Book Description
This liberating guide to pouring transparent watercolor makes this unusual technique achievable and fun. By following clear, encouraging instruction, watercolorists of all levels can experience the instant gratification of success as they learn to capture the elusive qualities of light in their own work.
Nationally renowned artist and workshop instructor Jean H. Grastorf breaks down her innovative pouring process with visual guidance that includes:
-Basic, step-by-step instruction that covers everything from choosing materials to finishing the painting
-Four full-length demonstrations and multiple mini-demos that outline her techniques and show how to build strong light-based compositions
-Detailed, hand-in shots that clearly illustrate how to create clean, transparent color and translucent glazes
-Design summary sidebars that pinpoint how each demonstration succeeds, along with quick-reference tips for the artist
-Paintings from contributing artists that show how to apply this technique to many different styles
Going beyond masking and glazing, Grastorf's masterful instruction empowers artists to tackle the larger challenge of loosening up, so they can push their art to a dynamic new level of luminosity and value.
Customer Reviews:
beautiful work, detailed and tedious methods.......2007-05-18
The book is nicely printed and formatted and contains detailed well illustrated instructions for creating watercolor paintings by a unique method. The method is tedious and requires careful drawing and use of several layers of masking fluid. This is not the traditional approach to watercolor painting but Grastorf achieves excellent results.
Need patience.......2007-04-06
I have painted in watercolor over 20 years. The processes described in this book are valid, however, one must have endless patience to spend the amount of time required to complete a project as directed by this author.
Pouring LIght.......2007-03-21
I was recently introduced to the technique of pouring watercolors to get some fabulous looks. I took a one-day workshop, which is a great way to start. The book is a great way to continue. The author gives her instructions clearly with plenty of pictures of describe what is happening. I've reviewed it a couple of times already and feel better equipped to do my fourth or fifth painting now. I highly recommend this book for use at home.
I recommend this book........2006-07-14
It is helpful, informative, and gives a new way to achieve unusual color patterns. Excellent.
Outstanding Workshop in a Book.......2006-04-19
If you want to grow as an artist and put some new "tools" in your watercolor know-how kit, this is the book for you. If you have never taken a workshop with Jean Grastorf or, even if you have, you owe it to yourself to buy this book and learn or reinforce her exciting and unusual method for achieving beautiful, luminous paintings. If you are expecting the average, ordinary same-old, same-old watercolor how-to book, you will be unexpectedly delighted and surprised with this volume. And when you see her work, so beautifully reproduced in this book, you will understand why Jean uses this technique to create her award-winning paintings.
Jean has done an outstanding job of demonstrating and explaining her method of pouring brilliant, glowing watercolors, and Northlight has done an outstanding job of setting up the book, complete with masking maps and other goodies that tell you exactly how to get from Point A to Point B to achieve the beautiful results possible only with this method. It's a book that every watercolorist should have on their shelf.
Book Description
Using inspiring visual examples, this handbook simplifies the complexities of watercolor painting, so artists of all levels can build their skills and achieve better results.
Presented in an easy-to-reference format that covers everything from materials to marketing, this guide provides artists with simple, direct instruction for: using tonal values to create a better painting; creating attractive pen and watercolor drawings; using glazes to create atmosphere and mood; directing the viewer's eye by controlling focus and edges; painting subjects every artist must master.
Wade includes trouble-shooting tips, self-critique questionnaires and helpful hints artists can quickly absorb and apply. With its unique, interactive approach to teaching, this guide is the next best thing to attending a one-on-one workshop.
Customer Reviews:
Good advice, well organized.......2007-05-03
I was very impressed with this book. The side tabs make it easy to go directly to the section you want. Advice was excellent and well presented.
Extraordinary watercolor, great teacher.......2007-01-03
A beautifully printed hard cover book by an extraordinary watercolor artist. The book is filled with outstanding examples of landscapes, cityscapes from all over the world. In addition to being an inspired World class watercolor artist, Robert Wade is also a great teacher, the book is filled with practical advise and hands on lessons on color mixing, painting people,skies,glazing,location painting and many other subjects.Just to be able to look at his outstanding paintings would easily justify buying this book.
Understanding Watercolor.......2006-11-04
Excellent handbook for the serious watercolorist. Robert Wade has a great approach to some of the more difficult aspects of painting with watercolor. He is brief, to the point, yet his explanations make sense! Enjoyable reading and a great reference tool.
I wish I discovered this earlier!.......2006-08-13
What a wonderful book with terrific instructions and insights. Replaces 20 books in my collection which don't come close to the wisdom this book provides.
My favorite watercolor book.......2006-06-25
I have a library of over 60 watercolor books, and this is by far my favorite. I also own all of Wades's tapes, and his new CD. I find them to be an extension of the book. I took a workshop from a famous watercolor teacher who had us doing wash on top of wash. She must have gotten the idea from Wade as he has a section on just that topic. He covers washes on top of finished paintings that changes the character of the painting completely. A fasinating book that I return to over and over again.
Product Description
This book places Service-Oriented Architecture in the appropriate business context. It ties together IT integration and infrastructure issues with a strategic look at SOA. Any business reader with and interest inenterprise IT will get a better understanding of what it takes to create an SOA that provides the critical business agility that companies require today.
Average customer rating:
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Tupperware: Transparent (Design)
Moniek Bucquoye ,
Vic Cautereels ,
Peter Scholliers ,
Sylvia Katz ,
Frederic Wolters , and
Peter Zec
Manufacturer: Stichting Kunstboek
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 9058561844
Release Date: 2006-09-01 |
Book Description
New edition, finally available! In 1942, driven by natural curiosity and a shortage of industrial materials during the war years, Earl Silas Tupper, an American dreamer and amateur inventor, produced his first injection-molded plastic cup, the Bell Tumbler, which was followed soon after by his stackable plastic Wonderlier Bowl--neither of which found much success in the American marketplace. In 1949, inspired by the lid of a humble paint can, Tupper introduced the Tupper seal, a flexible, "burpable" lid for his bowls. It was that innovation, coupled with Tupper's pragmatic 1950s aesthetic and the extraordinary vision of one Brownie Wise, a 40-year-old housewife (and later the Vice President of the company) who convinced Tupper to distribute his products exclusively through home parties, that made Tupperware one of the most iconic, collectible and beloved industrial products of all time, both in America and overseas. Tupperware: Transparent is the complete catalogue raisonne of 45 years of Tupperware in America and Europe. Featuring more than 900 photographs--from vintage advertisements, to product shots, to candid photographs from early Tupperware parties--it also includes chapters on the history of the company, product design, Tupperware as museum object, the Tupperware Party and more. Perhaps most important of all, this jam-packed, extremely engaging publication actually comes in a custom Tupperware container produced exclusively for the book.
