What do Stravinsky, Degas, Chaplin, Isak Dinesen, Meyerhold, Monty Python, and T. S. Eliot have in common? What do such disparate work as Picasso's Family of Saltimbanques," Bergman's "Sawdust and Tinsel," Waugh's "Put Out More Flags," and Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author" share? As [Green and Swan] persuasively argue in their new book, all have been influenced by the Italian commedia dell-arte. . . . Exaggeration, artifice, and a self-conscious theatricality are commedia's hallmarks; impertinence, mockery, and irony its weapons against the serious threats of the real world. No wonder, then, that commedia (along with the archetypes it supplies) exerted a fierce hold on the modernist imagination, and according to [the authors] left its imprint on virtually every area of Western culture from 1890 to 1930."-Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times"Green and Swan have given us an extraordinary interdisciplinary work. Using Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the saltimbanque paintings of Picasso and Schoenberg's musical experiments as the starting point, they examine the modernist consciousness, which evolved from the 16th-century concept of the commedia dell'arte character of Pierrot, the original free-spirited revolutionary of European improvisational theater. Green and Swan are sweeping and occasionally breathtaking as they link the masters of modern literary culture to the tragicomic, grotesque traditions of the Harlequin: in literature, Rilke, Kafka, Brecht, and Weill; in art, Chagall and Rouault; in music, Stravinsky and Ravel; in film, Keaton, Chaplin, and the German expressionist montage of Lang and Wiene. From commedia to Caligari, the theme of this enormously provocative book is revolt and the modern spirit. . . . an intellectual tour de force."-Choice

The triumph of Pierrot: The commedia dell'arte and the modern imagination

Arts & Photography

Swan, John

Music

Macmillan

The Triumph of Pierrot: The Commedia dell'Arte and the Modern Imagination

Humor & Entertainment

GREEN, MARTIN

Humor

Penn State University Press

Contracts: Cases, notes and materials (Canadian Legal casebook series)

Butterworth & Co. (Canada)

"It is ironic that we librarians debate the place of dangerous and extreme ideas in our corner of the world of communication, when we are so sorely needed as champions of access. This is a time in which the Meese Pornography Commission recommendations are being turned into repressive laws, government secrecy is burgeoning while public access to information is dwindling, and media monopolies...continue to narrow the spectrum of what is deemed 'newsworthy'."--John Swan   "Unless we have a holistic view of intellectual freedom and other values, we are liable not only to charges of racism and other forms of discrimination, but our own professional rhetoric, our own Library Bill of Rights, can be turned against us."--Noel Peattie.

The Freedom to Lie: A Debate about Democracy

Reference

McFarland

The Freedom to Lie: A Debate About Democracy

Peattie, