Book Description
Imagine a night when you can ride your bike right up the stairs to your bed. Imagine a night when your toy train rumbles on its tracks out of your room and roars back in, full sized, ready for you to hop on for a nighttime adventure. Imagine a night when a farmer plays a lullaby on his fiddle, and his field of sunflowers begins to dip and sway to the rhythm. Imagine a night when ordinary objects magically become extraordinary...a night when it is possible to believe the impossible.
With the intrigue of an Escher drawing and the richness of a Chris Van Allsburg painting, renowned Canadian artist Rob Gonsalves depicts that delicious time between sleep and wakefulness, creating a breathtaking, visual exploration of imagination and possibility that will encourage both children and adults to think past the boundaries of everyday life, and see the possibilities beyond.
Customer Reviews:
Surreal Imagination.......2007-05-14
I bought this as a gift for my adult artist son. The technique used by Rob Gonsolves is exquisite. The words that go with the artists rendition are priceless.
magical images.......2007-02-14
When I was growing up, I remember having a book with beautifully vivid pictures. They were entire scenes that you would have to stop and look at for quite awhile in order to take in the whole scene. This is such a book and the words that go along are so calming and guiding. My daughter loves to gaze at what is happening on every page.
Imagine a Night.......2007-01-09
This is a great book with fantastic illustrations. It is great for any aged person.
Exercise your child's imagination.......2006-03-11
We loved both Imagine a Night and Imagine a Day. The artwork is a great introduction to surrealism and more importantly the power of imagination. It is a great way to teach your children to think out-of-the-box. Since receiving this as a gift myself, I have made it a standard for baby gifts to others. Always the same response, "what an unbelievable book".
4 and a half but willing to be generous.......2005-10-27
I gave this book 5 stars to balance it with the 4 that I gave his other book; Imagine a Day. Both books are awash with the same wonderful surrealism. Its a trip to another world on par with Escher. Unfortunately the trip is far too short, only 16 paintings. His two books should be combined to one in my opinion but other than that a great experience.
Book Description
Imagine art that is risky, complex and subtle!Imagine music, movies, books and paintings of the highest quality!Imagine art that permeates society, challenging conventional thinking and standard morals to their core!Imagine that it is all created by Christians!This is the bold vision of Steve Turner, someone who has worked among artists--many Christian and many not--for three decades. He believes Christians should confront society and the church with the powerful impact art can convey. He believes art can faithfully chronicle the lives of ordinary people and equally express the transcendence of God. He believes that Christians should be involved in every level of the art world and in every media.Yet art and artists have not always been held in high esteem by conservative Christians. Art rarely seems to communicate clear propositional truth, rarely deals with certainties and absolutes. And the lifestyles of artists too frequently seem at odds with the gospel. So the arts have often been discouraged among Christians.Throughout this stimulating book, however, Turner builds a compelling case against such a perspective. He shows that if Jesus is Lord of all of life and creation, then art is not out of bounds for Christians. Rather it can and should be a way of expressing faith in creatively, beautifully, truthfully arranged words, sounds and sights.This stirring call is must reading for every Christian who has been drawn to the arts or been influenced by them.
Customer Reviews:
Wisdom in need of a wider audience.......2007-08-06
A couple of years ago I interviewed singer/composer/producer Charlie Peacock for an online magazine. He sent me a copy of this book, and since then I have read it through about five times. Turner's insight and vision for Christian artists of all disciplines is almost incomparable in the modern church. He backs up his assertions with any number of contextually accurate scriptural references, and provides more encouragement for the bored and searching artist than he does condemnation of the status quo in Christian-produced art (although there is plenty to condemn). I consider this book absolutely essential for every Christian musician, dancer, painter, poet or artist of any color. It will radically transform your vision for glorifying God if you take its message to heart.
