Thomas Pynchon's Narratives: Subjectivity and Problems of Knowing

Book Description

In his first three novels, Thomas Pynchon focuses in part on the inability to achieve reliable knowledge of the self and the world. As a consequence of this and of the events around which Pynchon builds these early novels, V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity's Rainbow tend to be read as nihilistic. This book focuses on Pynchon's use of ideas of western history, philosophy, and science to arrive at a reading that suggests that Pynchon's project in these early novels is to provoke his readers into taking precisely the sort of personal and political action his characters cannot.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2002-07-27

Alan Brownlie book or volume, Subjectivity and Problems of Knowing, is Excellent! I agreed with the two other gentlemen, this book is a MUST if you are a serious student of Thomas Pynchon. This book is a worthy addition to any library.
WOW, meaning a knockout; hit; great achievement and masterstroke.

This book is a masterstroke!

Put the book down and get a life!.......2002-07-21

A WOW book! Come on U guys! Grant it, Alan did a good job... but a WOW book? No way! If this book makes you say WOW... (Sigh) Guys, then you need to get a life! Put the book down and go out and smell the roses. Life is waiting for you.
A book like this shouldn't make you say, wow with capital letters, "life" should.

I agree with Helena..."not a WOW book."

baby, you are so money.......2002-03-29

I have to agree with Mr. Weinberg's review of this volume.
As a serious student of both Pynchon and the philosophy of science, I feel Mr Brownlie's book is a breath of fresh air. Rarely have I encountered a writer with such breadth of knowledge combined with the courage to take on established views.

One person opinion.......2002-03-11

This is not a "WOW" book. It is one man (Alan W. Brownlie) opinion of Thomas Pynchon books. But then again that is my opinion.

A must-have for the serious student of Pynchon!.......2001-08-13

WOW! Never before has so much intellectual horsepower been applied towards the study of the works of Thomas Pynchon. Without doubt this volume should be a given in the library of anyone who wishes to learn anything about the subject, and is a must for those purporting to know everything. Alan Brownlie provides thoughtful and comprehensive insight into issues not typically addressed, even as he shines new light onto topics usually glossed over by others. Don't ask why - just buy this book for your library. There's NOTHING else like it on the market!

Vanishing Points: Dickens, Narrative, and the Subject of Omniscience

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Vanishing Points: Dickens, Narrative, and the Subject of Omniscience
Audrey Jaffe
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0520069188

Book Description

In traditional narrative theory, the term "omniscience" refers to a narrator's absolute knowledge and authority. Narrative theory provides no social, historical, or psychological context for omniscience, nor does it attempt to explain the predominance of omniscient narration in nineteenth-century British fiction. Audrey Jaffe uses Dickens's novels and sketches to redefine narrative omniscience as a problematic that has implications for the construction of Victorian subjectivity, giving us new insights into Dickens and into other fiction as well.
Jaffe demonstrates that omniscience is the effect of a series of oppositions--between narrator and character, knowledge and its absence, sympathy and irony, privacy and publicity. Showing how these oppositions participate in and enforce Victorian ideas about family, the subject, and private life, this study illuminates connections between ideology and narrative form.

Narrative Inquiry in Practice: Advancing the Knowledge of Teaching (Practitioner Inquiry Series)

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Narrative Inquiry in Practice: Advancing the Knowledge of Teaching (Practitioner Inquiry Series)

Manufacturer: Teachers College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Pedagogy | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Professional Development | Education | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0807742473

The Imposition of Form: Studies in Narrative Representation and Knowledge

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The Imposition of Form: Studies in Narrative Representation and Knowledge
Claudia J. Brodsky
Manufacturer: Princeton Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0691067171

Average customer rating:

Not an art book
History Plus

Narration and Knowledge
Arthur C. Danto
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Surveys | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 023106117X

Customer Reviews:

Not an art book.......2004-08-25

This is not a book about art, but an analytical philosophy of History. For those familiar with Danto's art criticism, the one star should warn you that art criticism will not be found here. For those curious to read this book for its analytical philosophy, you have a four-star endorsement.

History Plus.......2002-11-21

This collection of essays contains all of Danto's now out-of-print Analytical Philosophy of History, plus a handful of other pieces. If you are interested in the methods and objectives of historical study, or in the kind of knowledge history may produce, you should read this book.

