Customer Reviews:
Wonderful story of family strength and courage!.......2007-01-11
I loved this book. It puts everything about life into perspective. I found myself checking my own life - am I doing the best I can as a father? Am I truly supportive of my family in the things that matter? Do I see the best in my children? This book challenged me to grow. I found too that I felt inspired after reading. It is an awesome source of hope for families.
Proud mom of a Preemie.......2005-11-09
I can say I'm the proud mother of a preemie - 22 wks, weighed 397 grams (14 ounces) and 11 1/2 inches long. He spent the first 5 months of life in the NICU. He (Zuri - Kiswahili for 'beauty') is doing well now. He's 2 1/2 yrs old and is a strong toddler. He has some minor developmental delays but otherwise he's here and healthy! Hang in there parents and read all these stories. You ARE not alone...you didn't BRING this on yourself and you WILL survive it!
Brave and honest.......2005-09-29
Having an ex-preemie myself, I was so relieved to find the truths in this book, the ones the Hallmark Card Preemie Books don't say: what it's like to bring home a sick child, what it's like not to know his future, what it's like when the doctors turn out to be wrong or to have lied. Many many preemies end up like Alex with disabilities (mine did) and it's so important for their stories to be told. Right on, Jeff.
This is a very accurate account of what it's like ..........2005-09-05
I am a grandparent of preemies, so I know that Jeff Stimpson's book is an honest and moving account of what it's like to watch a brave tiny baby go through medically necessary procedures that you can't bear to watch, and then what it's like to take a preemie home who is extremely fragile and on various medical equipment. Coming through an experience like the one related in "Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie" is something that changes your perception of the world forever, and makes you acutely aware of the fragility of life, and how poignant every day is that we have with our loved ones.
Compelling account of raising a very tiny preemie.......2005-02-23
Alex, The Fathering of a Preemie is the compelling first hand account of raising child who was born extremely premature. Alex was born weighing only 23 ounces and spent one year in Neonatal Intensive Care in the hospital. As you might expect his time in the hospital was rocky, a wild ride on the often frightening preemie roller coaster. Once he came home from the hospital he still needed oxygen and feeding assistance for several years. Even as he began to get stronger, concerns were raised over developmental issues as he moved through preschool.
Jeff Stimpson skillfully describes in intimate and accurate detail the emotional and practical impact of raising a very small preemie. The ups and downs, the joys and grief, the worries and just pure frustrations are beautifully elaborated. For most people who face this reality, life is an exhausting and apparently never ending blur, filled with emotional highs and lows. Jeff shows that parents can not only survive this journey, but maintain their hopes and sense of humor. His love for his son shines through on every page.
Book Description
The struggle for control of the Mississippi River was the longest and most complex campaign of the Civil War. It was marked by an extraordinary diversity of military and naval operations, including fleet engagements, cavalry raids, amphibious landings, pitched battles, and the two longest sieges in American history. Every existing type of naval vessel, from sailing ship to armored ram, played a role, and military engineers practiced their art on a scale never before witnessed in modern warfare. Union commanders such as Grant, Sherman, Farragut, and Porter demonstrated the skills that would take them to the highest levels of command. When the immense contest finally reached its climax at Vicksburg and Port Hudson in the summer of 1863, the Confederacy suffered a blow from which it never recovered. Here was the true turning point of the Civil War.
This fast-paced, gripping narrative of the Civil War struggle for the Mississippi River is the first comprehensive single-volume account to appear in over a century. Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River tells the story of the series of campaigns the Union conducted on land and water to conquer Vicksburg and of the many efforts by the Confederates to break the siege of the fortress. William L. Shea and Terrence J. Winschel present the unfolding drama of the campaign in a clear and readable style, correct historic myths along the way, and examine the profound strategic effects of the eventual Union victory.
Customer Reviews:
The Battle for Vicksburg Ably Related.......2006-11-05
Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River, written by William Shea and Terrence Winschel, reflects Abraham Lincoln's view that (page 1) "The Mississippi is the backbone of the rebellion. . . .[I]t is the key to the whole situation." And central to the Confederate strategy to hold the Mississippi after 1862 was Vicksburg, "The Gibraltar of the West." This book does a serviceable job of explaining the Vicksburg Campaign and the context in which that campaign took place.
