History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism

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Excellent Overview of Media Studies Methodologies

Channels of Discourse, Reassembled: Television and Contemporary Criticism
Robert C. (ed.) Allen
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807843741

Book Description

Since its original publication in 1987, Channels of Discourse has provided the most comprehensive consideration of commercial television, drawing on insights provided by the major strands of contemporary criticism: semiotics, narrative theory, reception theory, genre theory, ideological analysis, psychoanalysis, feminist criticism, and British cultural studies.

The second edition features a new introduction by Robert Allen that includes a discussion of the political economy of commercial television. Two new essays have been added—one an assessment of postmodernism and television, the other an analysis of convergence and divergence among the essays—and the original essays have been substantially revised and updated with an international audience in mind. Sixty-one new television stills illustrate the text.

Each essay lays out the general tenets of its particular approach, discusses television as an object of analysis within that critical framework, and provides extended examples of the types of analysis produced by that critical approach. Case studies range from Rescue 911 and Twin Peaks to soap operas, music videos, game shows, talk shows, and commericals.

Channels of Discourse, Reassembled suggests new ways of understanding relationships among television programs, between viewing pleasure and narrative structure, and between the world in front of the television set and that represented on the screen. The collection also addresses the qualities of popular television that traditional aesthetics and quantitative media research have failed to treat satisfactorily, including its seriality, mass production, and extraordinary popularity.

The contributors are Robert C. Allen, Jim Collins, Jane Feuer, John Fiske, Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, James Hay, E. Ann Kaplan, Sarah Kozloff, Ellen Seiter, and Mimi White.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Overview of Media Studies Methodologies.......2002-07-04

In a critical writing course I taught in Spring 2002, I used Channels of Discourse, Reassembled as the core text for the course readings. The many chapters within are written by the best of the best in the fields of media studies and cultural studies, and the methodologies are presented in an easy-to-read manner which is informative and full of examples and case studies. This is an excellent book for media studies students, as its chapters lay out the basic information they should know about many of the methodologies often used in media criticism.

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The bankruptcy of the Chinese Communist system.
A very entertaining memoir
Mountain Of Life
Interesting book
60% Biography, 40% Fiction

Colors of the Mountain
Da Chen
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385720602
Release Date: 2001-01-16

Amazon.com

Now a writer living in New York, Da Chen describes his youth in mainland China with engaging humor and affecting warmth. It's often a harrowing tale: born in 1962, Chen was the grandson of a landlord, which rendered his entire family pariahs during the Cultural Revolution. And though initially an excellent student, he was ostracized in school and told he could never attend college. He responded by making friends with a group of young thugs who drank, smoked, and gambled but were kind to him. After Mao died in 1976, the budding juvenile delinquent discovered that higher education might be available to him after all. Chen worked hard to make up for years of neglected studies, and his memoir closes with a jubilant scene as he and his brother Jin are both accepted into college; for his suffering family, "thirty years of humiliation had suddenly come to an end." Chen's lucid yet emotional prose unsparingly portrays a topsy-turvy society where unfairness reigns and the rules are arbitrarily changed without warning, but his zest for life and sharp eye for character make even the most awful moments grimly funny. This is no saga of victimization, but a thrilling account of an ordeal that fosters spiritual growth. Readers will cheer Chen's triumph over daunting odds. --Wendy Smith

Book Description

Colors of the Mountain is a classic story of triumph over adversity, a memoir of a boyhood full of spunk, mischief, and love, and a welcome introduction to an amazing young writer.

Da Chen was born in 1962, in the Year of Great Starvation. Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution engulfed millions of Chinese citizens, and the Red Guard enforced Mao's brutal communist regime. Chen’s family belonged to the despised landlord class, and his father and grandfather were routinely beaten and sent to labor camps, the family of eight left without a breadwinner. Despite this background of poverty and danger, and Da Chen grows up to be resilient, tough, and funny, learning how to defend himself and how to work toward his future. By the final pages, when his says his last goodbyes to his father and boards the bus to Beijing to attend college, Da Chen has become a hopeful man astonishing in his resilience and cheerful strength.

