Art Essays

Have we been taught to discount the veracity and deeper meaning of our emotional resonance with the world around us? In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis looks at the curriculum of the English "prep school" and begins to wonder if this subliminal teaching has indeed produced a generation who discount such a nature.

Salman Rushdie is celebrated as “a master of perpetual storytelling” (The New Yorker), illuminating truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous, often searing prose. Now, in his latest collection of nonfiction, he brings together insightful and inspiring essays, criticism, and speeches that focus on his relationship with the written word and solidify his place as one of the most original thinkers of our time.

A "Proustian minimalist on the order of Lydia Davis" ( Kirkus Reviews), Sarah Manguso is one of the finest literary artists at work today. To hear her work is to witness acrobatic acts of compression in the service of extraordinary psychological and spiritual insight. 300 Arguments, a foray into the frontier of contemporary nonfiction writing, is at first glance a group of unrelated aphorisms.

Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles—and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention.

Black Music is a book about the brilliant young jazz musicians of the early 1960s: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and others. It is composed of essays, reviews, interviews, liner notes, musical analyses, and personal impressions from 1959-1967. Also includes Amiri Baraka's reflections in a 2009 interview with Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly.

Reviews and Essays: Cult films, underrated movies, forgotten TV shows, pop culture, and other cool stuff is the fourth non-fiction review book from James J. Caterino, the author of Pop Culture Musings, 50 Films That Mattered to Me and Why, and Fantastic Films, Cult TV Episodes, and Perfect Pop Songs. In this book Caterino covers the neglected 2023 blockbuster The Flash, the underrated Jessica Chastain vehicle Miss Sloan (2016), the misunderstood Passengers (2016), cult movies like Joe Dante’s Piranha (1980), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Pump Up the Volume (1990), Sam Raimi’s The ...

Chesterton's Gateway was made for the person who has always loved Chesterton quotes, but has never been able to finish - or perhaps even start - a Chesterton book. This is because there really is no really good "first" Chesterton book. They are all hard the first time around. Chesterton was an essayist, and it is through his essays he is best discovered. Ethan Nicolle has put together this assortment of essays, a list he often gives to people who ask him where to start with Chesterton. Included are chapter introductions to help with context.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

Everyone’s a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction (A Boy and His Dog) and pop-culture commentary (The Glass Teat), Ellison offers in this collection twenty-five years’ worth of essays and film criticism.

Chanakya's Arthashastra is an unrivalled political treatise that has been used by scholars, academics and leaders across the world. In Chanakya and the Art of Getting Rich, Radhakrishnan Pillai brings out the inherent lessons from Arthashastra to present a strategic and practical way of wealth creation. This is a holistic study, written for anyone and everyone.

For Cazzie David, the world is one big trap door leading to death and despair and social phobia. From shame spirals caused by hookups to panic attacks about being alive and everyone else having to be alive too, David chronicles her life’s most chaotic moments with wit, bleak humor, and a mega-dose of self-awareness. In No One Asked for This, David provides listeners with a singular but ultimately relatable tour through her mind, as she explores existential anxiety, family dynamics, and the utterly modern dilemma of having your breakup displayed on the Internet.

With the virtuosic synthesis of memoir, criticism, and journalism for which she has become known, Leslie Jamison offers us 14 new essays that are by turns ecstatic, searching, staggering, and wise. In its kaleidoscopic sweep, Make It Scream, Make It Burn creates a profound exploration of the oceanic depths of longing and the reverberations of obsession. Among Jamison's subjects are 52 Blue, deemed "the loneliest whale in the world"; the eerie past-life memories of children; the devoted citizens of an online world called Second Life; and more...

R. Eric Thomas didn’t know he was different until the world told him so. Everywhere he went - whether it was his rich, mostly White, suburban high school, his conservative Black church, or his Ivy League college in a big city - he found himself on the outside looking in. In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Thomas reexamines what it means to be an "other" through the lens of his own life experience.

SoulCollage® is a process where we create an ongoing deck of collaged 5x8 cards, each one representing some aspect of our lives and our journey. The cards are used with journaling activities, small group activities, and more, to dive into our hearts and souls. Many inner discoveries are made as the process continues. It is fun, simple, and anyone can do it! These 87 inspiring essays will lead you to a better understanding of the SoulCollage® process in relation to: creativity, your inner voices, working with shadow, archetypes, seasons/holidays, lessons from television, difficult times, ...

Most high school students never have received any instruction in how to write a personal essay. Yet at a time when getting admitted to their dream college is more competitive than ever, the admissions essay may turn out to be the single most important thing they will ever write. The stakes are high. In Writing Tools for the College Essay, veteran journalist and writing coach Roy Peter Clark shows how any student can showcase their unique achievements, intellect, and attributes to stand out from the crowd.

In this self-portrait by an American genius, Kurt Vonnegut writes with beguiling wit and poignant wisdom about his favorite comedians, country music, a dead friend, a dead marriage, and various cockamamie aspects of his all-too-human journey through life. This is a work that resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice: the magic sound of a born storyteller mesmerizing us with truth.

In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.

“You are not alone on the journey” is the powerful message conveyed by this book – don’t we all need to hear it? Through stories, prompts, and the voices of her SoulCollage® cards, Anne Marie invites us to creative practice and deeper connection with our souls. “Honor every step of way” is the call woven through these inspiring pages. Let them beckon you to new inner discoveries and surprises. ~ Mariabruna Sirabella, SoulCollage® Lead Trainer and Founder of the School Of The Origins. SoulCollage® is a process where we create a personal, ongoing deck of collaged 5x8 cards, ...

From graffiti gangs and Grand Theft Auto to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing. Starting with Hodson’s own work experience, which ranges from the mundane to the bizarre - including modeling and working on a NASA Mars mission - Hodson expands outward, looking at the ways in which the human will submits, whether in the marketplace or in a relationship.

·Embark on a philosophical adventure. Explore profound questions about existence, art, politics, and the human condition.· Challenge your assumptions and expand your mind: Engage with diverse perspectives through insightful essays and thought-provoking dialogues.· Navigate the complexities of society: Gain a deeper understanding of sociopolitical issues and their impact on individuals and society.· Uncover timeless truths and unconventional ideas: Discover fresh insights into life's mysteries through stimulating conversations and analyses.· Sharpen your critical thinking skills by ...