It begins by laying out the Civil War in the West, and the efforts by the Union to assert control over the Mississippi, from the taking of New Orleans to the success of John Pope at Island # 10. Confederate strategists came to realize the value of Vicksburg as Union forces moved upriver from New Orleans and downriver from island # 10 and Memphis. Vicksburg was transformed into a bastion to control the river from high atop the steep hill overlooking the Mississippi River.
The book proceeds by describing Grant's original plan, with him heading to Vicksburg overland and Sherman by the great river. After one of Carl Van Dorn's few great successes in destroying the Union base at Holly Springs, forcing Grant to retreat, Sherman ran into a stout defense alone and was repulsed. Thereafter, the book discusses the various failed "experiments" that Grant carried out, trying to figure a way to get at Vicksburg without what would surely be a sanguinary frontal assault on the bluffs.
Finally, Grant marched down the west bank of the Mississippi, crossed over at Hard Times, and began one of the most well implemented campaigns of the Civil War. First, Grant prevented General Joe Johnston from reinforcing General John Pemberton, Commander of the Vicksburg forces. Johnston was pushed out of Jackson. Thereupon, second, Grant turned to take on a mobile force sent to defeat Grant by Pemberton. At Champion Hill, Grant's forces won the day. After another reverse at the Big Black River, Pemberton's forces retreated to Vicksburg. After a futile attack on the city's works, Grant settled in for a siege. On July 4th, 1863, the defending forces surrendered to Grant. At that point, and with the later surrender of Port Hudson to Union General Nathaniel Banks, Lincoln could note that the Father of Waters flowed unvexed to the sea.
The triumph of Grant was a key turning point in the Civil War. This book does a solid job in describing the events leading up to the opening of the Mississippi River as a Union stream. It provides useful maps to clarify the geography and the nature of the campaign.
Good, but with an odd ending.......2004-07-12
This slim work actually speaks volumes, and is written in an engaging, fast-moving account that will satisfy either the Civil War buff, historian or general reader. The final chapter on Port Hudson is the only downside. That city's capture was part of the campaign described in this book, but its exclusion from the rest of this work makes it oddly out of place.
The Beginning of the Confederacy's End.......2004-05-12
The text notes that General Winfield Scott observed "The Mississippi is the backbone of the Rebellion.... it is the key to the whole situation." The rapid movement of men and equipment from one front to another in the vast western theater was a strategic advantage rivers gave Union military leaders. Conversely, with its seaports blockaded, unhampered ability to move men and supplies eastward on and across the Mississippi River was critical for Confederate survival. Thus, the Mississippi River was of strategic importance to both the Union and the Confederacy.
The text notes that New Orleans was the South's largest, wealthiest, and most industrialized city. However, New Orleans surrendered to Farragut in 1862, only one year after Fort Sumter. The Federals then began the complex/long campaign, not completed until July 1863, to clear the entire Mississippi River. By the spring of 1863, Vicksburg and Port Hudson were the only two Confederate forts blocking the Mississippi River. The authors, William L. Shea and Terrence J. Winschel, present an interesting narration of the campaign of Grant's progress down the river to Vicksburg and General Banks march north to an unfilled union with Grant. In many respects this was a trial and error campaign; Grant found that it was almost impossible to attack Vicksburg from the north or west, and he decided to cross the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg and attack the city from the southeast or east.
Most interesting during this campaign was the successful combined operations of army and navy resources. Admiral Porter made a dramatic run down the Mississippi past the Vicksburg batteries in order to ferry Union soldiers across the river below Vicksburg. In addition, while Vicksburg was under siege, Porter bombarded the city with his naval cannons.
After much bloody fighting east of Vicksburg, in May 1863 Grant's army reached the Vicksburg fortifications. After two unsuccessful direct assaults on the Rebels, a series of thirteen trenches were dug to the very face of the Confederate fortifications bringing Vicksburg under siege and sealing its doom. When completed over sixty thousand feet of excavations, manned by Union troops, were completed. By July Vicksburg's Confederate General Pemberton and his soldiers were hungry, sick and despaired of rescue. On July 3 General Pemberton asked Grant for surrender terms; Grant's answer was "unconditional surrender." Grant rejected Pemberton proposed surrender terms and promised to send amended terms of surrender that night to Pemberton that he accepted early on July 4.
