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Exploring J.r.r. Tolkien's "the Hobbit"
By Corey Olsen. 2012
"An admirable and thought-provoking consideration of the underlying themes of The Hobbit, following the there-and-back-again progress from its famous first…
line on through to Bilbo's return home at the story's end." -- Douglas A. Anderson, author of The Annotated Hobbit The Hobbit is one of the most widely read and best-loved books of the twentieth century. Now Corey Olsen takes readers deep within the text to uncover its secrets and delights.Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a fun, thoughtful, and insightful companion volume designed to bring a thorough and original new reading of this great work to a general audience. Professor Corey Olsen takes readers on an in-depth journey through The Hobbit chapter by chapter, revealing the stories within the story: the dark desires of dwarves and the sublime laughter of elves, the nature of evil and its hopelessness, the mystery of divine providence and human choice, and, most of all, the transformation within the life of Bilbo Baggins. Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is a book that will make The Hobbit come alive for readers as never before.The Digital Popular in India: Mainstreaming the Marginal
By Deepali Yadav, Vipin Kadavath. 2024
This book will look at digital popular cultures in the post-millennial Indian context and trace patterns of consumption and forms…
of agency that it engenders thus offering an interpretative analysis of digital content on different platforms.The book consists of three sections. The first section centres around novel practices such as transnational consumption of digital popular content. The second section deals with influencer marketing and the ways in which mediated personalities get transformed. The third section includes textual analysis of OTT and other digital content in order to understand its effects on refashioning social identities such as class caste and gender.The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong
By Jennifer Hecht. 2007
The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Game Forever
By Teri Agins. 2000
A solid, hard-hitting, and uncompromising journalistic look at the fashion industry.The time when "fashion" was defined by French designers whose…
clothes could be afforded only by elite has ended. Now designers take their cues from mainstream consumers and creativity is channeled more into mass-marketing clothes than into designing them. Indeed, one need look no further than the Gap to see proof of this. In The End of Fashion, Wall Street Journal, reporter Teri Agins astutely explores this seminal change, laying bare all aspects of the fashion industry from manufacturing, retailing, anmd licensing to image making and financing. Here as well are fascinating insider vignettes that show Donna Karan fighting with financiers,the rivalry between Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, and the commitment to haute conture that sent Isaac Mizrahi's business spiraling.Encyclopedia Gothica
By Liisa Ladouceur. 2011
&“Wickedly funny . . . Ideal for babybats and elder goths who&’ll appreciate the wealth of reminders of the experiences that make up…
goth life&” (NOW Magazine). A guidebook to the language of the most shadowy of subcultures, this work collects and defines more than 550 Gothic words and phrases. Compiled by an acclaimed Goth journalist and poet, this compendium provides insight into the unique vernacular of this fascinating community, describing in detail and with black humor the fashion, music, and lifestyle as well as sharing insider slang such as Babybat, Corp Goth, and the Gothic Two-Step. A Goth Band Family Tree and essential Goth listening, reading, and viewing recommendations are also included in this phantasmagorical work. &“Including illustrations from the talented Gary Pullin, Encyclopedia Gothica is the essential Goth reference whether you&’re wondering who Sisters of Mercy are or what absinthe is (and why Marilyn Manson has his own brand of the green stuff).&” —Geeks of Doom &“Ladouceur is a rare gem of a commenter that has the ability not only to laugh at herself, but to be able to get you to laugh at yourself, too.&” —HoustonPress &“Ladouceur has compiled a thorough and amusing encyclopedia about all-things-Goth . . . Whether you want to read about Nosferatu, Goth Juice or mall Goths you&’ll find brief and truly informative segments in Encyclopedia Gothica.&” —antiMusic &“Ladouceur&’s humor is a welcome rarity in an oft-misunderstood subculture.&” —Maclean&’s &“For those who continue to fear Goths, this book is a powerful antidote. Despite their spiky, menacing exterior, Encyclopedia Gothica details a culture as harmless and geeky as your average Star Wars fanboy or Kiss Army foot soldier.&” —National Post90s Bitch: Media, Culture, and the Failed Promise of Gender Equality
By Allison Yarrow. 2018
Finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Book Award, muse to a Givenchy fashion collection, and recommended by the TheNew…