A vision of hope and beauty .......2007-03-31
Steve Turners book is very accessible. It should be part of the basic reading and discipleship for all Christians, not just artists. But as the other reviewers have mentioned, He redeems art, or creative expression in most all its form, as a field of practice and calling for Christians. So his work should be read by those confessing Christ and interested in creative endeavors. Turner encourages and gives Christians the vision to be instruments of hope, beauty and truth- instruments of redemption- in and through the arts. Turner does a good job explaining why there is so little protestant involvement in the arts. And to a lesser extent he explains why that little involvement has had even less influence. Turner's work is a good starting point on a bibliography of redeeming Culture- Francis Schaeffer Art and the Bible (L'Abri Pamphlets), Hans Rookmaaker, Greggory Wolfe, Makoto Fujimura It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God are few others in a increasingly longer list. Enjoy!
Excellent and broad coverage of the subject.......2006-05-14
Steve Turner did an excellent job with this book. It is a very easy read but is well thought out and insightful. He does a good job of outlining the historical reasoning for the sad state of "christian art" today. But, he also does what other authors pretend to do but never actually accomplish. He provides a solid theory from which Christian artists can work. After explaining the historic reasons for our situation he then discusses the issue from a solidly biblical perspective doing a good job of puting the scripture in context for this discussion. He rightly argues that art produced by Christian Artists needs not be overtly religious. God is the God of the "secular" and the "religious".
Especially helpful is Turner's theory of five concentric circles. The cicles represent diferent levels of direct religiosity in the work with the outer showing no specific workview and the inner being focused on the cross. But, Turner goes further and asks if it is actually possible to produce the type of powerful art he is advocating and then he backs up his arguement with examples.
Church, get out of the box with this book!.......2005-11-21
I work with performing artists in the area of healthcare ministry, but I am not an artist myself. Thus, this book has really helped me get out of my self-inflicted box of what I thought "Christian art" and "art by Christians" should look like. The book was recommended to me by the president of the arts ministry agency I serve with, and I would be neglectful if I did not pass the recommendation along. You will not find another book that that is so helpful as you wrestle with where the arts fits with Christianity. What a refreshment Steve Turner has provided. Now, BUY THE BOOK!
Christianity and the Arts selection.......2005-09-21
This book was everything I wanted--excellent writing, super information, and timely! Thanks!! Hope MANY people read this fine piece of work! I am presenting a program on Christianity and the Arts--and this book has been very helpful!
Book Description
Imagine a day when your swing swings you higher than the highest treetops. Imagine a day when you can ride your bike up a path of falling leaves into the very tree they are falling from. Imagine a day when you release a handful of blue balloons into a cloudy, gray sky to create a postcard-perfect day. Imagine a day when the ordinary becomes the extraordinary...a day when anything is possible.
Imagine a Day is the companion book to the critically acclaimed Imagine a Night, which School Library Journal declared "a fascinating foray into the imagination." Renowned Canadian artist Rob Gonsalves once again stretches the limits of visual exploration with his breathtaking paintings and encourages parents and children alike to look beyond the limits of the everyday world and imagine.
Customer Reviews:
mesmerizing illustrations.......2007-02-14
I read this before Thomson's "Imagine a Night". They are both spectacularly illustrated. It isn't a story as much as a guide for imagination. I find myself lost in the pictures and my daughter loves to see where reality and fantasy mix in the pages.
magical, wonderful , hopeful book.......2007-01-19
I would recommend this book to all, children as well as adults.
Imagine a Day by Rob Gonsalves.......2007-01-15
I had to purchase this book because his art is intriguing and could be used in my daughter's creative writing program. Gonsalves' artwork is colorful and extremely thought provoking. This book is an excellent coffee table book as well as a gift to art lovers.
Imagine a Day.......2007-01-09
We got exactly what we wanted, in great shape and on time
Amazing to read and look at!.......2006-11-12
This book is one of the greatest books I've read and reviewed this year!
In its poetic simplistic sense, each verse brings new meaning and clear thought to a basic 3-4 word line. Along with the illustrations, done in an almost salvadore dali method, the pictures are created amongst themselves. A tall bridge slowly becomes people standing on each other helping build the bridge. A man studying a map becomes children diving off into a part of the map and flying over beautiful land. My descritions don't do justice to the beautiful artwork expressed inside these pages. Superb artwork by Rob Gonsalves!