The authors review the question of the lack of Confederate aid for Vicksburg noting that by early June, Richmond had sent Johnston thirty-two thousand troops and urged General Joe Johnston to relieve Vicksburg. Apparently Johnston never intended to save Vicksburg. Grant next moved east to turn on General Johnston. After eight weeks, Johnston abandoned Jackson, Mississippi and fled east eastward away from Grant.
The text concludes with an account of the battle for Port Hudson. Like Grant, Union General Banks, made a direct assault on the Rebel fortifications with disastrous results.Banks next initiated digging the way into Port Hudson; but impatient for results, tried another disastrous direct assault on June 14. Upon receiving word of Vicksburg surrender, Port Hudson surrendered on July 9, and General Banks informed Grant "The Mississippi is open.". On July 16 the steamboat Imperial, eight days out of St. Louis, docked in New Orleans. The struggle for the Mississippi River was over.
This is a readable account. Most interesting is to witness the development of General Grant into a first rate field general. The last chapter in the book is an EPILOGUE that provides a brief account after Vicksburg of several major commanders after Vicksburg.
Strong entry in a strong series.......2003-11-05
The University of Nebraska Press's Great Campaigns in the Civil War Series has become a great boon to period historians. It offers concise overviews and refreshing new perspectives on the conflict written by knowledgable scholars. I have yet to be disappointed with a volume in this fine series, but this entry has become my favorite, so much so that I felt compelled to praise it. Shea and Winschel simply provide the clearest and most useful one-volume history of the war around Vicksburg. I learned quite a bit that soon will find its way into lecture notes, and I'm suddenly yearning to revisit Vicksburg after many years. Highly recommended.
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This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on May 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1109 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Vicksburg Is the Key: The Struggle for the Mississippi River.(The Defense of Vicksburg: A Louisiana Chronicle)(Book Review)
Author: Thomas A. DeBlack
Publication:
Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2005
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 71
Issue: 2
Page: 459(3)
Article Type: Book Review
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Amazon.com
Why did the richest, most influential, highest flying Zen center in America crash and burn in 1983? Novelist Michael Downing wondered the same thing, and after three years of interviewing members and poring over documents, his Shoes Outside the Door tells the story. Womanizing, BMW-driving Richard Baker was the abbot and visionary behind the rapid growth of the San Francisco Zen Center, but in many ways he was the antithesis of his teacher and predecessor, the inimitable and revered Shunryu Suzuki, who would choose the bruised apples out of compassion. After the early death of Suzuki, a blind and driven cult formed around Baker, seemingly filling the void until this "Dick Nixon of Zen" finally slept with his best friend's wife and brought his world crashing to the ground. Working with direct quotations from students and workers of the Center and its many enterprises, Downing delivers a page-turning exposé of a community that is as laudable as it is laughable. And as an outsider to both the community and Buddhism, he does it with wit and an even hand. --Brian Bruya
Book Description
Words not normally associated with contemplative practice exploded from the headlines when a series of interconnected scandals rocked San Francisco Zen Center.
By the late 1970s, San Francisco Zen Center had -under the spiritual leadership of its founder, Shunryu Suzuki, and his Dharma heir, Richard Baker-grown to be hugely successful, accruing wealth, property, and prestige, its aesthetics tinged with the glamour of celebrity. Zen Center's holdings included Tassajara Hot Springs near Big Sur, Green Gulch Farm in Marin County, a clothing company, and a bakery. The Tassajara Bread Book was riding the best-seller lists and Greens, its wildly successful upscale vegetarian restaurant on the San Francisco Bay, was inspiring an entire generation of restaurant professionals. Hundreds of students who had come to dedicate their lives to Zen practice, to reinventing Buddhism in America, found themselves serving dinner to the famous: Linda Ronstadt, then-Governor Jerry Brown, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Bateson, Paul Hawken, Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand. For a long moment, Zen Center seemed to be the hot core of the counterculture.
