A Ritual of the Monkey

A Ritual of the Monkey

Author: Richard Sole

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Published: 2010-12-16

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1452077711

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A Professional Review "In this kind of fractured reality, the clever idea is that we never know what is real." Stella Westhoff, A dream invasion adventure epic, Richard Sole swims into the swirly sea of the subconscious shifting logic with fractured reality of dreams. "A Ritual of the Monkey" is surely an ambitious psychological thriller, brilliantly conceived and superbly written. It tells the story of Ezra Cantrell adrift in time and experience, in reality within dreams; dreams without reality as he enters in a world where dreams and reality are indecipherable. What is real and what is not becomes a mind-bending, time-twisting odyssey. Ezra Cantrell is a Foreign Service employee who meets and marries Sacha, an Indonesian woman. The all-important establishment of the book's premise is made meticulously and at great length as Ezra travels on assignments. Ultimately, it is the experience of the book that toys with the reader's mind on a massive scale. As Sacha's emotional pain and the symptoms of her disease become apparent, she is betrayed with frightening delusions. She descends into madness and then regains the ability to function in her world or is it? Alternating between what is real and what is not, Richard Sole hypnotizes us with elegant dreamscapes within cityscapes and as a tour guide, takes the reader to distant lands and introduce them to its culture and mores. Like any traditional narrative, the book starts at point A and ends at point B. It just goes backward through the alphabet to get there. A slippery, cerebral drama that slaloms from illusion to reality and back again leaving the reader bewitched and bothered. It is the story of good and evil, a narrative of America's imperial character versus radical Islamic Jihad, it is the tangle of relationships that goes against the grain and challenges eternal truths. A well crafted and enthralling brain teaser, "A Ritual of the Monkey" is either a great, mind-bending book or one big swindle. Let's go with the former. Stella Westhoff Atlanta, Georgia About The Book Spurred by a desire to travel the world, Ezra Cantrell joined the Foreign Service and saw it all- Thousand islands of Indonesia, soaring minarets in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistans bulbous blue domes, and many pleasant tree-filled streets around the world. His journeys traversed the continents casting a spell on any travelers imagination. Along with Sacha his Indonesian spouse, their magical journey is a measure for adventure,... or misadventure. Then the ragged wounds of life strike Sacha with an emotional disorder and strip her of a fulfilling life experience. Her obsessive ritual is matched only by the lecherous fetish of a French diplomat who falls in love with her nineteen-year-old daughter. The mishmash adds a disquieting twist to an already sick family dynamic. Lost in the shuffle, Sacha struggles as she trails her husband on international assignments. With each move she starts again in a different city. Adrift in real time and dream time, Ezra finds solace from the family turmoil, as he escapes on assignments and soon experiments with his sexual curiosity. Tormented by his secret desires, he struggles to stave off the gremlins. Along comes a sociopath brimming with wicked desires who spews a disturbing shroud over an American university campus. A delusional love affair sprouts, a bruised ego ruptures and a sick obsession with a sadistic bent is unleashed with dreadful outcomes. What appears to be isolated slayings soon turn into the handiwork of a demented mind setting off an intercontinental jealous rage that chills the mind in this dream invasion epic.