Taken from the book on one of my favorite pages...
imagine a day.....
when roots drink up rivers,
twigs tangle in clouds,
and a tree is a ladder
between earth and air.
This is a must read for children and will also be enjoyed by adults.
Amazon.com
The history of gay male erotic images is largely undocumented. Even when the material has been available, "good taste" and "common decency"--those concepts used to stop all talk about sex--have prevented their display. Thomas Waugh's full-length, profusely illustrated study is a breakthrough book that has information and analysis enough for three books. Thoughtful, smart, and well-written,
Hard to Imagine uncovers a visual history of gay male eroticism that few know. It chronicles the complicated history of homosexual desire and how it has been depicted and repressed.
Book Description
Spanning more than a century of photography and film, Hard to Imagine is the first visual chronicle of the evolution of gay male image culture, from the canonical works of "art" photography and cinema to the private and often highly explicit productions of amateurs. This comprehensive work explores a vast, eclectic tradition in its totality, analyzing the aesthetics of the visual imagery, its production, circulation, and consumption, and broad social and legal implications.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing Book.......2002-07-10
This book collects the amazing research the author has done on physique photography, magazines and gay porn of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. It is great stuff, presented with a smart and detailed analysis. The only downside is the format, a weird and pricey mix of scholarly tome and coffeetable book. With the boom in "visual culture" and gay studies, it's a pity Cambridge has never brought this out in paper: it would be a surefire hit.
WOW.......1998-04-05
This is truly a great book..especially for vintage gay porn buffs... Its written and produces with an college text book feel.... which on one hand.. is good.. gives it a lot of depth.. and smarts.. but..
with the $75 price tag.. i was a bit dissapointed..
was hoping for some really great quality photos.. while the photo's quality arent bad at all. quite clear and sharp. was hoping for something along the lines of art book quality... so ifyou looking for an art coffee table book.. this really isnt one.. but if you r looking for indepth analysis (still with loads of pictures) of early gay porn.. then this is for U!!!!!!!
Customer Reviews:
A "writing book" long needed is finally here!.......2006-01-17
I teach writing at the college level, as well as conduct writing workshops for the corporate sector, and thus it is crucial that each of these audiences not only learn the mechanics of writing but, too, understand how we can best draw upon our inner selves to create that which we call writing. This is not an easy task, and calls upon a melding of both the left brain and right brain to get this right.
Ralph Wahlstrom's book, The Tao of Writing, does this seamlessly, and -- after reading it -- one might not win a Pulizter Prize for writing but he or she will certainly be a better writer. Wahlstrom takes the reader on a journey within, delving into all that each person is to open the imagination, inspire creation, and -- the key -- allow this to flow into words, sentences, and paragraphs that effectively express what the writer wants to communicate.
Had this book ended here, it would have been fine, but Wahlstrom becomes the pragmatic Zen teacher of writing as well, offering more than sixty writing exercises that constantly refine one's writing's efforts. This book is for that discerning person who just wants to really get his or her writing -- right: stick with The Tao of Writing and you will.
Errol Craig Sull
Book Description
In his parables Jesus re-imagines the world. The re-imagined world, called the kingdom of God, presents his followers with a new option for living, one that contrasts with the default world of the everyday. The new world is both terrifying and liberating. In this book the author sets his interpretation of the key parables of Jesus in the context of other things Jesus said and did. The result is a startling and provocative picture of the historical figure and the challenge he presents to contemporary life.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Source.......2004-08-30
Re-Imagine the world is an excellent scholarly source on the parables and written in an easy to understand way. Scott keeps the chapters interesting, but not too long, and not confusing. It's a great book for people just beginning to read about the parables and for those who only want a brief overview. It shows many details that the common person would overlook, like Jewish law and ancient traditions.
It is important for anyone to keep in mind that no one scholar is 100% right, but all scholarly points of view are important.
It's an interesting, quick read. I definitely recommend it!
