The Fifth Sacred Thing

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Not Free SF Reader

Ecofeminist Utopia: Standing the Test of Time

The Fifth Sacred Thing

Review of the fifth sacred thing

A powerful imagining of our way out of a very possible future

The Fifth Sacred Thing
Starhawk
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553373803
Release Date: 1994-06-01

Customer Reviews:

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03

An author famous for her neopagan non-fiction work, has come up with a
science fiction novel. A fairly mundane effort, with the interest being
the different approach. A group in San Francisco resist a dictatorial,
technological society and try and do so non-violently, rather than
through war, secret agents or other methods. They try to maintain their
neopagan sort of outlook, unsurprisingly.

Other than that, pretty generic adventure structure, these guys are
obviously Good, almost unbelievably so at times, and the other guys are
Bad, no question.

Ecofeminist Utopia: Standing the Test of Time.......2007-07-13

I read Starhawk's first novel when it was first published (~1993), but had occasion to reread it for current research on the evolution of ecofeminist utopian literature since _Herland_ (Charlotte Perkins Gilman). _The Fifth Sacred Thing_ speaks most clearly to those who live in California, particularly those who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is depicted with fine detail in the text. This is, indeed, a utopian society in which the very finest social qualities of character must rise above short-sighted psychological tendencies of human beings. Starhawk insists that we question what we are capable of, how difficult it can be to do the right thing (i.e., what is best for the community rather than what is best for the individual), and to look within ourselves to understand our own strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, there is no question what she believes we must all do: Live in right-relationship to Earth/Nature, treat aspects of Nature with full respect and appreciation. The fifth sacred thing is "spirit" and it is this dimension of human beings that Starhawk believes we need to nurture and develop if the future of the Earth is to be healthy and in harmony. Most of the almost 500-page book is a page-turner in which the protagonists are in danger from others and, in some cases, from within. It is fascinating to read this and _Herland_, books which serve as bookends to 20th century ecofeminist utopian thought.

The Fifth Sacred Thing.......2007-06-03

In "The Fifth Sacred Thing" enormously popular Pagan author, Starhawk explores two possible futures. San Francisco is an oasis of spirituality, peace, and ecology, where poverty and hatred are non-existent. Southern California , by contrast is a nightmare society, with an oppression state religion where women are sold as property, children are bred for sex, and residents must steal water to survive. When these two cultures clash, the non-violent northerners must decide how to defend without compromising their values or integrity.

The basis of the novel is non-violent activism teamed with Pagan practice. Starhawk co-founded the Reclaiming Collective and in many ways the novel is a reflection of life if concepts were applied. It is both a story of political exploration as it is an innovative novel that explores love, magick, and the interconnectedness of all beings. The characters face real problems and the concepts of non-violence and magickal practice are challenged.

Moving, philosophical, and intriguing, "The Fifth Sacred Thing" is a story of triumph and hope. Starhawk weaves together rich characters and anarchist-ecofeminist ideology into a unique Pagan fantasy. It is a novel that challenges the dominant paradigm and urges us to evaluate what we hold sacred. Although sometimes unrealistic; Starhawk successfully creates a novel addressing important issues and inspires a vision of community, spirituality, and sustainability.

courtesy of Copper-Moon.com

Review of the fifth sacred thing.......2007-05-13

This book is a powerful story that is especially essential if you live in the Bay Area. I didn't put this book down. I could see the world she painted visually in my imagination. It gave me a more magical veiw point on the world.
I recomend this book to anyone with an open heart and a kindred spirit.

A powerful imagining of our way out of a very possible future.......2007-04-18

I read this book a few years ago and have since given a few copies away to friends. It is hard to categorize. It feels like it fits some science-fiction conventions, but it steadfastly (and radically) imagines a future where humanity isn't tied to more and more technology but master the inner and communal technologies (or ways of knowing) that allow for a real sustainable way of living. Some of the technologies she presents for an ecologically balanced urban future are staggering and made me want to see it put forth in a movie.
Unlike most science fiction that lazily imagines more machines doing the work of living, Starhawk has presented a future where humans more fully embody themselves and live in communion with nature. It's a staggering work. Her imagining of bee knowledge was intriguing to imagine and the mind-bending reality of dealing with the diverse cast of characters presented another teachable moment for me.
I will only add that the first chapter was the hardest. They also betray her freshman hand at writing fiction. But stick with it and the book will seriously reward you with some thought-provoking future-visioning.

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The story of Modern Art
The rise and fall of modernism
Not For a Beginner
Difficult reading.
More than an art book, by more than an art critic

The Shock of The New
Robert Hughes
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0070311277

Book Description

This authoritative, lively book, based on the BBC Time-Life television series, provides a comprehensive survey of the birth and development of modern art and an updated discussion of the European and American art movements in the 70s and 80s including minimalist and public art, 70s American painting, German Neo-Expressionism, art by women, and environmental art. "The Future that Was," the final chapter, is completely rewritten and updated. 75% of the 275 illustrations in the revised edition are in 4-color.

