Book Description
Mr. Danto argues that recent developments in the artworld, in particular the production of works of art that cannot be told from ordinary things, make urgent the need for a new theory of art and make plain the factors such a theory can and cannot involve. In the course of constructing such a theory, he seeks to demonstrate the relationship between philosophy and art, as well as the connections that hold between art and social institutions and art history. The book distinguishes what belongs to artistic theory from what has traditionally been confused with it, namely aesthetic theory and offers as well a systematic account of metaphor, expression, and style, together with an original account 0f artistic representation. A wealth of examples, drawn especially from recent and contemporary art, illuminate the argument.
Customer Reviews:
Unforunately, A Must Buy.......2006-12-15
I found this book very difficult to read. The sentences are very long and the vocabulary is high up there, especially for those who aren't philosophy majors. Some of his ideas are interesting, but I don't think he needed to write a book this thick to illustrate them. If you are a person who hates those who don't get to the point, then you'll hate this book. Unfortunately, if you have this text required for class, you will have to buy it. None of its text is available online even in the online libraries. There are also no study notes that I know of that is available on the web.
The best attempt yet at a definitional theory of art........2000-12-13
One of the best philosophical works of the latter 20th century. Ranks alongside Goodman's 'Fact, Fiction and Forecast'. Of interest not merely to philosophers of aesthetics but also to anyone interested in problems of representation and ontology. A must for any serious student of the arts.
Study of Aesthetics.......2000-08-02
For any scholar of aesthetics or modern art theory this book isa must. It only falls short in establishing a general theory of art that is applicable to all art forms (such as architecture and music), which Danto claims to be doing (but who has not?). Still, his insight remains crucial to understanding art forms and their meaning in the 20th century.
Book Description
The Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty-one essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. These essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture. Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost? What are the forces of social disintegration and how might they be reversed? How might men and women live together in ways that benefit both? And, how does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments? Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality, and happiness of the whole community of creation.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing truth, inspiring!.......2007-05-14
Berry holds no punches in telling about sustainable living, holding traditions of old and how the way we're developing and farming this world can't last. Most of the essays were written 30 years ago or so, but Berry was way ahead of his time and a lot of his thoughts. This collection is especially important now as we've become "exploiters" of the land. These essays will inspire you to become a "nurturer" of the land.
A wonderful book.......2005-08-12
Sometimes, during and after reading a particular book, I feel as though I could not have read anything more appropriate at that time.
The book blows me away with its depth, its insight, or the amazing questions it raises.
The Art of the Commonplace is one of those books, and it may be the best introduction to Wendell Berry a reader can ask for. As a collection of essays over more than twenty years, it covers a wide range of social issues-such as agriculture and the environment, family and marriage, consumerism, and globalism-which is amazing given that all of them relate to agrarian topics.
Berry poses questions that most of us never consider, and I believe that is the main reason Berry is one of the most desperately needed Christian writers in today's America.
Savor the wisdom in this book and then take action.......2004-05-02
For me the central theme of this book can be illustrated in this quote. " I don't think it is appreciated how much of an outdoor book the Bible is." Berry is a deeply religious man who lives his religion every moment in his deep, deep connections to the land, to all animals, to community,to the growing of food, and to the world as an organic entity.
As wonderful as it is to have Poet Laureates, I wish we also had Philosopher Laureates and that Wendell Berry had that forum. His thoughts are important for the national consciousness.
"The other kind of freedom is the freedom to take care of ourselves and of each other. The freedom of affluence opposes and contradicts the freedom of community life."
Berry advocates watching government closely, nationally but particularly locally. When it comes time to protest, he calls for facts and good arguments, not just slogans and buttons.
"I would rather go before the governement with two people who have a competent understanding of an issue, and who therefore deserve a hearing, than with two thousand who are vaguely dissatisfied."
These essays span several decades but the ideas are more relevant today than when they were written. The trends and programs, such as GATT and the loss of topsoil and the rise of megafarms, are as bad as he feared but time has proven them even more destructive.
