Gothic

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Harold B. Segel

"In Body Ascendant, Harold Segel shows how obsession with physical culture resonated widely through the modernist movement and traces its profound influence on the arts in the early twentieth century. Segel examines the emergence of modern dance and its impact on virtually all the other arts. He describes the shift from speech to gesture in modern drama and the revival of serious artistic interest in pantomime. And he shows how bold attempts to revitalize literary language paralleled a new emphasis on the direct experience of the writer." "Characterizing the modernist man of letters as a self-styled man of action, Segel reviews the careers of such writers as Gabriele D'Annunzio, F.T. Marinetti, Nikolai Gumilyov, Ernst Junger, Ernest Hemingway, Henry de Montherlant, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He offers a broad overview of the various manifestations of the modernist preoccupation with physicality, including the disparagement of Christianity and Judaism for their focus on spiritual life. He clearly establishes the disturbing compatibility between the era's artistic and athletic celebration of body and the eventual rise of totalitarian nationalism and racism. The dark side of the Nazi emphasis on physical perfection as essential to ideal Germanness, Segel notes, was the consistent portrayal of the Jew as physically and racially inferior."--Jacket. In Body Ascendant, Harold Segel shows how obsession with physical culture resonated widely through the modernist movement and traces its profound influence on the arts in the early twentieth century. Segel examines the emergence of modern dance and its impact on virtually all the other arts. He describes the shift from speech to gesture in modern drama and the revival of serious artistic interest in pantomime. And he shows how bold attempts to revitalize literary language paralleled a new emphasis on the direct experience of the writer. Characterizing the modernist man of letters as a self-styled man of action, Segel reviews the careers of such writers as Gabriele D'Annunzio, F. T. Marinetti, Nikolai Gumilyov, Ernst Junger, Ernest Hemingway, Henry de Montherlant, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He offers a broad overview of the various manifestations of the modernist preoccupation with physicality, including the disparagement of Christianity and Judaism for their focus on spiritual life. He clearly establishes the disturbing compatibility between the era's artistic and athletic celebration of body and the eventual rise of totalitarian nationalism and racism. The dark side of the Nazi emphasis on physical perfection as essential to ideal Germanness, Segel notes, was the consistent portrayal of the Jew as physically and racially inferior.

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Sue Coe

Armed with her sketchbook, Sue Coe traveled across the United States, following the path from factory farm to feedlot, to the "killing floor" of the slaughterhouse. Her firsthand observations are rendered in her diaries and artwork - stunning, unforgettable images. Dead Meat graphically documents the castrations, debeakings, electrocutions, and decapitations; the skewing, flaying and dismembering; the pathos and tragedy. Coe made eye contact with a frightened veal calf awaiting execution and talked to the people who commit the sanctioned killing that supplies our meat-eating culture. Her illustrations evoke the dark, cavernous abattoir, slippery with blood, steam, and body heat. Workers wielding knives and stun guns slave in dangerous conditions, dehumanized by the brutality of their jobs, alienated by economic oppression. Like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Dead Meat indicts the system of corruption and consumption that exacts such a toll from its citizens.

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G.C. McRae

"A girl who loves sneaking. Seven daughters who all pretend to be the same person. A witch who tricks a man into carving his own children out of stone. And just for good measure, a giant or two, who may or may not be friendly. In the Seven Tales, G.C. McRae proves he is a master of the ancient art of storytelling. With shades of 1001 Nights, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, McRae's original fairy tales bring a freshness and hilarity to the world of castles and queens."--Back cover.

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Roger G. Kennedy

Few realize that some of the oldest, largest, and most complex structures of ancient archaeology were built of earth, clay, and stone right here in America, in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. From 6,000 years ago until quite recently, North America was home to some of the most highly advanced and well organized civilizations in the world - complete with cities, roads, and commerce. From the lost city of Balbantsha, near New Orleans, to the Great Hopewell Road, a causeway for religious pilgrims along the Ohio River in the thirteenth century, these cultures built hundreds of thousands of structures, of which a small but tantalizing portion still remain. Like the Druids of Salisbury Plain, they patterned extraordinarily precise geometry according to the rising and setting of the moon. Like the ancient Egyptians, they organized millions of hours of human labor to construct pyramids, platforms, and plazas. In Hidden Cities, Roger G. Kennedy sets out on a bold quest of recovery - a recovery of the rich heritage of the North American peoples, and a reimagination of the true relations of their modern-day successors and neighbors. From the Spanish and French explorers to the present, very few Euro-Americans have paid attention to the evidence and meaning of this heritage. Building on recent work of many archaeologists and historians, Roger Kennedy presents a fascinating picture of these American antiquities as well as their reception among leading citizens of the young United States. On missions of exploration, politics, and even piracy, men such as George Rogers Clark, George Washington, Albert Gallatin, and Thomas Jefferson frequently chanced upon the architecture of the past. As Kennedy shows us the magnificence of the mound-building cultures through the sometimes-prejudiced eyes of the Founding generation, he reveals not only the astounding history of our continent, but also the reasons why we have refused to credit Native American predecessors with the greatness they deserve.