Narration as Knowledge: Tales of the Teaching Life

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Insight into Teaching & Learning

Narration as Knowledge: Tales of the Teaching Life
Joseph F. Trimmer
Manufacturer: Boynton/Cook
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Pedagogy | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Study & Teaching | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0867094362

Book Description

Here for the first time is a work in which eloquence is the vehicle for conveying theory and practice. This collection does not follow the sanctioned procedures of educational research. Nor is it written in the privileged forms of academic discourse. Instead, it plays with all the devices of storytelling--scene, dialogue, point of view--exploring a new way to report crucial information on the teaching and learning of English.

In this beautifully written gathering, the narrators, many of the best-known names in English studies, do not see themselves as heroes. They know that the classroom is an exciting but uncertain place. No one, not even the teacher in charge, understands all of the subtle assumptions and slippery assertions enacted in the daily exchange of information. And so these narrators try to spin "true" stories about the partiality of their knowledge and the vulnerability of their power. Their tales, while engaging and insightful, are not exotic. They represent a range of recognizable teaching experiences, ordinary classes made extraordinary by the knowledge and skill of the narrator. They braid the reading and writing present in any English classroom with the culture that shapes teacher and student lives.

Narration as Knowledge will have wide appeal. The situations depicted and the topics discussed are universal enough to attract any secondary or postsecondary teacher. And because these stories are essentially experimental narratives, they will also interest any writer--student or professional.

Customer Reviews:

Insight into Teaching & Learning.......2000-03-26

This collection of essays, told from teachers' points of view, is an eloquent, lovely body of work. The various writers reflect on their own experiences as learners, relating them to their experiences as teachers.

Book Description

On Paul Ricoeur examines the later work of Paul Ricoeur, particularly his major work, Time and Narrative. The essays in this volume, including three pieces by Ricoeur, consider Time and Narrative, extending and developing the debate it has inspired.

Time and Narrative is the finest example of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics and is one of the most significant works of philosophy published in the late twentieth century. Paul Ricoeur's study of the intertwining of time and narrative proposes and examines the possibility that narrative could remedy a fatal deficiency in any purely phenomenological approach. He analyzed both literary and historical writing, from Proust to Braudel, as well as key figures in the history of philosophy: Aristotle, Augustine, Kant, Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger. His own recognition of his limited success in expunging aporia opens onto the positive discovery of the importance of narrative identity, on which Ricoeur writeshere.

An essential companion to Time and Narrative, this collection also provides an excellent introduction to Ricoeur's later work and to contemporary works in philosophical hermeneutics. It will be of major interest to philosophers, literary theorists, and historians.

Book Description

In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther Benbassa tells the intriguing tale of the social, economic, and cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and the Dreyfus affair. Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in Judaism.

As early as the fourth century, Jews inhabited Roman Gaul, and by the reign of Charlemagne, some figured prominently at court. The perception of Jewish influence on France's rulers contributed to a clash between church and monarchy that would culminate in the mass expulsion of Jews in the fourteenth century. The book examines the re-entry of small numbers of Jews as New Christians in the Southwest and the emergence of a new French Jewish population with the country's acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine.

The saga of modernity comes next, beginning with the French Revolution and the granting of citizenship to French Jews. Detailed yet quick-paced discussions of key episodes follow: progress made toward social and political integration, the shifting social and demographic profiles of Jews in the 1800s, Jewish participation in the economy and the arts, the mass migrations from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, the Dreyfus affair, persecution under Vichy, the Holocaust, and the postwar arrival of North African Jews.

Reinterpreting such themes as assimilation, acculturation, and pluralism, Benbassa finds that French Jews have integrated successfully without always risking loss of identity. Published to great acclaim in France, this book brings important current issues to bear on the study of Judaism in general, while making for dramatic reading.

Download Description

In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther Benbassa tells the intriguing case of the social, economic, and cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and the Dreyfus affair Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in Judaism.

Average customer rating:

Worth the purchase

Asimov's book is thought provoking.

The definitive antidote for pseudoscience

a view into the thinking of Isaac Asimov

Slightly outdated, but insightful thoughts and crisp prose

The Roving Mind
Isaac Asimov
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space

Asimov's Chronology of the World

Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos

Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts

Asimov's Guide to the Bible: A Historical Look at the Old and New Testaments

ASIN: 0879752017

Customer Reviews:

Worth the purchase.......2006-07-19

I highly recommend this book, and I'm a cop. Which basically means I'm not that bright, and even I could comprehend this book.

