Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the World of Appearances (Writing Art)

Book Description

Who speaks? Who is silent? Who is seen? Who is absent? These questions focus on how cultures are constructed through pictures and words, how we are seduced into a world of appearances: into a pose of who we are and aren't. On both an emotional and an economic level, images and texts have the power to make us rich or poor. In these essays and reviews, written over the last decade, Barbara Kruger addresses that power with intelligence and wit, in the hope of engaging both our criticality and our dreams of affirmation.

Barbara Kruger is an artist whose pictures and words engage issues of power, sex, money, difference, and death. Her work has appeared throughout America, Europe, and Japan in galleries, newspapers, magazines, and museums and on billboards, matchbooks, TV programs, t-shirts, postcards, and shopping bags. She has written about television, film, and cultures for Artforum, Esquire, the New York Times, and the Village Voice.

Customer Reviews:

i really want to like it.......2005-10-20

i really do, but it's so academic at times i just can't get into it. it's not that i'm not an intelligent guy because i am, and it's not that i don't appreciate kruger's work because i do. it's simply that what i most love about kruger is the accessability of her work, and this book was very inaccessable at times. i'm glad i have it in my collection, but i wouldn't call it an "enjoyable" read. it's really more work than fun. i guess it depends on your feelings about kruger if the work is worth it. this is an important book for an art historian or cultural critic, but i would not recomend it as an introduction to kruger.

Remote Control by Barbara Kruger.......2000-09-26

Kruger's work is some of her best yet! She is, without a doubt, the most effective and AFFECTIVE artist of our time. Her art aggressively attacks the viewer, as do her written words. She takes control, and forces the reader to reflect on his or her position/experience/actions in life. Influential and powerful, radical, aggressive, and moving, the book is all put together with wit, dark humor, and poetic grace. An outstanding piece of work from an outstanding, talanted artist!

-Nathaniel Lacktman

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Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the World of Appearances
Barbara Kruger
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQNNMC

Customer Reviews:

Graham Scholes, my kind of teacher.......2001-08-06

This book is, by far, one of the best teaching texts I've seen for a beginner in watercolor painting. Graham Scholes fairly oozes enthusiasm for the medium and encouragement to his student. He clearly explains and shares dozens of practical clues and hints and leads one by the hand as he instills confidence to make those first attempts with this difficult medium.

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Starship Troopers Miniatures Game: The Arachnid Army Book Supplement
Matthew Sprange , and Matt Keefe
Manufacturer: Mongoose Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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The Roughnecks Army Book (Starship Troopers)

ASIN: 1904854818

Book Description

All players eagerly await the publication of army lists for their favorite forces, and the Arachnid Army Book will not disappoint. Sure to be a popular addition to the game, this full-color book is beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated with new art and photographs of the Starship Troopers miniatures range. The information in this book provides much in the way of reference for any reader interested in the central theme of both the original book and the subsequent movies and television series.

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You don't know what you are, what you will become...

Despite not finding the gender studies approach helpful, a very good discussion of BUFFY

Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan
Lorna Jowett
Manufacturer: Wesleyan University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show (Smart Pop series)

ASIN: 0819567582

Book Description

During its seven-year run, Buffy the Vampire Slayer attracted a wide range of viewers and almost unprecedented academic interest. Sex and the Slayer explores one of the most talked-about topics in relation to this pioneering TV series--gender. As fantasy, Buffy potentially opens up a space for alternative representations of gender. But how alternative can popular television be?
Taking a feminist cultural studies approach, Jowett explores the ways in which the series represents femininity, masculinity, and gendered relations, including sexuality and sexual orientation. Written for undergraduates, Sex and the Slayer provides an introduction to the most important theoretical and historical underpinnings of contemporary gender criticism as it examines a range of thought-provoking issues: role reversal, the tension between feminism and femininity, the "crisis" of masculinity, gender hybridity, the appeal of bad girls, romance, and changing family structures. Through this introductory analysis, Jowett shows that Buffy presents a contradictory mixture of "subversive" and "conservative" images of gender roles and as such is a key example of the complexity of gender representation in contemporary television.