For the record.......2004-08-13
I haven't bought this book yet, but I'm probably going to. I just wanted to clarify at least one erroneous statement from the previous review. The author states that the vine and the branches and the good shepherd are parables. While both elements are present in the gospel of John, but neither are parables. The Good Samaritan is a parable. It is a story told by Jesus to illustrate a point, usually about the nature of the kingdom of God. "I am the vine, you are the branches", while meaningful, is not a story to illustrate a point. It is an image. It may be a beautiful image, it may be an awful image. But an image it is. Both are instances of a trend of John's, a series of "I am" statements which are largely unique to John, and yes, do tend to exist in place of parables. For the author to assert that John isn't much fodder for the student of parables is actually correct. This is not to say that the gospel of John is of no interest or use, simply that it is of little use for those studying parables. In much the same way, the Declaration of Independence is not of much use to those who wish how to make a casserole. To say that the Declaration of Independence is of little use to those studying casserole is not a mark against the document, but merely to place it in its proper context.
Thank you. That is all.
You may say he's a dreamer..........2003-06-17
Right off the top, it's important to know one fact about the author, because his perspective colors everything he writes about, and the colors are red, pink, gray, and black. Yes, Brandon Scott is a charter member of the Jesus Seminar, so that means that "Jesus" here is actually the reconstructed, reduced Jesus as promoted by the likes of J.D. Crossan, and, furthermore, the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas stands on equal footing with the biblical gospels we all know and love: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and, well, John isn't dealt with at all here, because there are supposedly no parables in John (umm, what about the Vine and the Branches, or the Good Shepherd?)
First the positives: the author is an expert on parables, and there are some excellent interpretations here of a few of them. What is often lost to a modern readership when dealing with the parables is the fact that they were often shocking and scandalous to their first-century audience. Therefore, while "Good Samaritan" may be part of our vernacular, the very idea was just unheard of by his Jewish listeners. The best interpretive job, or the one that resonates with me the most, is concerning the Prodigal Son(s), where the conventions of Jewish family life are ripped apart by what transpires. The father is shown as being degraded by the young son, and degrades himself in the eyes of the community when he welcomes him back. That only scratches the surface, but if there is any reason to get this book, the Prodigal Son story would be it. On other parables, there are issues raised which are often ignored by other interpreters. For example, in the story of the hidden treasure, was Jesus commending the man for his dishonesty in finding the treasure, hiding it, and then buying the field without notifying the owner of the hidden treasure? There are potentially some good discussion starters here for small groups.
Of course, the "historical Jesus" had more in mind than just telling stories. It was his way of re-imagining the world as he thought it should be, and here's where things get a little stickier. Just what was Jesus trying to communicate? Here are the main points, according to the book:
1. God is unclean. This rather shocking statement is derived from the parable of the leaven, where a woman "hides" leaven in three measures of flour (a huge amount) and the leaven works its way through the whole batch. Leaven is seen as corruption, as unclean, in other words, so to Jesus, the kingdom (or "empire") of God is full of uncleanness, therefore the rather shaky jump to "God is unclean". My question is, if leaven is considered unclean (and, frankly, it is seen in a negative light throughout Scripture), why was it just prohibited for the seven days of the Passover, and not the whole year round, as was pork and shellfish? That gives this first point a flimsy foundation.
2. God is present in absence. This means, basically, a world void a divine intervention. This is based on the Parable of the Empty Jar found in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas. The parable, like much of the Gospel of Thomas, really makes little sense, but what sense the author does make out of it (and, in my opinion, he really has to stretch to do it), is used to "prove" this point. However, those of us who believe in the healing ministry of Jesus, which implies divine intervention, would see that as totally dismantling that argument.
3. Cooperation, not competition. This is illustrated by the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This point I have no problem with, as far as it goes.
The author, finally, seems to have his own agenda here: a Christianity without Christ, which is an etymological impossibility. The argument that is made for this is so weak as to be no argument at all. So, I'll sum up this book with a parable of my own. "Re-Imagine the World" to me is like a breakfast buffet to a vegetarian, who takes what he or she can eat (fruit) and rejects the rest (bacon, sausage, and eggs).
