Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter

Author: Barry Lopez
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480409200
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Book Description
DIVDIVOne of the most enduring characters in Native American mythology comes boldly and brilliantly alive in sixty-eight tales of magic and wonder from National Book Award–winning author Barry Lopez/divDIV According to Native American legend, Old Man Coyote created the earth and humankind, arranged the heavens, and brought fire and death to the world. Cunning and canny, he is a trickster, a devil, a warrior, a lover, and a fool. A magical creature of insatiable appetites, he is forever scheming, yet finds all too often that his ingenious intrigues are ultimately turned back upon himself./divDIV /divDIVIn Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter, critically acclaimed author Barry Lopez presents sixty-eight adventurous, humorous, ribald, and often profound Coyote tales gathered from forty-two different tribes, infusing timeless lore with new life and wonder./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barry Lopez including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div/div

Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter

Author: Barry Holstun Lopez
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 1449451101
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
Prankster, warrior, seducer, fool – Old Man Coyote is the most enduring legend in Native American culture. Crafty and cagey – often the victim of his own magical intrigues and lusty appetites – he created the earth and man, scrambled the stars and first brought fire . . . and death. Barry Lopez – National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams and recipient of the John Burroughs Medal for his bestselling masterwork Of Wolves and Men – has collected sixty-eight tales from forty-two tribes, and brings to life a timeless myth that abounds with sly wit, erotic adventure, and rueful wisdom.

Now I Know Only So Far

Author: Dell H. Hymes
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803224070
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 532

Book Description
In Now I Know Only So Far, sociolinguist and ethnopoetic scholar Dell Hymes examines the power and significance of Native North American literatures and how they can best be approached and appreciated. Such narratives, Hymes argues, are ways of making sense of the world. To truly comprehend the importance and durability of these narratives, one must investigate the ways of thinking expressed in these texts?the cultural sensibilities also deeply affected by storytellers? particular experiences and mastery of form. ø Included here are seminal overviews and reflections on the history and potential of the field of ethnopoetics. Native North American stories from areas ranging from the Northwest Coast to the Southwest take center stage in this book, which features careful scrutiny of different realizations and tellings of the same story or related stories. Such narratives are illuminated through a series of verse analyses in which patterned relations of lines throw into relief differences in emphasis, shape, and interpretation. A final group of essays sheds light on the often misunderstood and always controversial role of editing and interpreting texts. Now I Know Only So Far provides penetrating discussions and absorbing insights into stories and worlds, both traditional and new.

Trespass

Author: Amy Irvine
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780865477452
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Book Description
"Trespass might as well be Desert Solitaire's literary heir . . . It's hard to imagine a personal history more transporting that this one."—Judith Lewis, Los Angels Times Book Review Trespass is the story of one woman's struggle to gain footing in inhospitable territory. A wilderness activist and apostate Mormon, Amy Irvine sought respite in the desert outback of southern Utah's red-rock country after her father's suicide, only to find out just how much of an interloper she was among her own people. But more than simply an exploration of personal loss, Trespass is an elegy for a dying world, for the ruin of one of our most beloved and unique desert landscapes and for our vanishing connection to it. Fearing what her father's fate might somehow portend for her, Irvine retreated into the remote recesses of the Colorado Plateau—home not only to the world's most renowned national parks but also to a rugged brand of cowboy Mormonism that stands in defiant contrast to the world at large. Her story is one of ruin and restoration, of learning to live among people who fear the wilderness the way they fear the devil and how that fear fuels an antagonism toward environmental concerns that pervades the region. At the same time, Irvine mourns her own loss of wildness and disconnection from spirituality, while ultimately discovering that the provinces of nature and faith are not as distinct as she once might have believed.

Deadly Beautiful

Author: Liana Joy Christensen
Publisher: Exisle Publishing
ISBN: 1927147980
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Did you know that the humble marmot is responsible for more than one billion human deaths? Or that it’s possible to be bitten by a snake’s head for up to an hour after it’s been decapitated? On the flip side, for every person bitten by a shark each year, 25 people are bitten by New Yorkers. It seems that truth sometimes is stranger than fiction!These facts and many more appear in this fascinating tribute to our world’s ‘deadly’ wildlife. At its heart, however, 'Deadly Beautiful' makes a passionate plea for us to learn to better cohabit with our fellow residents of planet Earth. Ever-increasing concern for the fate of the environment and the world’s endangered wildlife means that this book is a particularly timely addition to the world of natural history publishing. Dr Liana Joy Christensen, one of Australia’s foremost nature writers, takes a fresh and entertaining look at the ‘deadly’ animals with which humans have for so long enjoyed a love–hate relationship. These animals are generally not the aggressors nor the lethal killing machines that mythology and tradition would have us believe. Most also serve vital roles in maintaining the ecological balance of their habitats, while their fascinating behaviour and often striking beauty make them worthy of close study, particularly as so many of them are facing the worst death of all — extinction.Beautifully illustrated, 'Deadly Beautiful' is certain to foster a new understanding and appreciation of these incredible animals and their importance on a global scale.

Lost Discoveries

Author: Dick Teresi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684837188
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
In the tradition of Daniel Boorstin, the cofounder of "Omni" delivers an original work of history that demonstrates why modern science rests on a foundation built by ancient and medieval non-European societies.

