Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design

Book Description

A guiding principle of Eastern art and design, focusing on the interaction between positive and negative space, demonstrated in 6 problems of progressive difficulty. Solutions will fascinate artists and designers of every calling and level of expertise, from painters and sculptors, potters and textile designers to architects and interior designers. 101 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

design basic for ALL fields of art.......2007-08-10

This book teaches a basic principle that all artists/teachers should use when thinking/teaching composition whether you are working two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally. Notan is a simple design principle that focuses on positive and negative space. It uses six different exercises that could be used or adapted at any age level and should be a must for the art curriculum. It also offers great historical references. It is one of the best art books you could buy for under $10.

Notan: The Dark-Light Principle Of Design.......2007-08-10

Gives a very good idea of the relationships of dark & light in design.
Took a class from Dorr many years ago. Glad to see her book back in print.
I bought this book for my Grand Daughter.

Clarifies the application of design principles: a valuable reference.: .......2006-04-18

After reading this book and doing some of the suggested exercises, I became more sensitive to negative space and related design principles and better able to apply them to my art.

Why I love Notan.......2000-08-05

The Book Notan is a stimulating journey in to the World of design.Every aspiring designer should own this book. The excercises are sure to help in the devolopment of an understanding of the importance of "negative" space and it's relationship with good design. I would recommend this book to ages 12 and up, for those with an eye for art, or who would like to devolop their eye. I find myself returning to this book on a regular basis to refresh my Vision and kick start my creativity. An Exceptional Book!!

The Dark Design (Riverworld Saga, Book 3)

Average customer rating:

Motives Revealed
Good Series Hits a Low Point
A Fairly Decent But Annoying Read
overwritten, careless
Sloppy novel would benefit from heavy editing

The Dark Design (Riverworld Saga, Book 3)
Philip Jose Farmer
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

The Fabulous Riverboat (Riverworld Saga, Book 2)
The Magic Labyrinth (Riverworld Saga, Book 4)
The Gods of Riverworld (Riverworld Saga, No 5)
To Your Scattered Bodies Go (Riverworld Saga, Book 1)
The World of Tiers: Volume One (World of Tiers)

ASIN: 0345419693
Release Date: 1998-07-28

Amazon.com

The Dark Design is the third book in the epic Riverworld saga, in which almost all of humanity has been resurrected on a strange planet along the shores of a river 22 million miles long. But why have humans been given another chance at life, and who is behind it all? That's what Sir Richard Francis Burton and Sam Clemens set out to discover in two earlier novels, one by riding the "suicide express" (if you die on Riverworld, you're resurrected again at a random point along the river) and the other steaming on the greatest riverboat ever seen. Now Milton Firebrass, Clemens's former enemy and now his No. 1 lieutenant, is planning to use the dwindling iron supply on the Riverworld to create a great airship, which can fly to the North Polar Sea far more quickly than any boat can travel. There he hopes to learn the secret of the mysterious tower thought to house the beings who created this planet.

Jill Gulbirra does not care as much about the mission as she wants the chance to captain the great airship, which in all likelihood will be the last airship ever constructed by humankind. But in landing the coveted role, she faces stiff competition--especially from the greatest swordsman of all time, Cyrano de Bergerac, who turns out to be a natural pilot. But even if Jill can win the command of the airship and even if the ship can reach the river's headwaters, there is no guarantee it can get through the mountain wall that surrounds the tower. And it's likely that one or more agents of the Ethicals--the creators of Riverworld--are on board the airship, plotting its downfall. Worse still, somewhere along the way the airship is sure to encounter the Rex Grandissimus, the steamboat stolen by Sam's archnemesis, King John Lackland. --Craig E. Engler

Book Description

Years have passed on Riverworld. Entire nations have risen, and savage wars have been fought--all since the dead of Earth found themselves resurrected in their magnificent new homeworld. Yet the truth about the Ethicals, the powerful engineers of this mysterious "afterlife," remains unknown. But a curious cross-section of humanity is determined to change that situation . . . at any cost.

Intrepid explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton leads the most remarkable voyage of discovery he has ever undertaken. Hot on his heels are Samuel Clemens, King John of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Spurred by the promise of ultimate answers, they chart a course across the vast polar sea--and toward the awesome tower that looms above it. But getting there will be more than half the battle. For death on Riverworld has become chillingly final . . .