Book Description
The Art Explorers series offers a new approach to art! Written by experts in the field, it encourages kids to interpret what they see in famous artworks, then try the techniques themselves. Imagine That!: Activities and Adventures in Surrealism, the first book in the series, draws children into the fantastic, imaginative world of surrealism by highlighting the work of six famous surrealist artists. For each artist, a color reproduction of his or her famous artwork is paired with questions to get kids thinking about what they see. A short paragraph explains the artist's intentions, and a bio gives children a peek at the person behind the art. Easy-to-follow activities then provide hands-on experience with the artist's techniques, subject, and media, each illustrated with examples by actual kids. Techniques include collage, watercolor painting, drip painting, drawing, frottage, watercolor resist painting, printmaking, sculpture, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Imagine that!.......2006-03-13
I volunteer at my childs school in the art master piece program. This book was a tremendous help in coming up with ideas for the students to do.
A solid introduction for the entire family .......2005-05-14
Joining others in the 'Art Explorers' series for elementary-level readers is Imagine That: Activities And Adventures In Surrealism: a solid introduction for the entire family which focuses on the surrealist movement for an age group which normally doesn't receive this kind of depth in a surrealist exploration. Six great Surrealist artists invite kids to view contrasting works and use their own interpretative skills, encouraging exploration through hands-on activities. These reinforcing activities make Imagine That an exceptional introduction.
Children Responding to Surrealism.......2005-03-09
"What is a television... to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen?" Salvador Dali
"Do not proceed according to rules and principles, but paint what you observe and feel." Camille Pissarro
"Nobody will give you freedom-you have to take it." Meret Oppenheim
"To be a Surrealist...means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been." Rene Magritte
Picture This and Imagine That introduce children to great artists, art concepts and allow them to become artists themselves. They are the first two books in the Art Explorers series. Picture This introduces Impressionism, Imagine That acquaints us with Surrealism. The books begin with a Note To Adults, telling how to help children explore that particular school of art. This is followed by a Note to Kids, introducing them to that school of art and to the book. This is followed by one work each from 5 or 6 artists that are representative of that particular school. Each work of art has accompanying kid-friendly information about the art and the artist, and discussion questions. Then there are a few pages of art projects, to allow the child to respond by experimenting with different techniques and materials. The instructions for the projects are clear and include illustrations of a work in progress, and examples of actual children's art projects. In the back there is a little additional information about each artist.
For example, after looking at Personal Values by Rene Magritte, children cut pictures out of a magazine to "Make a fantasy room where everyday things are seen in crazy mixed-up ways.". Step by step instructions are explained and illustrated. Several examples of completed projects by children 8-9 years old are included. The second project is a cut paper collage of "your own sky, where everything is mixed up and anything can float or fly". Again, there are two full pages of instructions and examples. These two projects require colored paper, glue, scissors, old magazines, and drawing materials. Of course some of the other projects will most likely involve a trip to the craft store, but some, like these, will not.
On afternoons when the weather is crummy and there is a space available in the house somewhere to make a controlled mess, you could probably scrounge up stuff to keep the kids amused for a little while with one of these projects.
These books are recommended for ages 5-12, but the nature of the projects is such that children of different ages can participate together in many of them.
You can see some of the author's work on line and explore modern art at www.moma.org/artsafari . Look at some examples of modern art, talk about the discussion questions, and play author or detective.
Young readers explore SURREALISM.......2005-02-09
"Celebrate the expressive ideas of the child-creativity is a gift to be nurtured in everyone."--Joyce Raimondo
IMAGINE THAT! is a study in the art of Surrealism that emerged after World War I. It is artists' response to the ravages of war through art that flows freely from the imagination and dreams, without deliberate purpose. From this thought process, artists' paintings evolved. Some of these artistic works were combined with images of actual objects and unusual or "bizarre" scenes. Some major artists represented in IMAGINE THAT! are:
**Salvador Dali
**Rene Magritte
**Max Ernst
**Meret Oppenheim
**Joan Miro & Frida Kahlo, who made noted contributions but were not considered "key" Surrealists
Surrealist artists encourage your imagination to run free and as topsy turvy as you like while harvesting those dream-like images. Make a surprise image creature, draw your dream, double your image, and make a collage or frottage. Start having fun in your world of imagination today.