Then a sex scandal rocked Zen Center and brought into question Baker's abuse of power and spiritual authority. And before Zen Center had a chance to recover, Baker's replacement as Abbott was arrested for brandishing a handgun at the door of a neighbor's house. The repercussions were so profound as to call some to question the entire matter of alternative religious practice in America. Was this jewel of the counterculture fated to dissolve in a meltdown of its own making?
Michael Downing has spent the past three years studying Zen Center documents and interviewing more than eighty people who were there, at ground zero. Every person who had a role in these events has a singular point of view, and as these multiple tellings are woven together we see a truth as coherent and complicated as Indra's net-a web in which each intersection of thread holds a jewel that reflects all the other jewels at all the other intersections. As engaging as any mystery, as mysterious as any political campaign, as political as any family gathering, this story will haunt and challenge its readers as they attempt to make their own sense of what really happened.
Customer Reviews:
A poignant look at Zen in America and a good idea for any student of Zen to read.......2007-01-29
I'm a student of Zen Buddhism myself. I'm also an anthropologist. I'm also a Chinese living in the U.S. I think these parts of my background influences my commentary below.
Any Zen student who is considering deepening his/her practice or considering forming a formalised student-spiritual teacher relationship should definitely read this book. Often in Zen Buddhist circles (or any religious circles, for that matter) matters of spirituality are talked about, but there is not much space and/or opportunity for reflection on the human institution that the religious practise comes out of.
Let me repeat that: any religious or spiritual practise in this world comes out of some form of socio-cultural institution simply because we are human beings (and so is the teacher). The institution is of this world because human beings are part of this world.
This books does not deal much with the spiritual practice side of American Zen which isn't its purpose. Rather, it deals with the human institution of American Zen as it was formed and practised in the 70s and early 80s at San Francisco Zen Centre (SFZC). While not an anthropological or sociological look at the institution, it is very much persons-centred narratives about the experiences of SFZC providing interesting glimpses of the human side of the experiences of Zen students and ordained priests and also words from the highly controversial Zen teacher Richard Baker.
For me, (and I do own this projection) it was amazing to see quotes from Richard Baker who time and time again says he could not see the kind of impact he held as a teacher and who, according to this book, still is surprised by the fallout that happened. He says he didn't realise how much authority he had or how much authority students had imagined him to have. To me, it seems that Richard Baker, while might be spiritually wise, lacked profundity and awareness of human social interactions. For someone practising awareness, I find that amazing, but certainly very human. At least this is how my reaction is towards the portrayal of Richard Baker in this book.
The book guides us in the direction of understanding the SFZC fiasco with ideas about charismatic personality, American Puritanism (work ethic), undemocratic administration, idealism and some leanings about American culture with the fascination (and sometimes reverence) of personalities (imagine Hollywood). One aspect that this book does not discuss or suggest but I think is still part of Buddhism as practised and experienced in America today and I very much would imagine it to be part of the SFZC fiasco is the idea of "orientalism".
Orientalism is a term coined by the late post-colonial scholar Edward Said. The idea is that in the western world, oriental and occidental worked in opposite directions so that the idea of the orient was constructed in as a negative inversion of the west. It should be noted that Said's Oriental refers of the Middle East but it also can be extended to Far East Asia. Western portrayal of the oriental world was that it was an inversion of the occidental world--mystical, exotic, fantastical. Coupling with Foucault's idea of the relationship between power and knowledge, Said analyses how the power of the coloniser (occidental) forms the knowledge of the colonised (oriental) and this knowledge of the oriental in turn empowers the coloniser's further actions of colonisation. And on it goes.
