mythology

Softcover. University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pictorial wrappers, 112 pages. It's hard to imagine a place more central to American mythology today than Silicon Valley. To outsiders, the region glitters with the promise of extraordinary wealth and innovation. But behind this image lies another Silicon Valley, one segregated by race, class, and nationality in complex and contradictory ways. Its beautiful landscape lies atop underground streams of pollutants left behind by decades of technological innovation, and while its billionaires live in compounds, surrounded by redwood trees and security fences, its service workers live in their cars.With arresting photography and intimate stories, Seeing Silicon Valley makes this hidden world visible. Instead of young entrepreneurs striving for efficiency in minimalist corporate campuses, we see portraits of struggle--families displaced by an impossible real estate market, workers striving for a living wage, and communities harmed by environmental degradation. If the fate of Silicon Valley is the fate of America--as so many of its boosters claim--then this book gives us an unvarnished look into the future. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, A sociological look at the influence of Shakespeare's Shylock on world mythology describes the character's creation and his evolution on the stage, and presents writing about him by Proust, James, T. S. Eliot, and others. Amazingly, Shylock is in only five scenes in the Merchant of Venice. Yet, as pointed out by Gross, the theater critic for the London Sunday Telegraph , his impact and significance transcend his physical presence, so much so that his name and "pound of flesh" idea are almost universally known. In the first part of this character/cultural study, Gross examines the antecedents of Shylock and the play, and his development within the play. The second part considers "interpretations" both theatrical and literary in England and America until World War II; the third part considers Shylock more broadly as a touchstone (e.g., how his "type" is used by the Victorians--Trollope's Lopez, Dickens's Riah, Ruskin's use of him in Munera Pulveris ). Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Rizzoli, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, 191 pages. Hardcover. Dust jacket unclipped. Color illustrations throughout. Ginn, a New Zealander who spent three years traveling through the regions covered here, depicts in photographs and explains in brief captions dance traditions in her own country, Australia, the Solomon Islands, India, Burma, Thailand, Nepal and Indonesia. Dust jacket has a touch of moisture damage to back. Otherwise clean inside and out. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 179 pages. From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, a meditation on the deeply Jewish and surprisingly spiritual roots of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics Few artists have had as much of an impact on American popular culture as Stan Lee. The characters he created--Spider-Man and Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four--occupy Hollywood's imagination and production schedules, generate billions at the box office, and come as close as anything we have to a shared American mythology. This illuminating biography focuses as much on Lee's ideas as it does on his unlikely rise to stardom. It surveys his cultural and religious upbringing and draws surprising connections between celebrated comic book heroes and the ancient tales of the Bible, the Talmud, and Jewish mysticism. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Reaktion Books, 2013, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 336 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Profusely illustrated in full color & black & white throughout. Clean, tight copy.

Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 192 pages. The enduring cultural phenomenon of comic book heroes was invented in the late 1930s by a talented and hungry group of artists and writers barely out of their teens, flying by the seat of their pants to create something new, exciting, and above all profitable. The iconography and mythology they created flourishes to this day in comic books, video, movies, fine art, advertising, and practically all other media. Supermen! collects the best and the brightest of this first generation, including Jack Cole, Will Eisner, Bill Everett, Lou Fine, Fletcher Hanks, Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Basil Wolverton. If the reader is expecting to find an All-American group of altruistic do-gooders, he in for quite a jolt. As Jonathan Lethem writes in his Foreword, "A collection like Supermen! works like a reverse-neutron bomb to assumptions about the birth of the superhero image: it tears down the orderly structures of theory and history and leaves the figures standing in full view, staring back at us in all their defiant disorienting particularity, their blazing strangeness." Beautifully designed and produced in full color, Supermen! contains twenty full-length stories, ten full- sized covers, and a generous selection of vintage promotional ads, and is indispensable to anyone interested in the origins of superheroes and the history of the comic book form.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 253 pages. Carol Gilligan, breaking through imprisoning tradition, writes about love and the forces that stand in the way of pleasure. She shows us why love between a man and a woman is so often burdened by a history of loss and how it can be freed and opened to the pursuit of happiness. Tracing a lineage from Greek mythology to our own most intimate relationships, she asks why we relive tragic stories of loss and betrayal; drawing on her own research, she offers a radical new map of love. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Archipelago Books, reprint, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wrappers, 362 pages. By the celebrated author of A Dream in Polar Fog, a collection of the myths and stories of Yuri Rytkheu's own family that is at once a moving history of the Chukchi people who inhabit the northern shores of the Bering Sea and a beautiful cautionary tale rife with conflict, human drama, and humor. We meet fantastic characters: Nau, the mother of the human race; Rau, her half-whale husband; and Rytkheu's own grandfather, fated to be an intrepid traveler, far-ranging whaler, living ethnographic exhibit, and the last shaman of Uelen. The Chukchi Bible moves through vast Arctic tundra, sea, and sky - and to places deep within ourselves--introducing readers, in vivid prose, to an extraordinary mythology and a resilient people. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Adelaide AUS, Rigby Limited, reprint, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 79 pages illustrated in color and b&w. A collaboration between artist Ainslie Roberts & anthropologist Charles Mountford, who combined Ainslie Roberts outback paintings with his knowledge. Previous owner's inscription on the front fly leaf.

Hardcover. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University, 1st, 1987, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 227 pages, b&w illustrations. In this penetrating study, Carl Brasseaux looks beyond long-standing mythology to provide a critical account of early Acadian culture in Louisiana and the reasons for its survival. He convincingly dispels many received notions about the routes Acadians traveled from Nova Scotia to Louisiana, their original settlement sites, and the patterns of their subsequent migrations within the state, and closely examines the relations of Louisiana's Acadians with their black, Spanish, Indian, and Creole neighbors. In adapting to subtropical Louisiana, with its turmoil of alternating French and Spanish regimes, the Acadians exhibited industry, pragmatism, individualism, and the ability to close ranks in the face of a general threat. As Brasseaux reveals, Acadians' cohesiveness and insularity preserved the core elements of their culture and helped them adjust to new physical and social demands. Names, inscription to front fly leaf, interior clean and bright.

Hardcover. Boston, Little Brown , 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 31 pages. Cloth boards. Illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak. Dust jacket has staining along spine and chunk missing from top, 1" tear in back center. Otherwise, clean, tight copy.

Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, in a dust jacket with light fade to edges, 322 pages, b&w illustrations. For the Foi people who live on the edge of the central highlands of Papua New Guinea, the flow of pearl shells is the "heart" of their social life. The pearl shell is the exchange item that mediates the creation of their most important sexual and social roles. The Heart of the Pearl Shell analyzes a number of myths of the Foi people, elegantly bringing together significant ethnographic materials in a way that has important implications for the development of social theory in anthropology and in Melanesian studies. Scholars of semiotic-symbolic anthropology and of comparative religion will also share the author's interest in the meaning and role of mythology in Foi culture. Instead of relying on orthodox methods of Freudian or structuralist interpretation, James Weiner assumes there is a dialectical relationship between the images of Foi myth and the images of the Foi's social world. He demonstrates how each set of these images is dependent upon the other for its creation. This innovative study locates Foi social meaning in the re-creation and attempted solution of the moral dilemmas that are crystallized in mythology and other poetic usages.