Customer Reviews:

The story of Modern Art.......2007-04-12

The art of the last century viewed through the eyes of one of its best critics. This book is lavishly illustrated, very easy to read, an invaluable introduction to modern and contemporary art (that is, until the early 1990's). Hughes is one of those few critics who know how to admit they can sometimes be wrong (see his mea culpa on Philip Guston's late works), but who is almost always right.
The book itself is divided into chapters which do not necessarily follow a chronology but rather distinguish different themes such as "the mechanical paradise" (Cézanne,cubism, futurism), "the faces of power" (expressionism, Dada, art under Communism or Fascism), or "the landscape of pleasure" (Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Louis, Noland), etc...up to "the future that was" with insights on contemporary art and the art market.
A book that has already become a classic, almost like Gombrich's "the Story of Art".

The rise and fall of modernism.......2002-07-13

This is based on the script for a BBC program. To be a good TV program, it should have a clear and plain storyline which could fit into limited timetable. You can identify such a feature in the form of book, though substantially enlarged. The author did his best to make a clear impression of what was modernism in the visual art on reader (and audience). The author begin the book with what modernist artists perceived as ¡®the new¡¯ in their time. They thought they lived in thoroughly distinct time from the tradition. The new age demanded the new art. Modernism is the logical upshot of their zeitgeist. To understand it, we should pay attention to the interaction between artists and the time.
In this regard, Hughes organized the book not in time order or changing styles but with keywords which summarize the zeitgeist of modernists like machine, power, pleasure, utopia, freedom, popular culture, or future, to endow the reader with the tangible vision to see into the deep question of modernism.

Not For a Beginner.......2002-05-21

This book is very wordy, the author tends to use French and Italian phrases without translation. The book's cryptic explanations and definitions must be tediously read and re-read, since they do not appear to follow any pattern. Hughes is a pretentious attention seeker. This book is not for anyone outside art students.

Difficult reading........2001-10-03

I have read some past reviews on this book, and i am shocked to find that college students have been using this book for learning. I am currently in high school and my teacher is making us read this book. I find this book very hard to understand. If anyone has any information or quick summaries of this book i would appreciate it. Thanks.

More than an art book, by more than an art critic.......2000-11-09

I bought and read the first edition of this book after seeing the 1979 PBS series Hughes hosted, and I heartily recommend both book (which I still have) and the TV show if you can find it anywhere. Hughes' special brilliance is his ability to show the revolution in art at the turn of the 20th century as reacting to the revolution in technology and living standards and the rapid changes in every part of society -- the "shock" of this race to "newnesss" that really starting picking up speed a hundred years ago. Also unique and priceless is Hughes' puckish sense of humor and willingness to express an opinion - even a negative opinion - about art and architectural movements.

Book Description

Following World War I, a new artistic-social avant-garde emerged with the ambition to engage the artist in the building of social life. Through close readings of the works of Alexander Rodchenko, El Lissitzky, and László Moholy-Nagy whose careers covered a broad range of artistic practices and political situations, Victor Margolin examines the way these three artists negotiated the changing relations between their social ideals and the political realities they confronted. Focusing on the difficult relationship between art and social change, Margolin brings important new insights to the understanding of the avant-garde's role in a period of great political complexity.

"An ambitious effort. This book puts the masters of European Modernism into perfect focus as inventors, propagators, and practitioners of a visual language that continues to hold sway over contemporary graphic style."—Steven Heller

"Worth the wait. . . . Margolin usefully presents what he calls the 'failed hope' of this movement in this valuable effort."—Publishers Weekly

A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation

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Synthesis not Thesis
Skip it
It lacks something
Holocausts

A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation
Eric D. Weitz
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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ASIN: 0691122717

Book Description

Why did the twentieth century witness unprecedented organized genocide? Can we learn why genocide is perpetrated by comparing different cases of genocide? Is the Holocaust unique, or does it share causes and features with other cases of state-sponsored mass murder? Can genocide be prevented?

Blending gripping narrative with trenchant analysis, Eric Weitz investigates four of the twentieth century's major eruptions of genocide: the Soviet Union under Stalin, Nazi Germany, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and the former Yugoslavia. Drawing on historical sources as well as trial records, memoirs, novels, and poems, Weitz explains the prevalence of genocide in the twentieth century--and shows how and why it became so systematic and deadly.

Weitz depicts the searing brutality of each genocide and traces its origins back to those most powerful categories of the modern world: race and nation. He demonstrates how, in each of the cases, a strong state pursuing utopia promoted a particular mix of extreme national and racial ideologies. In moments of intense crisis, these states targeted certain national and racial groups, believing that only the annihilation of these "enemies" would enable the dominant group to flourish. And in each instance, large segments of the population were enticed to join in the often ritualistic actions that destroyed their neighbors.

This book offers some of the most absorbing accounts ever written of the population purges forever associated with the names Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Milosevic. A controversial and richly textured comparison of these four modern cases, it identifies the social and political forces that produce genocide.

Customer Reviews:

Synthesis not Thesis.......2006-10-27

Historian Eric Weitz traces themes of utopianism, racism, and nationalism through four genocidal regimes. Allotting one chapter each to the notorious Lenin/Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and Miloseviæ regimes, Weitz follows "population politics" to their historical conclusions.

Weitz's deconstruction of the concepts of race and nation is concise and effective, demonstrating the fluidity and modernity of such understandings of human differences. Notably absent from Weitz's book, however, is a clear definition of or even sustained reflection upon the idea of utopia. Weitz largely assumes his reader's familiarity with utopia, and the assumption is crippling for a reader not well-versed in utopian theory. Moreover, the reader who is comfortable with the concept of utopia will be disappointed by the infrequency of actual applications of utopianism to these four regimes. For example, Weitz alludes to the complex juxtaposition of optimism and pessimism in these genocidal regimes without stating that such a paradox is inherently utopian. The word utopia denotes both "a region of happiness and perfection" and "a region that exists nowhere." When nowhere is attempted somewhere, utopia becomes dystopia. The clear progression of each regime from the possibility of utopia to the actuality of dystopia could likewise have been demonstrated, but Weitz also ignores the concept of dystopia.

Weitz notes that each regime promulgated and perpetuated a specific ideology, but he fails to demonstrate the manner in which the particular ideological perspective of a regime shaped not only its participation in history but also its construction of "eternity." Each regime came to view individuals through the lens of a determining attribute--namely, these concepts of race or nation. By separating and defining individuals according to an ideology, these regimes were able to exclude large segments of the population either formally or informally, from citizenship. In so doing, each regime was striving for a prescribed homogeneity. Only through achieving such homogeneity would they reach utopia; in this way, genocide is hideously utilitarian. Weitz undoubtedly recognizes but does not clearly delineate this process.

At points, Weitz's arguments are weak. For example, Soviet propaganda explicitly rejected racial themes as "zoological thinking." Nonetheless, Weitz characterizes that regime as racist without providing sufficient defense (although the label could be defended). In fact, Weitz even states that the absence of a well-developed racial ideology deterred the possibilities of genocide under Stalin, confounding his argument. Labeling Miloseviæ's regime as "utopian" is also somewhat problematic, as is evident but not explicit in his chapter on Serbia. The concept of utopia is virtually ignored in this chapter, which focuses on negative creation (destruction) rather than positive creation (construction).

A Century of Genocide provides a solid overview of ideology and genocide, but is incapable, as structured, of providing an in-depth analysis. With four regimes and at least three major concepts under consideration, Weitz's project is, perhaps, utopian in nature. The ideas behind the book have the potential to make new contributions to genocide studies; as it stands, the book is an excellent work of synthesis rather than the articulation of a new thesis.

Skip it.......2006-07-30

This book is poorly written, painfully repetitive, and excruciatingly poorly edited. The ideas are poorly organized, and at times it appears to be nothing more than a loose collection of quotations from other authors. The first chapter contains some interesting ideas, but its straight downhill from there. I should have known not to waste my time with this book when, in the prelude, the author states he will not address the Rwandan genocide because he doesn't know enough about it. Since the book attempts to cover the phenomenon of genocide in the 20th century from a comprehensive perspective, it seems somewhat dubious that the author submits not to understand one of the major genocides of the century. In short, this book is boring, obtuse and devoid of any useful purpose - I suggest taking a pass.

It lacks something.......2003-08-08

Several years ago Eric Weitz wrote a fascinating book about the German Communist Party which argued that its notoriously truculent and dogmatic nature was not simply the result of Stalinist domination, but instead reflected the party's own German traditions as well as an understandable reaction to Weimar's intolerance of them. One would think that Weitz would be an excellent author to write about twentieth-century genocide. But this comparative account of four major genocides is disappointing. By his own admission Weitz does not have sufficient scholarly expertise to study the genocides in Armenia and Rwanda. So instead he looks first at Soviet terror in general and the more specifically genocidal deportations carried out against various nationalities during and after World War Two. Then he looks at Nazi Germany, Pol Pot Cambodia and the Serbian attack on Bosnia. All of his four accounts share certain key similarities. First, all the perpetrators were moved by a utopian ideology. Second, all the perpetrators were in some way or another "modern" and sought to use modern instruments to carry out their crimes. Third, all the genocides took place in periods of profound social and political crisis. Fourth, all the genocides were able to use the mass complicity of the society as a whole. Fifth, all the genocides had their own savage rituals of inhumanity.