Book Description
With common ingredients and equipment, readers can craft stunning transparent soaps. Step-by-step photographs offer a full exploration of this special technique, ingredients, and the basics for making transparent bars. Includes recipes and tips for creating unique and beautiful soap masterpieces.
Customer Reviews:
Time consuming.......2006-11-03
This book is for crafters who want to make the actual soap base. I prefer to purchase the soap base & craft soaps with different colors & scents & shapes.
not as hard as you think..........2005-02-08
I always wanted to know how to make my own soap. At first I thought this is gona be the hardest thing. when in reality it's the easiest. This book takes you through a step by step process. and in the end you will end up having the most beautiful looking soap. so nice you'll be tempted to sell it.
Please Use Extreme Caution.......2002-05-08
I bought this book for myself. I read it over several times and became very familiar with the process before attempting anything. The book is extremely informative and well-written. Very easy to understand. The description of ingredients and the purpose of each one was very useful. Beautiful pictures. Nice sections on coloring, fragrancing & moulding. Great info. on where ingredients can be purchased. However, even though I followed the directions for the alcohol/lye method to the letter, I still had a disastrous first experience. My mixture, simmering on lowest possible heat, boiled up and oozed out the sides, despite the tightly cinched bungee holding the sheets of plastic in place. My inner pot ended up floating on boiling soap foam. I managed to save the remainder that was left in the pot and finished the simmering proccess directly on the burner (after cleaning the outside of the pot thoroughly). I estimated the amount of sugar/water solution and glycerin to add to it. Although I can't vouch for the amounts of any of the ingredients at this point, the stuff that I did save managed to come out very well. Looks pretty, smells great and lathers beautifully. I'm just lucky my stove top didn't burst into flames considering the flamable alcohol that oozed over the sides of the pot. I believe next time I try this (soon) I will ajust the method to what I consider safe and hope that it works well. If you plan on making this soap, please be sure to have an extinguisher close by. I'm not sure why I had such a horrible time with this method, but I'd hate for it to be worse for anyone else.
great gift idea.......2002-01-14
I recieved this book for a Christmas present from my brother-in-law. He knows I enjoy 'crafting' as he calls it. I personally wouldn't have thought of making soaps as my next crafting project, but now that I've read this book I'm slowing compiling all the items I need(I'm on a tight budget currently), I can't wait until I can start making my very own soaps. I've thanked my brother-in-law several times for his wonderful present, even though my husband is cringing at the thought of havnig piles of soap curing in our small apt. Everything is explained so well, I'm sure if my husband wanted to he could even make soaps too. This year everyone I know will be getting soap that I made, thanks to this book.
I love this book!.......2002-01-13
I have made wonderful soap using the recipes from this book. I used the alcohol/lye method, rather than the gel method. It was easier than I expected. The soap lathers well, is gentle and smells great.
Book Description
When Cris Beam first moved to Los Angeles, she thought she might put in just a few hours volunteering at a school for transgender kids while she got settled. Instead she found herself drawn deeply into the pained and powerful group of transgirls she discovered. In Transparent she introduces four of them—Christina, Domineque, Foxxjazell, and Ariel—and shows us their world, a dizzying mix of familiar teenage cliques and crushes with far less familiar challenges like how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. Funny, heartbreaking, defiant, and sometimes defeated, the girls form a singular community. But they struggle valiantly to resolve the gap between the way they feel inside and the way the world sees them—a struggle we can all identify with.
Beam’s careful reporting, sensitive writing, and intimate relationship with her characters place Transparent in the ranks of the best narrative nonfiction.
Customer Reviews:
Transgender Teens.......2007-05-21
The subject of transgender teenagers may make some uncomfortable, but this book will help any family going through this situation.
Can't wait for the movie!.......2007-03-27
TS lit has been largely dreary, solipsistic and poorly-written over the years. Jennifer Finney Boyan's bestselling She's Not There, building on her pre-exisiting literary skills, rectified matters considerably.
Now, here's something even better - a TS tale told by a feminist woman, and told with the narrative power of a secure and sagacious novelist. Smart, sure, but dramatic, too. And the story is an original one.
Not a false step anywhere. Fascinating, vivid, human as all-get-out, intense. And the ending - wow! - like, I was reduced to happy tears. Transparent, meriting repeated readings, would sure make a marvelous movie.
Impressive! It will be interesting to see where Beam goes next.
A Compassionate Narrative Seeking Understanding.......2007-02-21
This book deals primarily with transgendered teens, a subject which may make many people uncomfortable. Cris Beam does, however, humanize the entire phenomenon as she tells the story of four teenagers who are intimately involved in the transition from one gender to the opposite. I suggest it is a particularly valuable book for any family who is facing this type of situation as well as any reader who is interested in the "why's" and "wherefores" of transgenderism. This phenomenon is not unknown to history nor to anthropology. It is, in other words, not a uniquely contemporary or American phenomenon; nor is it the result of the so-called "sexual revolution" of the 1960s. It was not unknown in ancient Greek and Roman times and it has been uncovered in studies of other cultures ranging from the Mojave Indians to the natives of Tahiti.
Whether or not the transgendered phenomenon is biologically based or psychologically determined, a matter of nature or nurture, or a matter of genetic influences or environmental construction remains, at least in my considered opinion, unknown. I think much of the present controversy over transgenderism is misguided since no definitive and empirically validated evidence exists as to its genesis. To her credit, the author refrains from attempting to explain or justify or rationalize the question. Beam spends the bulk of her time simply describing what these teenagers are experiencing. That, at this point in the discussion at least, is about as much as anyone can do. And one can't help but sympathize with what these teens are going through even if one doesn't exactly relate to the circumstances they face.