Book Synopsis A Ritual of the Monkey by : Richard Sole

Download or read book A Ritual of the Monkey written by Richard Sole and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2010-12-16 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Professional Review "In this kind of fractured reality, the clever idea is that we never know what is real." Stella Westhoff, A dream invasion adventure epic, Richard Sole swims into the swirly sea of the subconscious shifting logic with fractured reality of dreams. "A Ritual of the Monkey" is surely an ambitious psychological thriller, brilliantly conceived and superbly written. It tells the story of Ezra Cantrell adrift in time and experience, in reality within dreams; dreams without reality as he enters in a world where dreams and reality are indecipherable. What is real and what is not becomes a mind-bending, time-twisting odyssey. Ezra Cantrell is a Foreign Service employee who meets and marries Sacha, an Indonesian woman. The all-important establishment of the book's premise is made meticulously and at great length as Ezra travels on assignments. Ultimately, it is the experience of the book that toys with the reader's mind on a massive scale. As Sacha's emotional pain and the symptoms of her disease become apparent, she is betrayed with frightening delusions. She descends into madness and then regains the ability to function in her world or is it? Alternating between what is real and what is not, Richard Sole hypnotizes us with elegant dreamscapes within cityscapes and as a tour guide, takes the reader to distant lands and introduce them to its culture and mores. Like any traditional narrative, the book starts at point A and ends at point B. It just goes backward through the alphabet to get there. A slippery, cerebral drama that slaloms from illusion to reality and back again leaving the reader bewitched and bothered. It is the story of good and evil, a narrative of America's imperial character versus radical Islamic Jihad, it is the tangle of relationships that goes against the grain and challenges eternal truths. A well crafted and enthralling brain teaser, "A Ritual of the Monkey" is either a great, mind-bending book or one big swindle. Let's go with the former. Stella Westhoff Atlanta, Georgia About The Book Spurred by a desire to travel the world, Ezra Cantrell joined the Foreign Service and saw it all- Thousand islands of Indonesia, soaring minarets in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistans bulbous blue domes, and many pleasant tree-filled streets around the world. His journeys traversed the continents casting a spell on any travelers imagination. Along with Sacha his Indonesian spouse, their magical journey is a measure for adventure,... or misadventure. Then the ragged wounds of life strike Sacha with an emotional disorder and strip her of a fulfilling life experience. Her obsessive ritual is matched only by the lecherous fetish of a French diplomat who falls in love with her nineteen-year-old daughter. The mishmash adds a disquieting twist to an already sick family dynamic. Lost in the shuffle, Sacha struggles as she trails her husband on international assignments. With each move she starts again in a different city. Adrift in real time and dream time, Ezra finds solace from the family turmoil, as he escapes on assignments and soon experiments with his sexual curiosity. Tormented by his secret desires, he struggles to stave off the gremlins. Along comes a sociopath brimming with wicked desires who spews a disturbing shroud over an American university campus. A delusional love affair sprouts, a bruised ego ruptures and a sick obsession with a sadistic bent is unleashed with dreadful outcomes. What appears to be isolated slayings soon turn into the handiwork of a demented mind setting off an intercontinental jealous rage that chills the mind in this dream invasion epic.


The Monkey as Mirror

The Monkey as Mirror

Author: Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780691028460

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This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.


Book Synopsis The Monkey as Mirror by : Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

Download or read book The Monkey as Mirror written by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.


The Monkey as Mirror

The Monkey as Mirror

Author: Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-12-08

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 069122210X

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This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.


Book Synopsis The Monkey as Mirror by : Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

Download or read book The Monkey as Mirror written by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.


The Lost City of the Monkey God

The Lost City of the Monkey God

Author: Douglas Preston

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2017-01-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1455540021

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NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017#1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller! A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle. Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location. Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease. Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.


Book Synopsis The Lost City of the Monkey God by : Douglas Preston

Download or read book The Lost City of the Monkey God written by Douglas Preston and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2017-01-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017#1 New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller! A five-hundred-year-old legend. An ancient curse. A stunning medical mystery. And a pioneering journey into the unknown heart of the world's densest jungle. Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God-but then committed suicide without revealing its location. Three quarters of a century later, bestselling author Doug Preston joined a team of scientists on a groundbreaking new quest. In 2012 he climbed aboard a rickety, single-engine plane carrying the machine that would change everything: lidar, a highly advanced, classified technology that could map the terrain under the densest rainforest canopy. In an unexplored valley ringed by steep mountains, that flight revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. Venturing into this raw, treacherous, but breathtakingly beautiful wilderness to confirm the discovery, Preston and the team battled torrential rains, quickmud, disease-carrying insects, jaguars, and deadly snakes. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted in the ruins a horrifying, sometimes lethal-and incurable-disease. Suspenseful and shocking, filled with colorful history, hair-raising adventure, and dramatic twists of fortune, THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD is the absolutely true, eyewitness account of one of the great discoveries of the twenty-first century.


Yoruba Ritual

Yoruba Ritual

Author: Margaret Thompson Drewal

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 1992-03-22

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 0253112737

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Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria conceive of rituals as journeys -- sometimes actual, sometimes virtual. Performed as a parade or a procession, a pilgrimage, a masking display, or possession trance, the journey evokes the reflexive, progressive, transformative experience of ritual participation. Yoruba Ritual is an original and provocative study of these practices. Using a performance paradigm, Margaret Thompson Drewal forges a new theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ritual that is thoroughly grounded in close analysis of the thoughts and actions of the participants. Challenging traditional notions of ritual as rigid, stereotypic, and invariant, Drewal reveals ritual to be progressive, transformative, generative, and reflexive and replete with simultaneity, multifocality, contingency, indeterminacy, and intertextuality. Throughout the book prominence is given to the intentionality of actors as knowledgeable agents who transform ritual itself through play and improvisation. Integral to the narrative are interpolations about performances and their meanings by Kolawole Ositola, a scholar of Yoruba oral tradition, ritual practitioner, diviner, and master performer. Rich descriptions of rituals relating to birth, death, reincarnation, divination, and constructions of gender are rendered all the more vivid by a generous selection of field photos of actual performances.