Customer Reviews:

Motives Revealed.......2006-01-19

In the third installment of the Riverworld series, it is finally learned why people were resurrected on this strange planet by unknown beings; for some colossal galactic sociology experiment. The major characters from the first two series are all converging on the northernmost part of the river, and a few new characters are introduced, such as Jill Gulbirra, the dirigible pilot. Farmer put much more work into the character development (this book is easily thicker than the first two put together), but unfortunately puts just as many words into describing the engineering and building of the dirigible, etc. The reveal of THE DARK DESIGN of the aliens is a letdown and mostly anti-climactic.

Good Series Hits a Low Point.......2004-09-15

This is the middle volume of Farmer's ambitious five-book saga of Riverworld, a fantastic planet reworked by a mysterious super race to be one long river valley along a ten million-mile long river, which snakes around the planet. Into this artificially formed world, all humanity who ever lived is resurrected, given perpetual youth, and provided with all their needs through a mind boggling technology. What they are not given is a clue as to who did this, how, or most importantly, why. This book is the weakest of the series so far.
The action of the story follows several groups who are now racing toward the headwaters of the river hoping to discover the mysteries of their after-life and strange, new world, which are rumored to be found there. In addition to Sir Richard Burton and Sam Clemens, who we have met in previous books, we are introduced to Akhenaten, heretic pharaoh of Egypt, who hopes to discover his one true Sun god at river's end, and writer Jack London traveling together with film cowboy Tom Mix, all headed toward the same shadowy goal. The bulk of the book, however, focuses on the building of a huge dirigible that can gain in a few days of flight what would take many years of travel on the river. An exciting account of this airship's mission to river's end provides the cliff hanging ending of this volume.
Part of the charm of the first two books was their protagonists; Sir Richard Burton in the first, Sam Clemens in the second. In 'The Dark Design', the majority of the action is viewed through characters of the author's creation rather than through historical protagonists, and this does not come off as well. Both Burton and Clemens make brief appearances here, but we don't see either of them enough.
The book suffers from two other major flaws. First, it is overlong - nearly as long as the first two books put together. Farmer's writing style is at best competent, and begins to become taxing after 200 pages or so. There are whole chapters here that have no real relationship to the plot and are little more than the author indulging himself. Secondly, there are major plot and character shifts away from what was established in the first two books. These shifts and reversals are awkward, and don't seem to have been thought out well. At times, the author's sloppiness makes it hard to suspend disbelief.
The power of the story, and the possibilities of the concept should keep you reading through this poorly edited mess of a book, but if the first two volumes have not thoroughly captured you, you may bog down and never reach river's end.

Theo Logos

A Fairly Decent But Annoying Read.......2004-06-19

The part 3 of the Riverwold series. It's nowhere near as good as either of the first 2 books of the series were (To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboat).

One of the main faults of the book is that an excessively large number of chapters deal with science fiction writer Peter Jairus Frigate who by chance remarkably resembles the author Philip Jose Farmer.

The main purpose of this character seems to be to serve as something of a mouthpice for Farmer to vent his views on humanity, the nature of people, religion and Riverworld....And all the subtly of a seal clubbing.

This is worsened by the fact that every time the book really starts to get the reader involved it breaks to a chapter or 4 filled with the musings and incessant ramblings of PJF (you decide which) or filling in the backstory of Frigate WHICH GOES NO WHERE!

I dread to think of what this book would have been like BEFORE it was edited.

overwritten, careless.......2004-06-16

severe and brutal editing would have greatly improved flow and quality. Frankly the Frigate character should have been left out of books 3 and 4- reducing page count, pretentiousness, and improving flow

Sloppy novel would benefit from heavy editing.......2004-02-07

The Riverworld saga continues as various characters attempt the journey to the mysterious tower at the source of the river on whose shores all of humanity has been resurrected. Although this essential quest and the puzzle at the heart of the series still interests, this sprawling, messy novel often tested my patience. Burton and his crew make an appearance at the beginning, but then disappear from the novel altogether. There are numerous unnecessary digressions, including several dull chapters of backstory on Farmer's alterego, the science-fiction writer Peter Jairus Frigate (check out the initials), who is actually a relatively minor character.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating. We're not in Kansas anymore........2007-08-17

I bought this after spending some hours (but not enough to get my fill) at the Crocker, one of the venues that is hosting the Norman exhibition this summer (2007). The book is a very distant second to seeing this work in person, since even a magnifying glass on the book cannot give you an appreciation for the astounding detail in the works themselves, some of which are of stupendous proportions. One piece actually had to be exhibited on a slant, being too tall for the room!
Anyway, aside from seeing the exhibition or personal visits to many galleries and private collectors, the book is probably as close as we are going to get (for now) to Norman's work. Mrs. Norman graciously responded to my inquiry to say that prints are only a hope at this time.

