The Location of Culture (Routledge Classics)

Book Description

Terry Eagleton once wrote in the Guardian, 'Few post-colonial writers can rival Homi Bhabha in his exhilarated sense of alternative possibilities'. In rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity, one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. A scholar who writes and teaches about South Asian literature and contemporary art with incredible virtuosity, he discusses writers as diverse as Morrison, Gordimer, and Conrad. In The Location of Culture, Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.

Customer Reviews:

Even The Little People Are Free .......2007-06-04

Bhabha writes dense, pretentious prose, which is commonplace now among the humanists who feel inferior to scientists, but he does have something to say. This little book does two things: it is in the end a celebration of literature (and not of theory for its own sake) and it defends the little brown people, such as Indians, against the claim of others, such as Edward Said, that whites oppressed them by denying them a voice. Bhabha argues in effect that the oppression created a new voice that subverted the oppressors. Bhabha has little patience for the sob-sister school of academic discourse which seeks out victims of racism. This is a sustained critique of liberal academic bad faith.

The enunciatory present.......2006-02-16

In The Location of Culture, Bhabha argues for a fundamental realignment of the methodology of cultural analysis away from ontology toward the "performative" and "enunciatory present" (p.178). Such a shift, he claims, provides a basis for the negotiation of cultural difference rather than its automatic repression or negation in the face of irreconcilable oppositions. Bhabha's emphasis on the enunciative production of meaning places the emphasis of critical inquiry on issues of representation or signification, thereby producing "a temporality that makes it possible to conceive of the articulation of antagonistic or contradictory elements" (p.25).

This argument represents a critical attack on the Western production of binary oppositions, traditionally defined in terms of centre and margin, civilised and savage, enlightened and ignorant. Bhabha questions the easy recourse to consolidated dualisms by repudiating fixed and authentic centres of truth, suggesting that cultures interact, transgress and transform each other in a much more complex manner than typical binary oppositions allow.

According to him, hybridity and linguistic multivocality have the potential to intervene and dislocate the process of domination through the re-interpretation and re-deployment of received discourse, thus re-focusing critical attention towards the "agonistic space" (181) which exists on the borders of difference, along the edges of alterity, where cultures meet. Bhabha celebrates cultural heterogeneity and the subversive effects of hybridisation.

I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than read this again.......2004-05-26

The fact that this book is influential is generally beyond argument. What astonishes me, however, is that so many people had the endurance to sit through the horrific writing; the author's style is obnoxious in the extreme. The first paragraph, for example, notes that the question of culture is the "trope of our times," characterized by "a tenebrous sense of survival." These concepts are not mind-bending. An everday, or as Homi would say, "colloquial" vocabularly would sufficiently articulate his thesis, yet he seems hellbent on packing his work with obscure language like he needs show off or prove something. Again, his ideas are influential, but he makes reading them as painful as possible.

Mimicry, Mockery, Menace.......2003-01-21

Ambivalence is a key term in Bhabha's Location of Culture. Accordingly, Bhabha's prose might be considered poetry or gibberish, but certainly not scholarship. There is no thesis, no argument, no evidence. That is not to say that Bhabha wouldn't be capable of such writing. Every once in a while, the reader can catch a glimpse of Bhabha's Other: the lucid thinker of post-colonialism. In order to compensate for the lack of clarity, structure and, yes, basic congruity between subjects, verbs and objects, Bhabha enacts the thoughts he fails to express. Indeed, his text is a performance of itself. Take, for instance, his chapter on mimicry. Whatever intelligent thoughts other scholars have derived from this concept, you will not find them in Bhabha's book. But he indeed shows you what he means, as he goes through the motions of scholarship. First, he makes a number of general statements that sound like a thesis. Then he puts a in a few convoluted sentence structures that make no sense-grammatically or otherwise. And finally he slams in a quote or two to prove a point-what point doesn't matter, for he did not make one in the first place. As a reader you will have to decide whether his work is a mimicry (in his definition "almost but not quite") of scholarship or its menace (according to Bhabha, 'not at all but still a little'). About one thing, though, he leaves no ambivalence: he "quite simply mocks its power to be a model." Harvard volunteered to be the evidence.

