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LIKE SEX WITH GODS

Name: LIKE SEX WITH GODS
Author: Bayla Singer
ISBN: 1-58544-256-9

THE UNORTHODOX HISTORY OF FLYING

by Bayla Singer ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 24, 2003

Able presentation of the piquant stew of emotional, literary, artistic, religious, and technological considerations that...

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Former Smithsonian consultant Singer debuts with a panoptic exploration of the motivation and ingenuity that have marked our urge to fly.

Getting humans aloft wasn't simply a matter of a bunch of inventive guys getting their heads together, borrowing here and there from the scientists in the past, and taming the physics of it all, Singer writes. No simple progression led inexorably to the Wright Brothers, but a wonderful tangle, a wildly braided stream of literature, religion, and art; liberation and redemption; sexuality and power. The author limns these strands in ample detail for so small a work, also examining how we harnessed the intellect to the service of the emotions. Singer works carefully back and forth through the ages, suggesting influences and context, taking account of the early role of dreams and mythology, flight as natural metaphor for communing with the spiritual and supernatural, the need for escape and freedom from authority. The Scientific Revolution shifts the emphasis to materialism and quantification, tentatively contesting the ungovernable fields of religion and aesthetics while frequently tipping its hat to the Inquisitor. Singer then tackles inventiveness: “aptitude, curiosity, inventiveness, luck—plus perception of a need or desire, societal support,” a support, she notes, that cannot be found in the glory of being the first to fly. Monetary rewards certainly might accrue, and there were many struggles along these fronts: much stealing of ideas, ugly skirmishes over patent rights. But even more compelling was the age-old desire to break the earthly bonds, sample the sexual angle, taste the narrative of the myth. Of course, those who seek possible financial windfalls generously allude to these elements in their advertising: just look at the young woman riding that bomb on the book’s cover.

Able presentation of the piquant stew of emotional, literary, artistic, religious, and technological considerations that spurred—and spurred and spurred—the will to human flight. (22 b&w photos)

Pub Date: June 24, 2003

ISBN: 1-58544-256-9

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Texas A&M Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.