Can there really be such a thing as a woman's psychological being within a man's physical body? Can nature be so cruel as to give one male genitals but a female psychology? Can a child really "think" that his or her physical gender is a mistake and he or she ought to be of the opposite gender even in spite of physical evidence to the contrary? I have no idea and Beam, in my opinion, doesn't make a solid case regarding any of this. On the other hand, I don't know how to refute someone who says, "I feel like I'm really a female imprisoned in a man's body." Such a mental state is a subjective experience and one which no "outsider" can truly share. Contrary to the assertion of a former U.S. president, I cannot feel your pain. Your pain is yours and yours alone. I may be able to vicariously identify with it to the extent that I've had a similar pain but, no, I cannot feel your pain. Similarly, I cannot say that your thinking that you're a woman (or man) trapped in the wrong physical body is untrue, or disingenuous, or a matter of your "arbitrary choice."
There is a point upon which I must disagree with Beam if I understand her correctly: Genitalia are irrelevant to determining a person's sex. This is flatly false. Except in the rare cases where a child may be born with both male and female genitalia, the sex of a child is wholly determined by the presence of either male or female sex organs. However, it could be argued, I think, that "gender" is another matter. Sex organs determine male and female from a strictly physiological perspective but, I think it can reasonably be argued, "gender" describes masculinity and femininity or a degree thereof. Masculinity and femininity tend to be "psychological" or "mental" states and do not necessitate a physical dimension. Thus, one could be transgendered without being a transsexual, I would propose. If this has any efficacy, then the difference between one's "sex" and one's "gender" might be better explained and elucidated.
(As a sidebar to the above, it is interesting to note that while most languages seem to allow for only two "sexes," many languages have words categorized into three or four "genders." English is one of the latter and nouns can be designated as masculine, feminine, neutral, or common.)
The main difficulty I had with the book, although Beam's prose is fluid and easily read, is with the pronouns "he" and "she" which are ascribed to the transgendering subjects at various stages of their development and can confuse the reader as to who or what is being addressed at any specific time. Our language is obviously deficient when it comes to describing a phenomenon such as this and one can get confused as to the gender of the subject being discussed. Sometimes one of the teens insists on being addressed as "she," only to revert to his original physical gender and be addressed as "he." Sorting it all out and keeping the narrative consistent can be somewhat difficult.
Nevertheless, regardless of one's personal opinion or attitude toward transgendered teens (or adults, for that matter), there is a story here to be told and Beam does a fine job of telling it. Besides the personal narratives provided, Beam includes some valuable information about transgenderism from both the psychological and medical perspectives. She also includes some important resources at the end of the book, as well as an informative bibliography.
While I cannot pretend to fully understand why anyone, especially a young teenage boy, wants to become a member of the opposite sex or feels the desire to do so, the fact remains that such is the reality regarding some young members of our society and culture. It would seem worthy of us as human beings, therefore, to put aside any qualms about this matter and attempt to try to understand it without resorting -- which is all too common the case -- to moralizing about it or passing premature judgments on it. These young people, as Beam describes them in her book, are facing struggles and challenges of a sometimes horrendous nature and at least deserve a hearing and our empathy as fellow human beings. Furthermore, Beam is to be commended for her compassionate approach to this difficult subject.
Low on logic, high on compassion.......2007-01-25
The topic of this book, transgendered teeenagers, isn't exactly what you'd call mainstream. Neither is the perspective of the author. This book, for most readers, is an opportunity to glimpse into an alien world. The fact it's alien doesn't make it evil, and getting that fact across to people may a purpose Ms. Beam had in writing this book. I think that's a good purpose. The more people can accept each other rather than dehumanize each other, the better.
Unfortunately, this book has some problems in logic and word choices. These detract from the book, so coverage of them has to be part of any review worth reading.
Problems
The author's arguments and word choices frequently assume the point they're trying to prove. Many of Ms. Beam's conclusions are supported only with nonsequitors or cherry-picked facts. This approach is so ubiquitous these days that we can call it normal. But it invariably is a disservice to those who use it and to those upon whom it is used.
Like many contemporary authors, Ms. Beam supplies facts that support her personal views, and ignores those that don't. For example, from her observations of some (but not all) organs, she concludes, "...the brain and the heart are the only organs with a gender."
However, left and right male eyes are the same size while the eye sockets and eyes of females are differently sized (the eye is an organ). And as male rib cages and pelvises are different shapes from female ones, does it not follow that the organs that occupy those areas are differently shaped as well? Or are we to believe the visceral cavity has lots of unused space, and those pelvises and rib cages are differently shaped for no reason and to no effect? The true conclusion, then, is that most (and maybe all) human organs have a gender.
A key assertion in this book is that genitalia are irrelevant to determining a person's sex. Ms. Beam cherry-picks some facts to back this assertion, but the assertion fails when just a few salient facts are no longer excluded from the analysis. When there's an elephant in the room, does the flea really matter? Courts, historians, and others follow a principle called "preponderance of the evidence." Pretending the exception is the rule doesn't make a supposition true.
Using Ms. Beam's methods of analysis, I could "prove" that fish don't really swim in water because I can name several supermarkets in which fish are wrapped in paper or lying on ice and not swimming in water. I can then claim that people who refuse to accept this conclusion are "intolerant."
Ms. Beam correctly points out that our language, with its binary pronoun system (male or female), doesn't allow for the "between" people. Our pronouns force us to choose between male and female. We don't have many gender-neutral pronouns, which is why many people use the plural "they" in place of "he" or "she." Calling someone an "it" just doesn't go over very well.
However, this doesn't create a license for hijacking existing pronouns to restate opinion (or, as I see it, delusion) as fact. Stating it as fact does not make it fact, and wishing does not make it so.
Just because a man "feels like a woman" doesn't mean he is a woman. Just because a man wants to be called a woman doesn't mean others should call him one. If I insist that other people call me "Mr. President," should they feel compelled to do so? If I went around doing this (or insisting I'm Elvis), how long would be be before I'm locked up in the loony bin? Yet when transgendered people insist on something that is contrary to the physical evidence we can see with our own eyes, it's "discrimination" not to play along?