The book itself, produced by Crocker and the Irving Norman Trust and printed by Heyday Books, is divided into 3 mains sections. A foreword by Michael Duncan (art writer), some acknowledgments and an intro by Scott Shields (Crocker Chief Curator), two nicely illustrated essays by Patricia Junker (Curator at De Young in '96) and Charles Eldredge (director at Smithsonian American Art Museum) make up the first part.
There follow about 140 pages of reproductions of this amazing fellow's stuff, divided into 5 sections whose names give you an idea of what you are in for:
Capitalist Enigma
Social Illusion
Cycle of War
Urban Transformation
Human Predicament
The third section is about 15 pages of appendices with a catalogue of works, a list of exhibitions and Collections, a list of the reporductions, and some comments about the contributors.

You will come to your own conclusions about who he is, but there were 2 blurbs at the Crocker that stuck in my mind. One, to the effect that Norman had sold all his posessions before joining the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, in the belief that he would not return alive from the Spanish Civil War; the other that he returned to school when he realized that he did not yet have the skill to lay down his visions.
There are a few photos of the artist, and some quotes as well. The alarming and pathetic story of the FBI tracking him for almost 50 years is well told by Junker, so if you are concerned that your web searches and Amazon purchases are now the guvvmint's business, you might want to find a suitable surrogate to make the buy.

I'd give it full stars but for a an irritating flaw (perhaps only in my copy) that has a few pages with grey printing on a grey background.
Still, it's an beautiful book, put together by some brave and talented people, about a much larger than life fellow from quiet Half Moon Bay who pulled no punches.

An amazing artist.......2007-02-12

Dark Metropolis is an interesting collection of works of art by Irving Norman. The book contains several articles by different authors describing Normans and their impressions of his work as well as the symbolism behind the work. There s also a short biography of his life

More then one hundred of Normans paintings and drawings are displayed in the book along with an explanation of the work and what it represents as well as points of interest within the painting.

Most of the work is politically, socially, human condition or economically motivated in terms of the haves versus the have-nots scenario and the selections of artwork in the book really depict that. What you can tell in the book is the amazing detail of his work. Having seen it in person the scale of some of his work is several feet tall and wide and so filled with detail that you could spend hours looking at his paintings and still not see it all. The paintings and drawings are in chronological order by year. There is a catalog that lists all of his public work. Norman's work is social surrealism in it truest form.

If you can see his work in person then the book is the next best thing and does a good job in representing his work and his ideas.

The book is very well designed in visual and literary concept and the layout of the book is nice.

WOW! Shockingly beautiful art book.......2006-11-09

If you've never heard of Irving Norman you may be in for a surprise. People didn't really paint like this at all in the middle of the 20th Century or much before that. Some Renaissance Masters had similar elaborations of the depth of perspective or of horrors of this world and the next. Some comic book illustrators in the 1960s had a similar deeply morbid whimsy. Who but Irving Norman could get up day after day, year after year for decades to detail such trenchant observations of city life under the thumb of the military industrial complex? I was lucky to see some of these paintings at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco in 1996. They drew me back to spend hours looking at all their details-not a world you'd ever want WALDO to get lost in!- and I made all my friends come,too. One, a prominent psychologist widened his eyes, shook his head and said,"They have PILLS for this now!" I didn't ask for his diagnosis of the artist's perceived disorders. I don't care why these paintings exist- whether psychological imbalance , OCD, paranoia or divine inspiration. IRVING NORMAN reaches well past what anything even most figurative artists would dream to attempt, flies worlds past the most wicked political satirist (eat your heart out, Steadman!)to make technically proficient canvases on a GRAND scale that glow like medieval stained glass and sparkle with wit and fury.
[...]
The reproductions are from new photographs. The book is big enough to see some detail. The production is excellent, a real tribute to an unknown American Master!
ps This book is published as a centenary show of Irving Norman goes up in Sacramento at Crocker Art Center. The show runs through Jan 7, 2007 then moves to Pasadena Art Museum through April 15, 2007. See it if you can.