Even though this is one of the most highly regarded ..........2003-01-11

...theory books of the 1990s, its fame and reputation seem overblown. None of the other reviews posted here have really stated what Bhabha tries to accomplish in "The Location of Culture," so I'll give it a crack, even though I'm no expert on postcolonial theory.

To save you all some time, many of Bhabha's key points are made in the first two pages of his book. For instance: "In-between spaces provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood--singular or communal--that initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in the act of defining the idea of society" (p. 1-2). Elsewhere, in-betweenness is easily the key concept in the book, as well as the notion of HYBRIDITY. The reason the modernist model of Colonialism is doomed to fail is not only because it needs the Other (the colonized) to validate its own supremacy (and to fulfill its desires), but also because it engages in what Bhabha refers to as "contra-modernity": modernity in "colonial conditions where its imposition is itself the denial of historical freedom, civic autonomy and the 'ethical' choice of refashioning" (p. 241). Bhabha finds that by examining the borderlines between Colonial power and Colonial oppression, a truer history of global populations can be obtained. In one of the finer passages in the book, Bhabha examines a scene from Salman Rushdie's controversial 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" and descibes how the postcolonial body--shaped by an outside nationalist culture--is representative of the colonizer, yet the colonizers "can never let the national history look at itself narcissistically in the eye" (p. 168).

Now let me preface my explanation by saying this is what I THINK Bhabha is getting at. It's not that his prose is "confusing," as other reviewers have stated here--although it is exceedingly "academic" (and there is nothing wrong with that, in and of itself)--but it is mired in the theoryspeak of the West that Bhabha seems so insistent upon de-centralizing. Bhabha uses the theories of the European male elite with so much blind faith that it easily undermines much of what he is trying to accomplish. Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida are all over this book. These "founders of discourse" (as Foucault called Marx and Freud--and could posthumously call himself given his exhaltation in the academy after his death in 1984) represent an alternate (i.e. "left") critical practice, yet completely dominate Western discussions of theory in literary circles. Is not Bhabha, an Indian scholar, colonized by these minds?

Also, Bhabha's insistence upon in-betweenness at times really seems to undermine his (apparent) intentions. He seems, on the one hand, to claim that it is precisely through in-betweenness that the oppressors dominate the oppressed. Yet, it also seems that this in-betweenness gives the oppressed the opportunity to resist the oppressors. We seem to be back at step zero. Is anything really being said here?

He should have followed better the example of Frantz Fanon, who appears early and often as a primary source in "The Location of Culture." Fanon was surely no stranger to the Western tradition, but was able to write in a critical-poetical-personal style that was accessible to non-academics, a style that had real fire. Bhabha, with all his emphasis on the work of postcolonial theory--which, in his words, seeks to "revise those nationalist or 'nativist' pedagogies that set up the relation of Third World and First World in a binary structure of opposition" (p. 173)--continually relies on the concept of "doubling" (likely a Lacanian theory) as well as his notion of in-betweenness (or liminality, as he calls it) in such a manner that no distinct point of view really emerges. The theoryspeak seems to subsume any important observations he might be willing to make.

While this book has some wonderful moments in it, I would estimate that about 25 of the books 250 pages really says something. I'm worried that this book has been canonized because the mainly white scholars that run the Academy need their theories stated in a dense manner by an Indian man to give them validity. I know that kind of thinking is very conspiratorial, but it is only a concern. I've not read any other Bhabha, or other postcolonial theorists like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak or Arjun Appadurai, but I cannot recommend this an easy gateway into this material. I would recommend the writings of Fanon, though his writing precedes the moment of postcolonial theory by some three or four decades, as a better introduction.

Average customer rating:

Literally Drew Blood!