"Restraint - for us, now - above all:the ability to accept and live within limits; to resist changes that are merely novel or fashionable; to resist greed and pride; to resist the temptation to 'solve' problems by ignoring them, accepting them as 'tradeoffs', or bequesthing them to posterity. A good solution, then, must be in harmony with good character, cultural value, and moral law."
Interesting, but frustrating.......2004-01-17
While I agree with a lot of what Berry has to say, I found his approach off-putting, in a way that I think will ruin his message for many readers.
Berry supports a simpler lifestyle, and his ideas are much like Thoreau's as described during his experience in "Walden". He says that simplifying will bring us back to nature and a healthier way of living. I agree with many aspects of what he has to say, although I quibble with him on several points - but that's a matter of personal opinion and not a problem with the book. But Berry takes a fairly hard-nosed, holier-than-thou approach to explaining the virtues of the lifestyle he supports, and this grows tiresome after reading the book for more than a short while.
Berry is also very long-winded. His writing style is somewhat overblown and very difficult to get through. This book and perhaps this author are probably best read in small doses, whether you like him or not.
Notes From a Native.......2003-04-24
Cover to cover this book encompasses twenty-one powerful essays spanning as many years, from "The Unsettling of America" (1977) to "The Whole Horse" (1999). It is basically the backdoor into the house of Berry's thought, the best way to familiarize oneself with his writings without buying all his books. In fact, to date, it is the only such compilation currently available.
For me personally, reading Berry is a kind of sacrament taken with the utmost reverence and joy. Like the bark of an ancient redwood tree, the essays are imbued with scent and deep, earthly texture. This language serves the underlying themes well -- themes of love, work, earth and health. Indeed, many of the essays set out explicitly to reestablish the hidden connections between body and soul, individual and community; the former necessarily connected with the land that created and sustains us. Like hymns to one's sense of place, one reads Berry and is transported back home.
"I came to see myself growing out of the earth like the other animals and plants. I saw my body and my daily motions as brief coherences and articulations of the energy of place, which would fall back into it like leaves in the autumn."
Full of common sense, prophetic visions, poetic beauty and cogent analyses of America's cultural crises, these essays will retain their relevance and charm for generations if not millennia to come. At present, I can think of no single author better suited to guide us through these troubled times. Humble, illuminating, honest and profound -- this is one thinker not to be overlooked by anyone concerned with our fate as species and the fate of the planet as a whole. Definitely one of the most important, soul-satisfying books I have ever read.
Average customer rating:
- Plesasurable reading
- At last, in English!
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Rare and Commonplace Flowers: The Story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares
Carmen L. Oliveira
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
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Elizabeth Bishop: A Biography of a Poetry
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ASIN: 0813530334 |
Customer Reviews:
Plesasurable reading.......2002-03-09
Rare and Commonplace Flowers innovates in the scholarly field. A carefully documented biography, it reconstructs step by step the story of Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares.Carmen Oliveira's literary achievement lies in conveying this research of undeniable academid value in a very agreeable piece of storytelling.A must for Women's Studies, the book is recommended to anyone who enjoys a good read.
At last, in English!.......2002-02-18
This book is a treasure, a delightful read. It speaks to a broad range of interests. Fans of Elizabeth Bishop will enjoy learning about her relationship with Lota and her experiences during the 17 years she lived in Brazil. If you are interested in Brazilian history and politics, you will find a rare account of the early sixties in Rio de Janeiro, as the country headed toward military dictatorship. It is also a marvelous and tragic love story.
As an American living in Brazil for the past 20 years, I found it a fascinating account of how Lota and her country provided a haven for Bishop, an orphan prone to writer's block and alcoholism. Rare and Commonplace Flowers, read in addition to Bishop's letters, opens a whole new window on her writing. Ever since I read the original in Portuguese, in 1995, I have been convinced that it merits the attention of non-Portuguese speakers. Thanks to the excellent translation of Neil Besner, you've got it!
Average customer rating:
- The best book ever!