While there are certain critiques of Said, I think Said's idea of orientalism (the mysticising and exoticising) can be brought to a reading of the SFZC fiasco and American Buddhism. Downing (author of Shoes) does not refer to the term orientalism but throughout his book, one has to wonder whether a mysticisation and exoticsation of the east did not play a role into how SFZC practitioners practised. For instance, on page 236 Downing describes how Zen teacher Richard Baker "speculates that some of the confusion Zen teachers in America began to experience was cultural confusion, a difference between Japanese and American sensibilities and ethics." Baker, as explained by Downing, is saying that some of his behaviours were acceptable coming from a Japanese perspective but perhaps not as easily understood from an American perspective. I want to further push the idea for us to think about: that is it possible that acts of exoticising and mysticising the east sometimes led students (and teachers) to not question certain practises? Those practises were possibly led to the realm of "holiness" or "untouchable" or "inscrutable" because of that exoticising. I would strongly imagine so. For me, I have experienced certain practises in Buddhism in America which leads me to question whether those practises are orientalist. That is, what kind of meaning can it hold for Americans beyond the realm of exotic?
This book reminds us that any spiritual practise is embedded in and part of culture. One of the first tenets of anthropology is that there is nothing outside of culture simply because as human beings we all operate within it and cannot get outside of it. (I actually think Zen says this too). But even if you're not an anthropologist, you could certainly (I hope) see that! Certainly then, the history of Zen in America (coming through from Japan) carried with it Japanese cultural elements which need not be replicated in America if those elements and practises carry no meaning (aside from exotic and mystical) for American society.
A tale of everyone and no one.......2007-01-19
The author attempts to tell the story of the San Francisco Zen Center using the events leading up to the dismissal/resignation of Abbott-for-life, Zentatsu Richard Baker, in 1983. In the process, he interviews many people who experience euphoric or dysphoric recall about events that happened over twenty years ago. His achievement is a book which it seems tries to tell the story of almost anyone tangentially connected with SFZC during that time. As a result, he relates a perjorative tale of recrimination, grudges, and generally bad feelings that exist to this day. It is unfortunate that Professor Downing could not have used better literary technique and more restraint to shape the raw material he mined in these extensive interviews. This appears to be a genuinely lost opportunity. Instead, he gives us a gossipy, slanted piece of he said/she said, portraying the general membership of SFZC as mindless androids, who sit zazen and do their master's bidding without privilege of free will. Baker is painted as a Svengali-like character, who only becomes your friend or teacher so that he can use you for his own devices and priorities later on. Downing lays out this character study as the familiar absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely tale with the victims of that power having no control over their lives. Recently, non-Abbotts like Tom DeLay and Jack Abramboff served as examples of these types of personages. Regardless of who you believe in this National Enquirer rendering of Buddhism in America, the value of what is related is that the SFZC survives to this day and in resonably good health. It weathered a crisis as an organization and individuals, no matter how well or how poorly. As a symbol of Zen Buddhism in the United States, it remains on the journey to enlightenment, as do its members. You don't need 380-odd pages of war stories to illustrate the point. Unless you want to look for this title in the two dollar bargin bin at your local book store, go to the SFZC's website. They seem capable of telling their own story, warts and all.
An Unusual Look at Zen in the USA--no Fillers, no Preservatives.......2006-05-18
An interesting, unusual accout of Zen in America. Unusual in its stark honesty and detail, interesting for those same reasons! Michael Downing's book is built around a scandal (sex, greed, power, all of the usual suspects involved) which errupted at the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) in 1983. Much of the book details the actions of Richard Baker, the only American to receive Dharma Transmission (often called Enlightenment) from noted Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki. Quite a bit of other material is covered as well, presenting a full picture of life and relations at perhaps the most successful Zen organization in the West.
In presenting events in their historical context, Downing explains the structure of the Zen Buddhist Sangha (church), history of Shunryu Suzuki and many of the early pioneers who first explored Zen Buddhism in San Fransisco after Suzuki began to teach. Reading this book over the course of a week, I didn't get the feeling that Downing took on this project to do damage to adherents to Zen or the SFZC. Rather his mission seems to have been to figure out exactly what had happened to cause the 1983 melt down (it was actually a long time festering before it broke and Downing sets the stage completely), how such a thing could happen in an organization where one of the main principles was to Cause No Harm, and then exploring why it happened with a critical eye towards absolute power and some of the more traditional processes.
