i am pooped. been a long half a week. there is a phrase which goes, “what a difference a day makes.” and perhaps there is wisdom there. i know a good nights sleep often fixes what ails me. and yet… and yet. all too often i put off posting a day only to find the next day i am even more pooped and even less able. as such i’ve decided to share a little treasure trove of reading i’ve been enjoying on the off chance i can’t awaken from my walking slumber any time soon. see below
the treasure trove i mentioned is escholarship editions: public subjects. the site offers a huge array of interesting books in their entirety, well presented, with illustrations, for free. i will offer a small cross section of titles i thought interesting. many are worthy of their own posts but as stated i haven’t the energy at present. take a look you may find just the thing to pleasantly suck up a few hours-
a medieval mirror
The Speculum Humanae Salvationis or “Mirror of Human Salvation,” is the only medieval work that exists in illuminated manuscripts, in blockbook editions of the mid-fifteenth century, and in sixteen later incunabula. The authors have provided lavishly illustrated account of the manuscript.
the flux of history the flux of science
Does thinking have a history? If there are no necessarily changeless structures to be found in things and in our inquiry into them, then what knowledge of the world and ourselves is possible?
chuck jones: a flurry of drawings
Flurry of Drawings reveals in cartoon-like sequences the irrepressible humor and profound reflection that have shaped Chuck Jones’s work. the author offers both a fascinating explanation of cartoon culture and a new understanding of art’s relationship to technology, criticism, freedom, and imagination.
foregone conclusions: against apocolyptic history
this passionate denunciation of apocalyptic thinking provides a moral, philosophical, and literary challenge to the way most of us make sense of our worlds. In our search for coherence, Bernstein argues, we tend to see our lives as moving toward a predetermined fate. This “foreshadowing” demeans the variety, the richness, and especially the unpredictability of everyday life.
light moving in time: studies in the visual aesthetics of avant-garde film
To view a film is to see another’s seeing mediated by the technology and techniques of the camera. By manipulating the cinematic apparatus in unorthodox ways, avant-garde filmmakers challenge the standardized versions of seeing perpetuated by the dominant film industry and generate ways of seeing that are truer to actual human vision.
the persistence of memory: organism, myth, text
While memory is one of the most fascinating faculties of consciousness, it is also one of the most mysterious. Is it memory - our own marvelous personal computer or data base - that brings us the intense feelings prompted by a certain object or situation?Drawing on an expansive array of sources, from microbiology to cosmology, Ovid to Proust, Egyptology to the cinema, Philip Kuberski leads us on a brave and beguiling exploration of memory.
1910. the emancipation of dissonance
The year 1910 marks an astonishing, and largely unrecognized, juncture in Western history. In this perceptive interdisciplinary analysis Focusing on the cultural climate of Middle Europe and paying particular attention to philosophy, literature, sociology, music, and painting the author provides a new, wider, and more ambitious definition of expressionism and shows the significance of this movement in shaping the artistic and intellectual mood of the age.
a history of wine in america
The Vikings called North America “Vinland,” the land of wine. Giovanni de Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who first described the grapes of the New World, was sure that “they would yield excellent wines.” And when the English settlers found grapes growing so thickly that they covered the ground down to the very seashore, they concluded that “in all the world the like abundance is not to be found.” Thus, from the very beginning the promise of America was, in part, the alluring promise of wine. How that promise was repeatedly baffled, how its realization was gradually begun, and how at last it has been triumphantly fulfilled is the story told in this book.
the calligraphic state. textual domination and history in a muslim society
In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, the author examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present.
descarte’s imagination. proportion, images, and the activity of thinking
Renè Descartes is commonly portrayed as a strict rationalist, a philosopher who theorized a radical, unresolvable split between mind and body. In this long-overdue examination of the role of imagination in Descartes’s thought, the author reveals a Descartes quite different from the usual dualistic portrayals and offers a critical reconception of the genesis and nature of the philosopher’s thought.
before the nickelodeon
the author takes us into the long-forgotten world of early cinema - unexpectedly sophisticated and yet radically different from current movie-making.
the two-headed deer. illustrations of the ramayna
India’s epic poem, the Ramayana, is a dramatic, ever-evolving tale of a prince and his bride, their adventures and dilemmas, and demons…
their sisters’ keepers. prostitution in new york city, 1830-1870
This intimate study of prostitutes in New York City during the mid-nineteenth century reveals these women in an entirely new light. Unlike traditional studies, the author’s account of prostitution’s positive attractions, as well as its negative aspects, gives a fresh perspective to this much-discussed occupation.Using a wealth of primary source material, from tax and court records to brothel guidebooks and personal correspondence, the text shows the common concerns prostitutes shared with women outside the “profession.” As mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives, trapped by circumstances, they sought a way to create a life and work culture for themselves and those they cared about.By the 1830s prostitution in New York was no longer hidden. Though officially outside the law, it was well integrated into the city’s urban life.
there you go. make sure to check the site link in the beginning of the post as there are hundreds of books available. enjoy.