Not bad, and the discussion of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany are based on a reasonable discussion of the latest research. But there are some real problems with Weitz's account. For a start consider the "utopian" nature of genocide. Weitz does not define what a "utopia" is. This is rather important, since "utopian" implies the impossible, indeed the impossible that it would be dangerous to attempt. But while the Holocaust was a uniquely cruel atrocity, it was hardly "utopian" since it was, in fact, all too possible to kill 90% of Polish Jewry. More problematically, to what extent can Serbian nationalism be viewed as utopian? Undoubtedly some people thought a victorious Greater Serbia would lead to a better future. But the dominant themes in Serbian propaganda were paranoia, fear and self-pity. Instead of looking to a glorious millennium, Serbs concentrated on the "collective guilt" of Croats and Bosnians with Nazism. What Utopias did the Hutus dream of, or the final rulers of the Ottoman Empire have? One may agree with Weitz that Hitler and his colleagues believed in a "redemptive" anti-Semitism. But how far did this filter down to his executioners? (It strikes me that Arno Mayer's oft-derided "Why did the Heavens Not Darken," about the connection of the Holocaust to a vicious war against Communism, does better at answering this question.) The modernity of "genocide" is also problematic. That is certainly the case with Cambodia. Weitz's focus on ideology and ideological logic does not explain why Pol Pot followed a path that no other Communist party did. At one point Weitz suggests that Pol Pot's policies flowed logically from an ultra-radicalism, yet at other points he notes that he had to purge the Communist party frequently. More importantly, emptying the cities and abolishing money does not strike me as clever plans to destroy the ancien regime while following Democratic Kamuchea's own path to industrial modernity.

There are other problems. While genocide is understandably linked to war and crisis, this is not always the case. When destroying half of the population of what is now Congo, Belgium faced no imminent threat, nor did it carry out its crimes for any other reason than greed. Too much concentration on utopia and conflation of it with "fanaticism" leads to tautology. We condemn genocides as acts of fanaticism, and then define as fanatical genocidal acts. Weitz's discussion of the Yugoslav crisis does not really explain why so many Serbs and other Yugoslavs would support a policy that would definitely make the new nations considerably less than the sum of their parts. At one point Weitz mentions that Yugoslavia had a weaker civil society than, say, Poland or East Germany. But what distinguished pre-Milosevic Yugoslavia was not an especially brutal Communist regime. Indeed, the opposite was the case. Nor did Milosevic Serbia lack opposition parties and an independent church. There were no shortage of Serbs who denounced Milosevic, but a profound shortage of those who denounced Srebnica, and Weitz does not really explain why. At times Weitz's arguments are weak. He discusses popular complicity with genocidal crimes, though his main example for Nazi Germany actually takes place in Lithuania. He takes an example of one Serbian thug who comments that a victim looks like a cabbage and generalizes that this how all Serbian fighters viewed Bosnians. This is part of a larger problem with Weitz's discussion of ritual. Much of what he says about tortures and the rituals of atrocities is true, much of it is obvious, much of it is fashionable, but none of it is new or original. Likewise the accounts of genocide, while obviously horrific, do not really get us close to the minds of the perpetrators. Ultimately this is a book that adds little to our knowledge.

Holocausts.......2003-07-26

Interesting analytical comparative history of genocide in the twentieth century, in Russia, Germany, Cambodia, and Serbia. After invoking the case of Armenia the author shows the common core of these four in the light of the nineteenth century tide of race and nationalism. The emergence of race as a concept is demonized now, but the legacy of Darwinism tends to be underplayed, although the account makes clear the mood of Social Darwinist confusion leading up to the First World War and its coarsening of spirits (and Armenian overture) resulting in the walpurgisnacht to come. The concept of genocide was arguably miscast, since it applies too technically to racial issues. (Cf.The emergence of the term and the Genocide treaty, along with the life of its inventor Lemkin in A Problem from Hell. Also the case of Rwanda should be included, cf. A People Betrayed, by L. R. Melvern)

Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World's Classics)

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Prose which still affects our thinking

Three Early Modern Utopias: Thomas More: Utopia / Francis Bacon: New Atlantis / Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines (Oxford World's Classics)
Thomas More , Francis Bacon , and Henry Neville
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192838857

Book Description

Thomas More: Utopia/ Francis Bacon: New Atlantis/Henry Neville: The Isle of Pines With the publication of Utopia (1516), Thomas More introduced into the English language not only a new word, but a new way of thinking about the gulf between what ought to be and what is. His Utopia is at once a scathing analysis of the shortcomings of his own society, a realistic suggestion for an alternative mode of social organization, and a satire on unrealistic idealism. Enormously influential, it remains a challenging as well as a playful text. This edition reprints Ralph Robinson's 1556 translation from More's original Latin together with letters and illustrations that accompanied early editions of Utopia. Utopia was only one of many early modern treatments of other worlds. This edition also includes two other, hitherto less accessible, utopian narratives. New Atlantis (1627) offers a fictional illustration of Francis Bacon's visionary ideal of the role that science should play in the modern society. Henry Neville's The Isle of Pines (1668), a precursor of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, engages with some of the sexual, racial, and colonialist anxieties of the end of the early modern period. Together these texts illustrate the diversity of the early modern utopian imagination, as well as the different purposes to which it could be put.