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set)

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set

Superb book with ironic packaging

Five stars for content; 0 stars for shipping

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set) (Design Classics)
Editors of Phaidon Press
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Commercial | Graphic Design | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Furniture Design | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

10 X 10 _ 2

Design Your Self: Rethinking the Way You Live, Love, Work, and Play

Andy Warhol: Giant Size

The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture

Art Invention House

ASIN: 0714843997

Book Description

PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS is the first comprehensive and authoritative collection of classic design objects. This beautifully illustrated three-volume set of books presents 999 industrially manufactured products, carefully selected by a group of experts. It is the first definitive illustrated sourcebook on the evolution of design to include such a wide scope of objects in detail.

From cars to furniture, from tableware to cameras, from everyday objects to airplanes, this breadth of design has never before been collected in such a way before. PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS tells the story of design's evolution around the world from the late 1600's to the present, bringing together patents, prototypes, old advertisements, original drawings, images showing the process of manufacturing, as well as rare archival photographs. The anthology features an astonishing 4,000 images.

The objects are presented chronologically, beginning with an elegant pair of Chinese bonsai scissors from the early 1600s, still in production today, and ending with Barber Osgerby's Lunar bath accessories, destined to become a classic. Glancing through the volumes, the reader will gain an understanding not only of the history of design, but a history of taste and culture. The book is an extraordinary journey through the objects that have shaped our society, from the first attempts to combine function and beauty in the nineteenth century, through the machine aesthetics of the thirties, the advent of plastic and other new materials in the fifties and sixties, up to the classics-to-be of the last ten years.

The book includes not only objects created by internationally renowned designers, such as Breuer, Le Corbusier, Dreyfuss, Eames, Yanagi and Castiglioni, but also anonymously designed pieces, such as the clothes peg, the corkscrew and the chopstick, which, in spite of lacking a specific designer, have achieved such perfection in design and functionality that they have eliminated the possibility of improvement.

PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS is a laboriously selected examination of some of the world's best products ever made, most of which are still in production. The objects truly encapsulate what design is and what it will be for decades to come. It is a key reference tool for the designer or architect, as well as a fascinating and accessible design history for the newcomer.

The collection comes in a specifically commissioned carrying unit exclusively designed by Konstantin Gricic.

Customer Reviews:

Literally Drew Blood!.......2007-10-02

I thought when I ordered the books that all this thrash about the packaging MUST be overblown. But this is, without a doubt the worst packaging I've ever dealt with. Though the plastic case was damaged in shipping it was still a struggle to free the books. When pulled apart (which is what a small sticker on one of the books advises) the plastic shattered. One piece dug into the palm of my hand and gave me a pretty decent gash. Other smaller fragments ended up all over my room. All I could think was thank God I didn't lose an eye! Even then I only succeeded in liberating one book.

The books themselves are very nice, and were only slighty damaged in the ludicrous struggle to liberate them from the case. It's comical that they come in the worst designed packaging you can imagine.

So while I would recommend the books, I also strongly suggest protective eye wear for the unboxing.

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set).......2007-09-21

Hello,
the Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set) is state of art issue must have in any designer office/house, or those how like design.
it give you an whole review with pics & explantion.
i really love this product and its worth the money and even more.
brgds,
Eran

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set.......2007-02-22

Books are great overview of classic designs, but Amazon service is horrible. The carry case is one of the worst designs ever but customers would be lucky to see it. The way Amazon ships the product, the carry case (a flimsy pastic) breaks in shipping. Amazon refuses to ship the carry case alone and states that it is not their problem but that of the manufacturer. They will offer to send a replacement set once (books and carry case), but it will come broken again as they do not ship it differently and you have to set up return shipment of the original package.

Superb book with ironic packaging.......2007-02-10

Superlative book; goes well with the Domus 12 volume set for enough design related material to keep even an avid reader occupied for years to come...

The packaging understandably gets more comment than the books themselves. I suspect it is deliberately ironic - coverage of 999 objects blending form and function, coupled with a piece of something else.

I'm surprised at the complaints regarding the packaging being broken in shipment - I would have appreciated someone saving me the trouble, as mine went straight in the recycling bin. I'd rather liberate my books than imprison them.