Great stuff for tapping into young readers' and adults' creativity. Try the collograph creatures, the 3-D figurines, or the mystery box. Superb ideas for the art appreciation of the SURREALISM movement. I highly recommend IMAGINE THAT! Adults will also enjoy this one as well.
Fun and thought-provoking!.......2004-12-15
This is a great book to get kids really looking at art and responding to it. The creative activities, with step-by-step directions and lots of examples of kids' art, are perfect for homeschoolers or anyone whose school district has cut arts funding, as well as those who just want to increase a child's exposure to and understanding of great art. (You should see my daughter's Surrealist place setting with totally weird food.) Fun for all ages!
Book Description
Best-selling polymer clay artist Maureen Carlson has shown countless adults and children how to create charming works with this versatile material. Now, she brings more ideas to the children's audience, introducing new fun and creative projects. Children ages 6-12 will discover:
-Step-by-step projects including puppets, along with a wide variety of people and pets -Age-appropriate instruction from one of the most successful polymer clay artists working today -Ideas and inspiration for kids to make figures that look like friends and family
Children will love creating their own worlds with the engaging projects in this dynamic guide.
Customer Reviews:
Good typical clay stuff.......2007-08-09
Maureen Carlson is one of my favorite polymer clay artists. This book is great.
dummy-proof.......2005-12-10
This book's steps make it impossible to fail. Even if you have trouble with detail and faces, you can do it. Kids will appreciate the step-by-step approach and won't feel overwhelmed.-Such cute results(and a great confidence builder)!-A great way to move kids from average-intermediate ability with clay.
Book Description
In Imagine No Possessions, Christina Kiaer investigates the Russian Constructivist conception of objects as being more than commodities. "Our things in our hands must be equals, comrades," wrote Aleksandr Rodchenko in 1925. Kiaer analyzes this Constructivist counterproposal to capitalism's commodity fetish by examining objects produced by Constructivist artists between 1923 and 1925: Vladimir Tatlin's prototype designs for pots and pans and other everyday objects, Liubov' Popova's and Varvara Stepanova's fashion designs and textiles, Rodchenko's packaging and advertisements for state-owned businesses (made in collaboration with revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky), and Rodchenko's famous design for the interior of a workers' club. These artists, heeding the call of Constructivist manifestos to abandon the nonobjective painting and sculpture of the early Russian avant-garde and enter into Soviet industrial production, aimed to work as "artist-engineers" to produce useful objects for everyday life in the new socialist collective.
Kiaer shows how these artists elaborated on the theory of the socialist object-as-comrade in the practice of their art. They broke with the traditional model of the autonomous avant-garde, Kiaer argues, in order to participate more fully in the political project of the Soviet state. She analyzes Constructivism's attempt to develop modernist forms to forge a new comradely relationship between human subjects and the mass-produced objects of modernity; Constructivists could "imagine no possessions" (as John Lennon's song puts it) not by eliminating material objects but by eliminating the possessive relation to them. Considering such Constructivist objects as flapper dresses and cookie advertisements, Kiaer creates a dialogue between the more famous avant-garde works of these artists and their quirkier, less appreciated utilitarian objects. Working in the still semicapitalist Russia of the New Economic Policy, these artists were imagining, by creating their comradely objects, a socialist culture that had not yet arrived.
Book Description
The counterculture of the 1960s and '70s remains a highly controversial topic in American society; virtually the only thing that can be agreed upon is its enormous impact on American life. Critics on the right complain of the shattering of cherished social norms, while those on the left take many movements to task for not going far enough and selling out.