Customer Reviews:

You don't know what you are, what you will become..........2006-04-27

This book was my first introduction to serious gender-studies criticism. I found it to be a well written and illuminating foray into both the academic discipline and the show. The character studies are very satisfying. I recommend the book both to academically inclined fans of the program and to readers who are knowlegeable about the show and are curious about contemporary criticism. There is now a good selection of insightful works, both book-length and essays, using Buffy as a platform to discuss cultural, social, and religious issues. I wish all academic studies were as lucid as this one.

Despite not finding the gender studies approach helpful, a very good discussion of BUFFY.......2006-03-30

I have very mixed feelings about this largely excellent book about BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. The author, Lorna Jowett, is obviously an exceptionally well-informed student of BUFFY and knows the show backwards and forwards. The book bristles with insights about the show and about individual characters, as opposed to the narrative structure as a whole, on which I find the book much less helpful. In a way this is to be expected, since in focusing on gender issues, you focus on the individual characters that incarnate gender-related traits and characteristics. I have read pretty much every serious and all academic books that are currently in print on BUFFY and at this point to learn new things about the show is getting progressively more difficult; nonetheless, I learned a great deal from the book. I'm going to say a couple of critical things in a second, but before I do I want to emphasize that I definitely found reading this to be a rewarding experience and I think any fairly literate BUFFY fan who has some experience in reading academic books is going to both enjoy this and learn from it, regardless of whether they agree with the approach or not. So I want to be clear: despite a disagreement with the central approach of the book, I found this to be an exceptionally rewarding read. The book is also graced with a large bibliography that will aid serious readers in compiling BUFFY-related bibliographies.

Before proceeding, I need to say something about my own stance towards women's issues. Although I'm a guy, I'm a fairly serious student of the history of women's issues, to the point where I am currently engaged in a writing project about women's issues (specifically about the possibility of future empowerment of women through higher education-women are increasingly comprising the majority of both undergraduate and graduate students in America-and redefinition of women in popular culture). My own perspective, however, is very much from concepts drawn not from gender studies but from political and moral philosophy. I see the oppression of women by any means as primarily a justice issue and not a gender issue. One cannot ignore the history of the way male-dominated structures of power have repressed women, but my own belief is that this is most profitably done by analyzing it through questions of justice and fairness. For a variety of reasons, I feel that this is far more to the point. The reason I point this out is that the opposition to a gender studies approach that I'm about to articulate could easily be misrepresented as an anti-female approach, which simply is not the case. I take considerable pride in the fact that several highly educated feminists have told me that they wish all men viewed women's issues the way that I do. (And I hope that wasn't damning me with faint praise.)

I simply can't follow Jowett in any part of the book where she begins to dissect characters on gender-related distinctions. Since this is a considerable part of the book, I acknowledge that I have a problem with much of the book's content, though as I mentioned above I learned a great deal, simply because not everything she says is parasitic upon gender distinctions. I don't have room here to explain why I find gender distinctions in this kind of discussion unhelpful. I believe that the vast majority of individuals engaged in gender studies would acknowledge that the traits that they ascribe to femininity or masculinity are largely accidents of history, pertinent to a particular society or even most societies, but not universal. For almost every trait that a particular society attributes primarily to one gender, there are cultures or societies or tribes that completely subvert that. We know, for instance, of societies where men take primary care of the young and others where women are the leaders. Or we know of more complex arrangements, such as in some Native American tribes, where men were the leaders, but the leaders were chosen by women. In other words, there are no traits that are necessarily and permanently feminine or masculine. One has to tie such concepts to a particular society. Nonetheless, many who write in gender-specific terms frequently fall into a pattern whereby what they are writing about sounds more definite than this. Jowett is often guilty of this. She writes in a way whereby "feminine" and "masculine" qualities seem to be less marks of society than of men and women. In other words, they seem almost more like natural rather then acculturated qualities. I don't think she would defend that in the end, but nonetheless like most she can sound that way. For my part, I have never understood what is to be gained by coding any quality as female or male, feminine or masculine. For instance, the notion of "caring." Jowett writes of coding "caring" as feminine or aggression as "masculine." Even when one grants that in our particular society there may be a greater propensity for men to be aggressive and women to be caring, we can all also think (at least I can) of men who are far more caring than most women and many women who are more aggressive than most men. "Caring" may be more prevalent among women, but in the end it really emerges more as a human quality than a quality in any but a highly contingent way tied to a particular gender. And that is true for almost any quality that one tries to tie to any gender labeling.

