Appearance
CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY
I bought this book thinking it would be a wonderful story about gratitude for what we have. It literally only says that if Christmas were every day, the clutter would pile up and we wouldn't get to celebrate any other holidays. It shows pictures of an exhausted mother, people throwing away presents, etc. Then the people dump the candy in the ocean and make the fish sick. Then, I'm not kidding you, they burn all the extra gifts. There is no mention of gratitude, giving to others - anything! There is obviously no mention of the true meaning of Christmas - God forbid! But even in a purely secular rendition of Christmas, the lack of anything meaningful, heart warming or kind was appalling. And the way the girl speaks is incomprehensible. She says to Santa about his leather boots, "Bargain's done forever" and then at the end she says to her Dad,"Don't you tell what!" huh?? What is she saying??
A short guide to classical mythology (Rinehart English pamphlets)
Kirkwood's "A Short Guide to Classical Mythology" is exactly what it claims to be. Dictionary-like without being dry, the guide is an alphabetical list of people, places, and events in Greco-Roman mythology. Some entries are short, referring the reader to a longer one. The long entries are summaries of important epics or stories.While the format of the book makes it clearly a reference book instead of an exploration of mythology, this makes it a convenient and quick tool for students or teachers studying Classics, or simply for anyone unfamiliar with Classical Mythology. As seen by the numerous references to more modern authors and poets such as Voltaire and Dante, mythological references are everywhere in literature, and those who may not have been steeped in this tradition in class would find this book extremely helpful. Unlike other mythology books, such as Edith Hamilton's "Mythology" or D'Aulaires' "Book of Greek Myths," this book is truly a "short guide" that does not require the reader to look up a person in the index and then read all the way through a story to find out about them. Already alphabetical, Kirkwood's book gives a short description of the person, and anyone who wishes to read more can go to the story referenced. This book is a great guide for readers with any level of interest in mythology.
A short guide to classical mythology (Rinehart English pamphlets)
This little tiny book, barely over a hundred pages long, is the one single book out of all reference books on classical mythology that I'd recommend over any and all others. I began using it when I got to college in 1959, and I used it heavily through the next ten or fifteen years, when I began teaching literature courses and had to learn the classical texts as I went along, often hardly a step ahead of the students. I use it still, from time to time, but back then, Kirkwood saw me through difficult times, again and again and again. The entries in his book are clear and concise, and the cross-referencing is superb. From this little book, a person can gradually--especially if using it in conjunction with the actual reading of ancient texts--become easily and naturally familiar with the great and seemingly complicated myths underlying Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Kirkwood makes all clear, all accessible, and all useful, and he does it without the least bit of unnecessary simplifying or taking of shortcuts. You get the real stuff and in the real way, all in barely a hundred pages. This little book should be as famous for what IT does as The Elements of Style is for what IT does.Eric Larsen, Emeritus Professor of English at John Jay College, CUNY, and author of the novels "An American Memory," "I Am Zoe Handke," "The End of the 19th Century," and of the nonfiction "A Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and Deceit."
Dylan's Visions of Sin
This book will be easy for those who are familiar with poetics, something Aristotle wrote about, which in DYLAN'S VISION OF SIN by Christopher Ricks is applied to songs by Bob Dylan, particularly the songs listed on pages 492-499 in the Acknowledgements. Twenty-seven books of the Bible and the Ten Commandments are listed in the index, along with the poems of major poets compared to Dylan's work. The Sins, Virtues, and Heavenly Graces used to list the Contents of the book are classical concepts that are not explicit subjects like adultery, death, friendship, war, and race, hardships which are so popular in modern psychological studies. On Charity, most people don't get interested until the topic is Love, and that concluding chapter starts with a song called `Watered-Down Love' from the album `Shot of Love' which was "unlovingly shot down by the reviewers." (p. 468). I know what song he means, but I'm not sure I can figure out what happened when it was recorded:`The studio out-take (which is the performance that was released but with a final verse that was edited out when released) ends its assurances not with the rising delight felt in the confidence that love that's pure "Never needs to be proud, loud, or restlessly yearning", but with a further verse that would have demeaned the song into the self-serving, the self-pitying, and the self-praising:Love that's pure is not what you teach meI've got to go where it can reach meI've got to flee toward patience and meeknessYou miscalculate me, mistake my kindness for weakness`I don't mean that we would have had to take this as autobiographical; not that it would . . . Whereas the song as