Five stars for content; 0 stars for shipping.......2007-02-06

Beautiful books and production value, but the plastic carrying case--being especially vulnerable--didn't survive two shipping attempts. On both occasions, the books arrived with their carrying case shattered and the books damaged. You might do better getting these some other way. You'll take your chances if you decide to have them shipped via Amazon (or any other online shipper). Beware.

Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Library of Literary Classics)

Average customer rating:

Gorgeous book
Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition
Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Library of Literary Classics)
Too many errors...
pure genius

Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Library of Literary Classics)
Jane Austen
Manufacturer: Gramercy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound

General | Literature & Fiction | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Literary Classics)
William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Deluxe Edition
Charles Dickens Four Complete Novels (Great Expectations, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities)
Mark Twain: Selected Works, Deluxe Edition (Burlesque Autobiography/the Prince)
Lewis Carroll: The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works, Deluxe Edition (Literary Classics)

ASIN: 0517147688
Release Date: 1995-09-03

Book Description

One of the great and ever popular masters of the English novel is represented here by every one of her novels. Includes Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and the lesser-known Lady Susan. This Library of Literary Classics edition is bound in padded leather with luxurious gold-stamping on the front and spine, satin ribbon marker and gilded edges. Other titles in this series include: Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels; Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Works; Mark Twain: Selected Works; Charles Dickens: Four Complete Novels; Lewis Carroll: The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works; and William Shakespeare: The Complete Works.

Customer Reviews:

Gorgeous book.......2007-09-19

I bought this book for a good friend and she went bonkers when she saw it. I did too when I opened the box the day it came in the mail. I wanted to keep it for myself! The cover is beautiful, the pages are gold edged, and it is just a wonderful book!

Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition.......2007-09-03

For all those Jane Austen fans, what more could you ask for than to have all the works of Jane Austen beautifully bound in one book. This is a book that you can pass down to your Grandchildren. A great display piece for your bookshelf also. I will enjoy this for years to come, and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg which was another great surprise.

Jane Austen: The Complete Novels, Deluxe Edition (Library of Literary Classics).......2007-07-29

Wow! This is an unbelievably beautiful bound collection. It's almost too beautiful to use. It's an excellent price for the quality of the product. Imagine to cost of each book. I am looking forward to purchasing other collections of my favorite authors if the presentation is the same. Extremely fast delivery. Well worth It.

Too many errors..........2007-05-30

This is a lovely volume of Jane Austen's work and I would've given it 5 stars if there were less typographical errors dotted throughout the entire book.

pure genius.......2007-01-05

I personally love all of Austen's works so when I saw that they were all compiled together in this book and at such a great price I could not let the opportunity slip away. My personal favorite novel is Pride and Prejudice which along with Sense and Sensibility and Emma are some of her most famous works having been made into movies as well. However nothing is better than the novels themselves. As a young woman I cant say I can exactly relate to the characters in Austen's novels but I feel a connection with them because I am a young woman. Her novels depict a glimpse into the world of the young women of her time and though we live in very different times now, there are certain feelings that reamin exactly the same. I difinetly recommend all of these novels to any young woman out there because each of the protagonists in these novels is a heorine in her own right even if at times we find they are greatly flawed. It is their flaws that make them so human. This is a great collection to give a daughter or a niece or any young female in your life because it is something that was written by an intelligent woman about intellegant women.

Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultze and Weaver

Average customer rating:

Jazzed

Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultze and Weaver

Manufacturer: Princeton Architectural Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 25: The American Hotel (Journal of Decorative & Propaganda Arts)
The Architecture of Warren & Wetmore
The Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho
Arthur Brown Jr.: Progressive Classicist (Classical America Series in Art and Architecture)
Wallace Neff and the Grand Houses of the Golden State

ASIN: 156898555X

Book Description

The Breakers, the Waldorf, the Biltmore, the Sherry, the Pierre—these landmark hotels are synonymous with grand luxury and style. When they were built, in the 1920s, their refined elegance and grandeur set the bar for hotels and resorts the world over. Responsible for creating these and countless other hotels throughout the United States, were the partners of a single architectural firm: Schultze & Weaver. Together, this duo—an architect and an engineer—virtually invented the glamorous lifestyle made famous in films like Grand Hotel. Catering to the social elite of which they were themselves a part, Schultze & Weaver synthesized the Old World style of Renaissance Italy, Moorish Spain, and Georgian England with all of the modern amenities that made hotel living luxurious.