Put the question another way: what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for something to be feminine and not masculine? No matter what content you ascribe to this, you can easily end up with "masculine" women and "feminine" men. I'm simply not sure what is to be achieved by such "coding." I don't find it especially empowering in either political or moral analysis. I'm quite interested in models for normative behavior and I find moral discourse to be far more helpful in this regard. If I find someone's behavior rude and aggressive, I find it more to the point to talk about how this indicates a lack of respect and empathy, not whether it is feminine or masculine.

Likewise with BUFFY. One of the reasons I have been so impressive by BUFFY is that I think it may possibly have achieved one of Joss Whedon's stated goals in creating the show: to create a cultural icon. All finer distinctions aside, there is little doubt that Buffy is a power symbol of female empowerment in popular culture. Pre-BUFFY very, very few women got to be the heroes in their own stories on TV, and if they did, it was always in a domestic context. Once you get past Emma Peel and Wonder Woman, about the only strong women on TV were career women like Mary Tyler Moore. Post-BUFFY there has been an explosion of strong female characters, including Xena (pre-TV show BUFFY but post-film), Sydney Bristow of ALIAS, Max Guevara on DARK ANGEL, Aeryn Sun, Zhaan, Chianna, and others on FARSCAPE, and Veronica Mars. I find discussions of how this has or can affect the way that women are perceived to be endlessly fascinating. I fully believe that the effect of BUFFY on the actual possibilities for women in our society has not yet been appreciated. In raising my daughter as a single father I was acutely aware as she grew up how few strong female characters there were in movies and TV. It is beside the point to point out that normal women aren't super empowered like Buffy, technologically enhanced like Max, or warriors like Xena. Normal men aren't super empowered like Superman or Spiderman, or preternaturally gifted fighters like Bruce Lee, or super warriors like Rambo. The point, rather, is that whereas before BUFFY it was unheard of to have remarkable women on TV though it was possible to have remarkable men, now we think nothing of a new female hero. And the acceptance of these new women heroes is a small indication of the way that society is accepting an enlarged role for women. But one doesn't have to resort to gender distinctions to get at any of this.

My belief is that gender studies all too often is a rather abstract game that is played among other gender studies specialists. It is not nor is it ever likely to be a discipline that resonates with the broader public. The kinds of gender distinctions made here don't hit people where they live or even think. I think it is immensely important for scholars like Carolyn Merchant to talk about ways that specifically masculine modes of thinking have informed our thinking about nature, but I find her the exception rather than the rule in the field. My suspicion is that Jowett would code me as a heterosocial, heterosexual "New Man," but I'm left without a good sense of what that really means.

To accept all the premises of the book, one needs to be converted to gender studies first. And I'm afraid that the book in that regard fails. But as I said at the outside, on BUFFY-related matters the book is often a glittering success. It also is a wonderful testimony of how exceptionally rich and multi-faceted the show is. I've had some debates with some of my friends who know I love BUFFY but haven't watched the show themselves. They wonder why I love BUFFY more than shows they wrongly imagine more "intelligent" than it, like THE SOPRANOS or SIX FEET UNDER. Yet neither of these shows has generated anything even remotely like the sustained intellectual debates surrounding BUFFY. Lorna Jowett's book is a wonderful illustration of how good BUFFY really is, for how could a silly teen drama (which non-initiates often imagine the show to be) generate such a remarkably intelligent book?

