Book picks similar to
The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control by Ted Striphas
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Subculture: The Meaning of Style
Dick Hebdige - 1979
Hebdige [...] is concerned with the UK's postwar, music-centred, white working-class subcultures, from teddy boys to mods and rockers to skinheads and punks.' - Rolling StoneWith enviable precision and wit Hebdige has addressed himself to a complex topic - the meanings behind the fashionable exteriors of working-class youth subcultures - approaching them with a sophisticated theoretical apparatus that combines semiotics, the sociology of devience and Marxism and come up with a very stimulating short book - Time OutThis book is an attempt to subject the various youth-protest movements of Britain in the last 15 years to the sort of Marxist, structuralist, semiotic analytical techniques propagated by, above all, Roland Barthes. The book is recommended whole-heartedly to anyone who would like fresh ideas about some of the most stimulating music of the rock era - The New York Times
How to Be a Heroine
Samantha Ellis - 2014
From early obsessions with the March sisters to her later idolization of Sylvia Plath, Ellis evaluates how her heroines stack up today. And, just as she excavates the stories of her favorite characters, Ellis also shares a frank, often humorous account of her own life growing up in a tight-knit Iraqi Jewish community in London. Here a life-long reader explores how heroines shape all our lives.
The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning
Maggie Nelson - 2011
The pervasiveness of images of torture, horror, and war has all but demolished the twentieth-century hope that such imagery might shock us into a less alienated state, or aid in the creation of a just social order. What to do now? When to look, when to turn away?Genre-busting author Maggie Nelson brilliantly navigates this contemporary predicament, with an eye to the question of whether or not focusing on representations of cruelty makes us cruel. In a journey through high and low culture (Kafka to reality TV), the visual to the verbal (Paul McCarthy to Brian Evenson), and the apolitical to the political (Francis Bacon to Kara Walker), Nelson offers a model of how one might balance strong ethical convictions with an equally strong appreciation for work that tests the limits of taste, taboo, and permissibility.
A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences Across Multiple Platforms
Andrea Phillips - 2012
Through her guidance, the reader is able to understand the fundamentals of transmedia and the power it can have when used with a compelling and strong story.--David Gale, Executive Vice President, MTV Cross Media"Transmedia storytelling is a bold and exciting new arena for creativity and innovation. . . . Andrea Phillips provides a compelling, thoughtful, and clear guide to a next generation of creators in this medium. She demystifies the process and proves that you, too, can push the envelope and be part of the future of storytelling."--Michelle Satter, Founding Director, Sundance Institute Feature Film Program"An excellent and fair-minded primer and survey of the underpinnings and fast-evolving techniques behind multiplatform narrative. Andrea Phillips is one of a small handful of writers capable of both practicing and clearly conveying the principles of transmedia storytelling. Highly recommended!" --Jeff Gomez, CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment"A no-nonsense guide for the fun-filled and strangely awesome world of transmedia storytelling."--C. C. Chapman, coauthor of Content Rules and Amazing Things Will HappenIncludes Q&A sessions with the world's leading experts in transmedia storytellingAbout the Book: What is transmedia storytelling and what can it do for you?It's the buzzword for a new generation--a revolutionary technique for telling stories across multiple media platforms and formats--and it's rapidly becoming the go-to strategy for a wide variety of businesses. If you work in marketing, entertaining, or advertising, transmedia storytelling is a must-have tool for pulling people into your world.Why do you need A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling?If you want to attract, engage, and captivate your audience, you need this book. Written by an award-winning transmedia creator and renowned games designer, this book shows you how to utilize the same marketing tools used by heavy-hitters such as HBO, Disney, Ford, and Sony Pictures--at a fraction of the cost.You'll learn how to:Choose the right platforms for your story Decide whether to DIY or outsource workFind and keep a strong core production teamMake your audience a character in your storyGet the funding you need--and even make a profitForge your own successful transmedia careerWith these proven media-ready strategies, you'll learn how to generate must-read content, must-see videos, and must-visit websites that will only grow bigger as viewers respond, contribute, and spread the word. You'll create major buzz with structures such as alternate reality games and fictional character sites--or even "old-fashioned" platforms such as email and phone calls. The more you connect to your audience and the more you get them involved in the storytelling process, the more successful you will be.This isn't the future. This is now. This is how you tell your story, touch your audience, and take your game to the next level--through transmedia storytelling.
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory
Bruno Latour - 2005
Bruno Latour's contention is that the word "social" as used by Social Scientists has become laden with assumptions to the point where it has become a misnomer. When the adjective is applied to a phenomenon, it is used to indicate a stabilized state of affairs, a bundle of ties that in due course may be used to account for another phenomenon. Latour also finds the word used as if it described a type of material, in a comparable way to an adjective such as "wooden" or "steely".Rather than simply indicating what is already assembled together, it is now used in a way that makes assumptions about the nature of what is assembled. It has become a word that designates two distinct things: a process of assembling: and a type of material, distinct from others. Latour shows why "the social" cannot be thought of as a kind of material or domain, and disputes attempts to provide a "social explanation" of other states of affairs. While these attempts have been productive (and probably necessary) in the past, the very success of the social sciences mean that they are largely no longer so. At the present stage it is no longer possible to inspect the precise constituents entering the social domain. Latour returns to the original meaning of "the social" to redefine the notion and allow it to trace connections again. It will then be possible to resume the traditional goal of the social sciences, but using more refined tools. Drawing on his extensive work examining the "assemblages" of nature, Latour finds it necessary to scrutinize thoroughly the exact content of what is assembled under the umbrella of Society. This approach, a "sociology of associations" has become known as Actor-Network-Theory, and this book is an essential introduction both for those seeking to understand Actor-Network-Theory, or the ideas of one of its most influential proponents.
