Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Philip K. Dick
This book contains 11 essays and a comprehensive bibliography. The essays reveal the extent to which Philip K. Dick's personal obsessions pre-figured postmodernist concerns with humanity's self-alienation, cultural and personal paranoia, and the politics of simulation, deceit, and self-deception. The contributors reveal how Dick's ontological concerns, stated in his repeated questioning of What is real?, are also political concerns. Thus, they examine the philosophical and religious foundations on which his work rests, offering much-needed arguments which reveal both his philosophical depth and the extent to which he drew from esoteric and occult religions. His cultural critique also receive...
Fahrenheit 451
Summaries and critical commentaries about Fahrenheit 451.
The Films of Robin Williams
From his first appearance as Mork from Ork on the 1970s sitcom Happy Days, Robin Williams was heralded as a singular talent. In the pre-cable television era, he was one of the few performers to successfully transition from TV to film. An Oscar-winning actor and preternaturally quick-witted comedian, Williams became a cultural icon, leaving behind a large and varied body of work when he unexpectedly took his own life in 2014. This collection of new essays brings together a range of perspectives on Williams and his oeuvre, including beloved hits like Mrs. Doubtfire, Good Morning, Vietnam, Good Will Hunting, The Fisher King, Dead Poets Society and Aladdin. Contributors explore his earlier work (Mork and Mindy, The World According to Garp) and his political and satirical films (Moscow on the Hudson, Toys). Williams's darker, less well-known fare, such as Being Human, One Hour Photo, Final Cut and Boulevard, is also covered. Williams's artistry has become woven into the fabric of our global media culture.
Dharma of the Dead
With the increased popularity of zombies in recent years, scholars have considered why the undead have so captured the public imagination. This book argues that the zombie can be viewed as an object of meditation on death, a memento mori that makes the fact of mortality more approachable from what has been described as America's "death-denying culture." The existential crisis in zombie apocalyptic fiction brings to the fore the problem of humanity's search for meaning in an increasingly global and secular world. Zombies are analyzed in the context of Buddhist thought, in contrast with social and religious critiques from other works.
The Knights Templar in Popular Culture
From the Arthurian epic poem Parzival to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the Assassin's Creed video game series, the Knights Templar have captivated artists and audiences alike for centuries. In modern times, the Templars have featured in many narrative contexts, evolving in a range of contrasting story roles: the grail guardian, the heroic knight, the villainous knight, and the keeper of conspiracies. This study explores why these gone but not forgotten warrior monks remain prominent in popular culture; how history influenced the myth; and how the myth has influenced literature, film and video games.
The Reel Middle Ages
Those tales of old--King Arthur, Robin Hood, The Crusades, Marco Polo, Joan of Arc--have been told and retold, and the tradition of their telling has been gloriously upheld by filmmaking from its very inception. From the earliest of Georges Melies's films in 1897, to a 1996 animated Hunchback of Notre Dame, film has offered not just fantasy but exploration of these roles so vital to the modern psyche. St. Joan has undergone the transition from peasant girl to self-assured saint, and Camelot has transcended the soundstage to evoke the Kennedys in the White House. Here is the first comprehensive survey of more than 900 cinematic depictions of the European Middle Ages--date of production, country of origin, director, production company, cast, and a synopsis and commentary. A bibliography, index, and over 100 stills complete this remarkable work.
Prairie University
Founded in 1869, the University of Nebraska was given the awesome responsibility of educating a new state barely connected by roads and rail lines. Established as a comprehensive university, uniting the arts and sciences, commerce and agriculture, and open to all regardless of "age, sex, color, or nationality," it has as its motto Literis dedicata et omnibus artibus--dedicated to letters and all the arts. The University at first was confined to four city blocks and didn't have a building until 1871. Cows grazed the campus. But soon the high aspirations of the state began to be realized. Nebraska boasted the first department of psychology west of the Mississippi River, and its faculty include...
King Arthur on Film
This collection of eleven essays details more than 75 films, from Edwin Porter's 1904 Parsifal to the animated Quest for Camelot in 1998. A variety of critical perspectives are provided. The medieval and modern worlds collide in The Fisher King and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; issues of femininity and depictions of Morgan Le Fay are analyzed in the 1931 Connecticut Yankee and in Excalibur; concerns of masculinity are examined in First Knight and Dragonheart. A comprehensive filmography, selective bibliography and over 40 film stills complete this critical appreciation of the rich and varied cinematic tradition of Arthur.
Avalon Revisited
This book contains a collection of essays dealing with different re-workings of the Arthurian myth. The papers trace the Arthurian myth, inquiring into its origins in Ancient Rome, and pointing out influences from the Dark Ages up to the present. Reference is made to oral tradition, visual narrative and iconic messages in manuscript illumination, the myth in medieval chivalry and the decay of the latter. Parallelisms are drawn with Christian figures and beliefs, with Irish literature and Gaelic mythology, and with novels and films. The methodological approaches and points of view show great diversity: from an inquiry into the historical sources of the myth, to comparative literature, inter-textuality, feminist criticism, analysis of cinema up to a refreshing practical classroom exercise.
From Camelot to Spamalot
For centuries, Arthurian legend has captured imaginations throughout Europe and the Americas with its tales of Camelot, romance, and chivalry. The ever-shifting, age-old tale of King Arthur and his world is one which depends on retellings for its endurance in the cultural imagination. Using adaptation theory as a framework, From Camelot to Spamalot foregrounds the role of music in selected Arthurian adaptations, examining six stage and film musicals. The book considers how musical versions in twentieth and twenty-first century popular culture interpret the legend of King Arthur, contending that music guides the audience to understand this well-known tale and its characters in new and unexpec...