Average customer rating:

VERY INTERESTING
Not Much To Get Excited About Here
not as I expected.
Yum!
contrived

Fun & Games: Male Models After Dark
Lalli
Manufacturer: Universe Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Fashion | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Men of WW II: Fighting Men at Ease
Bondi Urban (Bondi)

ASIN: 0789301385
Release Date: 1998-06-15

Book Description

In this debut book, photographer Lalli offers an edgy and alluring look at a new generation of models at play. An intimage and seductive visiton of male beauty and desire, this collection of images marks a new and subversive stage in the developing art of guy portraiture.

Customer Reviews:

VERY INTERESTING.......2007-01-24

This photographer has a GREAT EYE and see's things and men in an interesting way .. you'll enjoy it

Not Much To Get Excited About Here.......2004-09-12

Supposedly the photographer shot these men after they had worked by day as models for fashion ads. They are thus apparently supposed to be being themselves, unposed, etc. If George Bernard Shaw were alive today and saw these boys, I'm not sure that he would say that it's a shame that youth is wasted on young people. With a couple of exceptions there's not a single photograph here that I would even think about purchasing and certainly not hanging on a wall. The lighting is garish, the composition is bad and many of the shots are out of focus. (Deliberately I hope.)

Brad Gooch gushes in his foreward. Yes, the photographs remind you of Larry Clark and Nan Goldin; but these two photographers did it much better and got there first. And how Gooch can call Lalli a "gay Helmut Newton" is beyond me. Paul Cadmus in his afterward makes a lot more sense when he says that these are boys he would not want to know, himself. I couldn't agree more.

To quote a line from Robert Browning, suddenly "I feel chilly and grown old" when I view these photographs.

not as I expected........2003-01-23

By looking at the book cover, I thought that it would have lots of nude pictures, etc. And from the book title, I assumed this is a picture book about those models having fun after dark. But in reality, it is just a book of different male models in different poses. It only has a few nude pictures. Nothing too exciting, I think.

Yum!.......2000-07-22

"Fun ? Game: Male Models After Dark is a fascinating blend of the sexual and the silly, the enticing and the amusing: it's a collection of snaps taken by the uni-named fashion photog Lalli while casting for Calvin Klein; the bodies are mostly sheathed in slight briefs or lightly-draped shirts, and it's not a fount of full-frontal. But it is a colorful eyeful of good-looking goofs, a reminder that models have personalities. - review excerpt from RL at A Different Light Books

contrived.......2000-07-15

what a disappointment. mostly cliched and contrived images that lack emotional and visual impact. what should be provocative images come across as awkward and rehearsed. for the real thing, check out testino!

4x4 Photoshop and Illustrator: Light/Dark

Average customer rating:

A soild book, could be better

4x4 Photoshop and Illustrator: Light/Dark
Jemma Gura , Nick Higgins , Adrian Luna , and Sean Donohue
Manufacturer: Wrox Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Adobe Photoshop | Digital Photography & Video | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Database Design | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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4x4 Photoshop and Flash: Time/Stasis
4x4 Photoshop and 3D: Geometry/Chaos
4x4 Generative Design (with Auto-Illustrator, Java, DBN, Lingo): Life/Oblivion
Photoshop Secrets of the Pros: 20 Top Artists and Designers Face Off

ASIN: 1903450454

Book Description

4x4: Photoshop and Illustrator

Away from corporate, client-led commissions, in the personal 'side' projects of designers, the real possibilities of ubiquitous tools like Photoshop and Illustrator can be discovered.

"You have to bend filters, push them to their limits, and tweak them out in order to get something new. I think it's important to wrestle full-on with these things, otherwise you risk producing lifeless and boring results." - Jemma Gura

The 4x4 Project invited four groundbreaking designers celebrated for their experimental work to create new works around the central theme of Light and Dark.

Jemma Gura (aka lentil) is the creator of Prate.com
Sean Donohue is the creator of Goingonsix.com
Nick Higgins is a professional illustrator based in the UK
Adrian Luna is the creator of Purusdesign.com

In this book you'll find the tools and the inspiration to take on the applications and beat them. Photoshop is the application of choice, with Illustrator being employed for its vector graphics capabilities, along with a little Auto-Illustrator for some random beauty.