- A cherished book from my childhood
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The Hodgepodge Book
Duncan Emrich
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0590072501 |
Customer Reviews:
The best book ever!.......2005-12-26
20 years ago I would sneak this book out of my older sister's room and sit on the floor of my bedroom enjoying the neat little tidbits and illustrations. I'm sure she noticed the drops of grape juice on the pages! Flash forward to Christmas Day 2005, I'm now 31, but the joy that came to my face the moment I opened the package and found this book staring back at me! DOn't know how or where she found it, certainly nowhere online, I've searched! this is a treasure that brought tears to my eyes! It will definitely be a family heirloom!
A cherished book from my childhood.......2003-07-04
As a child in the early 1970s, I attended C. H. Bird Elementary in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, a modern school with superb facilities and teachers (tip of the hat to Mr. Frank Peot, best teacher I ever had). Bird School had an outstanding library, and my first lengthy encounters with Beverly Cleary, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Charles Schulz were conducted there. But my favorite book in the entire library was "The Hodgepodge Book", filled with stories, jokes, games, and American folklore. I checked that book out countless times, fascinated with such things as advice on how to get rid of a sty (stand in the middle of a crossroads and recite "Sty, Sty, leave my eye; go to the next one passing by.") and the amazing knuckle calendar (to keep track of the long and short months of the year). I thought it was the greatest book in the world, and perhaps for that time and place, it was. This book reminds me of a time, long ago, when I was young, a East Coast city boy experiencing the rural Midwest for the first time. A time when playing hide & seek in a cornfield was an all-day event, and a 6-foot snowdrift was a welcome sight to a little boy's eyes. And not only a time, but a place: Sun Prairie (what a great name for a Midwest town!) was the sort of place where the arrival of spring was heralded by boys and girls getting their marbles out of storage and having intense playground marble competitions; a place of spelling bee champs (the 1974 state champ came from Bird School), annual corn festivals, free milk & peanut butter sandwiches in the lunch room, and fresh air and good people. It was sort of geeky, and completely "small town" . . . but nice. When I look back on it, Sun Prairie was the last chance I had to really be a kid, before moving again and facing the onset of junior high and all of the pressures involved. "The Hodgepodge Book" totally reflected that playful, comfortable, small-town spirit, and that's why I love it (and still read it) today. It took me literally years to find a copy, but it was worth the time and effort, and now it is one of my most prized possessions.
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Milcah Martha Moore's Book: A Commonplace Book of Early American Literature
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Journeys in New Worlds: Early American Women's Narratives (Wisconsin Studies in American Autobiography)
ASIN: 0271016914 |
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- no title
- Connects the earth, its feminine nature and the divine
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The Dove in the Stone: Finding the Sacred in the Commonplace
Alice Howell
Manufacturer: Quest Books
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ASIN: 0835606392 |
Book Description
A Jungian lecturer and astrologer searches for the sacred in the commonplace in the isle of Iona. Photos. Companion video.
Customer Reviews:
no title.......2006-02-05
This book made me actually plan a trip, and reserve a hotel, on Iona, but to my everlasting regret, circumstances caused a cancellation of our plans. But like Wiederkehr's "A Tree Full of Angels", there is definitely some over-the-top stuff here, just not Catholic in nature. Very definitely New Age. Howell is a Jungian psychologist, which should tell you much. The lure of this island, though, as Howell describes their stay there, is almost unbearable. Perhaps someday.
Connects the earth, its feminine nature and the divine.......1999-05-25
Alice O. Howell has written the type of simple book that holds profound truths. It is personal in the wonderful love story of Alice and her husband Walter and universal in their search for spiritual truth. I always wanted a book like the ones Marmee gave each of the Little Women and this is it. There are excerpts of spiritual passages from all the world's religions and there is the connection of the Earth, its feminine nature and the Divine Spirit. If you are interested in Celtic Christianity, the Hagia Sophia or the esoteric tradition in Western Philosophy I highly recommend this book.