Art: A Brief History
Marilyn Stokstad - 1999
Drawing on 40 years of experience of presenting art to the public, Marilyn Stokstad offers this comprehensive look at art in all of its diversity, from paintings and architecture to tapestries, jewellery and electronic art.
How to Read Slowly
James W. Sire - 1978
These beautifully produced volumes feature prose and poetry of high literary, academic, and artistic merit, written by and about Christian artists of significant stature.
The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight
Andrew Richard Albanese - 2013
This blow-by-blow account charts how five of America’s six largest publishers, afraid that bookselling powerhouse Amazon's $9.99 price for Kindle e-books would undermine the industry, spent a few frantic weeks in early 2010 deep in negotiations with Apple to introduce a new business model for e-books, just in time for the launch of the iPad and the iBookstore. The catch is, it all may have been illegal.From Publishers Weekly senior writer Andrew Richard Albanese comes the story of how the e-book business changed in a heartbeat. Based on voluminous evidence gathered for Apple's trial, it is the story of how corporate titans fought it out behind the scenes and why the case matters to anyone who has ever bought an e-book.
The Location of Culture
Homi K. Bhabha - 1994
In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.
Film History: An Introduction
Kristin Thompson - 1994
As in the authors' bestselling "Film Art", concepts and events are illustrated with actual frame enlargements, giving students more realistic points of reference than competing books that use publicity stills.
Libraries in the Ancient World
Lionel Casson - 2001
Renowned classicist Lionel Casson takes us on a lively tour, from the royal libraries of the most ancient Near East, through the private and public libraries of Greece and Rome, down to the first Christian monastic libraries. To the founders of the first public libraries of the Greek world goes the credit for creating the prototype of today’s library buildings and the science of organizing books in them.Casson recounts the development of ancient library buildings, systems, holdings, and patrons, addressing questions on a wide variety of topics, such as:• What was the connection between the rise in education and literacy and the growth of libraries?• Who contributed to the early development of public libraries, especially the great library at Alexandria?• What did ancient libraries include in their holdings?• How did ancient libraries acquire books?• What was the nature of publishing in the Greek and Roman world?• How did different types of users (royalty, scholars, religious figures) and different kinds of “books” (tablets, scrolls, codices) affect library arrangements?• How did Christianity transform the nature of library holdings?Just as a library yields unexpected treasures to a meandering browser, this entertaining book offers to its perusers the surprising history of the rise and development of ancient libraries—a fascinating story never told before.
Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters: What Harper Lee's Book and America's Iconic Film Mean to Us Today
Tom Santopietro - 2018
Tom Santopietro's new book, Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters, takes a 360 degree look at the Mockingbird phenomenon both on page and screen.Santopietro traces the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird, the impact of the Pulitzer Prize, and investigates the claims that Lee's book is actually racist. Here for the first time is the full behind the scenes story regarding the creation of the 1962 film, one which entered the American consciousness in a way that few other films ever have. From the earliest casting sessions to the Oscars and the 50th Anniversary screening at the White House, Santopietro examines exactly what makes the movie and Gregory Peck's unforgettable performance as Atticus Finch so captivating.As Americans yearn for hope and an end to divisiveness, there is no better time to look at the significance of Harper Lee's book, the film, and all that came after.
Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing
Ben Blatt - 2017
There’s a famous piece of writing advice—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between—not to use -ly adverbs like “quickly” or “fitfully.” It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? What’s more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait?In Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the world’s greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authors’ favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?
One Hundred Great Essays (Penguin Academics Series)
Robert DiYanni - 2001
The anthology combines classic essays of great instructional value together with the most frequently anthologized essays of recent note by today's most highly regarded writers. The selections exhibit a broad range of diversity in subject matter and authorship. All essays have been selected for their utility as both models for writing and for their usefulness as springboards for independent writing. An introductory section informs readers about the qualities of the essay form and offers instruction on how to read essays critically and use the writing process to develop their own essays. For those interested in learning about reading, writing and critical thinking by studying examples of great writing.
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
Philippe Bourgois - 1995
For the first time, an anthropologist had managed to gain the trust and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the roughest ghetto neighborhoods--East Harlem. This new edition adds a prologue describing the major dynamics that have altered life on the streets of East Harlem in the seven years since the first edition. In a new epilogue Bourgois brings up to date the stories of the people--Primo, Caesat, Luis, Tony, Candy--who readers come to know in this remarkable window onto the world of the inner city drug trade. Philippe Bourgois is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He has conducted fieldwork in Central America on ethnicity and social unrest and is the author of Ethnicity at Work: Divided Labor on a Central American Banana Plantation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). He is writing a book on homeless heroin addicts in San Francisco. 1/e hb ISBN (1996) 0-521-43518-8 1/e pb ISBN (1996) 0-521-57460-9