This book immerses the reader in the four phases of the process:

Theory: personal accounts of the creative process, manifestos, diaries, mental sketchbooks, and associated ephemera

Light and Dark: the finished original art works

Process: detailed, first hand, technical descriptions of the creation of each piece, along with original source files on the accompanying CD

Noise and Interference: the four designers discuss, sample, and remix their colleagues' work

The 4x4 Project

4 books, each hosting 4 acclaimed and pioneering digital artists who take on one of 4 outsized themes: Light & Dark, Life & Oblivion, Geometry & Chaos, Time & Stasis.

They pick their tools of choice: Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, 3D, or Code.

They create. They debate. They collaborate.

Each book is an original artwork, a manual, a scrapbook, and a laboratory experiment.

Customer Reviews:

A soild book, could be better.......2003-03-10

I bought this book pretty much to get some inspiration and ideas. While it does not showcase a hell of a lot of art like I had wished it would, it's still a good read if you want to see the creative and technical process that each of the four designes go through to produce an image.

The tutorials are well set out and assume you know your way around photoshop and illustrator, which was ok for me. It's not the sort of book you want to get if your interested in learning photshop or illustrator, but for anyone who has a working knowlage of the programs it's cool to see how these guys get their final results.

Personally I think there could have been a bit more art/design work showcased and some other designer in place of Nick Higgens who cant seem to accept that the other designer sometimes include elements in their images just because, it looks good, but overall it's a solid effort.

The New Darkroom Handbook, Second Edition
Average customer rating:

For those that still do this...

The perfect book!

This is the book you want if you are going to build a darkro

The only guide you will ever need to building a darkroom

A GREAT BOOK FOR LESS THAN PERFECT CONDITIONS

The New Darkroom Handbook, Second Edition
Joe DeMaio , Roberta Worth , and Dennis Curtin
Manufacturer: Focal Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Darkroom & Processing | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Into Your Darkroom Step by Step

Build Your Own Home Darkroom

The Darkroom Cookbook, Second Edition

The Darkroom Handbook

The Film Developing Cookbook (Darkroom Cookbook)

ASIN: 0240802608

Book Description

The Darkroom Handbook, Second Edition, is a completely revised and updated version of a classic guide to the best design, construction, and equipment to use when setting up a darkroom.

This book features ideas and money-saving tips on how to put a darkroom almost anywhere in your home or apartment. It takes you inside darkrooms of photographers around the world including those of famous photographers such as, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Berenice Abbott, and W. Eugene Smith. In addition, it contains detailed do-it-yourself plans for the most essential darkroom components, cutouts and design grids to plan that "dream" darkroom, and special sections on the color darkroom and the digital darkroom.

The most comprehensive book on the darkroom.
A step-by-step guide to help anyone plan and build a photo lab.
Illustrated with an abundance of photos and sketches.

Customer Reviews:

For those that still do this..........2007-09-11

This book is a nice and detailed overview of the process, but for me the best part has to have been the darkroom setup ideas for "alternative" spaces. If you've got very little room to work with but you're stubbornly attached to the idea of setting up your own darkroom, this book is definitely worth a look.

The perfect book!.......2004-08-15

This book is amazing. It really has everything you would need to know to build a darkroom, from building the walls, doing plumbing and electricity, to how to build a sink. I am so happy I bought this book - there were so many little things I didn't even consider until I started reading this book. Now I know what I need to build the darkroom, and can actually envision what it will be like. I have so many ideas, and I'm really excited about building my darkroom!

This is the book you want if you are going to build a darkro.......2003-03-14

This is the book you want if you are going to build a darkroom. It is excelent! I got another book and half of it was how to build a wall using drywall. This one was not like that and really had plans and technical information that you want.

The only guide you will ever need to building a darkroom.......2000-04-01

I just purchased this book because i am planning to build a darkroom in my basement, and it has provided me with alot of information. And if you have a really small bathroom and you think it's impossible to turn it into a darkroom and use it at the same time, then you better get this book. There are floorplans/layouts & elevation provided, as well as pictures to give you an idea of how your darkroom will turn out. There are so many alternatives given that you can't go wrong in builiding the perfect darkroom of your own and save money as well.