released, and as blessedly released from its final verse, does not have even once any of the words "I", "me", or "my" . . .' (p. 469)."The studio out-take" is four lines longer than the song we already knew. The personal is assumed to be stupid for hundreds of fans who might be unfamiliar with the psychological standards which allow Ricks as critic to proclaim, "For the move out from the large love that is charity to a love-affair about which one of the parties now feels uncharitable, this move is in itself a false move artistically." (p. 469). Such theological judgments are likely to be unfamiliar to those people who are most familiar with Dylan's songs, limiting the appeal of this book to a narrow segment of the educated reading public. Intellectual fanatics with a philosophical interest in religious issues might marvel at how well a modern professor can combine promoting religious interests in a pop culture without offending any readers except those who expected a book about Bob Dylan to be easy to understand.The Index of Dylan's Songs and Writings for this book is on pages 508-511, but it only lists a few pages for most songs. Which Album a Song is on (pp. 512-517) is inclined to list just the first time a song appeared. The exception which proves the rule is "Positively 4th Street: Greatest Hits [1], Biograph, and The Essential Bob Dylan." That list does not include "Man of Peace," a song mentioned on pages 158 and 449, (where the first line is quoted without mentioning the song) according to the Index of Songs, but which is also quoted much earlier, "You know Satan sometimes comes as a man of peace." (p. 43). It is from the album Infidels, but according to the words I have, the final line of each verse starts with:You know, sometimes Satan . . .You know that sometimes Satan . . .I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.People who have learned the song well enough to sing it without having to look for the words of any of the eight verses might wonder how tired an author would have to be to write the words down in the wrong order when writing about songs by someone who is as popular as Bob Dylan, but this kind of thing is an occupational hazard for professors who write books and philosophers who wonder if the error was beneficial in any way. Knowing Satan might be an approach that could draw on a lot more of our culture than just Dylan's songs, and the great song "Sympathy for the Devil" by the Rolling Stones could be a wonderful start for that project.Christopher Ricks is extremely knowledgeable about critics, and those readers who are looking for new literary angles ought to gain a lot from his insight into the Dylan interviews that are also discussed in this work. In a song with an `I -- You' framework, any mention of `he' is likely to apply more to the critic than to the singer or an audience, particularly in the lines:With the one who tries to hideWhat he don't know to begin with (p. 66).This makes more sense in the song it's in, and in the section about envy:I know the reasonThat you talk behind my backI used to be among the crowdYou're in withDo you take me for such a foolTo think I'd make contactWith the one who tries to hideWhat he don't know to begin with (p. 66).This is `Positively 4th Street.' The most positive thing this book has to say is about rhymes. In another song, "And the rhyme in this refrain is beautifully metaphorical, because it's a rhyme of the word `end' with the word `again':Oh, Mama, can this really be the endTo be stuck inside of MobileWith the Memphis Blues again? (p. 31)"`End' and `again' are metaphorically a rhyme because every rhyme is both an endness and an againness." (p. 32).
Dylan's Visions of Sin
The books that will be written about Bob Dylan! About when he released _Empire Burlesque_ critics such as Christopher Ricks were prepared to give him equal status with Shakespeare. Now many albums later who is Dylan's compeer? -- the sky is the limit. _Dylan's Visions of Sin_, setting Dylan in the tradition of English poetry (Keats, Wordsworth, Eliot), as well as adverting to other cultural influences on Dylan, bravely begins to give him the status he deserves. Using the seven deadly sins, the four cardinal virtues and the three heavenly graces, Ricks demonstrates how Dylan (from the beginning of his career the consummate artist) resists the sins while abiding by the virtues and the graces. His close-in reading of Dylan's songs results in much exuberant word-play, and, although other reviewers seem united in their condemnation of Ricks's style in this regard, the critical acrobatics which Ricks performs are requisite, I feel, to conveying a full sense of Dylan's meaning. Ricks is flush with good authority for his judgements and observations and continually astounds with his adducing of literary and musical allusions which are illuminating and apt. For an example of his brilliance as a critic see his criticism of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll", where he explains via Wordsworth Dylan's use of feminine endings.I saw Ricks lecture on Dylan in 1985 and people merely laughed at his quoting of poets such as Shelley and Marvell to illustrate Dylan's technique. Such is the power of popular culture. Ricks is brave in sticking to his guns: _Dylan's Visions of Sin_ is a worthwhile work on a figure who fully deserves serious attention.
Dylan's Visions of Sin
Bob Dylan really should get a Nobel Prize for literature. Dylan's Vision of Sin is the most brilliant analysis of Dylan's words in the context of the music and the voice. Its time.