Hardcover. NY, Philomel Books, 2nd pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY BARRON on front fly leaf and also SIGNED on the tiele page. Blending Arthurian legend and modern oceanography, this lively tale boasts finely developed characters as well as fast-moving adventure. The author achieves a solid balance of mythology, environmental issues, and scientific research procedures. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Kraus Reprint, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brown cloth, 341 pages. A reprint of a book first published in 1856. No dust jacket issued.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 223 pages. The Nzema of West Africa, who inhabit a land of forest and lagoons along the Atlantic, continue a heritage untapped by anthropologists and scarcely influenced by Western civilization. Vinigi L. Grottanelli first discovered the rich culture of this southern Ghanaian tribe in 1954. Over the next three decades, intermittent sojourns enabled Grottanelli to develop friendships with the Nzema and learn about their beliefs, traditions, and practices. In twenty absorbing vignettes, The Python Killer renders a vivid portrayal of Nzema life. B&w illustrations. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st US, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with a sunned spine. This is the first of a series of volumes in which the famous French anthropologist attempts to reduce some of the basic myths of the South American Indians to a comprehensible psychological pattern. 387 pages. Dust jacket with light edgewear. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Viking Penguin, reprint, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, deluxe edition. Deckled pages, 782 pages Massive collection of the main Icelandic sagas. 66 page introduction by Robert Kellogg with good contextual information. Preface by Jane Smiley. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 264 pages, color and b&w illustrations. The book focuses on the Aboriginal system of land tenure in the northeast of Arnhem Land, Australia. Yolngu land tenure is a system based on rational economic principles while deriving its validity and moral force from a rich religious mythology. The book is a contribution to the ethnography of Australian Aborigines, to comparative hunter-gatherer studies, to the analysis of systems of land tenure, and to the history of ideas about property. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Cambridge MA, Mythology Co., 1st, 1944, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark maroon cloth covers stamped in black, 279 pages. B&w plates, a little damp-staining limited to title page and frontispiece. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on the front fly leaf. A history of the ritzy Newport area in it's heyday. Not a common title.

Hardcover. Washington D. C., Island Press, First Edition, 1996, 235 pages. Hardcover. Off white cloth boards with orange titles to spine. Bright dust jacket with only light marginal wear. Very clean & unmarked. Crisp, tight copy.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, Peabody Museum, 1st, 1947, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 527 pages, 10.25 x 7.75 inches. Scarce ethnological and archeological study of Liberia's culture and myths. Large fold-out colored map, measuring 20.25 x 43 inches, is slipped into the inner rear cover. Copious illustrations and diagrams throughout. Light chipping to paper covers but with a very good interior. Previous owner's signature on front fly leaf otherwise clean.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Getty Conservation Institute, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 138 pages illustrated in color. As the Roman Empire expanded its African settlements in the early centuries of the common era, thousands of mosaic floor pavements were fashioned to adorn the townhouses and rural estates of the African upper classes. Between the second and sixth centuries, mosaic art blossomed, particularly in Africa Proconsularis, the region comprising modern Tunisia. In contrast to the official art of imperial Rome, mosaics generally expressed the worldviews of private citizens. These artworks are remarkable for the intricate beauty of their polychromatic geometric and floral designs, as well as for figural scenes depicting the interests and activities of the patrons who commissioned them--scenes of daily life, athletic contests, gladiator spectacles, and classical literature and mythology.Abundantly illustrated throughout, Tunisian Mosaics: Treasures from Roman Africa offers the general reader a lively introduction to this extraordinary ancient art. Initial chapters survey the historical background of Roman Africa and discuss the development of mosaic art in the Mediterranean. Subsequent chapters profile Tunisia's major mosaic sites and tour the collections of important museums. A final chapter surveys current initiatives to preserve this heritage for future generations. Clean copy.

Softcover. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Softcover. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. Color illustrations throughout.

Softcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, reprint, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 362 pages, 16 pages of b&w illustrations. Who was Vivian Maier? Many people know her as the reclusive Chicago nanny who wandered the city for decades, constantly snapping photographs, which were unseen until they were discovered in a seemingly abandoned storage locker. They revealed her to be an inadvertent master of twentieth-century American street photography. Not long after, the news broke that Maier had recently died and had no surviving relatives. Soon the whole world knew about her preternatural work, shooting her to stardom almost overnight. But, as Pamela Bannos reveals in this meticulous and passionate biography, this story of the nanny savant has blinded us to Maier's true achievements, as well as her intentions. Most important, Bannos argues, Maier was not a nanny who moonlighted as a photographer; she was a photographer who supported herself as a nanny. In Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife, Bannos contrasts Maier's life with the mythology that strangers-mostly the men who have profited from her work-have created around her absence. Clean, bright copy.