Customer Reviews:

Prose which still affects our thinking.......2000-09-18

Literature before James Joyce, before Jane Austen, before Daniel Defoe: No Ulysses, no Emma, no Robinson Crusoe - for modern readers it is hard to imagine a stock of English literature without the existence of these and other important writers and their `novels'. What kind of literature could one refer to in a pre-novelistic age? As a matter of fact, there were authors, such as Sir Thomas More and Sir Francis Bacon, who wrote prose which, indeed, still affects our thinking. However, neither More nor Bacon used English, but chose Latin as their original means of expression. For what reasons? And none of these authors was in fact a free-lance writer - they were all occupied in public and political spheres. What made them actually write fictional works? How does their fiction relate to their cultural environment - or, what was regarded as `fiction'? These texts cover a century of political, religious, scientific and literary debates and gave rise to a new understanding of knowledge, and introduced influential literary devices.

Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?

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Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?

Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 140513531X

Book Description

John Rawls is considered the most important theorist of justice in much of western Europe and the English-speaking world more generally. This volume examines Rawls 's theory of international justice as worked out in his last and perhaps most controversial book, The Law of Peoples. It contains new and stimulating essays, some sympathetic, others critical, written by pre-eminent theorists in the field. These essays situate Rawls 's The Law of Peoples historically and methodologically, and examine all its key ingredients: its thin cosmopolitanism, its doctrine of human rights, its principles of global economic justice, and its normative theory of liberal foreign policy. The book will set the terms of the debate on The Law of Peoples for years to come, thereby shaping the broader debates about global justice.

Dreamworld and Catastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West

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Where's the Beast?
Daddy Stalin and Warbucks: Friends 'Til the End
The Betrayal of History

Dreamworld and Catastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West
Susan Buck-Morss
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262523310

Book Description

The dream of the twentieth century was the construction of mass utopia. As the century closes, this dream is being left behind; the belief that industrial modernization can bring about the good society by overcoming material scarcity for all has been challenged by the disintegration of European socialism, capitalist restructuring, and ecological constraints. The larger social vision has given way to private dreams of material happiness and to political cynicism.

Developing the notion of dreamworld as both a poetic description of a collective mental state and an analytical concept, Susan Buck-Morss attempts to come to terms with mass dreamworlds at the moment of their passing. She shows how dreamworlds became dangerous when their energy was used by the structures of power as an instrument of force against the masses. Stressing the similarities between the East and West and using the end of the Cold War as her point of departure, she examines both extremes of mass utopia, dreamworld and catastrophe.

The book is in four parts. "Dreamworlds of Democracy" asks whether collective sovereignty can ever be democratic. "Dreamworlds of History" calls for a rethinking of revolution by political and artistic avant-gardes. "Dreamworlds of Mass Culture" explores the affinities between mass culture's socialist and capitalist forms. An "Afterward" places the book in the historical context of the author's collaboration with a group of Moscow philosophers and artists over the past two tumultuous decades. The book is an experiment in visual culture, using images as philosophy, presenting, literally, a way of seeing the past. Its pictorial narratives rescue historical data that with the end of the Cold War are threatened with oblivion and challenge common conceptions of what this century was all about.

Customer Reviews:

Where's the Beast?.......2004-03-24

Having been raised in the ideological wasteland of 20th century America, I found this book an interesting read. It could be seen as a vindication of Chomskii's idea that the Cold War was a fake, in which the 2 sides's respective leaders colluded to pick the pockets of their respective peoples in order to finance the buildup of huge military machines which could be used to suck the blood of the 3rd world. My main disappointment, aside from ocassional annoying forays into psuedo-intellectual gibberish (especially the Soviet "nomenklatura" variety,), was the author's failure to inquire into the cause of the socialistic failure, apparenty assuming the fact that the leaders of neither side actually had any interest in the welfare of their people was sufficient explanation. It seems more likely to me that the collapse of social welfare is an inevitable result of the global population-explosion (i.e. as the population increases & the competition for Earth's resources intensifies & grows increasingly vicious, things are bound to deteriorate). Considering that the Wise Men of yore warned us of this problem long ago (i.e. population-explosion becoming the "Beast of Armagedon" & threatening to drag us to our doom with it's 4 Horsemen of Famine, Plague, War, & Avarice when we had finished the job of replenishing the Earth), it's hard to understand why the global intelligensia don't get it. Perhaps the "dumbing-down of America" has taken it's toll on the rest of the world, as well.

Daddy Stalin and Warbucks: Friends 'Til the End.......2001-09-21

Buck-Morss's tale of the sputtering, guttering end of the modern Fordist disciplinary project both in the U.S.A and in the Soviet Union is a stunner. Most compelling are the historical insights -- told with particular elegance through the comparison of patriotic and advertising images -- that show how similar both projects really were! Some of the historical tidbits stick in the mind never to be dislodged: Daddy Stalin asking Henry Ford to come build him a factory to make tractors in the middle of the Depression. Lenin's admiration for Frederick Taylor. Amazing how the salvation for both communists and capitalists was the same industrial regime, the same worker's paradise of factory labor!

The second half of the book, a kind of diary of cross-cultural US/Soviet cultural exchanges prior to and after the Berlin Wall, is interesting but less intellectually energizing. Still, there is a great deal of wit in Ms. Buck-Morss's observation that Western Marxist critics such as Frederick Jameson (who attended some of the same seminars with Soviet intellectuals that Buck-Morss did) seem less willing to give up on the socialist dreamscape than their Soviet counterparts.