This book presents portfolios of fifteen of the firm’s most spectacular hotels, culminating in the Art Moderne masterpiece of the Waldorf-Astoria. Over two hundred period photographs and hand-colored architectural renderings chart the ascent of the American hotel in all its glory and glamour, before the Great Depression forever changed the lifestyles of America's rich and famous. Essays address the cultural and technological developments that underpin the creation of resort and residential hotels, including the elemental role played by Schultze & Weaver.

This book is published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University, Miami, held in celebration of their tenth anniversary.

Customer Reviews:

Jazzed.......2006-01-21

This book is a wonderful tribute to the gradeur of an amazing time in American History. These hotels are just spectacular, they really just don't have the masons or the desire quite frankly, to build buildings like this anymore. The black and white images in this book are simply breath taking, they are so crisp and elegant. The reader really gets a feel for what the hotels looked like at their inseption, at the time they where inspired. The Jazz Age was an era of unbelieveble wealth for a lucky few and they enjoyed spending it and expected only the best, there was a real sence of America starting her accendency to greatness and the affluent wanted to show that the best of America could rival anything in Europe, this was the catalist for these sumptuous hotels. The Jazz Age is of course long gone, but we have examples, like these grand hotels, to remind of an era of opulent wealth..and no income tax.

Twentieth-Century Russian and East European Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

Average customer rating:

Twentieth-Century Russian and East European Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
Johne E. Bowlt , and Nicoletta Misler
Manufacturer: Philip Wilson Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Drawing | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0302006192

Book Description

At the heart of this pioneering study - the result of exhaustive comparative research in Russian, European and American collections - is an illustrated catalogue which provides detailed descriptions of each work in the context of the artist's career and the broader artistic developments of the age. The condition, provenance, and previous location of the works are also detailed.

The catalogue is introduced by three essays: The Russian Avant-Garde, the Hungarian Avant-Garde, and the history of the collecting of Russian Avant-Garde art. The volume concludes with artists' biographies, bibliographical information, a glossary and index.

A catalogue of 59 works, written by two of the most eminent scholars in the field.

Average customer rating:

Bodies and Souls, The Century Project
Incredible! Powerful! Life-Affirming!
For my daughter
bodies and souls: the century project
Reality

Bodies and Souls: The Century Project
Frank Cordelle
Manufacturer: Heureka Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Personal Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Body Painting: Masterpieces by Joanne Gair
Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind
Dog Years: A Memoir
Leap!: What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives?
So the Story Goes: Photographs by Tina Barney, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, and Larry Sultan (Art Institute of Chicago)

ASIN: 0973027037
Release Date: 2006-11-17

Book Description

Viewed in exhibitions by over 100,000 people across the continent--now a book! Frank Cordelle'ss work is an inspiring series of nude photographic portraits accompanied by personal statements. The subjects are more than 90 girls and women aged 0 to nearly 100 and of very diverse shapes, sizes, and conditions. They also write powerfully about their bodies and experiences.

Customer Reviews:

Bodies and Souls, The Century Project.......2007-09-27

It's hard to call this a book, as it is an experience of a lifetime.
If everyone would openly talk, violence would be drastically reduced. I am sorry to the brave women in this book who were harmed by someone's violence. The wowen are a testimony to courage. Frank's courage, as well, for following his heart and soul. As, art it is a monumental master peice. A must experience for all those who have suffered from hiding, secrets, and sexual violation.

Incredible! Powerful! Life-Affirming!.......2007-07-19

This is an incredibly powerful book I wish everyone could own. My 15 year old daughter and I read it together and it the experience was unforgettable! The photographs paired with the real, raw stories of these girls, young women and women opened up a dialog between my daughter and I that could not have happened in any other setting. This book looks at bodies and the lives behind them with a sense of dignity and truth that you rarely find.
Some images and stories may be disturbing and/or inappropriate for younger children, but for me this book was a powerful way to see body image in a healthy light for me and my daughter.

