Author: Thomas Pornin Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781533126177 Category : Languages : en Pages : 192
Book Description
The gods fashioned the living beings out of clay, and delegated to two titans, Prometheus and Epimetheus, the task of equipping them with all their proper legs and teeth and wings and fur. This is what Plato relates in the Protagoras. 2,400 years later, we invented science, refined biology, theorised evolution; and yet, we still think of animal species as small clay sculptures with well-defined, divinely allotted attributes. We see the world with our grandparents' eyes: our minds recognise and analyse objects and concepts by sifting them through mental categories that we inherited from our ancestors. Ideas have history. This book thus tries to put the notion of animal species in its historical context, and that context spans more than two millennia of religion, philosophy, science, and camel husbandry.
Author: Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 0520379004 Category : Cooking Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
In 2013, a Dutch scientist unveiled the world’s first laboratory-created hamburger. Since then, the idea of producing meat, not from live animals but from carefully cultured tissues, has spread like wildfire through the media. Meanwhile, cultured meat researchers race against population growth and climate change in an effort to make sustainable protein. Meat Planet explores the quest to generate meat in the lab—a substance sometimes called “cultured meat”—and asks what it means to imagine that this is the future of food. Neither an advocate nor a critic of cultured meat, Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft spent five years researching the phenomenon. In Meat Planet, he reveals how debates about lab-grown meat reach beyond debates about food, examining the links between appetite, growth, and capitalism. Could satiating the growing appetite for meat actually lead to our undoing? Are we simply using one technology to undo the damage caused by another? Like all problems in our food system, the meat problem is not merely a problem of production. It is intrinsically social and political, and it demands that we examine questions of justice and desirable modes of living in a shared and finite world. Benjamin Wurgaft tells a story that could utterly transform the way we think of animals, the way we relate to farmland, the way we use water, and the way we think about population and our fragile ecosystem’s capacity to sustain life. He argues that even if cultured meat does not “succeed,” it functions—much like science fiction—as a crucial mirror that we can hold up to our contemporary fleshy dysfunctions.
Author: Michael Giordano Publisher: University of Toronto Press ISBN: 0802099467 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 697
Book Description
The Art of Meditation and the French Renaissance Love Lyric examines the poetics of meditation in the French love lyric at the height of the Lyonnais Renaissance as illustrated by one of the country's most prominent writers. Maurice Scève's Délie is the first French sequence of poems devoted to a single woman in the manner of Petrarch's Rime. It is also the first Renaissance work to use emblems in a sustained work on love. At their core, most amatory lyrics involve a triple relation among lover, beloved, and the meaning of love. Whether the poet-lover is a man or woman, poetic discourse generally takes the form of an interior monologue frequently intermingled with direct and indirect address to the beloved. Though the dominant quality of this lyric is personal introspection, Michael Giordano finds Délie to be consistent with traditions of Christian meditation. He argues that the amatory lyric served as a vehicle for contests of value and paradigm change not only because it was conditioned both by sacred and profane sources, but also because it occurred at a time of religious upheaval and scientific revolution.
Author: Brett M. Rogers Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350068969 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
In 15 all-new essays, this volume explores how science fiction and fantasy draw on materials from ancient Greece and Rome, 'displacing' them from their original settings-in time and space, in points of origins and genre-and encouraging readers to consider similar 'displacements' in the modern world. Modern examples from a wide range of media and genres-including Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and the novels of Helen Oyeyemi, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, and the role-playing games Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer 40K-are brought alongside episodes from ancient myth, important moments from history, and more. All together, these multifaceted studies add to our understanding of how science fiction and fantasy form important areas of classical reception, not only transmitting but also transmuting images of antiquity. The volume concludes with an inspiring personal reflection from the New York Times-bestselling author of speculative fiction, Catherynne M. Valente, offering her perspective on the limitless potential of the classical world to resonate with experience today.