If I'm really the President or really Elvis, then I need to offer you more proof than "I've known it since I was two years old." This line of discussion reminds me of the movie "Bubba Ho-Tep." In that movie, a black (in PC, "African American") resident of a nursing home kept insisting he was John F. Kennedy, having survived the 1963 assassination attempt. Of course, we know Kennedy wasn't a black man. But that doesn't sway this character from his belief that he's Kennedy.
Ms. Beam contends there's a gray area in gender determination, and she presents facts that support this premise. But then she goes on to paint that entire gray area a color of her own choosing. When others do this, it's "discrimination."
She says that post-mortems on male transexuals (transexed to women) show brain development that is female rather than male. So, which came first--the chicken or the egg? The human brain is very, very elastic and it rewires itself according to how it's used. It is possible, or even likely, those brains responded to the desire to be female (and the subsequent acting out), rather than the other way around.
The book is full of this kind of Alice in Wonderland thinking and supposition. But then, so is much of what constitutes mainstream opinion on all kinds of issues. The challenge to the reader is to look past the logic-defying constructions of this book and find the gems that are in it.
Subjects
One point on which I agree with the author is that people deserve dignity and basic respect. No matter how kooky they seem to be, they are still people. They still feel pain, and they still feel love. It's better to give the latter than the former.
The subjects of this book are real people. And, real people are fallible. Some, more than others. As I read the various accounts of how this or that kid behaved, I kept thinking, "This person has no grip on reality." The very way these people led their lives calls into question their ability to determine that their "real" sex differs from what their genitalia indicate.
I'm not saying a person can't be born with the wrong gender. And as the author has offered no valid proof of that claim, I'm not going to refute it. I'm just saying that we can't trust people who exhibit horrendously poor judgment in all other matters to use that same flawed judgment to correctly determine that their bodies have the "wrong" sexual organs. There may be proof--but it can't be the product of a malfunctioning mind.
The author does point out that the subjects of this book aren't "typical" transgendered people (if there are such people). They are kids from deeply troubled homes. They are ill-equipped to face the world, yet have had to face it without adult guidance and support. These kids grew up to be semi-literate, inarticulate adults who lack the basic skills to integrate into society. That has nothing to do with their perceived core issue of gender.
It is fairly apparent that that the particular kids in this book use the gender issue as a coping mechanism, rather than trying to deal with the real issues. They are so poorly equipped to deal with reality, that they don't even try. From their viewpoint, their problems exist because of other people. *They* discriminate, *they* don't understand, *they* hate me, etc. This theme plays over and over again.
If these kids hadn't latched on to this gender issue, some other issue would have arisen in its place. That is, they would used some other means of transferring responsibility to others. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it due to the behavioral patterns and dialogue in the book. And the book doesn't present evidence to the contrary.
It's self-defeating to spend so much personal energy on something you can't really change, while not spending energy on the things that have positive value and/or are just fundamentals that need to be done. The opportunity costs are very real for these kids, and they have misspent what little was at their disposal.
The author presents no evidence these kids have the wrong genitals (and eye sockets, hip structure, feet, hands, etc.). The author presents plenty of evidence these kids have horrendously poor judgment and pathologically distorted worldviews. But we're supposed to accept the notion that these kids have the ability to make a gender determination that contradicts plain physical evidence.
Engaging in enabling behavior--feeding the product of a person's obviously impaired judgment--doesn't empower that person to tackle real issues. It leaves that person dependent. But let's take care not to knock Ms. Beam for that, as it appears to have been the only viable approach under the circumstances.
People who sought to dismantle or ignore the constructs (defenses) of these kids drove them away. Ms. Beam, who isn't a trained social worker, reached these kids by going to where they are. She grasped a fundamental that the trained "professionals" seem unable to grasp: You have to meet people on their own turf and in their own reality.
Ms. Beam tried to get help for these kids and, for her efforts, got about zero. And so, this untrained person reached out with the one thing she had that government agencies are noted for not having: compassion.
Though she and her mate were themselves struggling on limited resources, they filled a void that nobody else would. They took in, sheltered, fed, and cared for difficult teenagers who had nowhere else to turn but the mean streets. Would you take in a boy who insists he's a girl? And has a drug problem? Who, rather than expressing gratitude, expresses anger and resentment? And seems to exhibit no desire to help himself? It takes an exceptional person to do this.
If you read this book for no other reason, read it to be inspired by the heart of the author. I don't agree with her viewpoints, but I wish we had more people like her in the world.
The book
This book is an engaging read. Ms. Beam is a good writer (even with a lack of adequate pronouns at her disposal). She skillfully relates the dramatic and unusual stories of her subjects. In so doing, she make this book, at times, a real page turner.
On a deeper level, the book can be a mind-opener. You may be surprised to find that the school teacher you like is a lesbian or your neighbor has a transgender kid you've never met.
These exceptions to what most of us consider "normal" are often made to feel they are somehow "lesser" human beings. Meanwhile, nobody makes an issue of the emotionally distant parent or other, more destructive behaviors. People will vote to re-elect the Congressman whose irresponsible "reward the lobbyists" spending robs them blind, but they won't give a gay or transgendered kid a vote of confidence.
I don't have an opinion on the "choice vs. birth" issue. It's not something I think about. It doesn't matter to me why a person is gay. Or if a person is gay. Or transgendered, or short, or whatever. What bothers me is when people on either side make it an issue.
Ms. Beam is obviously issuing a call for acceptance. On this point, the book delivers. But she also calls for the reader to accept a person's opinion contrary to physical evidence, no matter how blatantly that person exhibits poor judgment. This is asking a bit much.
People don't have to agree on everything as a condition of extending respect. I hope many people will read this book and respect the author whether they agree with her views. Or, as with me, do not.
I don't think this book does a good job of presenting/arguing the transexual/transgender viewpoint. But it does an excellent job of showing that no matter how different people are, they are still people. In our modern era of incivility, that kind of message seems increasingly rare. Kudos to Ms. Beam for bringing it to us. She did this not only in her words, but in her deeds. The story, while a bit alien, should motivate us all to do more for others who coexist with us on this planet.