For my daughter.......2007-07-19

I bought it for my 14 year old daughter who at first thought it was 'yucky' but later appreciated the stories that accompanied the photos. Great job of using pictures to paint the story of challenges that so many women continue to overcome.

bodies and souls: the century project.......2007-06-30

The powerful images and stories in this book are empowering and educational. This book is an antidote to the media-generated myths surrounding women's bodies, depicting the truth, instead of fabrication. These are real people and real stories. I recommend it highly to anyone's mother, daughter or sister.

Reality.......2007-05-15

Frank Cordelle's " The Century Project" is a remarkable work of female nudity and perception,concept and composition.It's a revelation of humanity.

One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

Average customer rating:

True to the man
A modern day "Thoreau"
Just as Good the Second Time
Homesteading in Alaska
inspiring

One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey
Sam Keith , and Richard Proenneke
Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Travel | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

Survival Skills | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Alone in the Wilderness
Alone in the Wilderness 2-DVD Package
Cache Lake Country: Life in the North Woods
On the Edge of Nowhere
More Readings From One Man's Wilderness: The Journals of Richard L. Proenneke, 1974-1980

ASIN: 0882405136

Book Description

To live in a pristine land . . . roam the wilderness . . . build a home. . . . Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. Here is a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.

Customer Reviews:

True to the man.......2007-09-29

Ten years ago I spent a summer volunteering for the National Park Service at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, in Alaska. My remote rangers cabin was located at Twin Lakes. Being on the lower lake, I was about 9 miles from my nearest neighbor- Dick. We spoke daily on our walkie-talkies, checking in about the weather, any visitors, or interesting wildlife viewings. I trekked up his way several times over the summer, and enjoyed a few meals with him. I can't remember if it's in his book, but his favorite sandwich was the "Twin Lakes Special": sourdough flapjaks, raw onion, and honey; don't knock it 'til ya try it! Just like his book, he was a gracious, thoughtful man, a true naturalist. Also the most spry 82-year-old I think I'd ever seen! I was saddened to hear of his death several years ago, and was grateful the NPS kept his cabin as a historical site; it is a cozy place, dark inside, smelling faintly of woodsmoke and 1948 sourdough starter, with wonderful decorative touches throughout. Dick was truly a special person, and this book captures his voice, his no-nonsense manner of talking, as well as his appreciation of the beauty of the natural world, perfectly.

A modern day "Thoreau".......2007-09-16

You cannot visit Alaska without reading this book FIRST! Just the photography alone will make you want to go. I dentify in many ways with Dick as I lived in a cabin in the White Mountains of NH for many years. He didn't intrude on nature...he simply lived in harmony with it. He appeals to all of your senses in his simple but beautifully written words, never mind the pictures. He is definitely portrayed as a "loner" but that is a good thing..for a loner has much higher self esteem and sense of character than those who can't survive in the world without people around them all the time. Dick is a true steward of the land because of his deep, abiding love and connection for this piece of God's Creation. His beautifully chronicled life in Alaska will remind you of Robert Frost's words.."We love the things we love for what they are." Enjoy!

Just as Good the Second Time.......2007-09-12

I was telling my husband about this book as I started reading it. He said, "Don't you remember, we read that many years ago when Alaska Magazine published it"? I knew that Babe, the pilot, seemed familiar. It didn't matter. I was happy to read it a second time which is unusual for me. Oh, how I would have loved to have been able to do what Mr. Proenneke did and to live where he lived. There is nothing dull about this book and I suspect the people who find it dull haven't any interest in living in the wilderness without Blackberries, i-pods, automobiles and restaurants.

Even though most of us who enjoyed the book probably don't begin to have the skills that Richard Proenneke had which made what he did possible (and a pilot friend who delivered for free) I think we all wish we could do what he did. I know I do. I didn't realize that a sequel exists. It costs big bucks, but if it's anything close to as interesting as this book, it's worth it. Maybe I'll find out if the Mission Girls ever showed-up.