Amidst the recent flourishing of Sixties scholarship, Imagine Nation is the first collection of essays to focus solely on the counterculture. Its fourteen provocative essays seek to unearth the complexity and rediscover the society-changing power of significant movements and figures. The fascinating constellation of topics covered include feminism, psychedelic drug experimentation, guerilla theatre, the New Left, Jimi Hendrix, communal living, underground comics, and avant-garde film. As a whole, Imagine Nation offers exciting new interpretations of how the counterculture of the 1960s and '70s irrevocably altered American society.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Book Of Essays On The Counterculture!.......2004-01-15
One of the most fascinating artifacts arising in the midst of the turbulent 1960s was the creation and promulgation of a new subculture in the shadow of the mainstream material culture, one that had quite different aspects to its lifestyle, including a different set of predominating social, economic and political perspectives, experiences, and perspectives. In the main the thrust of the counterculture, as it came to be known, was a rabid rejection of the ethos, perspectives, and behaviors of the mainstream culture, including its meaningless materialism, its warlike nature, and its xenophobia about anyone different. In this terrific book edited by Peter Braunstein and Michael William Doyle, we are presented with fourteen wonderful essays written by scholarly eyewitnesses to the phenomenon.
These are arranged into several sections according to chapters dealing with popular culture, the media, the use of drugs to free oneself of predominating cultural baggage, social and cultural politics, and race, sex, and communal issues. Each of the sections is prefaced with a brief but integrating essay that helps immeasurably to both connect the subject of each chapter to the rest of the welter of considerations concerning the counterculture, and to help to explain various aspects concerning themes with the subject itself. The editors aid the overall effort by stitching together such important elements as the predominating "geist' or worldview of the members of the counterculture that helps to better locate them both historically and culturally within the particular and relatively brief moment in time that enveloped the counterculture itself. Yet another scholarly aspect of the book that makes it worthwhile is its extensive footnoting, which provocatively slows the reader down to enjoy the depth of the ride as well as to invite the reader in the direction of further reading and cogitation.
The opening section of the book is comprised of a wonderful essay that both locates the fourteen other essays in terms of the popular philosophy that so actively fueled the movement away from the predominating mainstream material culture, and points out how beneficial further historical analysis would be to further explicate the ways in which the sudden explosion of the counterculture onto the social scene in the late 1960s actively changed the society and continue to influence it today. This is a we'll-written and entertaining read that helps the reader to understand what other authors have simply explained away as being nothing more than "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll". For those of us who lived through it, it was so much more, and this book gives one a glimpse of everything the counterculture was, and all that it aspired unsuccessfully to become. Enjoy!
A HAPPENING - Bittersweet Adolescence of a Nation.......2002-07-25
This book took me weeks to read, not because it was dull but because the copious footnotes at the end of each of the 14 excellent essays demanded investigation. The essays complement one another to present a more complete and cogent view of the antecedents and realities of the counterculture than any other volume I have yet seen on the subject.
Counterculture names, say Braunstein and Doyle, "...hippies, freaks, Flower Children, urban guerillas, orphans of Amerikka - underscores the degree to which Sixties cultural radicals had a revolving-door approach to identity, appropriating and shedding roles and personas at a dizzying pace." In these pages, the roles and personas in cultural politics, race, sex, the media (especially music, film and fashion), drugs, feminism, environmentalism and alternative visions of community and technology are thoroughly investigated.
"Unlike subcultures," says Marilyn Young in the foreword, "...a contraculture aspires to transform values and mores of its host culture. If it is successful...it BECOMES the dominant culture." I don't believe anyone would maintain that the counterculture of the '60s has become dominant, but its influence on our present culture is more vast and all-encompassing than much of the media would have us believe.
"The Sixties were centrally about the recognition on the part of an ever-growing number of Americans, that the country in which they thought they lived - peaceful, generous, honorable - did not exist and never had." The society they found themselves in was instead, "...morally bankrupt, racist, militaristic, and culturally stultifying."
Against the climate of the VietNam war and race riots in the South, these essays note that the era was one of post-scarcity abundance. Intentional poverty was adopted consciously by a generation that was appalled by the waste of human and material resources. They wanted to figure out how to "...live a completely new life as far outside the boundaries of the State and commercial marketplace as they could get." Dropouts could live on the leftovers of this affluent society.
The San Francisco Diggers' motto was "create the condition you describe." Says Doyle, "For the Diggers, the word "free" was as much an imperative as it was an adjective. They realized it with free housing, legal services, a medical clinic, film screenings, concerts, free [open]churches, and free stores with food, clothes and household utensils - all donated and gathered from the surrounding community. The Mime Troupe and other street theater groups drew people in to create "happenings," freaking freely on the streets and in public parks, de-legitimizing violence and racism, while the White Panthers staged a "total assault on the culture." Peacefully.