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"I was born in southern China in 1962, in the tiny town of Yellow Stone. They called it the Year of Great Starvation." So begins Da Chen's enthralling memoir of life in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. The youngest of five children born to educated parents of the "landlord" class who have been stripped of their wealth and possessions, Chen faces a life of poverty, shame, and hunger. He and his family are harassed by their neighbors. Chen's older siblings are denied an education, and when Chen does attend school, his teacher pressures him to denounce his parents as "counter-revolutionaries." Ostracized, Chen finds acceptance in a group of young toughs, from whom he learns the joys of smoking and ignoring his studies. It is only by dint of his strength of character, his nurturing family, and his towering intellect that Chen is able to overcome the obstacles that confront him to finally achieve success and be praised by the same people who once persecuted him.

"Colors of The Mountain" is full of unforgettable scenes of rural Chinese life, as Chen recalls feasting on oysters and fried peanuts on New Year's Day, studying fifteen hours a day for ten months to prepare for the arduous college-entry exams, or praying before a hidden Buddha statue since Communism has outlawed religion. By turns funny, moving, and inspiring, this memoir has a universal appeal and a deep humanity.

Customer Reviews:

The bankruptcy of the Chinese Communist system........2007-02-10

One wonders why the communist system was swept into the dustbin of history. Da Chen tells you why. Intellectuals were purged in Mao's society and people learned very little. In fact, school was not even required of everyone. Only after Mao joined Lenin in a masoleum did intelligence and ability matter much.
Da Chen relates his early life story about his early Chinese childhood in the rural south of China. He was discriminated against because he was a son of a former landlord. Peasants lorded it over him and his family. Da Chen relates his experiences of the Cultural Revolution and how the school system was devastated by the purges and reeducation.
Da Chen escaped this poverty by using his intelligence to shine in the reform education system after Mao's death. He received a state education in English and went on to emigrate to New York. A nice rages to riches story and the tyranny of the Communist system.

A very entertaining memoir.......2006-09-22

Chen Da's bestselling COLORS OF THE MOUNTAIN is one of the more entertaining memoirs I've run across in recent years.

In this volume, Chen recounts his life, growing up amid the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, through his acceptance into college. In the writing of autobiography, certain liberties are par for the course (memory is never impeccable), but I was overall rather impressed with Chen's determination, and his detailed, direct way of attempting to illuminate the day-to-day texture of life in an out-of-the-way part of China.

Chen's approach is gentle - both accessible to Western audiences, and attentive in its' detailed depiction of his family's life, accomplishments, and the troubles those accomplishments brought (during the Cultural Revolution years); the occasionally mentioned poems of his grandfather were one of Chen's major motivators, and their eloquence was the model this entire memoir was constructed upon.

Perhaps not the most literary, or the most historically rigid autobiography, but definitely one of the warmest.

-David Alston

Mountain Of Life.......2006-04-14

Da Chen's rendition of memories etched within his heart is very descriptive. I especially like this passage:

"...The thoughts tortured me and I squirmed in shame and humiliation, but I had to face reality. The teacher could throw me out with a sneer on his face. That was fine, I had thick skin. A poor child couldn't afford to have thin skin. Only rich boys and well-to-do girls with cute little butterflies in their hair could afford to have thin skin"

For a child of nine, to have such vivid memory of a childhood, is startling. The innocence and words crafted makes Colors of the Mountain, a reading worth investing time in. Reading between the words give you an insight to how deep Da Chen's spiritual values are.

An amazing, funny and innocent book!

Interesting book.......2006-02-28

I enjoyed reading the book. I praise the author for his hard work and his motivation to improve himself and his life. I do agree with another reader that the author very often patted himself on the back, which I have concluded that it's a weakness of a person who had a difficult life.
Although the author often patted himself on the back, but terms he used to describe feelings, places and situations were touching and close to heart. Over all, it's a good book to read and to learn what Chinese people had to do to survive the Mao's time.

60% Biography, 40% Fiction.......2005-11-13

I am of Chinese descent and my parents have experienced the Cultural Revolution. While I do identify and sympathize with Da Chen's struggles growing up as a landlord's son during that tumultuous time period, some of his experiences are indeed more fiction than truth. People remember what they want to remember about the past, and a lot of that memory gets subjectively colored over time. This is an excellent memoir, but I believe the author spiced up more than a few details to make it an exciting book to Western readers. Plus Da Chen doesn't shy away from self promotion either - he is constantly patting himself on the back on every single page. At times I was so disgusted by the degree which he stretched the truth that I could not read any further. If you really want to learn about the Cultural Revolution, pick up a copy of Jung Chang's Wild Swans. Da Chen's memoir is kindergarten talk compared to her writing.