Sharing your heart.......2007-01-24
In Beam's stunning exposure of the nearly invisible sub-culture of transgender people living on the streets of Los Angeles she addresses issues of societal values and law, of public safety and public ignorance, of kids living on outside of the safety net, race relations, gangs and a seemingly endless variety of issues that act harshly on this particular group of young people. She tells us that their gender identity challenges not just the straight community that makes up the majority of the country, but also the homosexual and transvestite community with whom they are so often grouped. Amazingly, she does this in an unapologetically blurred role of reporter and actor in the dramas of the lives of the characters she studies.
Reading the book, you cannot but love Cris and the kids who so honestly reveal themselves to her and through, her, to you. The pressure on growing up trans must be nearly unbearable, but because this young people have such clarity in their own crossed-gender identities they are have almost no choice but to fight with the perceptions and expectations of the people around them in order simply to be honest with and to themselves. There is no "giving up" and more than you or I could give up our gender identity under pressure and cross over as the man or woman we are not. In the end each of the actors of Cris' book is heroic, even if they end up incarcerated for real crimes.
In her public readings from Transparent, Cris has traveled with some of the transgender kids who appear in the book. These people want more than anything to be seen and accepted. They also continue in their transference attachment to Cris as their trans-parent or to almost any adult figure who can show them love and accept them as normal.
Sadly, after opening a window to an otherwise invisible world, Cris Beam leaves us with so many more questions. What happens to these kids when they reach adulthood? How many people are out there who suffer quietly as closet transsexuals? Do any of them develop long lasting 'marital' relationships?
Obviously, the most important questions are those that we the reader ask of ourselves, about our gender identity, and about our ability to serve transgender youth with the compassion they so truly deserve. Would that we all could be as heroic as Cris Beam.
Average customer rating:
- May be more than you bargained for...which could be good or bad
- A 1970's Japanese junky "family"
- Disturbing and beautiful!
- "But maybe we'd feel something after all..."
- Incredible!!!
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Almost Transparent Blue
Ryu Murakami
Manufacturer: Kodansha International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 4770029047 |
Book Description
Almost Transparent Blue is a brutal tale of lost youth in a Japanese port town close to an American military base. Murakami?s image-intensive narrative paints a portrait of a group of friends locked in a destructive cycle of sex, drugs and rock?n?roll. The novel is all but plotless, but the
raw and often violent prose takes us on a rollercoaster ride through reality and hallucination, highs and lows, in which the characters and their experiences come vividly to life. Trapped in passivity, they gain neither passion nor pleasure from their adventures. Yet out of the alienation, boredom
and underlying rage and grief emerges a strangely quiet and almost equally shocking beauty. Ryu Murakami?s first novel, Almost Transparent Blue won the coveted Akutagawa literary prize and became an instant bestseller. Representing a sharp and conscious turning away from the introspective trend of
postwar Japanese literature, it polarized critics and public alike and soon attracted international attention as an alternative view of modern Japan.
Customer Reviews:
May be more than you bargained for...which could be good or bad.......2007-01-08
Porn-like with bloody needles and every forty pages or so a pause for an "epiphany". Not the "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" epiphanies, which intimated the real thing as well as words can be expectd to, but the feeling of drug hazes, a chance to rest from the intensity of the main story and perhaps make it all seem of socially redeeming value. But does transcendence have socially redeeming value any more than drug and sex escapisms do? May depend on what you make of silver negligees. Almost no one here seems to have a job except for the cops and the serviceman but the former might be better occupied with real criminals and the latter are off-duty. It may be that only the nurses, as always, do necessary work. The character Ryu and his friends seem also in need of psychologists but there is no context in the book of how the characters became this way or of how they may find help before self-destructing.
Forceful writing, for sure. Seemed somewhat choppy but that may have helped move it along quickly.
"Almost Transparent Blue" is not at the level of Burroughs either in style or at all for the issues raised. It's probably asking way too much to expect that. Burroughs "Naked Lunch" and his trilogy "The Cities of the Red Night", "The Place of Dead Roads" and "The Western Lands" have plenty of sex and drugs, if that is what you are after, but with broad contexts and much deeper explorations of how it connects to all of us. No one may have understood and expressed the role of addictions in social control the way Burroughs did. But it seems unfair to compare Murakami with Burroughs based on just this first and short novel of Murakami, so you may want to read later and longer works (e.g. "Coin Locker Babies" and "In the Miso Soup")
It's hard to tell when reading "Almost Transparent Blue" whether one should feel sad or manipulated. I wasn't comfortable with Ryu the character or Ryu the author. Maybe comfort isn't the point. Maybe Murakami is effectively raising social concerns and without glossing over the creepiness of what can happen.
For a less shocking, probably more compassionate and more fully developed presentation of youths lost amidst drugs and sex that don't go off the deep end as Murakami (and Burroughs) may seem to do, I suggest Frank Daniels "futureproof", which still lingers with me constructively a year after I read it.
P.S. Murkami directed a 1980 Japanese movie derived from this novel but apparently tamer. It was nominated for a best sound award by the Japanese Academy. I'll leave it to our imaginations what the well-done sounds were.
A 1970's Japanese junky "family" .......2005-04-08
John Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flat." Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" William S. Burroughs's "Junky." The semi-autobiographical novel of disaffected youth and their abusive love-affairs with drink, drugs and sex is certainly not without literary precedence. Over the years, it has become a genre, one which shocks people with its honestly, and lures with its romanticism of the life of a fringe wastrel, who looks no further than the next drink or fix, living life in pursuit of pleasure.
Joining their ranks is "Almost Transparent Blue," the debut novel by Japanese virtuoso Ryu Murakami. This first novel, written while still in collage, won the prestigious Akutagawa award and skyrocketed Murakami to fame and financial independence. Telling the semi-connected tales of young junkies Ryu, Kazuo, Yoshiyama, Moko, Reiko, and Kei, the book is a decent into the underbelly of 1970's Japan, fresh with Jimmy Hendrix music, exotic black men from the local military base, and the numbness of emotion that comes from living in a drug-haze.