York Times, The Skimm, US Weekly,The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Refinery 29, Book Riot, Bitch Media, and more. "Yarrow’s biting autopsy of the decade scrutinizes the way society reduced — or “bitchified” — women at work, women at home, women in court, even women on ice skates . . . Direct quotes from politicians, journalists and comedians about the women provide the most jarring, oh-my-god-that-really-happened portions of Yarrow’s decade excavation." — Pittsburg Post-GazetteThe nostalgic, smart, and shocking account of how the 90s set back feminism, undermined girls and women, and shaped the millennial generation from award-winning journalist, Allison Yarrow. To understand how we got here, we have to rewind the VHS tape. 90s Bitch tells the real story of women and girls in the 1990s, exploring how they were maligned by the media, vilified by popular culture, and objectified in the marketplace. Trailblazing women like Hillary Clinton, Anita Hill, Madeleine Albright, Janet Reno, and Marcia Clark, and were undermined. Newsmakers like Britney Spears, Monica Lewinsky, Tonya Harding and Lorena Bobbitt were shamed and misunderstood. The advent of the 24-hour news cycle reinforced society's deeply entrenched misogyny. Meanwhile, marketers hijacked feminism, sold “Girl Power,” and poisoned a generation. Today echoes of 90s “bitchification” still exist everywhere we look. To understand why, we must revisit and interrogate the 1990s—a decade in which empowerment was twisted into objectification, exploitation, and subjugation. Yarrow’s thoughtful, juicy, and timely examination is a must-read for anyone trying to understand 21st century sexism and end it for the next generation.Ian Fleming's Inspiration: The Truth Behind the Books
By Edward Smith. 2020
“A journey through Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence and how this translated through his typewriter into James…
Bond’s world.” —The Washington TimesSecret agent James Bond is among the best known fictional characters in history, but what most people don’t know is that almost all of the characters, plots, and gadgets come from the real life of Bond’s creator, Commander Ian Fleming. This book goes through the plots of Fleming’s novels—explaining the experiences that inspired them. Along with Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence, the book notes the friends who Fleming kept, among them Noel Coward and Randolph Churchill, and the influential people he would mingle with, including British prime ministers and American presidents. Bond is known for his exotic travel, most notably to the island of Jamaica, where Fleming spent much of his life. The desk in his Caribbean house, Goldeneye, was also where his life experiences would be put onto paper in the guise of James Bond. This book takes us to that island, and many other locales, as it traces the adventures of both 007 and the man who created him.The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves
By Andrew Potter. 2010
“A totally real, genuine, authentic book about why you shouldn’t believe any of those words. And it’s genuinely good.” —…
Gregg Easterbrook, author of Sonic BoomExploring a number of trends in our popular culture—from Sarah Palin to Antiques Roadshow, organic food to the indignation over James Frey’s memoir—Andrew Potter follows his successful Nation of Rebels with a new book that argues that our pursuit of the authentic is fraught with irony and self-defeat. Readers of The Paradox of Choice or Bowling Alone will find many enlightening insights in The Authenticity Hoax, which is, in the words of Tom de Zengotita (Mediated), “the kind of criticism that changes minds.”American Ghost: A Family's Extraordinary History on the Desert Frontier
By Hannah Nordhaus. 2015
“A haunting story about the long reach of the past.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’S Fresh Air“In this intriguing book, [Nordhaus] shares her…
journey to discover who her immigrant ancestor really was—and what strange alchemy made the idea of her linger long after she was gone.” —PeopleLa Posada—“place of rest”—was once a grand Santa Fe mansion. It belonged to Abraham and Julia Staab, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. After they died, the house became a hotel. And in the 1970s, the hotel acquired a resident ghost—a sad, dark-eyed woman in a long gown. Strange things began to happen there: vases moved, glasses flew, blankets were ripped from beds. Julia Staab died in 1896—but her ghost, they say, lives on.In American Ghost, Julia’s great-great-granddaughter, Hannah Nordhaus, traces her ancestor’s transfiguration from nineteenth-century Jewish bride to modern phantom. Family diaries, photographs, and newspaper clippings take her on a riveting journey through three hundred years of German history and the American immigrant experience. With the help of historians, genealogists, family members, and ghost hunters, she weaves a masterful, moving story of fin-de-siècle Europe and pioneer life, villains and visionaries, medicine and spiritualism, imagination and truth, exploring how lives become legends, and what those legends tell us about who we are.Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History