Living Sideways

Author: Franchot Ballinger
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806137964
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
Native American tricksters can be buffoons, transformers, social critics, teachers, and mediators between human beings, nature, and the gods. A vibrant part of American Indian tradition, the trickster has shown a remarkable ability to adapt into the twenty-first century. In Living Sideways, Franchot Ballinger provides the first full-length study of the diverse roles and dimensions of North American Indian tricksters. While honoring their diversity and complexity, he challenges stereotypical Euro-American treatments of tricksters. Drawing from the most influential scholarship on Native American tricksters, Ballinger shows how many critics have failed to consider both the specifics of trickster stories and their cultural contexts. Each chapter concentrates on a particular aspect of the trickster theme, such as the trickster’s ambiguous personality, the variety of trickster roles, and the trickster’s role as social critic. Ballinger further considers issues of sex, gender, and humor, the use of trickster tales as instructions on social values and community control, and the trickster as an emblem of modern Indian survival. Living Sideways also includes illustrative trickster stories at the end of each chapter, a comprehensive bibliography, and discussion of the literary aspects of tricksters. Examining both the sacred power of tricksters and the stories as literature, Living Sideways is the most thorough book to date on Native American tricksters.

Where the Wild Books Are

Author: Jim Dwyer
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 0874178126
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
As interest in environmental issues grows, many writers of fiction have embraced themes that explore the connections between humans and the natural world. Ecologically themed fiction ranges from profound philosophical meditations to action-packed entertainments. Where the Wild Books Are offers an overview of nearly 2,000 works of nature-oriented fiction. The author includes a discussion of the precursors and history of the genre, and of its expansion since the 1970s. He also considers its forms and themes, as well as the subgenres into which it has evolved, such as speculative fiction, ecodefense, animal stories, mysteries, ecofeminist novels, cautionary tales, and others. A brief summary and critical commentary of each title is included. Dwyer’s scope is broad and covers fiction by Native American writers as well as ecofiction from writers around the world. Far more than a mere listing of books, Where the Wild Books Are is a lively introduction to a vast universe of engaging, provocative writing. It can be used to develop book collections or curricula. It also serves as an introduction to one of the most fertile areas of contemporary fiction, presenting books that will offer enjoyable reading and new insights into the vexing environmental questions of our time.

Updating the Literary West

Author:
Publisher: TCU Press
ISBN: 9780875651750
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1072

Book Description
"Western writers," says Thomas J. Lyon in his epilogue to Updating the Literary West, "have grown up with the frontier myth but now find themselves in the early stages of creating a new western myth." The editors of the Literary History of the American West (TCU Press, 1987) hoped that the first volume would begin, not conclude, their exploration of the West's literary heritage. Out of this hope comes Updating the Literary West, a comprehensive reference anthology including essays by over one hundred scholars. A selected bibliography is included with each piece. In the ten years since publication of LHAW, western writing has developed a significantly larger presence in the national literary stream. A variety of cultural viewpoints have developed, along with new tactics for literary study. New authors have risen to prominence, and the range of subjects has changed and widened. Updating the Literary West looks at topics ranging from western classics to cowboys and Cadillacs and considers children's literature, ethnicity, environmental writing, gender issues and other topics in which change has been rapid since publication of LHAW. This volume again affirms the West's literary legitimacy--status hard earned by the Western Literary Association--and the lasting place of popular western writing as part of the growing and changing literary--and American--experience. An excellent reference for a wide range of readers and an invaluable resource for scholars and libraries. Selected list of contributors: James Maguire Fred Erisman Susan J. Rosowski Gerald Haslam Tom Pilkington A. Carl Bredahl Richard Slotkin John G. Cawelti Robert F. Gish Ann Ronald Mick McAllister

Other Country

Author: James Perrin Warren
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 081650055X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
The award-winning American environmental writer Barry Lopez has traveled extensively in remote and populated parts of the world. Lopez’s fiction and nonfiction focus on the relationship between the physical landscape and human culture, posing abiding questions about ethics, intimacy, and place. Other Country presents a full-scale treatment of Lopez’s work. James Perrin Warren examines the relationship between Lopez’s writing and the work of several contemporary artists, composers, and musicians, whose works range from landscape photography, painting, and graphic arts to earth art, ceramics, and avant-garde music. The author demonstrates Lopez’s role in creating this community of artists who have led cultural change, and shows that Lopez’s writing—and his engagement with the natural world—creates an “other country” by redefining boundaries, rediscovering a place, and renewing our perceptions of landscapes. Warren’s critique examines manuscripts and typescripts from the 1960s to the present, interviews with Lopez conducted from 2008 to 2013, and interviews with artists. Part 1 focuses on the relationship between Lopez’s storytelling, which he calls “a conversation with the land,” and Robert Adams’s landscape photography. For both Lopez and Adams, a worthy artistic expression serves the cultural memory of a community, reminding us how to behave properly toward other people and the land. Part 2 looks at the collaborative friendship of Lopez and visual artist Alan Magee, tracking the development of Lopez’s short stories through a consideration of Magee’s career. Part 3 moves farther afield, discussing Lopez’s relationship to Richard Long’s earth art, Richard Rowland’s ceramics, and John Luther Adams’s soundscapes. Other Country reveals the dynamic relationships between Lopez, considered by many the most important environmental writer working in America, and the artistic community, who seek to explore the spiritual and ethical dimensions of an honorable and attentive relationship to the land and thus offer profound implications for the future of the planet.