Ancestry and Narrative in Nineteenth-Century British Literature: Blood Relations from Edgeworth to Hardy (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)

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Ancestry and Narrative in Nineteenth-Century British Literature: Blood Relations from Edgeworth to Hardy (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture)
Sophie Gilmartin
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521560942

Book Description

This study addresses the question of why ideas of ancestry and kinship were so important in nineteenth-century society, and particularly in the Victorian novel. Sophie Gilmartin discusses what makes people believe that they are part of a certain region, race or nation, and what part is played by superstitious belief, invented traditions and fictions. Gilmartin's study shows that ideas of ancestry and kinship, and the narratives inspired by or invented around them, were of profound significance in the construction of Victorian identity.

A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition

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good reading to organize your mind about cinema
Oi!! Could you go in a straight line just once?
More like a boring textbook than a "novel".
Reads like a novel
Too much of a good thing?

A History of Narrative Film, Fourth Edition
David A. Cook
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393978680

Book Description

Sophisticated in its analytical content, current and comprehensive in its coverage of all aspects of film and filmmaking, and informed throughout by fascinating historical and cultural contexts, A History of Narrative Film is widely acknowledged to be the definitive text in the field. The Fourth Edition adds an entire chapter on computer-generated imaging, updates filmographies for nearly all living directors mentioned in the text, and includes major new sections that both revisit old content and introduce contemporary trends and movements.

Customer Reviews:

good reading to organize your mind about cinema.......2007-07-27

Very well organized but could have more information in each item.
Gives a good overview of the history of cinema and about names who had a role in it

Oi!! Could you go in a straight line just once?.......2007-04-06

This book has a ton of information; but I challenge you to extract that information without pulling your hair out first. It was a required text for class and I dreaded every assignment from it. It has pages that are well organized and communicate information and interest very well. But, it also has pages and pages and pages that read like a first draft or outline, complete with unexplained tangents. The author and his editors have such a thorough knowledge of the subject that they miss the numerous and illogical side trips they make in the text. Side trips would be fine if the core message were clear. To be a truly effective teaching tool or an efficient reference, this book needs to be overhauled, restructured, redesigned, and re-indexed.

More like a boring textbook than a "novel"........2005-02-08

I'm not quite sure why someone else reported that this book is like a novel. It is, quite in fact, the opposite. The author, David A. Cook, presents the information in a very historical fashion, giving the title to this book it's appropraite meaning. The book in no way tries to make the history of narrative film interesting. The definitions of mise-en-scene and montage, for example, were described rather poorly and hardly helped the reader understand their true meaning. One thing the author does provide is a very complete and thorough look at cinema, all most to the point where it is a struggle to remember all the names and their associations. It becomes even more of a challenge when the author uses unnecessary complex words and sentence structures in his descriptions. While I do enjoy how the book serves as an encyclopedia of sorts for providing vast information on narrative film, I would have liked to have seen the information presented in a more tangible and less complex format.

Reads like a novel.......2005-01-26

This book reads like a novel rather than like a textbook. The writing is charming and the content is fascinating. To whomever criticised the daunting size of the book, I say this: Use whatever you want. Students should learn to filter what they read and separate the essential from the trivial. This is a reference volume, not a capsule.

I was amazed that one reviewer prefers a more tangible and less complex format for this book. I just pray that the reviewer meant no real disrespect. This is a history book man, not a comic book. Don't expect this book to fascinate your five-year old niece. As far as history books go, it is accurate, to the point, and interesting. Mise-en-scene and montage? This book contains, good, comprehensible definitions of mise-en-scene and montage. Perhaps you need to read the book carefully. Or recommend another volume that is better, why don't you?

Too much of a good thing?.......2004-04-24

I've been teaching college film studies courses for about twenty years and I have been using Cook's book that whole time. It's an amazing effort which covers over a century of cinema from virtually every corner of the globe. Each edition has become larger and more exhaustive. So now we come to the fourth edition and I start to wonder when do we get TOO large and exhaustive?

The book is over 900 pages long. There are twenty-one chapters. Too much for a semester-length course - probably too much for two courses! I'd estimate there are ten thousand names (film titles and filmmakers). As an instructor, I look at it all and ask myself where do I even begin cutting to make it manageable for my classes? As a student, I'd guess you would ask, "how much of what I'm paying for am I going to actually read and learn about?" Seventy dollars isn't too bad compared to other college books of this length, but if you only read a third of it...?