Book Synopsis Yoruba Ritual by : Margaret Thompson Drewal

Download or read book Yoruba Ritual written by Margaret Thompson Drewal and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1992-03-22 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria conceive of rituals as journeys -- sometimes actual, sometimes virtual. Performed as a parade or a procession, a pilgrimage, a masking display, or possession trance, the journey evokes the reflexive, progressive, transformative experience of ritual participation. Yoruba Ritual is an original and provocative study of these practices. Using a performance paradigm, Margaret Thompson Drewal forges a new theoretical and methodological approach to the study of ritual that is thoroughly grounded in close analysis of the thoughts and actions of the participants. Challenging traditional notions of ritual as rigid, stereotypic, and invariant, Drewal reveals ritual to be progressive, transformative, generative, and reflexive and replete with simultaneity, multifocality, contingency, indeterminacy, and intertextuality. Throughout the book prominence is given to the intentionality of actors as knowledgeable agents who transform ritual itself through play and improvisation. Integral to the narrative are interpolations about performances and their meanings by Kolawole Ositola, a scholar of Yoruba oral tradition, ritual practitioner, diviner, and master performer. Rich descriptions of rituals relating to birth, death, reincarnation, divination, and constructions of gender are rendered all the more vivid by a generous selection of field photos of actual performances.


Redefining Nature

Redefining Nature

Author: Roy Ellen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-01-07

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 1000323862

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How can anthropology improve our understanding of the interrelationship between nature and culture?- What can anthropology contribute to practical debates which depend on particular definitions of nature, such as that concerning sustainable development?Humankind has evolved over several million years by living in and utilizing 'nature' and by assimilating it into 'culture'. Indeed, the technological and cultural advancement of the species has been widely acknowledged to rest upon human domination and control of nature. Yet, by the 1960s, the idea of culture in confrontation with nature was being challenged by science, philosophy and the environmental movement. Anthropology is increasingly concerned with such issues as they become more urgent for humankind as a whole. This important book reviews the current state of the concepts of 'nature' we use, both as scientific devices and ideological constructs, and is organised around three themes:- nature as a cultural construction;- the cultural management of the environment; and- relations between plants, animals and humans.


Book Synopsis Redefining Nature by : Roy Ellen

Download or read book Redefining Nature written by Roy Ellen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-01-07 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can anthropology improve our understanding of the interrelationship between nature and culture?- What can anthropology contribute to practical debates which depend on particular definitions of nature, such as that concerning sustainable development?Humankind has evolved over several million years by living in and utilizing 'nature' and by assimilating it into 'culture'. Indeed, the technological and cultural advancement of the species has been widely acknowledged to rest upon human domination and control of nature. Yet, by the 1960s, the idea of culture in confrontation with nature was being challenged by science, philosophy and the environmental movement. Anthropology is increasingly concerned with such issues as they become more urgent for humankind as a whole. This important book reviews the current state of the concepts of 'nature' we use, both as scientific devices and ideological constructs, and is organised around three themes:- nature as a cultural construction;- the cultural management of the environment; and- relations between plants, animals and humans.


Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas

Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas

Author: Victoria Reifler Bricker

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0292791763

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Zinacantan, Chamula, and Chenalhó are neighboring Mayan communities situated in highland Chiapas, Mexico, near the city of San Cristóbal Las Casas. The inhabitants of the three communities speak dialects of the Tzotzil language. Five religious fiestas, celebrated by these communities in honor of their saints, provide the data for Victoria Bricker's comparative study of ritual humor. In Chenalhó and Chamula performances of ritual humor are concentrated in the five-day period of a single fiesta, while in Zanacantan similar performances are distributed over threee fiestas. In these fiesta settings, performers in distinctive costumes make obscene and sacreligious remarks in the context of religious ritual. These performances are defined as ritual humor because they occur only in ritual settings. Bricker's study constitutes a controlled cross-cultural comparison of ceremonial or ritual humor in its social and cultural setting. Much new information is provided in verbatim texts, recorded during actual fiesta performances. The study reveals that, although the three communities share a common pool of ritual symbols, they elaborate them differently in ritual humor. The study analyzes the symbolic expression of values, social organization, and interethnic relations.