Like his predecessors, Murakami has detailed the life of the Bohemian as an attractive and repulsive existence. Attractive, due to the seductiveness of a life lived for base pleasure, animalistic sex and a constant supply of drugs. Repulsive, in the vomit and blood and pain that of necessity accompanies such a lifestyle. You wonder which characters will escape, which ones will die, and how much of this did Murakami experience first hand. He never makes it quite clear, naming the lead character "Ryu" after himself, and leaving the reality of the elusive "Lily" up in the air with the last paragraph.
Very much a product of its time, both the music and the stereotypical "otherness" of the black people are striking time stamps. Unfortunately, the translation is dated too. With Japanese literature, you can always tell how old a translation is by how the translate tofu. Here, it is called "bean curd," since tofu had not entered the standard English language yet. Also, some strange choices were made by the translator, such as changing Kei's Osaka dialect into an American Southern accent.
However, flaws aside, "Almost Transparent Blue" is a powerful milestone in Japanese literature, and a good book as well. A short, quick read, it will linger long after the last page is read.
Disturbing and beautiful!.......2005-02-04
This book won the Akutagawa Award, changed modern japanese literature, and is a favorite of japanese college students. The only american novel I can equate with this one is Requiem for a Dream. Except it's even more hardcore! I remember reading this on a train and having to stop myself and breathe, no exaggeration, it was that intense! The writing here isn't prose, but poetry. Murakami puts graphic (even brutal) scenes of sex and drug use next to scenes of quiet reflection (watching rain, childhood memories) to create a sense of hopelessness and desperation. However, taken in the proper context, this book will leave you uplifted rather than depressed. One of my favorites!
"But maybe we'd feel something after all...".......2004-10-29
It's 1976, and a group of Japanese teenagers living near an American airforce base indulge their appetites for drugs, alcohol and bi-curious group sex. Like most sensual quests for liberation and vision, these only lead to the annihilation of consciousness and a confusing desire to escape back into bourgeois life. Getting high is one thing. Connecting with reality is something else. In 126 pages of orgiastic indulgence, drug-induced catatonia and suicide attempts, there are three moments of transcendence in which Murakami's case is made: the memory of a beautiful piece of music; the experience of almost being killed by an aircraft taking off; and the narrator's climactic desire to communicate a personal vision of the world, himself and their possible unity. Murakami's call for connection and creativity in the face of mortality and post-war nihilism is a familiar one in twentieth-century literature, but the way he goes about it is refreshing. Firmly realist in his approach, Murakami stays on the surface. Sticking with the physical details he refuses to burrow into the minds of most of these youths where he might have interpreted or psychoanalyzed their inner lives for us. Ironically, this works. Their own halting attempts at self-expression are so much more poignant, and so much more credible for being vague and incomplete. If the bulk of this narrative strikes you as tedious, pointless, repetitive and occasionally appalling, then Murakami has succeeded in capturing the reality of a life devoted to escapism. It's only in such a context that the moments of incipient self-awareness and transcendence can have such a powerful resonance for these characters, and for the reader.
Incredible!!!.......2004-09-23
In all honesty, I stumbles uon Ryu Murakami's work by accident. The cover of Coin Locker Babies looked cool, so I read it. Ever since, I've been in love with Murakami's work. This novel is no exception. He has this gift of being able to describe a setting in so few words, yet he invokes so much emotion and provides the reader with a clear visual. I recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of incredible writing.
Amazon.com
David Brin takes some of our worst notions about threats to privacy and sets them on their ears. According to Brin, there is no turning back the growth of public observation and inevitable loss of privacy--at least outside of our own homes. Too many of our transactions are already monitored: Brin asserts that cameras used to observe and reduce crime in public areas have been successful and are on the rise. There's even talk of bringing in microphones to augment the cameras. Brin has no doubt that it's only a matter of time before they're installed in numbers to cover every urban area in every developed nation.
While this has the makings for an Orwellian nightmare, Brin argues that we can choose to make the same scenario a setting for even greater freedom. The determining factor is whether the power of observation and surveillance is held only by the police and the powerful or is shared by us all. In the latter case, Brin argues that people will have nothing to fear from the watchers because everyone will be watching each other. The cameras would become a public resource to assure that no mugger is hiding around the corner, our children are playing safely in the park, and police will not abuse their power.
No simplistic Utopian, Brin also acknowledges the many dangers on the way. He discusses how open access to information can either threaten or enhance freedom. It is one thing, for example, to make the entire outdoors public and another thing to allow the cameras and microphones to snoop into our homes. He therefore spends a lot of pages examining what steps are required to assure that a transparent society evolves in a manner that enhances rather than restricts freedom. This is a challenging view of tomorrow and an exhilarating read for those who don't mind challenges to even the most well-entrenched cultural assumptions. --Elizabeth Lewis
Book Description
A respected futurist advances an argument sure to cause debate-in a wired world, the best way to preserve our freedom will be to give up our privacy
In The Transparent Society, award-winning author David Brin details the startling argument that privacy, far from being a right, hampers the real foundation of a civil society: accountability. Using examples as disparate as security cameras in Scotland and Gay Pride events in Tucson, Brin shows that openness is far more liberating than secrecy and advocates for a society in which everyone (not just the government and not just the rich) could look over everyone else's shoulders. The biggest threat to our society, he warns, is that surveillance technology will be used by too few people not by too many.
Customer Reviews:
Do not be fooled.......2007-06-30
This author steeps his product with an endorsement of our loss of rights, privacy, and freedom. Read 'No Pleace to Hide' by Robert O'Harrow, Jr. if you want substance and details. O'Harrow's work gets a good review from William Safire.
Important perspective on the threat to privacy posed by our technology.......2007-05-17
The cameras are coming. The question is what we are going to do about it.
I bought this book because I had read some of Brin's science fiction and I was intrigued by the idea of a science fiction author taking a serious look at how our society might deal with the threat to privacy posed by coming technology. Brin demonstrates his knowledge of technological issues (videocameras, cryptography, copyright, etc.), but it was his sensitivity to social issues that impressed me.
