The office of assertion

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Janet Carey Eldred

"Sentimental Attachments opens and closes with important and passionate arguments about why teachers of composition must also be writers of what Eldred calls "lived experience." At its center, however, the book offers a series of lyrical, evocative, exploratory essays that address a range of essential and complex questions. Like others who defy the conventional view that we must hold the personal separate from the political - or the professional - Janet Carey Eldred believes that teachers of writing must compose themselves as they help others to compose."--Jacket.

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Margaret Woodhouse

Styled on a real acupuncture guide book, this guide informs the reader on the ways in which cats respond to being stroked, tickled and squeezed in the right places. It should bring smiles of recognition to anyone who enjoys coaxing a purr out of their cat. If you have ever petted a cat, then you know technique is everything. Stroke a cat too forcefully and your subject will shrink from your touch, too lightly and your subject will barely acknowledge your attentions. At last, Know Your Cat's Purr Points takes the guesswork out of pleasuring your pet. This lighthearted guide to the art of cat massage identifies the precise locations of the classic "purr points" and the best ways to activate them. With the aid of humorous instructions and delightful illustrations, learn such techniques as the Inter-Whisker Sidestep, Knuckle Dusters, the Flamenco Guitar, and the Full Fluff, the application of which is said to take both subject and applicant to a new level of contentment. Each technique is rated on both the "Purr Register" for visual response, and the "Purrometer" for auditory effect ranging from a moped to a dump truck, which leaves few, if any, practitioners sitting.

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Steven C. Brown

"Bill Holm is internationally recognized as a leading expert on Northwest Coast, Plateau, and Plains Indian art. As curator emeritus of Native American art at the Burke Museum, professor emeritus of art history at the University of Washington, and author of numerous books and articles, he has established an unparalleled reputation as a scholar, teacher, and craftsman. For many years he has also produced detailed paintings that draw on his ethnographic expertise to recreate the settings in which the old Native American art objects were used."--BOOK JACKET.

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Hugh Kenner

Creator of the monomaniacal Wile E. Coyote and his endlessly elusive prey, the Road Runner, Chuck Jones has been responsible for many classics of animation featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd. Hugh Kenner, master wordsmith and technophile, reveals in cartoon-like sequences the irrepressible humor and profound reflection that shape Chuck Jones's work. Kenner also x-rays the inner world of cartooning, from its beginnings as a technological innovation, through its heyday as six-minute full-animation shorts for the movies, to its eventual shift to television, where Jones animated features such as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Rikki Tikki Tavi. Unlike Walt Disney, Chuck Jones and his fellow animators at Warner Bros. were not interested in cartoons that mimicked reality. Instead, they pursued the reality of the imagination, the Toon world where believability is more important than realism and where movement is the ultimate aesthetic arbiter. By describing the erudition and kinetic humor in great works like What's Opera, Doc? and Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 century, Hugh Kenner offers a new understanding not only of cartooning culture but also of art's relationship to technology, criticism, freedom, and imagination.