A lot of film classes, sadly, my own included, tend to give you the greatest hits - the same fifty or so classics and nothing more. Cook rejects this and offers you literally hundreds of films that sound fascinating and make you want to see them. However, he seems so concerned not to exclude anything, that he name-drops. He'll devote a section of the book to films from a particular country and you get the impression, he's never seen them himself. He's just including them so the book won't be incomplete. There's no easy answer. He could ignore that country's cinema entirely and someone would criticize that decision. Instead he goes on and on about films you'll never see and won't be learning anything about.

I have a few personal criticisms of the new edition. Disney's animated films, he claims, are beyond the scope of the book, but then he discusses Japanese anime at some length. He has a section devoted to "splatter" exploitation films which includes pictures of a decapitated woman, a man with a drill going through his head and something really, really bloody coming out of ... well, you get the idea. If it were me, I'd cover Disney and skip the splatter section - or at least show fewer pictures. Am I just too old fashioned?

Cook has an especially difficult job with current world cinema. Like any other aspect of history, how do we really know what contemporary films are going to be classics fifty years from now and which will be forgotten? I agree with him some of the time: his detailed analysis of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I disagree sometimes too: do you really think Moulin Rouge is going to be considered a "landmark" film even a decade from now?

Finally, a plea, not just to David Cook but to all cinema book authors: Stop including shot by shot break-down photos from classic films! Do you really think we need to see A DOZEN PAGES of the Odessa Steps sequence of Battleship Potemkin?!! Can we all agree that video now makes these films readily available to any film buff and certainly to any college offering a cinema class? There are SIXTY photos taken from Citizen Kane alone. I know it's supposed to be the greatest film ever made, but won't readers just go out and see it for themselves?

Book Description

In Chronoschisms Ursula Heise explores the way developments in communication and information technology have led to the emergence of a new culture of time in Western societies. Drawing on theories of postmodernism and narratology, she shows how postmodern narratives break up the concept of plot into a spectrum of contradictory story lines that allow new conceptions of history and posthistory to emerge. This wide-ranging study offers new readings of postmodernist theory and fresh insight into the often vexing relationship between literature and science.

Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)

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Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)
Marie-Laure Ryan
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801877539

Book Description

Is there a significant difference in attitude between immersion in a game and immersion in a movie or novel? What are the new possibilities for representation offered by the emerging technology of virtual reality? As Marie-Laure Ryan demonstrates in Narrative as Virtual Reality, the questions raised by new, interactive technologies have their precursors and echoes in pre-electronic literary and artistic traditions. Formerly a culture of immersive ideals--getting lost in a good book, for example--we are becoming, Ryan claims, a culture more concerned with interactivity. Approaching the idea of virtual reality as a metaphor for total art, Narrative as Virtual Reality applies the concepts of immersion and interactivity to develop a phenomenology of reading.

Ryan's analysis encompasses both traditional literary narratives and the new textual genres made possible by the electronic revolution of the past few years, such as hypertext, interactive movies and drama, digital installation art, and computer role-playing games. Interspersed among the book's chapters are several "interludes" that focus exclusively on either key literary texts that foreshadow what we now call "virtual reality," including those of Baudelaire, Huysmans, Ignatius de Loyola, Calvino, and science-fiction author Neal Stephenson, or recent efforts to produce interactive art forms, like the hypertext "novel" Twelve Blue, by Michael Joyce, and I'm Your Man, an interactive movie. As Ryan considers the fate of traditional narrative patterns in digital culture, she revisits one of the central issues in modern literary theory--the opposition between a presumably passive reading that is taken over by the world a text represents and an active, deconstructive reading that imaginatively participates in the text's creation.

Writing History, Writing Trauma (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)

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Writing History, Writing Trauma (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society)
Dominick LaCapra
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801864968

Book Description

Trauma and its often symptomatic aftermath pose acute problems for historical representation and understanding. In Writing History, Writing Trauma, Dominick LaCapra provides a broad-ranging, critical inquiry into the problem of trauma, notably with respect to major historical events. In a series of interlocking essays, he explores theoretical and literary-critical attempts to come to terms with trauma as well as the crucial role post-traumatic testimonies--particularly Holocaust testimonies--have assumed in recent thought and writing. In doing so, he adapts psychoanalytic concepts to historical analysis and employs sociocultural and political critique to elucidate trauma and its after effects in culture and in people.