Author: Richard George Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers ISBN: 1398459135 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 541
Book Description
The author asks you: Is this a story of the longest standing oppression in the history of humanity? ...thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. – Genesis 3:16 – c. 1600 BCE. ...the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior... – Aristotle – c. 340 BCE. ...even the most undeserving case will win if there is no one to testify against it. – Christine de Pizan. 1405 CE. ...have they not all violated the principle of equality of rights by quietly depriving half of mankind of the right to participate in the formation of the laws...? – Nicolas de Condorcet – 1790 CE. ...the adoption of this system of inequality never was the result of deliberation, or forethought, or any social ideas, or any notion whatever of what conduced to the benefit of humanity or the good order of society. – J.S. Mill – 1869 CE. ...All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. – Declaration of Human Rights – 1948 CE. The format of the book is encyclopaedic. Each chapter follows on from the previous one but also is an episode in its own right. ... that our descendants, by becoming more learned, may become more virtuous and happier, and that we do not die without having merited being part of the human race. – Denis Diderot – 1750 CE.
Author: Shoshanna Kirk Publisher: Chronicle Books ISBN: 1452113114 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 147
Book Description
Here is the stuff legends are made of in 25 of the most beloved tales from Greek mythology, complemented with gorgeous illustrations by artist Tinou Le Joly Senoville. These classic, timeless stories have been crafted into a concise, intriguing, and very readable romp through the human condition. Arranged by emotional theme—cunning, vanity, vengeance, heroism—each exciting tale hones in on the frailties and strengths, desires and jealousies of gods who attempt to act like mortals and mortals who dare to be gods. Originally conceived to help early civilizations comprehend the emotions and culture of an ancient world, these myths remain as compelling today as they were thousands of years ago. From the miraculous birth of Athena in the heavens to Odysseus and his skillful slaying of the Cyclops on Earth to Persephone's abduction into the underworld, Greek Myths is a glorious introduction to the world of mythology.
Author: Charles W. Durham Publisher: Susquehanna University Press ISBN: 9781575910628 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Milton consistently reflected a concern for reassembling Truth in a wide-ranging body of works in different genres and on stunningly diverse topics. Similarly, the twelve contributors to this collection represent efforts to engage in the search for Truth in the works of Milton, to re-analyze, reinterpret, and recontextualize his literary, political, religious, and social views and values, and to reassess the influence of his writings.
Author: Kathryn Harkup Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1472933753 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
A thrilling and gruesome look at the science that influenced Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The year 1818 saw the publication of one of the most influential science-fiction stories of all time. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley had a huge impact on the gothic horror and science-fiction genres, and her creation has become part of our everyday culture, from cartoons to Hallowe'en costumes. Even the name 'Frankenstein' has become a by-word for evil scientists and dangerous experiments. How did a teenager with no formal education come up with the idea for such an extraordinary novel? Clues are dotted throughout Georgian science and popular culture. The years before the book's publication saw huge advances in our understanding of the natural sciences, in areas such as electricity and physiology, for example. Sensational science demonstrations caught the imagination of the general public, while the newspapers were full of lurid tales of murderers and resurrectionists. Making the Monster explores the scientific background behind Mary Shelley's book. Is there any science fact behind the science fiction? And how might a real-life Victor Frankenstein have gone about creating his monster? From tales of volcanic eruptions, artificial life and chemical revolutions, to experimental surgery, 'monsters' and electrical experiments on human cadavers, Kathryn Harkup examines the science and scientists that influenced Shelley, and inspired her most famous creation.
Author: Carlotta Maria Shinn Russell Publisher: Abbott Press ISBN: 1458210685 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 202
Book Description
Chunchula, Alabama, was no different than any other small, rural community in the 1960s. There was a divide between whites and blacks, and the civil rights movement played a role in the lives of all its residents. In I Lived on the Other Side of the Line, author Carlotta Maria Shinn Russell describes the times through the eyes of ten-year-old Shane Washington and others who experienced the events personally. I Lived on the Other Side of the Line establishes a descriptive and effective atmosphere for the times leading up to, during, and after the civil rights movement. It offers a twofold look at this era, examining Shane’s direct contact with the Ku Klux Klan as well as other youth impacted by racist events. It also shows how the KKK’s ideology affected how people thought and acted, including the pain, hurt, and fear inflicted on blacks in the community. Presented through a child’s perspective, this narrative addresses the themes of freedom, discrimination, and segregation during one of the nation’s most difficult and important times in history.
Author: Thomas Pornin
Author: James Baldwin
Author: Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft
Author: Michael Giordano
Author: Brett M. Rogers
Author: Richard George
Author: Shoshanna Kirk
Author: Charles W. Durham
Author: Kathryn Harkup
Author: Carlotta Maria Shinn Russell