I liked the detail Downing exacted throughout, introducing the vast array of real-life characters who were part of "The Scene" during the 1960's and 1970's in California and nationally. He does a superb job connecting the relationship web between people. So many folks are covered sometimes I had to flip back to remind myself--it does jump around a bit, but I couldn't think of any other way to present a series of connected events like this. Downing also does an admireable job of explaining how SFZC grew into such a huge organization. I learned more about the SFZC and its place in history than from many of the other books I've read about Buddhism in the West. Certainly I obtained a better understanding of how processes such as Transmission work and relate to the political process inherent in this Zen body politic.
While the entire book is certainly not a slanted diatribe, Downing does not claim to be a hands-off Bodhisatva with no opinion. He expresses distaste for a selection of teachers, transmition holders and other claimants to enlightenment who abuse their positions of authority by using and personally profiting from others in a variety of ways. Downing's book demands that the reader confront sexual and financial misconduct and the abuse of trusting disciples. He strips away the varnish of position, money, high titles and robes to expose simple humanity--good, bad and in-between.
Downing explains the problem-solving process SFZC went through, and how it regrouped and restructured in response to the problems, and in an effort to prevent future abuses and disasters. There are also a number of accounts of individuals who moved on from the devestation to heal others as well as themselves. I have often heard the phrase that life is stranger than fiction. In this case, it is most certainly true and probably not what most of us have come to expect.
Fascinating if slightly frustrating book..........2006-04-25
As a longtime Zen practitioner who has attended retreats led by senior teachers of the SF Zen Center, I could barely resist the urge to read this book cover to cover in one sitting. Morbidly fascinating it is, and deeply enlightening as well---for me it connected a huge number of dots, yielding insight into the social, cultural, historical and institutional baggage that is inextricable from the Zen experience that SFZC (often referred to half-jokingly as "the Vatican of American Zen") and many other American Zen organizations offer.
The book is also frustrating in that the author does jump around a bit...though it appears that he has spent a little time around Zen centers and may have done a bit of sitting meditation himself, he often seems to veer off on various tangents. Until the last 1/3 of the book that is, when he keeps coming back to interviews with Richard Baker, who keeps selling us the same maddening horse manure about being, why, simply unaware of the consequences of what he was doing during his tumultuous tenure as head of SFZC. This repetition quickly becomes monotonous.
Baker is clearly a highly developed narcissistic personality (a google search of "Narcissistic Personality Disorder" sums him up pretty well) which is both hilariously ironic and doubly unfortunate---and I'm afraid to say, hardly uncommon---for a leader of a religion that's supposed to be all about teaching us to let go of our conditioned egoistical delusions.
This book begs the question: how on earth did such a borderline-sociopathic personality become head of what would become the largest, most influential Zen group in North America...and how did he get away with so much for so long? Zen Buddhists, especially the Western variety, are hardly idiots or cult-addled automatons...yet how was Baker able to do so much damage for as long as he did before the feces finally hit the fan?
Downing barely brushes up against the answer, and makes no attempt to synthesize all the information that he manages to unearth. (It's worth noting that he gained access to SFZC senior members through the pretense of writing a book about SFZC, rather than about Richard Baker's 1983 scandal that nearly wrecked the place. But perhaps this was his editor's commercial-minded imposition.)
What comes through loud and clear is just how INSTITUTIONAL (i.e. mainly concerned with its own survival/prosperity rather than its spiritual underpinnings) Shunryu Suzuki's mushrooming-mega-sangha quickly became, despite its cultural and religious pretensions. It is obvious that Suzuki appointed Baker to succeed him mainly because he knew Baker was a phenomenally charismatic fundraiser and networker. It is also obvious that Baker got away with murder for so long in large part due to the community's dog-like devotion to upholding Papa Suzuki's legacy, i.e. his decision to grant to Baker alone the dubious "dharma transmission" ritual.
Most of all it is sadly obvious that the great majority of the well-educated and socioeconomically priviledged Americans who built SFZC, were desperately thirsty for what they perceived as institutional validation of their Zen practice through this sort of mindless adherence to Japanese Zen's traditional forms and formalism, which are of course also themselves byproducts of the mother country's own sociological and institutional pressures.
Downing's book is a much needed wake-up call for those who would practice Zen with an uncritical eye towards its inherent institutional biases and limitations, which are not much different from those of any other religion.
Had it contained a bit more analysis instead of just repetitive interviews, I would give it 5 stars.