By Alan Sepinwall, Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage. 2023
“A fascinating peek behind the making of a megahit, and a delightful bit of nostalgia for those of us who…
remember life before streaming TV.” —Town & CountryWelcome to the O.C., b*tch: it’s the definitive oral history of beloved TV show The O.C., from the show’s creators, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, providing a behind-the-scenes look into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today. On August 5th, 2003, Ryan Atwood found himself a long way from his home in Chino—he was in The O.C., an exclusive suburb full of beautiful girls, wealthy bullies, corrupt real-estate tycoons, and a new family helmed by his public defender, Sandy Cohen. Ryan soon warms up to his nerdy, indie band-loving new best friend Seth, and quickly falls for Marissa, the stunning girl next door who has secrets of her own. Completing the group is Summer, Seth’s dream girl and Marissa’s loyal—and fearless—best friend. Together, the friends fall in and out of love, support each other amidst family strife, and capture the hearts of audiences across the country.Just in time for the show’s twentieth anniversary, The O.C.’s creator Josh Schwartz and executive producer Stephanie Savage are ready to dive into how the show was made, the ups and downs over its four seasons, and its legacy today. With Rolling Stone’s chief TV critic and bestselling author Alan Sepinwall conducting interviews with the key cast members, writers, and producers who were there when it all happened, Welcome to the O.C. will offer the definitive inside look at the beloved show—a nostalgic delight for audiences who watched when it aired, and a rich companion to viewers currently discovering the show while it streams on HBO Max and Hulu.The O.C. paved the way for a new generation of iconic teen soaps, launched the careers of young stars, and even gave us the gift of Chrismukkah. Now, it’s time to go back where we started from and experience it all over again. Includes exclusive interviews with: Ben McKenzie * Mischa Barton * Adam Brody * Rachel Bilson * Peter Gallagher * Kelly Rowan * Melinda Clarke * Tate Donovan * Chris Carmack * Autumn Reeser * Willa Holland * Samaire Armstrong * Alan Dale * Colin Hanks * Amanda Righetti * Navi Rawat * Shannon Lucio * Michael Cassidy * McG * Imogen Heap * Alex Greenwald * Ben Gibbard * Paul Scheer * Doug Liman * and many more!Who You Think I Am?: Masks in Pop Music
By Sebastian Berlich. 2024
Pop stars are close to us. In their songs, their pictures, their stories on Instagram. What we are looking for…
is an authentic impression. Real feelings on real faces. But what happens when they cover their face with a mask? Permanently, as a second face. The phenomenon can be found in the mainstream as well as in the underground. The mask does not break with the ideal of authenticity. Rather, depending on how it is staged, it refers to the most diverse discourses, can appear cool or grotesque, become a logo or create anonymity. The essay uses mainly two examples (Sido, Slipknot) to show how the mask constructs the persona of pop stars - and thus reveals structures of pop music.How to be Fabulous: Sustainable, second-hand style on a shoestring
By Charlotte Dallison. 2023
Defy trends and unlock your personal style with How To Be Fabulous, a new breed of fashion guide that dives…
into the world of pre-loved clothing and inspires you to get creative on any budget.Learn all the insider tips and tricks from ex-vintage dealer, podcaster, writer and fashion aficionado Charlotte Dallison, including how to: hunt down true vintage and secondhand gems hone your authentic style build a budget that lets you maximise your buying power shop for your size in vintage or create magic with good tailoring care for your pre-loved pieces so they last (another) lifetime.Sprinkled with sparkling expert tricks, gorgeous illustrations and sage tales from Charlotte's own vintage adventures, this stunning little fashion guide will become your new style bible.Featuring advice from fashion experts Claudia Chan Shaw and Cassidy Zachary of the Dressed podcast, Refinery29 co-founder Christene Barberich, Amy Ambrams of The Manhattan Vintage Show and lipstick queen Poppy King.Popular Culture in Africa: The Episteme of the Everyday (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies)
By Onookome Okome, Stephanie Newell. 2013
This volume marks the 25th anniversary of Karin Barber’s ground-breaking article, "Popular Arts in Africa", which stimulated new debates about African…