This book really stimulated my interest in the relationship between privacy and freedom. Before reading "The Transparent Society" I had a simplistic sense that privacy was something we needed to preserve as much as possible in the face of whatever technology may come. Like many people, I've grown uncomfortable with the prevalence of surveillance as we go about our lives. I wouldn't say this book has led me to welcome the sacrifices we need to make regarding privacy--it just made me realize that we may not be able to go back to some mythical time when everybody was left alone. To use Isaiah Berlin's distinction, we may need to think more in terms of positive liberty (things we have the power to do) rather than simply negative liberty (restrictions on our actions). We need to be smart about how we navigate these waters. Brin adopts an intelligent position I have not seen put forth by anyone else. Instead of arguing that we need to shut down the flow of information gained through surveillance, Brin says we need to open up the flow of information to make it available to more people.
Brin asks which of the following two societies you would rather live in: A world where video camera surveillance is ubiquitous and all of the information is overseen by a secret elite who have the power to monitor the actions of anybody they choose. Or a "participatory panopticon" (not Brin's phrase) where everybody can watch everybody else, including regular people being able to watch the watchers? For Brin these are the two options. After all, the cameras are coming. When everybody can easily record every second of their lives, and surveillance cameras are ubiquitous (to say nothing of gnat-sized cameras), we will need to rethink what levels of privacy we are willing to accept. Right now, it seems we may be, to use Charlie Stross's phrase, "sleepwalking into a police state". It could be that what we need is not less surveillance but more "sousveillance" (watching the powerful from below).
Brin says we must answer the following questions:
"Can we stand living exposed to scrutiny, our secrets laid open if in return we get flashlights of our own that we can shine on anyone who might do us harm--even the arrogant and the strong?"
"Or is an illusion of privacy worth any price, even the cost of surrendering our own right to pierce the schemes of the powerful?"
For what it's worth, though, I can't help but think that Brin is too sanguine about opening up so much personal information from our daily lives. It is scary to think of the way things could go. Jeffrey Rosen in The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age has a critique of Brin along these lines. Rosen also disputes Brin's claim that crime dropped precipitously in areas where surveillance cameras were installed.
Whatever happens, it is clear that sousveillance is something that should be pursued; we need to know more about how information about us is being used by the government, and, more importantly, by corporations. This is a position Brin advocates, and it is one in which I am agreement.
Good book a little outdated now.......2007-03-22
Reveals how transparent society is. Most of it we dont realize but is already in place.
Puts NSA Wiretapping in Context.......2006-07-08
It is helpful to return to this book, from 1998, and to a follow on book, "the digital person" published in 2004, as context for the recent bru-ha-ha over NSA wiretapping without a warrant, and the loss to theft of tens of thousands of social security number and other personal information of veterans. Oh yes, somewhere in there, the FBI was hacked and companies like First Data are making fortunes compiling actionable profiles of individuals from disparate sources that were never approved for sharing.
This book focuses on the value of transparency and considers the key issue to be the war between secrecy versus accountability. The author directly confronts the issue of "who controls" information about YOU.
The author draws a useful comparison between the Internet, which sacrificed security for robust sharing, and the intelligence community, which chose security over sharing as its primordal principal.
The author observes that the Internet is having one undesireable effect, that of fragmenting communities that become less amenable to compromise and consensus. He points out that reality and locationally based discussion can lead to more effective consensus and compromise.
There is a useful discussion of "tagging" and how citizen truth squads and public commentary can serve as a useful antidote to corporate messages. The idea of "culture jamming" is picked up and treated at length by another excellent book, "NO LOGO."
Overall this book remains a standard in providing a detailed revoew of the issues and the capabilities surrounding digitial information about individuals. It is the author's view that WHO controls information, rather than WHO is elected, will determine the future of democracy.
In passing the author makes two points that I find important:
1) A liberal education, rather than the current trends toward immediate specialization, is essential if the public is to be able to think critically.
2) Law enforcement under the current government model, does not work. The author gives the example of 100 felonies, of which only 33 are reported. Of the 33, 6 are caught, 3 are convicted, and 1 goes to prison.
The author ends with a reference to genius savant John Perry Barlow, one of America's more notable commentators, and suggests that we are entering an era of individual collective intelligence against organized government intelligence (and secrecy).
I recommend this book be read together with "the digital person" because the latter book focuses on the degree to which government and corporate mistakes--"careless unconcerned bureaucratic processes" can undermine privacy and good order.
I have been giving this book to my friends.......2006-03-25
This is a "Must Read" for anyone who treasures an open society. The technology is here, and the cost of implementing it is dropping exponentially. The debate about who controls it should begin. This book addresses the question of "Who will watch the watchers" with a level of thoroughness and imagination unavailable anywhere else.
Debating the degrees of freedom to be lost in exchange for security is a massive waste of time. Brin shows a practical way to have both much greater security, and increased freedom, through transparency.
Average customer rating:
- A Novella That Nobody Understands (?)
- "Is All We See Or Seem, But A Dream Within A Dream?"
- "The mysterious mental maneuver needed to pass from one state of being to another."
- THE RIDDLE OF BEING
- powerful and full of texture, yet deliciously brief
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Transparent Things
Vladimir Nabokov
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Nabokov, Vladimir
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ASIN: 0679725415
Release Date: 1989-10-23 |
Book Description
"Transparent Things revolves around the four visits of the hero--sullen, gawky Hugh Person--to Switzerland . . . As a young publisher, Hugh is sent to interview R., falls in love with Armande on the way, wrests her, after multiple humiliations, from a grinning Scandinavian and returns to NY with his bride. . . . Eight years later--following a murder, a period of madness and a brief imprisonment--Hugh makes a lone sentimental journey to wheedle out his past. . . . The several strands of dream, memory, and time [are] set off against the literary theorizing of R. and, more centrally, against the world of observable objects." --Martin Amis
Customer Reviews:
A Novella That Nobody Understands (?).......2007-09-16
I read that book and was a bit baffled.
After reading the book, it was clear to me that one would need some help in trying to sort out exactly what the book means. Many other people such as John Updike have been baffled by the book. According to professional analysis found elsewhere, Transparent Things was first published in December 1971 in Esquire. And, from what Nabokov said, he finished the slim novella on April fool's day, of that same year. Is that the first tip? Is this book a bit of a sophisticated joke?