A great companion read is Michael Hardt's and Antonio Negri's "Empire" which really has an interesting take on the near simultaneous end of Fordism and the disciplinary state in both the U.S. and Soviet Union. They suggest it was the "multitude" or proletariat in both nations who rebelled against the industrial factory/modern project and destabilized both, an argument which runs counter to the usual top-down explanations for the rise of postmodern economics.

Interesting how we're told these days that the Soviets, now suffering in the hot bath of capitalism, are nostalgic for the certainty of the Daddy Stalin years. Perhaps their nostalgia is not so different than Baby Boomer Americans' nostalgia for the lost innocence of the early 50s/60s, the Golden Age of American economic hegemony, before the New Deal project finally collapsed. Now that the veil has dropped it seems we had a lot more in common with "them"(us) than we ever thought we did. And still do!

The Betrayal of History.......2001-02-25

'Dreamworld and Catastrophe' is a cry of anguish disguised as the interdisciplinary analyses of a (neo-)Marxist scholar. It is a fragmentary and tortured reaction to the betrayal of history, in the best of Walter Benjamin's tradition, consciously emulated in this tome by this leading authority on the Frankfurt School. It is painful to wade through the convolutions of denial, intellectualization and projection that constitute the first part ('Democracy' - the political framework). The next two sections ('History' and 'Mass Culture')are a joyride of erudition and an intellectual tour de force. The last part - a dry chronicle of the comings and goings of the author's milieu amidst the disintegration of the USSR and the emergence of Russia - is anti-climactic. The opus in its entirety does not fuflil the blurb's somewhat hubristic promise: 'This book offers a revaluation of the twentieth century'. Sam Vaknin, author of 'After the Rain - How the West Lost the East'

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Conflict and change
Boring
Truth is stranger than fiction
Great Early Science Fiction: A Fast Fun Read
Jules Verne meets H.G. Wells in Lytton's Dystopic Narrative

The Coming Race
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Manufacturer: Broadview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1551115158

Book Description

As I drew near and nearer to the light, the chasm became wider, and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas lamps placed at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices . . .

Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race was one of the most remarkable and most influential books published in the 1870s. The protagonist, a wealthy American wanderer, accompanies an engineer into the recesses of a mine, and discovers the vast caverns of a well-lit, civilized land in which dwell the Vril-ya. Placid vegetarians and mystics, the Vril-ya are privy to the powerful force of Vril -- a mysterious source of energy that may be used to illuminate, or to destroy. The Vril-ya have built a world without fame and without envy, without poverty and without many of the other extremes that characterize human society. The women are taller and grander than the men, and control everything related to the reproduction of the race. There is little need to work -- and much of what does need to be done is for a novel reason consigned to children.

As the Vril-ya have evolved a society of calm and of contentment, so they have evolved physically. But as it turns out, they are destined one day to emerge from the earth and to destroy human civilization.

Bulwer-Lytton's novel is fascinating for the ideas it expresses about evolution, about gender, and about the ambitions of human society. But it is also an extraordinarily entertaining science fiction novel. Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, one of the great figures of late Victorian literature, may have been overvalued in his time -- but his extraordinarily engaging and readable work is certainly greatly undervalued today. As Brian Aldiss notes in his introduction to this new edition, this utopian science fiction novel first published in 1871 still retains tremendous interest.

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"I am a native of , in the United States of America. My ancestors migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.; and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, therefore, enjoyed a somewhat high social position in right of birth; and being also opulent, they were considered disqualified for the public service. My father once ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by his tailor."

Customer Reviews:

Conflict and change.......2007-06-02

Reviewed by Leslie Granier for Reader Views (5/07)

"The Coming Race" is a book that will best appeal to individuals who enjoy studying different civilizations and learning about how their citizens come to behave and believe the way they do. It incorporates aspects of both science fiction and fantasy. This book follows the accounts of a man who has fallen into an underground world that is so different from the world he knows. The author utilizes a very descriptive style to portray the intuitive thoughts of this narrator as he recalls this experience.

The residents of this underground society are known as the Vril-ya. They lead simple and peaceful lives in which there is no war and no crime. In fact, if someone is unhappy in their society, his only recourse is to emigrate to a different tribe. In their world, no individual is considered superior to another individual (including the leaders) in order to ascertain there will be no jealousy among the people. Another major difference is that children are the workers and are entrusted with the toughest jobs such as killing any dangerous creatures that are encountered. In the beginning, the narrator seems impressed with this seemingly perfect civilization. However, he comes to question whether it is a good thing to have such a controlled and stagnant society and worries that this type of advanced civilization may eventually take over the world.

This book started off great and I expected it would be action-packed and full of adventure. However, I was somewhat disappointed that it turned out to be mainly a narrative. I would have preferred more dialogue between the characters. The chapter about the development of their language (Chapter XII) was particularly grueling and contributed to the slow pace. I did enjoy the author's use of lesser known vocabulary words. It is good to know that my high school years were well spent.