Asimov is easy to read and understand. He takes complicated issues, and simplifies them. He possess a brilliant mind, and views the world from a different perspective than most other humans. As I read this collection of essays, I found myself time and time again saying, "that's so true, why didn't I think of that". It's an enlightening book, a good read, and it's cheap.

I highly recommend it.

Asimov's book is thought provoking........2005-10-09

In agreement with the rest of the reviews to date, Asimov is very good at showing people how creative thinking and logical reasoning can be applied to various topics. This man has had a large influence in my life through his books on science fiction, and science facts. He was wiser than most, and very skilled at teaching.
He was an atheist however, and so some of his viewpoints especially in the first part of this book, could rub a religious person the wrong way. It does no harm to hear another's viewpoint however, if not to learn something new, then to at least bolster up why you feel differently about certain issue's. His book covers many different subjects, and so if you enjoy reading and flexing your mental muscle by having your mind rove about on different topics, then you are sure to find many of his essays, very interesting.

The definitive antidote for pseudoscience.......2005-06-30

No intelligent person needs to be told (surely?) that Isaac Asimov's name on a book is a guarantee of excellence. And most are aware that Asimov's science essays (62 in this collection) cover the multitude and variety of subjects that Robert Heinlein had in mind when he coined the word "synthesist." So instead of trying to gild fine gold or paint the lily, I will simply reproduce Asimov's words on three of the issues he discusses.
On religious doublethink: "If there is an earthquake and a thousand people die, and one person is uncovered in a ruined house, unhurt, the Moral Majority types cry, 'A miracle!' and fall to their knees in gratitude. And the thousand who died, whose deaths, indeed, were necessary to convert the one surviver into a miracle, what of them?"
On overpopulation: "Motherhood is a privilege that we must literally ration, for children, if produced indiscriminately, will be the death of the human race; and any woman who deliberately has more than two children is committing a crime against humanity."
On skepticism: "I believe evidence. I believe observation, measurement and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild or ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be."
Other topics to which Asimov devotes essays include resurrected gods, creationism's demand to be taught in public schools, argument from consensus, scientific illiteracy in politics, sexual equality, pollution, and hyperspace ("There is no evidence for its existence").
Want to encourage your offspring to pursue a career in science? Buy them this book.
(see my unabridged review in A Humanist in the Bible Belt.)

a view into the thinking of Isaac Asimov.......1999-12-24

Isaac Asimov was probably the best person ever to write science fiction. He was also one of the best people to ever write science fact. His death in 1992 was a great loss to the world.

This book provides a good look into how Isaac Asimov thought about various issues. With all the problems in the world, the views of Asimov might help to make the world a bit more logical place if we pay attention to him.

Slightly outdated, but insightful thoughts and crisp prose.......1999-05-02

The late Dr. Asimov's clear wit and wisdom is taken to bear here on fools and the future. He begins by excoriating "Religious Radicals," in harsh liberal prose that seems rather outdated today. (For instance, there is a chapter called "The Reagan Doctrine" that pokes fun at tactics Ronald Reagan used in battling the Soviet empire.) Other chapters are also dated, including several chapters on environmental predictions that are informed by distinctly Malthusian notions of supply shortages. (To wit, "And in the mad scramble for food on your part and on the part of billions of others, the people of eath will further damage the world they live in and will begin to fight each other over scraps.") Still, Asimov writes lucidly on science in a number of historical and opinion pieces, which are carefully reasoned. Five essays at the book's end give perspective to the late thinker's personal life, and a number of inserted memorials (new to this edition) from other prominent scientists and science fiction authors really round out a book that shows Asimov's incomparable breadth of interest. The "Roving Mind" of the title is Asimov's own intellect; any thoughtful reader will find his own mind broadened for having read it.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Planning, published by American Planning Association on October 1, 1996. The length of the article is 1098 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.

From the supplier: Baytown, TX, has begun implementing the Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project to turn its abandoned Brownwood subdivision into a wetland and wildlife sanctuary known as the the Baytown Nature Center. The 60-acre first phase of the project was completed in fall 1995 at a cost of $1.6 mil. The project's 50-acre second phase will be begun in October 1996. The project was financed through Baytown municipal tax allocations as well as investment from the French Limited Task Group, a consortium of 200 companies.

Citation Details
Title: From subdivision to sanctuary: in Baytown, Texas, a flooded neighborhood becomes a wetland.(Brownwood Marsh Restoration Project)
Author: Charles Lockwood
Publication: Planning (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 1996
Publisher: American Planning Association
Volume: v62 Issue: n10 Page: p12(2)

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