"If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable," said JFK, and his words reverberate across cultural boundaries today. But hippies didn't WANT to become the next coercive power structure in some kind of psychedelic fascism. They wanted a "free frame of reference."
Braunstein observes that the post-scarcity abundance of the era fueled a new drive toward leisure and play. Against a system of "...lifelong competitiveness, materialism and avarice"...LSD and other mind-expanding drugs "...incapacitated the discriminating faculties of the brain that placed objects and images in hierachcies of value." David Farber adds that LSD and other hallucinogens were used as "...an agent in the production of cultural reorientation...a new set of cultural coordinates."
My only beef with the book is in Philip Deloria's "Counterculture Indians and the New Age" and it's not even a criticism of the essay (which I found among the most brilliant and absorbing) but of scholarly research in general. From personal knowledge, I know that there are egregious errors in what Deloria's sources reported about New Buffalo and Lorian. Scholarly research breaks down when such sources are trusted, and Deloria gives an excellent example of this in the much-repeated death speech of Chief Seattle - who never uttered it. It was written by a white screenwriter from Texas for a 1972 TV script on pollution. Hippies and New Agers reinvented Indians without careful reference to the source. And of course the image became marketable.
"Playing Indian," says Deloria, "...had a tendency to lead one into, rather than out of, contradiction and irony" and "...people are simultaneously granted a platform and rendered voiceless."
In his excellent essay on communes, Timothy Miller notes that they were "...enormously, endlessly diverse." "The ultimate culprit, perhaps, was that sacred American icon, individualism. The time had come, communitarians believed, to give up the endless pursuit of self-interest and begin thinking about the common good. They wanted the country to start moving from I to we. It all added up to a vision of nothing less than a new society. The new communitarians were out to save the world and made no bones about it."
Miller's essay segues nicely into the last - on alternative technolgy, environment and the counterculture by Andrew Kirk. Buckminster Fuller's geodescic domes were used extensively in the Drop City commune in Colorado as well as "...composting toilets, afforadble greenhouses, and organic gardening techniques along with alternative energy technologies." And don't forget that the first computer hackers, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, were longhairs who smoked grass.
It's not that there were no mistakes, ineptitudes and downright stupidities in this deliberately unorganized "happening" of the '60s and '70s, but that what was good about it is still good. We're still out there. Here. Hippies didn't disappear and they didn't become corporate CEO's either. Instead, nearly all became teachers, health care workers, artists, organic farmers, social works and the like. "Cultural creatives" of the present, for instance, are either hippies of yesteryear or their heirs in some way.
"They are still out there, well into a third generation, coming together by the tens of thousands once a year at the Rainbow Gatherings. The hallucinogenic age, while tamed in some respects, has survived and mutated and reproduced."
This is the closest thing to the WHOLE STORY" that I've seen yet. Put it on your reference book shelf. ...
Books:
- Introduction to Autodesk Land Desktop 2005 and Civil Design 2005
- Karel Martens: printed matter/drukwerk, 2nd Edition
- Lifelike Drawing With Lee Hammond
- Logo Font & Lettering Bible: A Comprehensive Guide to the Design, Construction and Usage of Alphabets and Symbols
- Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Training from the Source
- Manga from the Floating World: Comicbook Culture and the Kibyoshi of Edo Japan (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
- Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics, Second Edition (Game Development Series)
- Meggs' History of Graphic Design
- MTIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer
- Nash Editions: Photography and the Art of Digital Printing (VOICES)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- Beany Malone Series - 14 Book Set
- The Darkness That Comes Before
- The Lamp of the Wicked
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- Works of Love Are Works of Peace: Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity
- Popular Advertising Cuts of the Twenties and Thirties
- The Lost River: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Transformation on Wild Water
- Hawaii Investment and Business Guide
Bedtime & Dreaming
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Imagine a Day (Byron Preiss Book)
Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusion
Something's Not Quite Right
The Ultimate Book of Optical Illusions
Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom & Wishes