Book Synopsis Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas by : Victoria Reifler Bricker

Download or read book Ritual Humor in Highland Chiapas written by Victoria Reifler Bricker and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-06-28 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zinacantan, Chamula, and Chenalhó are neighboring Mayan communities situated in highland Chiapas, Mexico, near the city of San Cristóbal Las Casas. The inhabitants of the three communities speak dialects of the Tzotzil language. Five religious fiestas, celebrated by these communities in honor of their saints, provide the data for Victoria Bricker's comparative study of ritual humor. In Chenalhó and Chamula performances of ritual humor are concentrated in the five-day period of a single fiesta, while in Zanacantan similar performances are distributed over threee fiestas. In these fiesta settings, performers in distinctive costumes make obscene and sacreligious remarks in the context of religious ritual. These performances are defined as ritual humor because they occur only in ritual settings. Bricker's study constitutes a controlled cross-cultural comparison of ceremonial or ritual humor in its social and cultural setting. Much new information is provided in verbatim texts, recorded during actual fiesta performances. The study reveals that, although the three communities share a common pool of ritual symbols, they elaborate them differently in ritual humor. The study analyzes the symbolic expression of values, social organization, and interethnic relations.


The Novel and Theatrical Imagination in Early Modern China

The Novel and Theatrical Imagination in Early Modern China

Author: Chun Mei

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2011-01-07

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9004191666

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Using the concept of theatricality to study Water Margin and Journey to the West, this study illustrates how writing and reading in early modern China became fused with a theatrical imagination in response to destabilizing social and political forces.


Book Synopsis The Novel and Theatrical Imagination in Early Modern China by : Chun Mei

Download or read book The Novel and Theatrical Imagination in Early Modern China written by Chun Mei and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-01-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the concept of theatricality to study Water Margin and Journey to the West, this study illustrates how writing and reading in early modern China became fused with a theatrical imagination in response to destabilizing social and political forces.


Afro-Caribbean Poetry and Ritual

Afro-Caribbean Poetry and Ritual

Author: P. Griffith

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2010-04-26

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 0230106528

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Focusing on orally transmitted cultural forms in the Caribbean, this book reaffirms the importance of myth and symbol in folk consciousness as a mode of imaginative conceptualization. Paul A. Griffith cross-references Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott s postcolonial debates with issues at seminal sites where Caribbean imaginary insurgencies took root. This book demonstrates the ways residually oral forms distilled history, society, and culture to cleverly resist aggressions authored through colonialist presumptions. In an analysis of the archetypal patterns in the oral tradition - both literary and nonliterary, this impressive book gives insight into the way in which people think about the world and represent themselves in it.


Book Synopsis Afro-Caribbean Poetry and Ritual by : P. Griffith

Download or read book Afro-Caribbean Poetry and Ritual written by P. Griffith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-04-26 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on orally transmitted cultural forms in the Caribbean, this book reaffirms the importance of myth and symbol in folk consciousness as a mode of imaginative conceptualization. Paul A. Griffith cross-references Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott s postcolonial debates with issues at seminal sites where Caribbean imaginary insurgencies took root. This book demonstrates the ways residually oral forms distilled history, society, and culture to cleverly resist aggressions authored through colonialist presumptions. In an analysis of the archetypal patterns in the oral tradition - both literary and nonliterary, this impressive book gives insight into the way in which people think about the world and represent themselves in it.


Mishmi Folk Tales of Lohit Valley

Mishmi Folk Tales of Lohit Valley

Author:

Publisher: Mittal Publications

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9788183241069

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Collection of folk tales, originating in Mishmi language, and retold in English, pravalent in regions surrounding the Lohit River Valley, located in Lohit District of Arunachal Pradesh, India.


Book Synopsis Mishmi Folk Tales of Lohit Valley by :

Download or read book Mishmi Folk Tales of Lohit Valley written by and published by Mittal Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of folk tales, originating in Mishmi language, and retold in English, pravalent in regions surrounding the Lohit River Valley, located in Lohit District of Arunachal Pradesh, India.