Popular Literature

Robert Crumb’s genius, according to author David Stephen Calonne, lies in his ability to absorb a variety of literary, artistic, and spiritual traditions and incorporate them within an original, American mode of discourse. R. Crumb: Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self charts Crumb’s intellectual trajectory and explores the recurring philosophical themes that permeate his depictions of literary and biographical works.

Ian F. Svenonius’s new collection of sixteen essays and stories, entitled Censorship Now!!, is reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship, Ikea, documentary film-making, the Berlin Wall, the film Heathers, the twist, the frug, the mashed potato, shaving one’s body, Apple, Inc., Nordic functionalism, the supposed benevolence of the Wikipedia, hoarding, college rock, the origins of the Internet, and more. It’s an underground smash which has been met with horrified gasps in all respectable quarters and gog-eyed enthusiasm in artist garrets the world over.

Just as his music career was taking off, Juan Vidal received life-changing news: He’d soon be a father. Throughout his life, neglectful men were the rule - his own dad struggled with drug addiction and infidelity - a cycle that, inevitably, wrought Vidal with insecurity. At age 26, with only a bare grip on life, what lessons could he possibly offer a kid? Determined to alter the course for his child, Vidal did what he’d always done when confronted with life’s challenges. He turned to the counterculture.

We all know how Darth Vader shared his big secret with Luke Skywalker, but what if he had delivered the news in a handwritten note instead? And what if someone found that letter, as well as all of the drafts that landed in the Dark Lord’s trash can? In the riotously funny collection Dear Luke, We Need to Talk. Darth, John Moe finally reveals these lost notes alongside all the imagined letters, e-mails, text messages, and other correspondences your favorite pop culture icons never meant for you to see.

Annice, Pat, and Barby are best friends from Iowa, freshly arrived in booming 1950s Chicago to explore different paths toward independence, self - expression, and sexual freedom. From the hip-hang of a bohemian lifestyle to the sophisticated lure of romance with a handsome, wealthy, married boss to the happier security of a lesbian relationship, these three experience firsthand the dangers and limitations of women’s economic -reliance on men.

What was the real significance of William James's breakdown? Of the anti-Semitism in T.S. Eliot's writing? At each step in his latest journey through American cultural history, Menand has an original point to make.

Martin Suter (Linda Zervakis) und Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre (Caren Miosga) unterhalten sich über: Badehosen, Glitzer, Äähm, Hochzeiten, LSD, Teufel, Gott, Madonna, Arbeit, Ibiza, Kochen, Rechnungen, Siri, Fotos, Mundharmonika, Geldscheine, Verliebtheit, Wiedersehen. Den Schweizer Songtext im Kapitel "Arbeit" liest Stephan Eicher. Die Mundharmonika im Abspann spielt Martin Suter.

A new, expanded collection of both new and previously published essays and articles from one of the mainstays of the Washington, DC underground rock-and-roll scene, The Psychic Soviet is the most complete collection of writings by Ian Svenonius. The selections are written in a scholarly yet engaging style, filled with parody and biting humor that subvert capitalist culture, and cover such topics as the ascent of the DJ as a star, the “cosmic depression” that followed the defeat of the USSR, and the status of rock and roll as a religion.

Ghosts and other supernatural phenomena are widely represented throughout modern culture. They can be found in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts, but popular media or commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from the beliefs people hold about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Personal belief and cultural tradition on the one hand, and popular and commercial representation on the other, nevertheless continually feed each other.

Tori Rodriguez leads the perfect life. Or so everyone thinks. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect family. But what no one knows is that she's secretly struggling to keep it together, even as she leads the cheer squad to nationals. Noah has never had it easy. His clothes come second-hand, not off designer racks, and his home life is far from ideal. With his knowledge about computers, he's determined to make it to college and beyond, even if everyone else has a free ticket. The minute Noah meets Tori, he thinks she's just another entitled queen bee.

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis' entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami's predictable social scene, with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends. While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty - like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens. But paradise has its price.

As at home with Galileo and his daughter in Florence as he is with Diderot in Enlightenment France, William and Alice James in fin-de-siècle Boston, or the latest research on the genome, Gerald Weissmann distills the lessons of history to guide us through our troubled age. His message is clear: "Experimental science is our defense-perhaps our best defense-against humbug and the Endarkenment."

Cam likes me. He’s asked me on a date. It’s kind of unbelievable. He could have any girl he wants, yet his eyes landed on me. Can this be real? Do I go for it?

Многие исследователи пришли к выводу, что "Тысячу и одну ночь" более целесообразно, чем по географическому принципу, объединить, хотя бы и условно, в группы по времени создания или же по принадлежности к социальной среде, где они бытовали.

Наиболее поздними по времени создания являются сказки плутовского жанра, по-видимому включенные в сборник в Египте, при его последней обработке.

При исследовании "Тысячи и одной ночи" каждую сказку надлежит рассматривать особо, так как органической связи между ними нет, и они до включения в сборник долгое время существовали самостоятельно.

История изучения переводов "Книги тысячи и одной ночи" в России может быть изложена очень кратко. До Великой Октябрьской революции русских переводов непосредственно с арабского не было.

Сказки "Тысячи и одной ночи" принадлежащие к той или иной группе, родившись в определенной социальной среде, естественно имели в этой среде и наибольшее распространение.

У себя на родине сказки Шахразады в разных социальных слоях издревле встречали разное отношение.

Отрицательное отношение к "Тысячи и одной ночи" реакционно настроенных арабских филологов XIX века печально отразилось на судьбе ее печатных изданий.