Homesteading in Alaska.......2007-08-16

The year was 1968. The setting, the Alaskan bush. The mission, to live simply, deliberately, and self-sufficiently off the land, free of the trappings of contemporary society. The protagonist, clearly not what you might expect given the era. He was not some young, free spirited hippie, luddite, or draft dodger. Rather, he was a skilled hard working machinist/woodsman, who at age 51 decided to permanently leave the rat race behind.

Why this man, Dick Prenacke, suddenly left behind his conventional existence to live in a remote and unforgiving section of Alaska is never fully explored in the book. While snippets do reveal his distain for modernity, it never fully embellishes on what ultimately drove the author to do what few would ever conceive of doing. Perhaps Dick realized that at 51, the physical and physiological fortitude required to make such a transition would soon be out of his reach. More likely however, he foresaw the end of an era. No more than a few years after his departure into the wild, Alaska would enact laws prohibiting trappers and homesteaders from freely trudging off into the woods to live the quintessential "Alaskan experience." Soon Alaska would become like the rest of the lower 48, where people like Dick would be considered trespassers and evicted from any land that they did not rightfully own. Fortunately for the author, the laws were grand fathered in.

While the book is essentially a personal account of Alaskan homesteading, the author episodically weaves social commentary into his writings. He laments a society that is wasteful and superficial. The hunters that come into his Alaska, products of such a society, leave garbage and animal meat behind, unaware that the author cleans up after as well as makes use of their squander.

The author also reveals his anxiety for a society that is increasingly consumed by materialism. He feels that man is entrapped by things that he doesn't need and he seeks to avoid the superfluous at all costs. To the outsider, surviving in the wilds of Alaska would seem to require an extravagant amount of equipment and gear. One can only imagine the bill the average suburbanite would amass at the local REI in preparation for such an endeavor. Yet the author demonstrates just how little is required to not only to survive but also to prosper in such an inhospitable region.

The book closes with some thoughts on technology, and the rapidity of change that comes with it. The author's words are both haunting and prescient as he elaborates on his first year in Alaska and how his experience conflicts greatly with society at large.

inspiring.......2007-07-14

Inspiring book. Diarist was over 50 when he began this journey. Helps me look to the future for myself.

Paintings of Paul Cezanne : A Catalogue Raisonne

Average customer rating:

You've got to be kidding
Never enough

Paintings of Paul Cezanne : A Catalogue Raisonne
John Rewald
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Impressionism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Post-Impressionism | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Catalogues Raisonnes | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0810940442

Customer Reviews:

You've got to be kidding.......2005-07-27

John Rewald,you should be ashamed.$400 for a lousy 50 color plates(I live in Australia,and it sells for $650).If you're going to put out a catalogue raisonne of an artist,you should have the majority of the works in color,no-one wants to look at b/w reproductions anymore.You just have to compare this with the magnificent catalogue raisonne's on Rothko,Gauguin and Sargent,to see how this work falls short.A major dissappointment.

Never enough.......2005-01-21

There's either never be the right info you're looking for or there's never enough!

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion

Average customer rating:

Something everyone would find interesting
SPECTACULAR VISUAL DELIGHT
my new coffee table book
Fascinating imagery
Wonderful family book

Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion
Al Seckel
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Contemporary Art | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Catalogs | Catalogs & Directories | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Ultimate Book of Optical Illusions
Imagine a Day (Byron Preiss Book)
SuperVisions: Impossible Optical Illusions (Supervisions)
Imagine a Night
Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Perception (Illusion Works)

ASIN: 1402705778

Book Description

Astonishing creations by masters of the art, such as Escher, Dali, and Archimbolo; amazing visual trickery; and an illuminating foreword by the Pulitzer Prize--winning author Douglas R. Hofstadter make this 320-page, breathtaking collection the definitive book of optical illusions.