Although this book was first published in 1871, there is much that can be learned from it. "The Coming Race" makes some important points about what constitutes a productive and successful society. Having no war and no crime sounds great, as does complete equality among individuals. However, once this type of "perfection" is achieved, life will become extremely dull as there can be no debates or exchanges of ideas to keep things interesting. The world needs conflict and change so there can be progress and growth.

Boring.......2005-12-01

I bought this book hoping it would explain the inspiration for the Vril Society. Why would anyone be moved by this book to form a society following the idea of Vril?? Not only is it boring, but it is written like a children's book. Everything is explained like this...the grass was green and everywhere there was light...blah blah.... horrible imagery! I'm being biased only b/c I've read so many things about how the Vril Society influenced Nazism...and now I can't imagine why. This book sucks.

Truth is stranger than fiction.......2005-06-16

A man named Bulwer Lytton had written a book called The Coming Race in 1871 which describes a race of men psychically far in advance of our own said to live in caves in the center of the Earth, soon to emerge to reign over the rest of us. The Vril Society established itself as a reaction to this book.

The Vril Society (or the Luminous Lodge) combined the ideals of the Illuminati with Hindu Mysticism, Theosophy and the Quabbala. It was the first German nationalist group to use the swastika as an emblem linking Eastern and Western occultism. The Vril Society presented an idea of a subterranean matriarchal socialist utopia ruled by superior beings that had mastered the mysterious energy called the Vril Force.

The Vril Society formed shortly before the Nazis came to power. They believed they had secret knowledge that would enable them to change their race and become the equals of men hidden in the bowels of the Earth through methods of concentration based in Ignatius Loyala's Spiritual Exercises.

Great Early Science Fiction: A Fast Fun Read.......2005-02-15

The Coming Race is a great book on many levels. As a story it is well developed and is one of Bulwer-Lytton's best works of science fiction. Also from a historical aspect it is an interesting document to see how the Victorian mind saw the world and what was beyond their horizons. This book had an incredible impact upon the reading public upon its release in 1871 and its influence, as well as that of Lytton in general, is felt greatly in later works of early sci-fi. I especially feel the stylistic influence in Upton Sinclair's "Millennium" and while for a review this is neither here nor there, this is important in understanding the development of the genre.

The book opens up with the main character, an American, being invited into a mine exploration by friend. Within just a few pages of the most basic exposition the story begins. For this genre and being that the terranean characters matter little, jumping into the plot like this makes the reading fun. For a 19th century it reads very fast and before long the reader will be well acquainted with the ways of the vril-ya and "vril" - the power source of the coming race. It really is a fun read.

The only problem with this book is that while Lytton goes through an enormity of steps to describe the culture and idiosyncrasies of the vril-ya the book at times reads more like notes of an anthropologist than a literary novel. Of course this may be the intention and since it is such a quick and enjoyable read, we can forgive the author of this. If you are fan of Lord Lytton or a fan of early Sci-Fi this is a definite read. I also would recommend this book to anyone who like 19th century novels and think this should be included in more high school English literature classes because it does not fit the stereotype and would be a welcome break for many students. While we know quite well that this work is purely fantastical it is really enjoyable to see how the mind of the 19th century saw the possibility of worlds going on underground and it is fun to imagine and believe...

-- Ted Murena

Jules Verne meets H.G. Wells in Lytton's Dystopic Narrative.......1999-03-02

Written in 1871 The Coming Race was one of the last books ever written by the author, he died two years later. The story begins when an American civil engineer falls into an underground world. There he discovers a subterranean paradise inhabited by a race called the Vril-ya.These Vril-ya tell the narrator that they are descended from ancestors who escaped the 'upper world' as a result of a deluge which covered the earth. Their evolution has taken a certain course mainly because of the discovery of an energy source, similar to electricity.This energy, from which they also take their name, is called Vril. Lytton's narrative, published in the same year as The Descent of Man, is one of the first truly post-Darwinian novels. It incorporates many of the scientific ideas of the period, and the subsequent fears of degeneration and devolution. The narrator soon discovers that this subterranean paradise is not all that it seems. Lurking in an unlit region of this underground world are a race of primitive savages, who like Wells's Morlocks, represent the flipside of evolution. Without Vril the savages have not progressed, they live in darkness, eat meat and resemble animals. In contrast, the Vril-ya live perfect lives, they are physically beautiful and have developed the abvility to fly with the help of Vril. The narrator appears to have stumbled into a parasise where a race of angels live in perfect harmony, without conflict, without envy and where all men are considered equal. The one thing that this future paradise cannot overcome is boredom.Tthe narrator concludes that although mankind dreams of perfectibility it is a pleasure that we are not meant to enjoy, at least not in this lifetime. Worth a read, especially if you are interested in the history of Science Fiction.