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Oscar Wilde's Oxford Notebooks: A Portrait of Mind in the Making
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0195051335 |
Book Description
This, the first publication of Oscar Wilde's Commonplace Book and Notebook, which he kept during his middle twenties at the end of his studies at Oxford, will forever alter critical perceptions of Wilde's achievement in the larger tradition of English critical and aesthetic thought. Not
merely the dandy and aesthete of modernist myth, Wilde was also a precocious and widely-read Victorian humanist. These documents, containing the records of his education and reading--quotations and paraphrases of other writers, and Wilde's own analytical and descriptive jottings, comments, and
fragmentary drafts--reveal how Wilde developed the synthesis of Hegelian idealism and Spencerian evolutionary theory that was to be a mainstay of his major critical and creative works. In addition, the editors provide a physical description of the manuscripts; historical evidence for dating; an
introduction that describes the intellectual influence of Wilde's parents and their circle in Dublin; and a commentary that identifies the sources in the notebooks and substantially reinterprets Wilde's criticism and fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Masterful!.......2005-03-11
There is undoubtedly very little scholarship in the field of Wilde studies that can compare to this work. Ellman's biography of Wilde is a classic, but this work, so little known, and so little referenced, is the first to offer an exhaustive view of Wilde's philosophical, literary, and scientific reading at Oxford. (I refer to the commentary that is included in the first section of this book preceding the edited material as that is where my comments mostly apply).
Smith and Helfand haved used Wilde's entries in his commonplace book and Oxford notebooks (1878-79) to demonstrate that his wide reading at Oxford was not isolated to that period of his life. A commonplace book, for the uninitiated, is not exactly a class notebook, but a serious repository of ideas that were written down and organized with the idea of improving upon them in future writing. This is what Wilde's commonplace book is. Smith and Helfand demonstrate how Wilde took many of these ideas with him into his later writings. It is a good example of a very traditional method of Bildung, or cultural and intellectual formation. For those who would read Wilde as a serious writer whose literary career followed a thread (many threads) from beginning to end, here is the book for you.
The erudition required for editing a book such as this, is a great task, one that the editors have accomplished with skill. This work was edited in the wake of queer studies, when the reductively mythical presentations of Wilde as gay martyr were annexed to the needs of a burgeoning academic community. It is perhaps due to this circumstance that little attention has been devoted to the scholar Oscar Wilde, and much more to Wilde hagiography. Smith and Helfand are concerned with Wilde's intellectual career, and they have contributed vitally to the recuperation of an identity smeared like an inkblot across the pages of intellectual history.
What is most formidable about this research is that it is not splattered with the ideas of poststructuralist writers, which would inevitably date the book. Smith and Helfand use the editing principles of Tanselle, but their commentary is derived from straightforward readings of original texts. It certainly destined to remain a classic in Wilde studies for a long time to come. Those interested in Foucault's concept of the technology of the self as history of writing practices may find this work helpful. Historians of evolution writing may be interested in the integration and arrangement of entries in the notebooks. Wilde wrote synthetically. He brought together ideas from Victorian writers as far afield as Spencer and Green, Huxley and Arnold, Darwin and Newman, etc. Many of Wilde's gretest aphorisms are located and his passion for the Greek Classics is present on nearly every page.
Book Description
William Byrd II (1674-1744) was an important figure in the history of colonial Virginia: a founder of Richmond, an active participant in Virginia politics, and the proprietor of one of the colony's greatest plantations. But Byrd is best known today for his diaries. Considered essential documents of private life in colonial America, they offer readers an unparalleled glimpse into the world of a Virginia gentleman. This book joins Byrd's Diary, Secret Diary, and other writings in securing his reputation as one of the most interesting men in colonial America.
Edited and presented here for the first time, Byrd's commonplace book is a collection of moral wit and wisdom gleaned from reading and conversation. The nearly six hundred entries range in tone from hope to despair, trust to dissimulation, and reflect on issues as varied as science, religion, women, Alexander the Great, and the perils of love. A ten-part introduction presents an overview of Byrd's life and addresses such topics as his education and habits of reading and his endeavors to understand himself sexually, temperamentally, and religiously, as well as the history and cultural function of commonplacing. Extensive annotations discuss the sources, background, and significance of the entries.
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