Most people have a hard time understanding what it means, and it takes at least two reads to get any sort of an understanding. Nabokov himself was amused by the critics and probably would continue to be amused today if he was still alive, and he said: "Amongst the reviewers several careful readers have published some beautiful stuff about it. Yet neither they nor, of course, the common criticule discerned the structural knot of the story."
And his biographer is quoted:
Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd's analysis attempts to untie that "knot" with a more specific elucidation: "Within the small compass of Transparent Things and the bleak life of Hugh Person, Nabokov ruptures the relationship of reader, character, and author more radically than he has ever done, in order to explore some of his oldest themes: the nature of time; the mystery and privacy of the human soul, and its simultaneous need to breach its solitude; the scope of consciousness beyond death; the possibility of design in the universe."
So where does that leave us average reader? What are we to make of it all? What is Nabokov's "knot." Without giving away the story, I can only guess but it is a "dream like" narrative of a man who is delusional and later near the end he is in a schizophrenic state? But as noted by others, it is not the protagonist himself who narrates the tale in a wild fashion, but a third party who is (presumably) lucid.
Correct me if I am wrong, and I am happy to discuss the book with anyone; but, was Person not in some sort of delusional state at the end? And, how does his described actions show us a window on our soul, or even blur the boundary between life and death? Or is there a whimsical element here? Or is to make us think, or again is it just literary art?
Many call the book a masterpiece. I think it is a very imaginative and hard to fathom piece of literature. It is literature as art, or art-for-art's sake. Nabokov has removed all the boundaries on his writing, mixing time and events. So, understand it or not, it is an interesting read.
"Is All We See Or Seem, But A Dream Within A Dream?".......2007-01-22
Nothing that Nabokov writes is "transparent." He always is referencing at least two things if not a whole plethora of images and metaphors at once with each line. In this novel, a late one, Nabokov has developed his inimical and sublime writing style. His sentences are virtual perfection. His illustrations are so real and yet so imaginary.
In addition, the story line is very complex. The protagonist is traveling through Europe in a repetition of a trip long gone by. Many things do not come about as he would want them. Each time, for Nabokov's own particular reasons. Sexuality and the lack there of is tantamount to the story. Yet what makes the telling so particularly `Nabokov' is the manner in which he switches from temporal event to temporal event without necessarily giving any indication to the reader that we have come "unstuck in time."
While the book is a rather short 104 pages, the complexity that is built into the story will hold all serious readers of literature in rapt attention. The story moves quickly and it is necessary for the reader to slow down the pace of the reading to make sure that the implications are properly conveyed and absorbed. It truly is a highly recommended example of Nabokov's true literary genius.
"The mysterious mental maneuver needed to pass from one state of being to another.".......2005-10-02
In Vladimir Nabokov's novella "Transparent Things" middle-aged Hugh Person speculates that if the future already existed as a concrete reality, then perhaps we would not dwell on the past. Instead, he reasons, future and past could balance each other like a "seesaw." If one wishes to remain "at the exact level of the moment" Person argues, then it's advisable not to concentrate too much on material objects as we risk "sinking into the history of that object." Person explains that "immediate reality" is but a "thin veneer" over the past, and it's much better not to test "the tension film" of this reality.
When the novella begins, Person returns to Switzerland for his fourth trip. Person made his first trip to Switzerland with his father 18 years earlier. Ten years later, as a copy editor for a publishing firm, he made the second trip. His task was to provoke a particularly difficult author into producing a long awaited novel. On this second trip, he met his future wife, Armande--a "dry-souled, essentially unhappy" but kinky woman.
In spite of Person's admonition not to dwell on the past, his arrival in Switzerland evokes powerful memories. Person deliberately feeds these memories by insisting on staying in the same hotel room as before. Exactly why Person is making this fourth trip to Switzerland becomes apparent only after Nabokov leads the reader through the complex labyrinth of Hugh Person's mind. Why does a man avoid his past, and yet seek it out--even though memories yield nothing but exquisite pain? "Transparent Things" is just over 100 pages long, and the author's languid, elegant pace and remarkable, controlled skill as a storyteller is evident in every page of this exquisitely clever tale--displacedhuman
THE RIDDLE OF BEING.......2005-07-27
THERE is little point in attempting a review of these 80 pages of ephemera. A study of one man's inability to fit into his own skin. To put it mildly, a depressing excursion into the one character, Hugh Person's, life. The author says that had Hugh not had his transparent side there would be no point to the book. But I found the transparent side just as infected with this fetish for trivia.
However, the author gives some great advice if the reader could sort it out: Don't "explain the inexplicable." Live with the "supposition that 'reality' may be only a 'dream'." "The very awareness of being aware" may be just "a built-in hallucination." And don't forget this quote: "There is no lake without a closed circle of reliable land." This reader is still searching to find these transparent things.
powerful and full of texture, yet deliciously brief.......2004-05-25
This is typical brilliant Nabokov, with plenty of detail and mysterious threads laid down throughout that the imaginative can choose to follow or ignore. Because it was written in English rather than translated, Nabokov's prose is at its most powerful and organic - by far. The stories in this are extremely haunting, at least for me, musing on the nature of life after death, among many other themes. It is true genius and you can read it in a single sitting. Get it. You won't be disappointed.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding Book For All Levels.......1998-10-28
This is quite simply one of my favorite watercolor books. I go back to it time and time again. Mr. Brommer starts out explaining the materials and some basic beginning exercises but quickly moves beyond this. By the fourth chapter he discusses the various paints and very detailed color mixing schemes and effects of each.
There are chapters that discuss altering the surface by scratching out, lifting out, adding to the surface, cropping and repainting. He discusses combining watercolor with gouache, collage, ink & markers, wax crayons and unusual painting surfaces. There are chapters dealing with various subject matter and painting concepts such as dominance and focusing on what the painting is trying to say. This book is as concerned with creativity as it is with watercolor and how to get ideas for the next painting.
Every page is a delight with ample photos demonstrating techniques and showing both historical and contemporary watercolors to compliment the text. It boasts 184 pages with an index, glossary and bibliography for further reading. I highly recommend this book.
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