Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Author: John Higgs
Publisher: Signal
ISBN: 0771038488
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

Book Description
The extraordinary story of the 20th century, as told from the furthest fringes of science, art and culture. For readers of Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Before 1900, history was an account of great discoveries that actually made sense. People understand innovations like the steam engine, agriculture, or electricity. The twentieth century, by contrast, gave us quantum entanglement, cubism, relativity, psychedelics, postmodernism, chaos maths, and the Somme. This is the story of that confusing century as told through the ideas produced at the furthest fringes of our sciences, arts, and culture. Its cast includes well-known geniuses such as Albert Einstein, Francis Crick, and Pablo Picasso, lesser known geniuses like Edward Lorenz, Sergey Korolyov, or Shigeru Miyamoto, and infamous but influential ne'er-do-wells like Timothy Leary, Aleister Crowley and Keith Richards. In this company we take a tour through ideas as strange as general relativity, DNA, the subconscious, Gaia theory, and Dada. In this brilliantly written and original book, John Higgs explores, with great clarity and wit, the extremes of twentieth century thought, and in doing so shows how a world of empires became a world of individuals. You will never see the twentieth century in the same way again.

I Have America Surrounded

Author: John Higgs
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504095715
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Book Description
“A truth-seeking biography of an iconic cheerleader for LSD and his adventures in consciousness expansion”—with a foreword by Winona Ryder (Paul Krassner, founder of The Realist). The 1960s and ’70s wouldn’t have been the same without Timothy Leary, the renowned psychologist turned psychedelic drug guru. Always challenging authority, Leary rose to prominence through groundbreaking experiments, achieving mystical states and visions using magic mushrooms and LSD. A counterculture hero, his exploits inspired President Richard Nixon to call him “the most dangerous man in America.” In I Have America Surrounded, cultural historian John Higgs delivers an account of Leary’s wild and controversial life—from his inglorious time at West Point and his successful career in academia at Harvard, to the establishment of a psychedelic “summer camp” in Mexico, to his imprisonment, escape, and life as a fugitive in Algiers and Switzerland. Leary and his spiritual revolution were joined by such luminaries as Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. He was kidnapped by Black Panthers, became an FBI narc, and ran for governor of California. I Have America Surrounded is the story of a search for alternate meaning and realities by a man who “was a Chieftain. He stomped on the terra, and he left his elegant hoof prints on all our lives” (Hunter S. Thompson). “Anyone interested in Leary beyond seeing him traduced will be sure to enjoy it, if not love it.” —Reason magazine “You will not want to put this book down—full of unbelievable, gripping adventures—get it!” —Weed World “A remarkable account of a remarkable man.” —reFRESH “A fascinating book about an extraordinary subject.” —The Beat “Enthralling.” —MixMag

Encounter with the Self

Author: Edward F. Edinger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 88

Book Description
Penetrating commentary on the Job story as a numinous, archetypal event, and as a paradigm for conflicts of duty that can lead to enhanced consciousness.

The KLF

Author: John Higgs
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
In the early ’90s, the KLF was the biggest-selling singles band in the world—until they destroyed their records, erased themselves from music history, and literally set fire to one million pounds. In this fascinating and in-depth biography, popular British writer and cultural historian John Higgs digs into the story behind the end of one of the most popular bands of the late twentieth century. The band members themselves, when asked in interviews, were never able to satisfactorily explain their behavior, but looked haunted every time it came up. With his characteristically creative mind, Higgs leads readers on a journey to understand “a story that no one knows they are in—least of all the main characters.” Ranging from music history to chaos theory to Carl Jung and Doctor Who, this brilliant pop biography has been named one of the top ten music books of the year by The Guardian, The Independent, and Mojo magazine. Perfect for music buffs and mystery fans alike, The KLF is an engrossing and entertaining read.

Hyperspace

Author: Michio Kaku
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199857768
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377

Book Description
Are there other dimensions beyond our own? Is time travel possible? Can we change the past? Are there gateways to parallel universes? All of us have pondered such questions, but there was a time when scientists dismissed these notions as outlandish speculations. Not any more. Today, they are the focus of the most intense scientific activity in recent memory. In Hyperspace, Michio Kaku, author of the widely acclaimed Beyond Einstein and a leading theoretical physicist, offers the first book-length tour of the most exciting (and perhaps most bizarre) work in modern physics, work which includes research on the tenth dimension, time warps, black holes, and multiple universes. The theory of hyperspace (or higher dimensional space)--and its newest wrinkle, superstring theory--stand at the center of this revolution, with adherents in every major research laboratory in the world, including several Nobel laureates. Beginning where Hawking's Brief History of Time left off, Kaku paints a vivid portrayal of the breakthroughs now rocking the physics establishment. Why all the excitement? As the author points out, for over half a century, scientists have puzzled over why the basic forces of the cosmos--gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces--require markedly different mathematical descriptions. But if we see these forces as vibrations in a higher dimensional space, their field equations suddenly fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, perfectly snug, in an elegant, astonishingly simple form. This may thus be our leading candidate for the Theory of Everything. If so, it would be the crowning achievement of 2,000 years of scientific investigation into matter and its forces. Already, the theory has inspired several thousand research papers, and has been the focus of over 200 international conferences. Michio Kaku is one of the leading pioneers in superstring theory and has been at the forefront of this revolution in modern physics. With Hyperspace, he has produced a book for general readers which conveys the vitality of the field and the excitement as scientists grapple with the meaning of space and time. It is an exhilarating look at physics today and an eye-opening glimpse into the ultimate nature of the universe.