Van Gogh's Progress: Utopia, Modernity, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Art (California Studies in the History of Art)

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Van Gogh's Progress: Utopia, Modernity, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Art (California Studies in the History of Art)
Carol Zemel
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520088492

Amazon.com

The most interesting aspect of this study is its refusal to focus on Vincent van Gogh as a tortured romantic hero; instead, van Gogh is discussed in the terms of a 19th-century professional artist. As the subtitle suggests, Carol Zemel, who is the author of two other books on the artist, attempts here to illustrate how van Gogh attempted to live out his artistic ideals in his real life, using evidence from his writings as well as his visual work. This is not your typical splashy coffee-table book laden with colorful reproductions of van Gogh's paintings; there are only 14 color plates, and more than 150 black-and-white illustrations. Despite its lack of color, this book is a rare and pleasing combination of scholarship and storytelling. Zemel explores issues relevant to any artist living and working at the time: gender issues, class, the emerging art market, and the artist's role in a modern metropolis, all the while bringing the mysterious figure of van Gogh vividly to life.

Book Description

In Carol Zemel's insightful reinterpretation of Van Gogh's work and career, the artist is seen as a determined modern professional instead of the tortured romantic hero that legend has given us. Zemel's fresh approach emphasizes the utopian idealism that infused both Van Gogh's life and his pictures. She looks at the artist's career from 1882 to 1890 through six utopian projects or professional schemes, each embodying a specific societal crisis for Van Gogh's generation: women and sexuality, the rural artisan, republican citizenry, professional identity, the burgeoning art market, and the construction of a modern rural ideal. Zemel reveals how each endeavor, as Van Gogh treated it, offered a vision of utopian possibility. She also analyzes broader historical problems encountered by all avant-garde artists of the late nineteenth century.
Zemel carefully examines Van Gogh's letters and work and also draws from municipal archives, local histories, nineteenth-century literature, and contemporaneous criticism. Her handsomely illustrated book, essential reading for art historians and scholars of late-nineteenth-century history and French studies, will also captivate anyone interested in Vincent van Gogh.

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Jealousy for the reader
Louis De Bernieres lover
brilliant!
The war for don emmanuels parts
Am I alone?

The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts
Louis De Bernieres
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375700137
Release Date: 1997-07-29

Amazon.com

Louis de Bernières's sardonic pen has concocted a spicy olla podrida of a novel, set in a fictitious Latin American country, with all the tragedy, ribaldry, and humor Bernières can muster from a debauched military, a clueless oligarchy, and an unconventional band of guerrillas. There's a plague of laughing, a flood of magical cats, and a torture-happy colonel. The cities, villages, politics, and discourse are an inspired amalgam of Latin Americana, but the comedy, horror, adventure, and vibrant individuals are pure de Bernières. This masterpiece, the first of a trilogy, is followed by Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman.

Book Description

This rambunctious first novel by the author of the bestselling Corelli's Mandolin is set in an impoverished, violent, yet ravishingly beautiful country somewhere in South America. When the haughty Dona Constanza decides to divert a river to fill her swimming pool, the consequences are at once tragic, heroic, and outrageously funny. "Walks a precarious edge between slapstick and pathos, never once losing its balance."--Washington Post Book World.

Customer Reviews:

Jealousy for the reader.......2007-06-21

Anyone who wishes to write fiction should read this book but prepared to be disappointed - in your own abilities in comparison with de Bernieres, who has swiftly become one of my favorite English writers. His style, plot, humor and candor make him irresistible, as does his subject matter, in this case, the impoverished campesinos of a mythical South American country. De Bernieres is like an English Marquez, crafting a land of magical realism with all the ugliness of the real world. De Bernieres' wide pallette of characters and archetypes comes to extraordinary life in this fine first novel, the beginning of a trilogy on the people of Chiriguana and, later, Cochadebajo de los Gatos. The novel is a roller-coaster ride of revolution, genocide, spiritual love, heresy and diaspora. If you're looking for a great book to enthrall you for a weekend at the beach or a few afternoons at the pool, look no further.

Louis De Bernieres lover.......2006-02-28

I love this writer. Another book about a dark subject, but infused with humor and incredible descriptive detail. I highly recommend it.

brilliant!.......2006-01-31

a fabulous pick for garcia-marquez and magical realism lovers. it is a colorful and whimsical depiction of an andean country, and like garcia-marquez, de berniers tells us stories that encompass the magic that results from the political, social, and cultural contexts of a place like colombia.

The war for don emmanuels parts.......2005-09-14

All of Louis De Berniers stories merit ten stars in their ability to rivet you to your reading spot until ffinished and you recover from the loss of the company of his characters.

Am I alone?.......2005-08-24

Wow, as I read the other reviews I wondered if I had read the same book. Having come to Bernieres through Corelli - which I loved (and again that puts me at odds with many others), I had high hopes for this book, but I thought it overdone and contrived. Maybe I was in the wrong mood? Whereas Corelli had kept me entranced, with smooth easy flowing prose simply wafting me from page to page, Don Emmanuel just grated on me. Corelli was made into an awful movie. I suspect someone will make a movie of Don Emmanuel too, and I'd probably enjoy it - as a flimsy distraction. But the book didn't do it for me.

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