Book Description

Fourty-two songs in German and English by one of the great playwrights of the 20th century in collaboration with the composer of German political cabaret songs of the 20s and 30s. Peace Song, Solidarity Song, Easter Sunday, Do Not Cry Marie, and Song Of A German Mother.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent introduction to Eisler's songs.......2000-05-23

This collection includes songs written by Hanns Eisler for plays by Brecht (Die Massnahme et al.), "mass songs" such as the United Front Song (Einheitsfrontlied), and selections from the Hollywood Liederbuch, with texts written by Brecht while he and Eisler were living in Southern California. In some cases, Eisler set Brecht poems which were also set by Kurt Weill; the comparison is enlightening. This is a fine introduction to the work of an important, complex, and (until recently) neglected 20th century composer.

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The Brecht-Eisler Song Book
Eric Bentley
Manufacturer: Oak Publications, Inc. 1967
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JQBZ72

Customer Reviews:

Unintentionally funny.......2004-07-12

Like a bad monster film where you can see the monster's wires sticking out, "Gen X TV" is so bad it's good. Not only good, but downright hilarious. Let me explain...

As someone raised on TV (but cognizant of its bland way of repackaging whatever works for one show to fill up the rest of the schedule, and other crimes), I am always wary of attempts to document the "history" of any particular movement in television. What's more, so much on television (especially at the time this book was released) is unworthy of being discussed in such grandiose terms that you can't help but feel books like this miss the point. Television is so ephemeral that it seems almost foolhardy to try and document it.

Now for the fun part, and why you should rent this from the library (save your money, folks): the now-canceled or forgotten shows that the author profiles. Sure, "Living Single" might have been a decent show, but it doesn't merit an entire portion of the chapter. The embrace of "The Brady Bunch" by Gen X (which thankfully, due to Owen's chronology, I don't belong to) is proof positive that they deserve all the mockery you can hoist.

And a serious discussion of "Melrose Place"? Give me a break!

What's also funny (at least to those of us who never cared for a certain much-hyped sitcom about twenty-somethings in New York) is the way the author lauds certain shows like "Friends" and how they "impacted" television. If by "impact" you mean "caused other networks to rush out clones on the air and ever since try to repeat the same tired formula as a sure way of suckering the American people into watching said crap", then I guess you've got a point.

Web-savvy post-Gen-Xers will laugh out loud at the "glossary" the book provides for technical terms that have since become part and parcel of the English language. Then again, what is a "world wide web" anyway, right?

It's almost cruel of me to point out how bad this makes the Gen-Xers look, but people who offer testimony on how "The Real World" changed their viewing habits really deserve much worse. I remember the same Gen X tv this book documents, and it just reminds me how bad some of this garbage was.

Oh, and the talk about how Gen Xers "demand more realistic content" should serve as a bellweather for anyone looking into the reasons behind reality TV. Thanks again, Gen X.

If anything, this book makes you laugh when you shouldn't, with serious discussion of (among others) "Models Inc.", "Partners", "My So-Called Life", and various other waste paper collecting at the bottom of TV's dustbin. I'm not saying post-Gen-X TV is all that much better (reality shows, the promotion of Paris Hilton to superstar status, etc), but at least we have "Arrested Development". The greatest cultural contributions of Gen X? "Beverly Hills 90210". I believe that makes my point.

All in all, this book was written with good intentions, but comes off as dated and even laughably bad to anyone post-1997. The simple fact that it was published too early to document the single greatest crime of Gen X ("Dawson's Creek" and other ripoff teen angst shows) is a point in its favor. Read it to remember, read it to laugh, read it to feel superior to your older brother or sister; anyway you slice it, you will get some enjoyment out of this. It might not be the kind the author had in mind, however...

A bit soft for a university press book.......1998-11-23

I hoped this book would have more insight into the topic than just a collection of overviews of the particular series. That's been done before and better.