popular culture and its defining categories. Focusing on performances, audiences, social contexts and texts, contributors ask how African popular cultures contribute to the formation of an episteme. With chapters on theater, Nollywood films, blogging, and music and sports discourses, as well as on popular art forms, urban and youth cultures, and gender and sexuality, the book highlights the dynamism and complexity of contemporary popular cultures in sub-Saharan Africa. Focusing on the streets of Africa, especially city streets where different cultures and cultural personalities meet, the book asks how the category of "the people" is identified and interpreted by African culture-producers, politicians, religious leaders, and by "the people" themselves. The book offers a nuanced, strongly historicized perspective in which African popular cultures are regarded as vehicles through which we can document ordinary people’s vitality and responsiveness to political and social transformations.Identity and History in Non-Anglophone Comics (Global Perspectives in Comics Studies)
By Harriet E.H. Earle and Martin Lund. 2023
This book explores the historical and cultural significance of comics in languages other than English, examining the geographic and linguistic…
spheres which these comics inhabit and their contributions to comic studies and academia. The volume brings together texts across a wide range of genres, styles, and geographic locations, including the Netherlands, Colombia, Greece, Mexico, Poland, Finland, Portugal, Ireland, and the Czech Republic, among others. These works have remained out of reach for speakers of languages other than the original and do not receive the scholarly attention they deserve due to their lack of English translations. This book highlights the richness and diversity these works add to the corpus of comic art and comic studies that Anglophone comics scholars can access to broaden the collective perspective of the field and forge links across regions, genres, and comic traditions. Part of the Global Perspectives in Comics Studies series, this volume spans continents and languages. It will be of interest to researchers and students of comics studies, literature, cultural studies, popular culture, art and design, illustration, history, film studies, and sociology.As revolution swept over Russia and empires collapsed in the final days of World War I, Azerbaijan and neighbouring Georgia…
and Armenia proclaimed their independence in May 1918. During the ensuing two years of struggle for independence, military endgames, and treaty negotiations, the diplomatic representatives of Azerbaijan struggled to gain international recognition and favourable resolution of the territorial sovereignty of the country. This brief but eventful episode came to an end when the Red Army entered Baku in late April 1920. Drawing on archival documents from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia, United States, France, and Great Britain, the accomplished historian, Jamil Hasanli, has produced a comprehensive and meticulously documented account of this little-known period. He narrates the tumultuous path of the short-lived Azerbaijani state toward winning international recognition and reconstructs a vivid image of the Azeri political elite’s quest for nationhood after the collapse of the Russian colonial system, with a particular focus on the liberation of Baku from Bolshevik factions, relations with regional neighbours, and the arduous road to recognition of Azerbaijan’s independence by the Paris Peace Conference. Providing a valuable insight into the past of the South Caucasus region and the dynamics of the post-World War I era, this book will be an essential addition to scholars and students of Central Asian Studies and the Caucasus, History, Foreign Policy and Political Studies.Culture-Bound Syndromes in Popular Culture (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies)
By Cringuta Pelea. 2024
This volume explores culture-bound syndromes, defined as a pattern of symptoms (mental, physical, and/or relational) experienced only by members of…
a specific cultural group and recognized as a disorder by members of those groups, and their coverage in popular culture. Encompassing a wide range of popular culture genres and mediums – from film and TV to literature, graphic novels, and anime – the chapters offer a dynamic mix of approaches to analyze how popular culture has engaged with specific culture-bound syndromes such as hwabyung, hikikomori, taijin kyofusho, zou huo ru mo, sati, amok, Cuban hysteria, voodoo death, and others. Spanning a global and interdisciplinary remit, this first-of-its-kind anthology will allow scholars and students of popular culture, media and film studies, comparative literature, medical humanities, cultural psychiatry, and philosophy to explore simultaneously a diversity of popular cultures and culturally rooted mental health disorders.Global Entertainment Media: Content, Audiences, Issues (Routledge Communication Series)
By Anne Cooper-Chen. 2005
Global Entertainment Media offers a unique perspective on entertainment media worldwide. As one of the first comprehensive books to address…