Despite the flaws, or because of them?.......2006-03-28
Occasionally the author's own psyche jumps out and disturbs the depths of the story, and I found that he did jump around a bit, leaving me wondering if he was repeating himself. Nevertheless, I found this to be a fascinating treatment of a difficult and delicate subject. So much is told in the words of the participants (and victims), and the details just got weirder as I turned the pages. I was enthralled.
How is it that so many realized Zen teachers in America cannot keep it in their robes, so to speak? It seems that the simple rule of thumb, to "cause the least amount of suffering," can become a cloudy issue when hormones disturb our practice?
The book is a must-read for Zen students and teachers, alike. It is indeed a cautionary tale. It might dissuade someone from seeking a teacher at all, and that would be unfortunate. And yet...
I am now reading _Street Zen_ and I note that much of the story is corroborated there, yet Issan-roshi is seldom mentioned in _Shoes_. The two books complement each other by providing a different perspective on the events at Zen Center (though the 1983 disasters are not a significant topic of _Street Zen_). And Issan's story may give us a weird bit of insight into true Dharma transmission.
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Desire and Excess
Jonah Siegel
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0691049149 |
Book Description
In this fascinating look at the creative power of institutions, Jonah Siegel explores the rise of the modern idea of the artist in the nineteenth century, a period that also witnessed the emergence of the museum and the professional critic. Treating these developments as interrelated, he analyzes both visual material and literary texts to portray a culture in which art came to be thought of in powerful new ways. Ultimately, Siegel shows that artistic controversies commonly associated with the self-consciously radical movements of modernism and postmodernism have their roots in a dynamic era unfairly characterized as staid, self-satisfied, and stable.
The nineteenth century has been called the Age of the Museum, and yet critics, art theorists, and poets during this period grappled with the question of whether the proliferation of museums might lead to the death of Art itself. Did the assembly and display of works of art help the viewer to understand them or did it numb the senses? How was the contemporary artist to respond to the vast storehouses of art from disparate nations and periods that came to proliferate in this era?
Siegel presents a lively discussion of the shock experienced by neoclassical artists troubled by remains of antiquity that were trivial or even obscene, as well as the anxious aesthetic reveries of nineteenth-century art lovers overwhelmed by the quantity of objects quickly crowding museums and exhibition halls. In so doing, he illuminates the fruitful crises provoked when the longing for admired art is suddenly satisfied. Drawing upon neoclassical art and theory, biographies of early nineteenth-century writers including Keats and Scott, and the writings of art critics such as Hazlitt, Ruskin, and Wilde, this book reproduces a cultural matrix that brings to life the artistic passions and anxieties of an entire era.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Wordsworth Circle, published by Wordsworth Circle on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 2281 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Desire and Excess: The Nineteenth Century Culture of Art & The Victorians and the Visual Imagination. (book review)
Author: Gillen D'Arcy Wood
Publication:
Wordsworth Circle (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: Wordsworth Circle
Volume: 32
Issue: 4
Page: 223(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Miremos Las Rocas (Yellow Umbrella Books (Spanish))
Jeri Cipriano
Manufacturer: Yellow Umbrella Books
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ASIN: 073684161X |
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Miremos Las Rocas/ Let's Look at Rocks
Jennifer Vanvoorst
Manufacturer: Yellow Umbrella Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Nonfiction
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ASIN: 0736829741 |
Books:
- ALL MEN ARE LIARS
- Alternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Insights from Practitioners and Patients
- American Academy of Pediatrics Baby and Child Health (American Academy of Pediatrics)
- And Baby Makes Three: The Six-Step Plan for Preserving Marital Intimacy and Rekindling Romance After Baby Arrives
- Babycare for Beginners
- Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families
- Bon Appetit, Baby! The Breastfeeding Kit
- Born Talking
- Breast Fitness: An Optimal Exercise and Health Plan for Reducing Your Risk of Breast Cancer
- Broken Toys Broken Dreams: Understanding and Healing Codependency, Compulsive Behaviors and Family
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No Bigger than My Teddy Bear
Kangaroo Care: The Best You Can Do to Help Your Preterm Infant
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