This book is a great idea in theory..........1998-10-23

I loved the idea of this book. I love TV and Owen is an outstanding TV writer (for a good sample, read his column on-line). The book has some interesting ideas, but the book gets dull. It breaks no new ground and doesn't shed light on others. I liked the fact that it wasn't steeped in the usual "media criticism", but there is no depth to much of the book. I think Owen will write a great book on TV one day...he just isn't there yet.

Fun!.......1997-06-19

What fun! Rob Owen's book took me back to days when the TV (especially Scooby-Doo) was my babysitter. It's hard to believe that someone could get paid to write something so fun. Gen X TV is a must-read for anyone between the ages of 20 and 35!

"Illuminating food for thought."--Library Journal.......1997-06-12

"Owen, a TV critic for the ALBANY TIMES UNION, takes a look at American youth between 22 and 32 years old and the impact of TV on their collective attitude. He deftly analyzes programs watched during the growing years (THE BRADY BUNCH), landmark series (BEVERLY HILLS, 90210), SHOWS ABOUT GEN X ITSELF (FRIENDS), and, in an intriguing but sobering look at cyberspace, the impact of the Internet as a means of communicating about cutting-edge favorites. . . . Some illuminating food for thought here on contemporary culture. Recommended."--LIBRARY JOURNAL

Customer Reviews:

They were heroes.......2004-01-06

This is a great book. It writes about a time when men needed to be real heroes, and do things that required amazing courage and fortitude, the likes of which we never see much of these days.

I would have liked to have read more of the impact of the bombings on the civillian populations, but the heroes of the day make for a great read.

Pragmatic view of exceptional heroism.......2003-11-24

It is difficult to think of life where bombs raining from the sky were an everyday event, but this was London in World War II. As well as the horror of the explosions, there were the bombs that did not detonate, and the brave men who literally risked their lives to defuse them. This is their story.

It is a well written book, but has something of the British understatement in it - where the sheer horror of the deaths of these men is underplayed, and, in my opinion the celebration of their heroism is not made enough of. There is one story of a man who waded through toxic mud seven times to defuse a bomb in a factory because dangerous gasses meant that he couldn't do it in one take. He was awarded a medal for this, as were so many of his compatriates in similar circumstances, but somehow I felt that there was more to his story than what is listed here. There are so many stories like this one - absolutely horrifying, really amazing brave stories, and whereas this is a touching and apt tribute, I think their tales need a book that shouts their stories from the roof tops.

Average customer rating:

Excellent novelization of the fictional series but...

Danger UXB
Michael Booker
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | Classics | Contemporary | General | Historical | Humor | Letters & Correspondence | Middle | Old | Poetry | Renaissance | Shakespeare | Short Stories
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Danger UXB

ASIN: 0140058524

Customer Reviews:

Excellent novelization of the fictional series but..........2007-04-18

For those who like realistic, nail-biting suspense, I heartily recommend they buy themselves the DVD miniseries "Danger UXB." Even though it was shot nearly thirty years ago before the era of elaborate special effects, I am amazed at how suspenseful and true-to-life it is.

The novel (there is also at least one other nonfiction book about the same subject with the same title) is pretty faithful to the miniseries and is well-written. As did the series, it centers around young Lieutenant Brian Ash, newly minted bomb disposal officer living a dangerous life in the 1940 Blitz of London. However, there are also significant threads with the other characters.

This being said...the novel ends well before the narrative of the miniseries (right around the end of part nine of the miniseries). I'm rather bewildered by this because I felt the full story was a good one and there was no need to abridge it in the novel. The only thing that I can think as to why is that the there was a need to put the book out very quickly. It's too bad, but as far as I'm concerned, the narrative of the miniseries is what happened.

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Danger UXB
Brenda et al Apsley
Manufacturer: World & Whitman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0723565716

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Danger UXB
Michael Booker
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ2GJ0

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Danger UXB
Michael Booker
Manufacturer: Pan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000K0D5CA

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