Rings of seahorses that seem to rotate on the page. Butterflies that transform right before your eyes into two warriors with their horses. A mosaic portrait of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau made from seashells. These dazzling and often playful artistic creations manipulate perspective so cleverly that they simply outwit our brains: we can’t just take a quick glance and turn away. They compel us to look once, twice, and over and over again, as we try to figure out exactly how the delightful trickery manages to fool our perceptions so completely. Of course, first and foremost, every piece is beautiful on the surface, but each one offers us so much more. Some, including Sandro del Prete’s charming “Window Gazing,” construct illusionary worlds where normal conceptions of up, down, forward, and back simply have no meaning anymore. Others, such as Jos De Mey’s sly “Ceci n’est pas un Magritte,” create visual puns on earlier work. From Escher’s famous and elaborate “Waterfall” to Shigeo Fukuda’s “Mary Poppins,” where a heap of bottles, glasses, shakers, and openers somehow turn into the image of a Belle Epoque woman when the spotlight hits them, these works of genius will provide endless enjoyment and food for thought.

Customer Reviews:

Something everyone would find interesting.......2007-08-06

I teach high school freshmen, and I keep this book on my shelf for students to look through on their own time. It is easily one of the most popular books, and after only three years the wear is beginning to prove this. I don't know how many times I have dropped it off at a student's table because they were bored, and dared them to not find something interesting in the book. Without fail, a students will be engrossed in the book within minutes.

One of the best features about this book compared to other books of its kind is that it contains dozens of examples of dozens of various types of art. Beyond the typical optical illusions, it features trompe d'loeil murals, artwork created with hair or chocolate syrup, artwork that can only be viewed with a reflective cylinder, and much more. As I mentioned before, nearly everyone will find something fascinating in this book.

SPECTACULAR VISUAL DELIGHT.......2007-06-08

For anyone with eyes, I recommend this book. I purchased for my girlfriend and she loved it. Dali and Echer are particular noteworthy in this collection of illusioins. It will renew your sense of wonder about how your brain works.

my new coffee table book.......2007-01-30

Wow - I chose this based on the chorus of 5 star reviews, submitted by others who seem much more knowledgeable in this field than I, and I am NOT disappointed! This is a great looking book - big, hardcover, suitable for your coffee table. As stated in other reviews, the book has a nice sampling of well known artists, plus an array of fun illusions, and EXPLANATIONS, which is something I had not seen in other books of illusions. This is just a very nice book, meeting the hype, and worthy of your coffee table or anybody else's for that matter .. definitely gift-worthy.

Fascinating imagery.......2007-01-19

Overall this is a fascinating book, interesting to read and fun to look through the pictures. My only complaint is with a few of the images which are too small to appreciate. 2 x 4 inches is not sufficient to enjoy Escher's detailed graphics, and I found myself using a magnifying glass at times. Thankfully this is the exception, and many images are almost full-page size. Even if you know nothing about art, this is an enjoyable book, because you will find yourself amazed by the clever images.

Wonderful family book.......2007-01-16

I purchased this book for my teenage son for Christmas. It was a big hit with everyone in the family, and with our friends who stopped by that day. And even after the holidays, I saw my son (an avid video gamer who refuses to read books) pick it up several times, and even share it with a friend.
The information about the different artists is fascinating, and the artwork is fun, inspiring and amazing.

August Sander: People of the 20th Century (7 Volume Set)

Average customer rating:

August Sander: People of the 20th Century (7 Volume Set)
Susanne Lange , and Gabriele Conrath-Scholl
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work
Thomas Ruff: 1979 to the Present
5x7
Tacita Dean: FLOH
Rineke Dijkstra: Portraits

ASIN: 0810963981

Book Description

Revered as a father of modern photography, August Sander (1876- 1964) so refined the art of portraiture that his moving images of his fellow countrymen have been heralded both as an important sociological document and a photographic masterpiece. But those images make up only a portion of this deluxe seven-volume set, which will stand as the definitive collection of Sander's considerable achievement.

The books include some 150 never-before-seen images and essays by leading experts on the German photographer's work. Praising Sander's "vision . . . his knowledge, and his immense photographic talent," the writer Alfred Döblin said: "Those who know how to look will learn from his clear and powerful photographs, and will discover more about themselves and more about others."

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books