Christ the Stranger: The Theology of Rowan Williams

Author: Benjamin Myers
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567511545
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Book Description
Rowan Williams is a complex, creative and versatile thinker. Not only a theologian and church leader, he is also a poet, a translator, a literary critic, a social theorist and historian. His imaginative vision brings together the streams of modern literature, patristic theology, Russian orthodoxy, German philosophy and Welsh piety. In this lucid and elegant guide, Benjamin Myers explores Williams' thought from the 1960s to the present. He shows that Williams has developed an immensely resourceful - and distinctively Christian - response to some of the major social, moral and intellectual challenges of our time.

Stranger Than Life

Author: M.K. Brown
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
ISBN: 1606997084
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
One of the funniest cartoonists of the last four decades, M.K. Brown has accumulated a body of work long savored by aficionados but never comprehensively collected ― until now. Stranger Than Life is the first retrospective collection of Brown's cartoons and comic strips from the National Lampoon from 1972-1981, as well as such other magazines as Mother Jones, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, andPlayboy; and her comics from underground publications like Arcade, Wimmin's Comics, Young Lust, andTwisted Sisters. In these pages: Read instructions for the use of glue, making a pair of pants, home auto repair, coping with chainsaw massacres, and jackknifing your big rig. Travel the globe to witness the giant bananas of Maui, strange sightings in Guatemala, camel races, and a "Saga of the Frozen North." Learn about love 'round the world, among eccentric suburbanites, and in a "Condensed Gothic" romance. Meet Virginia Spears Ngodátu, who (with a bit of a name change) would go on to star in "Dr. Janice N!Godatu," Brown's series of animated shorts that appeared on The Tracy Ullman Showalongside the first incarnation of The Simpsons. Aliens, old people, pilgrims, mermen, monitor lizards, tiny floating muggers and other weirdos feature in Brown's side-splitting single-panel gag strips. Brown's cartoons combine a penchant for the absurd with the gimlet observational eye of Roz Chast. Brown satirizes suburban anxiety and ennui by turning it upside-down and sideways, and her slightly grotesque yet lovable characters are perfectly captured in her restless pen line and delicate jewel-tone watercolors.

Mixed Blessing

Author: Chandra Crane
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830848061
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
Chandra Crane has keenly felt the otherness of having a mixed multiethnic and multicultural background. But those of us with a mixed heritage have the privilege and potential to serve the Lord through our unique experiences. Crane explores what Scripture and history teach us about ethnicity and how we can bring all of ourselves to our sense of identity and calling.

Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Author: John Higgs
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1593766262
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
“An illuminating work of massive insight” on the complex ideas and events that initiated the historical shift between the 19th and 20th centuries (Alan Moore, author of V for Vendetta and Watchmen). “An always-provocative view of an era that many people would just as soon forget . . . an absorbing tour of the 20th century.” —Kirkus Reviews In Stranger Than We Can Imagine, John Higgs argues that before 1900, history seemed to make sense. We can understand innovations like electricity, agriculture, and democracy. The twentieth century, in contrast, gave us relativity, cubism, quantum mechanics, the id, existentialism, Stalin, psychedelics, chaos mathematics, climate change and postmodernism. In order to understand such a disorienting barrage of unfamiliar and knotty ideas, Higgs shows us, we need to shift the framework of our interpretation and view these concepts within the context of a new kind of historical narrative. Instead of looking at it as another step forward in a stable path, we need to look at the twentieth century as a chaotic seismic shift, upending all linear narratives. Higgs invites us along as he journeys across a century “about which we know too much” in order to grant us a new perspective on it. He brings a refreshingly non-academic, eclectic and infectiously energetic approach to his subjects as well as a unique ability to explain how complex ideas connect and intersect—whether he’s discussing Einstein’s theories of relativity, the Beat poets' interest in Eastern thought or the bright spots and pitfalls of the American Dream.

Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone

Author: Annelyse Gelman
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1938912950
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
Look, the future is all telepathy and disappointment and pretending we haven't always been winging it. Every day we're the strongest we'll ever be. What doesn't kill you hasn't killed you yet. From Greek mythology to Top 40, Pavlov to Sartre, the space station to the zoo, "Everyone I Love is a Stranger to Someone" collides dark humor and unexpected sweetness.