A GREAT BOOK FOR LESS THAN PERFECT CONDITIONS.......2000-02-14

I found this book to be very practical and direct. What impressed me most was that the authors took into account the fact that not everyone has the ideal accomodations for a darkroom. Each section goes into the how-to of every phase of setting up a simple, basic to the sophisticated darkroom. Everything is spelled out in detail allowing you to "opt out" of any part of the process that you feel may be "over your head" (call the plummer) and to deal with those that are within your reach. In between, the book allows you to peek at how others have set up their facilities. Over all a great book for anyone looking to set up a dark room the "right way".

The Complete Riverworld Novels (Riverworld Series)

Average customer rating:

The Complete Riverworld Novels (Riverworld Series)
Philip Jose Farmer
Manufacturer: Berkeley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KUFDV6

Product Description

5 volumes in slipcase.

Photographers and Their Studios: Creating an Efficient and Profitable Workspace

Average customer rating:

A collection of tacky suburban photographer's lobbies

Photographers and Their Studios: Creating an Efficient and Profitable Workspace
Helen T. Boursier
Manufacturer: Amherst Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1584280476

Book Description

The interior design of photographers' consultation rooms and camera rooms can affect the efficiency and profitability of studio photography businesses. This book explores the studios of 20 top professional photographers and examines the design problems each faced, and the solutions they devised. Photographers will learn that their space must be an efficient and practical environment in which to create their photography and that it must convey to prospective clients the quality and character of the work they can provide. From studios in urban high-rises to small-town corner operations and even home-based studios, this book covers all the options available to studio owners.

Customer Reviews:

A collection of tacky suburban photographer's lobbies.......2007-05-17

What a disappointment! The author roamed America to take pictures of tacky professional photographers' interiors. I expected to find serious professional photographic equipment in high-ceiling rooms with beams and lamps and reflectors, but all there is in the book are pictures of lobbies, waiting rooms and gardens with cheap gazebos to shoot marriage pictures. Even as an interior decoration book it would be a gross failure. The only possible reader I can imagine for such a book would be for an American rural portrait-and-marriage photographer to get an idea of how his colleagues suites are arranged.

Dark Harbor: Building House and Home on an Enchanted Island

Average customer rating:

Travails and Tantrums of Building a (blind man's) House
A Disappointment
the man is interesting, not the house
"Dark Harbor" filled with insight and wit
Quirky, Equivocal Man Builds Ugly House on Beautiful Island

Dark Harbor: Building House and Home on an Enchanted Island
Ved Mehta
Manufacturer: Nation Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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Portrait of India

ASIN: 1560255285

Book Description

When Ved Mehta was invited to Islesboro, a thirteen-mile-long island off the coast of Maine, he could not have imagined the far-reaching consequences of his visit. Seduced by the dream of setting roots in the New World, Mehta finds himself buying a fifteen-acre parcel of land in the rugged terrain of Dark Harbor. To build his house, he hires the architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, famous for designing, among other things, the IBM Building in New York. With echoes of Ibsen's Master-builder, Mehta details the folly of a blind man constructing a house on an island far removed from that other island, Manhattan, where he lives. Underlying this narrative is a richly allegorical tale about Mehta's own struggles as a writer and as a man. In the middle of it all, he falls in love with a much younger woman, whom he ultimately marries.

Customer Reviews:

Travails and Tantrums of Building a (blind man's) House.......2004-03-15

Why should you read a book about building a house? Aren't millions of them built in the US every year? What's special about them?

Well, the author (who is building the house) is blind for one. Add to it the fact that, he couldn't afford it when he started building. And then he was building it on a remote island in Maine. If you thought that this is a recipe for disaster, you are correct. But he seems to persevere through the whole thing and builds a fabulous house in the end.

Two of the reviewers (I couldn't help notice both are from New England) seem to think that the book is about the beauty of Maine. And therefore conclude that the book is not a good book. So what is the book about? .. it is about a blind mans life, his aspirations and desperations; about how a house project always costs much more than is budgeted; about how a house is a never ending project; about architecture; and of course about the beauty of an island in Maine (but not just that).

All in all a very interesting read.