In the first chapter LaCapra addresses trauma from the perspective of history as a discipline. He then lays a theoretical groundwork for the book as a whole, exploring the concept of historical specificity and insisting on the difference between transhistorical and historical trauma. Subsequent chapters consider how Holocaust testimonies raise the problem of the role of affect and empathy in historical understanding, and respond to the debates surrounding Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's book Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. The book's concluding essay, "Writing (About) Trauma," examines the various ways that the voice of trauma emerges in written and oral accounts of historical events. Theoretically ambitious and historically informed, Writing History, Writing Trauma is an important contribution from one of today's foremost experts on trauma.

Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

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There's no future in Murray's dreaming...
playing with Story in cyberspace
Take a spin into the midst of the future
Superb look at the structures of digital storytelling
The history of the video game meets narratology

Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace
Janet H. Murray
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262631873

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Technology changes storytelling--movies don't tell stories in the same manner as wandering bards. Janet H. Murray, director of the Laboratory for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is fascinated with the changes emerging technologies may bring. Interactive tales, more versatile structures, stories as games, and games as stories are among the topics she explores in her very personable and entertaining style. And what about fears that interactive escapism could be the coming addiction? She makes an unblinking examination of this question with insight into both the technological possibilities and the strengths of the human psyche. Strongly recommended for anyone who loves the art of storytelling in any medium.

Book Description

Stories define how we think, play, and understand our lives. In this comprehensive and readable book -- already a classic statement of the aesthetics of digital media, acclaimed by practitioners and theorists alike -- Janet Murray shows how the computer is reshaping the stories we live by.

Murray discusses the unique properties and pleasures of digital environments and connects them with the traditional satisfactions of narrative. She analyzes the dramatic satisfaction of participatory stories and considers what would be necessary to move interactive fiction from the formats of childish games and confusing labyrinths into a mature and compelling art form. Through a blend of imagination and techno-wizardry, Murray provides both readers and writers with a guide to the storytelling of the future.

(cloth published by Free Press, 1997)

Customer Reviews:

There's no future in Murray's dreaming..........2005-02-14

This book came highly recommended to me. With all the hype surrounding its apparent genius I expected to be blown away. Sadly though, this book comes across as someone who has just played a video game for the first time (MYST) and decided that the kids might be on to something. Murray proclaims that one day in the distant future, they'll make a 'holodeck' and we'll finally have true immersion. In the mean time, we can gloss over all the interactive components that make such an experience compelling in the first place. The future of gaming/narratology/ludology whatever-you-want-to-call-it is already here. You don't need a "VR Suit" or some imaginary technology to have a truly immersive experience. Her woefully uninformed look at the games of her day are completely inexcusable:

"...interactors will be lured into worlds where they float, tumble, and arc through thrillingly coloured spaces, fly through imaginary clouds and swim lazily across welcoming mountain ponds. The nightmare landscape of the fighting maze, in which we feel imperiled may give way to enchanting worlds of increasingly refined visual dealight that are populated by evocative fairy-tale creatures."

At the time of this book's publishing (1997) games such as Jumping Flash, Mario 64, and Tomb Raider had already taken the world by storm. By reducing contemporary gaming to mindless, juvenile violence (while championing those themes in 'War & Peace', 'Hamlet' and 'Star Trek') Murray shows a complete lack of interest and imagination.

The heavy hand of narrative is not the only way to tell a story. We don't need a "cyberdramatist" the likes of a Dickens or a Shakespeare to show us the way. She could have explored the work of Miyamoto, Wright or Kojima and the stories that arise out those gaming experiences. Instead she focuses on the Miller Brothers because they offered up the most conventional form of storytelling. Eight years on, their impact is almost forgotten. Above all, people want to act - not in the theatrical sense, but in the name of imaginative 'play'. Maybe someday she'll prove us all wrong and the "Dr. Quinn Holodeck" will sweep us up in the rapturous joy of existing in a town populated by:

"...blacksmiths, barbers, general store owners, saloon keepers, scouts, and, of course, female doctors and who could be given their own homesteads or boardinghouse rooms in particular physical locations within the fictional world."

Sounds like fun.

