays, sixteen scholars expert in various branches of philosophy set the controls for the heart of the sun to critically examine the themes, concepts, and problems—usually encountered in the pages of Heidegger, Foucault, Sartre, or Orwell—that animate and inspire Pink Floyd's music. These include the meaning of existence, the individual's place in society, the interactions of knowledge and power in education, the contradictions of art and commerce, and the blurry line—the tragic line, in the case of Floyd early member Syd Barrett (died in 2006)—between genius and madness. Having dominated pop music for nearly four decades, Pink Floyd's dynamic and controversial history additionally opens the way for these authors to explore controversies about intellectual property, the nature of authorship, and whether wholes—especially in the case of rock bands—are more than the sums of their parts.
Download or read book Unnatural Selection written by Mara Hvistendahl and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize A Slate Best Book of 2011 A Discover Magazine Best Book of 2011 Lianyungang, a booming port city, has China's most extreme gender ratio for children under four: 163 boys for every 100 girls. These numbers don't seem terribly grim, but in ten years, the skewed sex ratio will pose a colossal challenge. By the time those children reach adulthood, their generation will have twenty-four million more men than women. The prognosis for China's neighbors is no less bleak: Asia now has 163 million females "missing" from its population. Gender imbalance reaches far beyond Asia, affecting Georgia, Eastern Europe, and cities in the U.S. where there are significant immigrant populations. The world, therefore, is becoming increasingly male, and this mismatch is likely to create profound social upheaval. Historically, eras in which there have been an excess of men have produced periods of violent conflict and instability. Mara Hvistendahl has written a stunning, impeccably-researched book that does not flinch from examining not only the consequences of the misbegotten policies of sex selection but Western complicity with them.
Download or read book The Cambridge Introduction to Toni Morrison written by Tessa Roynon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lively and accessibly written, this Introduction offers readers a guide to the complex and rewarding literature of Toni Morrison.
Download or read book Never Say Die written by Susan Jacoby and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wake-up call to Americans who have long been deluded by the dangerous twenty-first hucksters of longevity. “If old age isn’t for sissies, neither is Susan Jacoby’s tough-minded and important book ... which demolishes popular myths that we can ‘cure’ the ‘disease’ of aging.”—The Washington Post Combining historical, social, and economic analysis with personal experiences of love and loss, Jacoby reveals the hazards of the magical thinking that prevents us from facing the genuine battles of growing old. Never Say Die speaks to Americans, whatever their age, who draw courage and hope from facing reality instead of embracing platitudes and delusions, and who want to grow old with dignity and purpose. It is a life-affirming and powerful message that has never been more relevant.
Download or read book The Communion of the Book written by David Williams and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern world was not created by the civilization of Renaissance Italy, the advent of the printing press, or the marriage restrictions imposed by the medieval church. Rather, it was widespread reading that brought about most of the cognitive, psychological, and social changes that we recognize as peculiarly modern. David Williams combines book and communications history with readings of major works by Petrarch, Bruni, Valla, Reuchlin, Erasmus, Foxe, and Milton to argue that expanding literacy in the Renaissance was the impetus for modern civilization, turning a culture of arid logic and religious ceremonialism into a world of individual readers who discovered a new form of communion in the act of reading. It was not the theologians Luther and Calvin who first taught readers to become what they read, but the biblical philologist Erasmus, who encountered the divine presence on every page of the gospels. From this sacramental form of reading came other modes of humanist reading, particularly in law, history, and classics, leading to the birth of the nation-state. As literacy rates rose, readers of all backgrounds gained and embodied the distinctly modern values of liberty, free speech, toleration, individualism, self-determination, and democratic institutions. Communion and community were linked, performed in novel ways through revolutionary forms of reading. In this conclusion to a quartet of books on media change, Williams makes a compelling case for readers and acts of reading as the true drivers of social, political, and cultural modernity – and for digital media as its looming nemesis.
