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The Architecture of Survival: Setting and Politics in Apocalypse Films offers a compelling exploration of how popular films and TV series from the past two decades use architectural spaces to comment on socio-political issues. The authors harness varied theoretical perspectives to demonstrate how, through set design, these works suggest that certain kinds of architecture support human development, community, and freedom, while other kinds separate us from our fellow humans and make democratic politics impossible. The clean lines of modernist design serve in films such as Contagion and Ex Machina as a metaphor for the sanitized, sterile politics that drive disaster. In The Walking Dead apocal...
This open access book describes the three planning approaches and legacy impacts for the Olympic Games in one locale: the city of Los Angeles, USA. The author critically compares the similarities and differences of the LA Olympics by reviewing the 1932 and 1984 Olympics and by analyzing the concurrent planning process for the 2028 Olympics. The author unravels the conditions that make (or do not make) LA28’s argument “we have staged the Games before, we can do it again” compelling. Setting the bid’s promises into the contemporary local and global mega-event contexts, the author analyzes why LA won the bids, how those wins allowed LA to negotiate concessions with the IOC and NOC, and how legacies were planned, executed, and ultimately evolved. The author concludes with a prediction which 2028 legacy promises might and might not be fulfilled given the local and international Olympic contexts.
The problem with dumping a body in Rainbow Lake is that is rises almost immediately to the top, even when weighted down with rope and cement… After the mutilated corpse of a wealthy summer resident is found in the quiet, lakeside town of Cedar Hills, Oregon, the man’s beautiful niece, Erica Trinidad, hires rookie private investigator Cassidy James to track down her uncle’s killer. Cassidy uncovers a bizarre series of crimes she believes is tied to the murder, leading her to the horrifying conclusion that the killing has just begun. But the town’s sexist police sergeant could care less what an uppity female gumshoe thinks. And besides, the authorities almost have enough evidence to book their number one suspect—Erica Trinidad. Cassidy’s investigation is further complicated by the growing sexual tension between herself and Erica—until she learns the shocking secret of Erica’s not-too-distant past…
The four last plays of Shakespeare’s First Folio—Cymbeline, The Tempest, Henry VIII, and The Winter’s Tale—provide underappreciated resources for political thought and reflection. Political Wisdom in Late Shakespeare: A Way Out of the Wreck examines the ruling communities in each of these plays, exploring what virtues are dramatized as necessary in a courtier’s fulfillment of his or her political obligations. By lending courtly virtues their close attention, Shakespearean audiences can better appreciate how much a given court has been reformed or could be further reformed in the future. Indeed, these four late plays prove remarkably united in their presentation of five virtues—patience, piety, fidelity, clemency, and diligence—which consistently appear desirable for rulers to have and regimes to encourage. Moreover, the visions of tyranny offered in these plays remind readers how much is at stake should these courtly virtues decay or collapse. Their presence or absence signals whether any political community will, to borrow the language of Henry VIII, chart for themselves “a way out of the wreck.”
The last person private investigator Cassidy James expects—or wants—to hear from is her ex-lover, psychologist Maggie Carradine. But when a distraught Maggie calls begging for help, Cassidy puts her anger and hurt aside and agrees to meet Maggie face-to-face. Her misgivings are reinforced when Maggie reveals the bizarre manner in which she has just witnessed not one, but two, separate brutal murders. The victims are both connected to clients of Maggie’s and the gruesome clues intensify Cassidy’s fear that the killing has just begun.
Like other fictional characters, female sleuths may live in the past or the future. They may represent current times with some level of reality or shape their settings to suit an agenda. There are audiences for both realism and escapism in the mystery novel. It is interesting, however, to compare the fictional world of the mystery sleuth with the world in which readers live. Of course, mystery readers do not share one simplistic world. They live in urban, suburban, and rural areas, as do the female heroines in the books they read. They may choose a book because it has a familiar background or because it takes them to places they long to visit. Readers may be rich or poor; young or old; conse...
A sadistic serial killer is abducting young women and leaving their mutilated bodies along Oregon’s coastal highway. Kings Harbor policewoman Martha Harper believes the clues lead to a local college, but her superiors don’t see it that way. Desperate for help, she turns to her best friend, Cassidy James. Posing as a teaching assistant in the Theater Department, the undercover investigator soon finds herself surrounded by a cast of intriguing characters, including the alluring Professor Lauren Monroe—whose talents, Cassidy will soon discover, are not limited to the classroom. But the more she learns about Lauren and the people around her, the more Cassidy suspects she’s not the only one playing a role… Cassidy James Mystery Book 5. Originally published by Naiad Press 1998.