Criticism aside, I did enjoy the chapter "Eliza's Daughters". Murray's look at procedural characters and believable agents proved informative and intriguing. If only the rest of the book were as objective and plausible then I might actually believe the hype surrounding, "Hamlet on the Holodeck".

playing with Story in cyberspace.......2001-08-19

janet murray's book is a seminal work for anyone interested in what story-entertainment is going to look like in cyberspace.

imagine if you were alive in 1889 when the movie camera was invented. it was not immediately obvious that this new invention would play a role in the world of story. There wasn't until the teens of the 20th century that dw griffith developed a language of story on film... and not until the early teens until the movie theatre with pop corn came upon the scene.

we are at a similar place with the new technologies of digitalness, cbyberspace, interactivity, ..... as humans were with the movie technology over 100 years ago.

janet murray's book gives us the thinking of the best minds at the MIT Media lab as to what might be going on here.

a great book...

Take a spin into the midst of the future.......2001-02-05

Some may find this terse, warmly witty, and tidy treatise about "whither literature in the world of CyberSpace" as just too esoteric to read. Stop. This is not a book grieving over the lost art of words and writing that nurtures the lives of all readers. This wise book is a guide to the possibilites that elude pessimists wary of the ultimate effects of the computer on this century. Relax, discover the possibilites about which you've never dreamed, and let Murray tell you some stories in the mode of the future. For writers, for teachers....but also for the committed readers. Enjoy!

Superb look at the structures of digital storytelling.......1999-04-20

Great book that gives an thorough account of the structures that are given by the format of the digital media. You not only learn to analyse how digital storytelling works but also how it could and should migrate from the status quo to elevate itself onto the next literary level. To anybody who is interested in digital storytelling I recommend this book with all my heart.

The history of the video game meets narratology.......1999-02-09

I'm writing a dissertation on postmodern literature and thus had the pleasure of considering this book as research. The truth of the matter is, that in the dull, dry world of books on narrative theory, this one was FUN! This is exactly the point- video games and Star Trek have EVERYTHING to do with the way narrative works today, (which Murray compares with the way it worked in Shakespeare's time,) and will work once the average American can no longer remember a time when video games had no graphics.

It's fun AND it shows how things are changing and how quickly.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Average customer rating:

The Rest of the Story
Not Just a African, but an American Hero!
Required Reading
My heart broke

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)
Frederick Douglass
Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312257376

Customer Reviews:

The Rest of the Story.......2007-07-07

In the classic slave narrative genre, Frederick Douglass' narrative of his life brings to life, in all its horrors, American slave society, and one slave's life-long protest against it.

When we read Frederick Douglass in his own words, he is less the radical and more the reformer than we've been led to believe. He is also more the Christian statesmen and less the Christianity critic than we might imagine. Douglass' oft quoted comments about Christianity had much more to do with a righteous critique of distorted Christian living practiced by white masters than with any critique of Christianity or of Christ. In reality, Douglass, like so many enslaved African Americans before and after him, saw in Jesus a Savior they could identify with--a suffering Savior.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

Not Just a African, but an American Hero!.......2005-10-10

Frederick Douglass is the complete ressurection of the saying, "Knowledge is Power." With the more information he aquired as a slave the more he lusted for freedom. He also provides an excellent example of what black people in this country could do for themselves, interms of their economical status. Looking further, Douglass loved to think and imagine the endless possiblities, while he was still in bondage physically. When he began to read and understand the "Hypocrasy" that this country was based on, using christianity as it main tool, and what every human should be allowed by right, this released his psychological enslavement. If blacks throughout this country could read and understand there were blacks that went through worse situatians and overcame them, and the current situation that destroy the black communities were created for them to fail, just like slavery, many would wake up and take on the mask of Douglass. The mask that says, "regardless of class, race, or creed, this world was created for everyone to enjoy including me."

Required Reading.......2004-08-27

I read this book as part of a summer assignment entering into the 11th grade in addition to "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs. Both are great pieces of African-American historical literature and well worth the read. I couldn't read this book all in one sitting, due to the need to fight the urge to throw up. He detailed descriptions of physical, psycological, and emotional abuse are enough to sicken any one and make you disgusted with the human race.

My heart broke.......2004-06-11

The honesty with which this is written is amazing. I was glued to it from page one. I felt disgusted by the human race, saddened by his traumas and guilty just for being white. I think this needs to be read more. Especially in schools. Why isn't it???

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