A Disappointment.......2003-11-03

I found this book to be tedious and far too concerned with the parochial, and frankly dull, details of Mr. Mehta's feelings about having a house built on an island off the coast of Maine. Not enough about Maine. Too much about Mehta. Too bad.

the man is interesting, not the house.......2003-10-18

Forget the other Great Autobiographies like Paustowsky and Proust. Ved Mehta and his Continents of exile is far better then anything in this field of writing. In very elegant, humorous English he gives you the story of his life, and the angle differs a bit each time. That counts for the disappointed readers that expect a book about The New Yorker or A House On A Maine Island. What you get is the fascinating story of a blind Indian man that grew up in India, came to America, went to England and back to America, and combines all these influences and continents with humor and an intelligent attitude.
A great series and another great book.

"Dark Harbor" filled with insight and wit.......2003-08-28

I'm not sure what the reviewer from Marblehead's beef with Mehta's book is. It seems unfair to knock "Dark Harbor" just because it doesn't portray the stereotypical "Down East" Maine preciousness he or she holds as inviolate.

In fact, to think Mehta's book is or should be solely about rocky beaches and pine trees and lobster boats is missing the larger and much more subtle and poignant points this memoir seeks to make. I found it fascinating to read Mehta's account of building a dream home in spite of his blindness. Think of the central ironies at play here--a blind man obsessed with visual and spatial architectural details he cannot detect or enjoy the same way sighted people can, and yet driven to build a state-of-the-art home for the enjoyment of those around him. It is at once an act of tremendous generosity, considerable hubris, and deep-seated insecurity and sensitivity to the opinion and approval of others.

Mehta is not the first writer to describe his descent into a house-building money pit, but he is no doubt the first to describe the experience from this unique perspective. This material is rich with psychological complexity, as well as humor and wit, and Mehta invites us along on his bricks-and-mortar journey of self-discovery. If that trip takes us from Islesboro to Manhattan to his ancestral home in India, or from the isolation of his blindess to the social swirl of New York literati and high society, so much the better. Those intertwining worlds (the "Continents of Exile" after which he named his autobiographical series) only make for more fascinating reading. And his clear and lucid prose style--an elegant, charmingly antiquated type of writing one rarely finds published anymore--enhances the experience. There is much to enjoy and savor in this book.

Quirky, Equivocal Man Builds Ugly House on Beautiful Island.......2003-08-11

Mr Mehta has a gift for writing much about nothing. To put it simply, the reader is left feeling like his psychotherapist.

Here is a man who's building a house on the coast of Maine yet wants the walls to be utterly soundproof--to lock out the slurping and crashing of the coastal waters. Sheetrock is a recurring demon that plagues his adult life. Throughout the book, Mr Mehta gives up and decides to sell off his investment. In fact, this theme is so frequent, you begin to wonder if he wrote the book to simply help market the house.

While the book holds some undoubtedly poignant memories for Mr Mehta; for the reader, it lacks any sense of coastal Maine. There is no feel of wind or fog; there is no smell of salty pine; and you certainly don't hear the crunch of sticks and rocks beneath your feet. You spend most of the book stifling in his New York apartment while he argues with himself, his architect, and his builder.

Painting the Dark Side: Art and the Gothic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century America
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Painting the Dark Side: Art and the Gothic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century America
Sarah Burns
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Gothic | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0520249879

Book Description

Voices from the dark, or "gothic," side of American life are well known through the work of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. But who were the Poes of American art? Until now, art historians have for the most part seen the gothic as the province of misfits and oddballs who rejected the bright landscapes and cheerful scenes of everyday life depicted by Hudson River School and other mainstream painters. In Painting the Dark Side, Sarah Burns counters this view, arguing that far from being marginal, the gothic was a pervasive and potent visual language used by recognized masters and eccentric outsiders alike to express the darker facets of history and the psyche. A deep gothic strain in the visual arts becomes evident in these beautifully written, richly illustrated pages, illuminating the entire spectrum of American art.
Weaving a complex tapestry of biography, psychology, and history, Sarah Burns exposes dark dimensions in the work of both romantic artists such as Albert Pinkham Ryder and Thomas Cole and realists like Thomas Eakins. She argues persuasively that works by artists who were generally considered outsiders, such as John Quidor, David Gilmour Blythe, and William Rimmer, belong to the mainstream of American art. She explores the borderlands where popular visual culture mingled with the elite medium of oil and delves into such topics as slave revolt, drugs, grave-robbing, vivisection, drunkenness, female monstrosity, and family secrets. Cutting deep across the grain of standard nationalistic accounts of nineteenth-century art, Painting the Dark Side provides a thrilling, radically alternative vision of American art and visual culture.

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