entertainment mass media worldwide, it addresses students as TV watchers and takes them to new places, both geographically and intellectually. Editor Anne Cooper-Chen has gathered an international group of scholars to explore such concepts as psychology, gratifications, and effects of media entertainment and its relation to national cultures, as well as to discuss the business of international TV trade by transnational media corporations.In this volume, experts discuss the content, audiences, and cultural and legal aspects of their respective countries, all of which are major TV markets. The country-specific chapters draw on the individual insights, expertise, and currency of 10 resident authors. Contributions represent every hemisphere of the globe, offering detailed examinations of media entertainment in United Kingdom, Germany, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Japan, China, Brazil, and Mexico. The two concluding chapters provide cross-national case studies that look at familiar TV experiences--The Olympics and the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" show--in global and novel ways.Global Entertainment Media is intended for students in international media, comparative media, cross-cultural communication, and television studies, and it also has much to offer scholars and researchers in entertainment media.Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture–and the Magic That Makes It Work
By Jesse Fox. 2023
One of NPR's Best Books of 2023. Named a Most Anticipated Book by Vulture, Elle, Chicago Tribune, The Millions, and…
Lit Hub."Comedy Book changes the way we talk about an art form that is more diverse and exciting than ever before.” —Seth Meyers "Energetic and wise . . . Comedy Book is not the definitive history of the past three-plus decades. It’s Fox’s history, and better for it." —The New York Times Book ReviewFrom a beloved comedy critic, a wisecracking, heartfelt, and overdue chronicle of comedy’s boom—and its magic.Comedy is king. From multimillion-dollar TV specials to sold-out stand-up shows and TikTok stardom, comedy has never been more popular, democratized, or influential. Comedians have become organizing forces across culture—as trusted as politicians and as fawned-over as celebrities—yet comedy as an art form has gone under-considered throughout its history, even as it has ascended as a cultural force.In Comedy Book, Jesse David Fox—the country’s most definitive voice in comedy criticism and someone who, in his own words, “enjoys comedy maybe more than anyone on this planet"—tackles everything you need to know about comedy. Weaving together history and analysis, Fox unravels the genre’s political legacy through an ode to Jon Stewart, interrogates the divide between highbrow and lowbrow via Adam Sandler, and unpacks how marginalized comics create spaces for their communities. Along the way, Fox covers everything from comedy in the age of political correctness and Will Smith’s slap to the right wing’s relationship with comedy and, for Fox, comedy’s ability to heal personal tragedy.With memorable cameos from Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, John Mulaney, Ali Wong, Kate Berlant, and countless others, Comedy Book is an eye-opening education in how to engage with our most omnipresent art form, a riotous history of American pop culture, and a love letter to laughter.Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet
By Taylor Lorenz. 2023
NATIONAL BESTSELLER Acclaimed Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz presents a groundbreaking social history of the internet, revealing how online influence…
and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off—&“terrific,&” as the New York Times calls it, &“Lorenz…is a knowledgeable, opinionated guide to the ways internet fame has become fame, full stop.&”For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism. By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms&’ power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. In this &“deeply reported, behind-the-scenes chronicle of how everyday people built careers and empires from their sheer talent and algorithmic luck&” (Sarah Frier, author of No Filter), Lorenz documents how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetize their personal brands online, how bored teens who began posting selfie videos reinvented fame as we know it, and how young creators on TikTok are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline. It&’s the real social history of the internet. Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations have resulted in a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century. &“Extremely Online aims to tell a sociological story, not a psychological one, and in its breadth it demonstrates a new cultural logic emerging out of 21st-century media chaos&” (The New York Times). Lorenz reveals the inside, untold story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us.Scholars of state socialism have frequently invoked “nostalgia” to identify an uncritical longing for the utopian ambitions and lived experience…
of the former Eastern Bloc. However, this concept seems insufficient to describe memory cultures in the Czech Republic and other contexts in which a “retro” fascination with the past has proven compatible with a steadfast critique of the state socialist era. This innovative study locates a distinctively retro aesthetic in Czech literature, film, and other cultural forms, enriching our understanding of not only the nation’s memory culture, but also the ways in which popular culture can structure collective memory.