The Modern Myths

The Modern Myths PDF Author: Philip Ball
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226823849
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
With The Modern Myths, brilliant science communicator Philip Ball spins a new yarn. From novels and comic books to B-movies, it is an epic exploration of literature, new media and technology, the nature of storytelling, and the making and meaning of our most important tales. Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time—fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them—and still living them—today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called “modern myths.” But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did. Through the medium of narratives that all of us know in their basic outline and which have no clear moral or resolution, these modern myths explore some of our deepest fears, dreams, and anxieties. We keep returning to these tales, reinventing them endlessly for new uses. But what are they really about, and why do we need them? What myths are still taking shape today? And what makes a story become a modern myth? In The Modern Myths, Ball takes us on a wide-ranging tour of our collective imagination, asking what some of its most popular stories reveal about the nature of being human in the modern age.

The Modern Myths

The Modern Myths PDF Author: Philip Ball
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226823849
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 437

Get Book Here

Book Description
With The Modern Myths, brilliant science communicator Philip Ball spins a new yarn. From novels and comic books to B-movies, it is an epic exploration of literature, new media and technology, the nature of storytelling, and the making and meaning of our most important tales. Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time—fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them—and still living them—today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called “modern myths.” But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did. Through the medium of narratives that all of us know in their basic outline and which have no clear moral or resolution, these modern myths explore some of our deepest fears, dreams, and anxieties. We keep returning to these tales, reinventing them endlessly for new uses. But what are they really about, and why do we need them? What myths are still taking shape today? And what makes a story become a modern myth? In The Modern Myths, Ball takes us on a wide-ranging tour of our collective imagination, asking what some of its most popular stories reveal about the nature of being human in the modern age.

Japan's Modern Myths

Japan's Modern Myths PDF Author: Carol Gluck
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691008127
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Ideology played a momentous role in modern Japanese history. Not only did the elite of imperial Japan (1890-1945) work hard to influence the people to "yield as the grasses before the wind," but historians of modern Japan later identified these efforts as one of the underlying pathologies of World War II. Available for the first time in paperback, this study examines how this ideology evolved. Carol Gluck argues that the process of formulating and communicating new national values was less consistent than is usually supposed. By immersing the reader in the talk and thought of the late Meiji period, Professor Gluck recreates the diversity of ideological discourse experienced by Japanese of the time. The result is a new interpretation of the views of politics and the nation in imperial Japan.

The Silence of Animals

The Silence of Animals PDF Author: John Gray
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374229171
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
"An exploration of the failures of reason in human life and the enduring role of myth in science, politics, and morality"--

Bones

Bones PDF Author: Lewis R. Binford
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 1483213951
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths focuses on bone structures and characteristics, including bone modifications, breakage, processing, and destruction by animals. The publication first elaborates on the transitions to relics to artifacts and monuments to assemblages and middle-range research and the role of actualistic studies, including artifact and assemblage phase and relic and monument phase. The text then takes a look at the patterns of bone modifications produced by nonhuman agents and human modes of bone modification. Discussions focus on breakage related to other forms of bone processing, morphology of bone breakage, chopping and bone breakage as butchering techniques, butchering marks, bone breakage and destruction by animals, tooth marks, and previous approaches to understanding the significance of broken and modified bone. The manuscript ponders on patterns of association stemming from the behavior of man versus that of beast, as well as control collections of animal-structured assemblages; information on kill behavior and comparisons; observations of wolves and their behavior; and studies of assemblage composition caused by beasts. The publication is a valuable source of information for researchers interested in bone structure and modifications.

6 Modern Myths About Christianity & Western Civilization

6 Modern Myths About Christianity & Western Civilization PDF Author: Philip J. Sampson
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 083082281X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this book Philip J. Sampson dispels six myths about Christianity and Western civilization and results in unsettling conven-tional wisdom and providing an enlightening look at truth.

Urban Legends

Urban Legends PDF Author: Ngaire E. Genge
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307560937
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Urban Legends is a remarkably complete collection of the modern myths that make the rounds in offices, college dorms, and every other place where people tell the stories that spring from our deepest fears and fascinations. Every culture has its folktales including ours. Except, instead of involving gods and goddesses or princes and princesses, ours involve "some guy my sister's best friend knows" or "someone who woke up in a motel room." They happened, supposedly, to real people, usually recently, in a particular place. And they touch the most sensitive nerves of our psyches with ironic twists, gross-out shocks, and moral lessons learned the hard way. From the classic tale "The Mexican Pet" in which the "dog" turns out to be no Chihuahua to the more unappetizing story of condoms as fast-food burger garnish, from surgically skilled kidney thieves to sexual experiments that end in the emergency room, Urban Legends relates more 300 of the most enticing, macabre, and unforgettable tales. Expertly told, they are arranged in such chapters as "Crazy Little Thang Called Sex," "Oh, Scare Me," "Campus Capers," "Corporate Convolutions," and "So Much For Comfort Food." Fascinating, chilling, and occasionally repulsive, Urban Legends has all your favorites and hundreds more.

Lies

Lies PDF Author: Al Franken
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101219440
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller by Senator Al Franken, author of Giant of the Senate Al Franken, one of our “savviest satirists” (People), has been studying the rhetoric of the Right. He has listened to their cries of “slander,” “bias,” and even “treason.” He has examined the GOP's policies of squandering our surplus, ravaging the environment, and alienating the rest of the world. He’s even watched Fox News. A lot. And, in this fair and balanced report, Al bravely and candidly exposes them all for what they are: liars. Lying, lying liars. Al destroys the liberal media bias myth by doing what his targets seem incapable of: getting his facts straight. Using the Right’s own words against them, he takes on the pundits, the politicians, and the issues, in the most talked about book of the year. Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Lies sticks it to the most right-wing administration in memory, and to the right-wing media hacks who do its bidding.

Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths

Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths PDF Author: Vine Deloria, Jr.
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
ISBN: 1682751325
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Using the tension between evolutionists and creationists in Kansas in the late 1990s as a focal point, Deloria takes Western science and religion to task, providing a critical assessment of the flaws and anomalies in each side's arguments.

Mythologies

Mythologies PDF Author: Roland Barthes
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0809071940
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
"This new edition of MYTHOLOGIES is the first complete, authoritative English version of the French classic, Roland Barthes's most emblematic work"--

Modern Myths

Modern Myths PDF Author: Clara Chow
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789811162336
Category : Mythology, Greek
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Medea is an expat wife. Orpheus is a club DJ. And Prometheus sells charsiew in Toa Payoh. Figures from Greek mythology take up residence in contemporary Singapore, in this collection of stories that explores the pain and dilemma of modern living. What happens when you are doomed to repeat your actions over and over? Or have to re-make your decisions, knowing that times have changed? What if struggling makes the divine human, and the human divine? Steve Jobs and Ulysses ride motorcycles together in the afterlife. The oral history of a latter-day siren's song is documented in a podcast. A Prime Minister makes a human sacrifice to deal with the political winds of change. Told with humour, irony and compassion, these modern myths and ordinary epics remix familiar tales into instant classics.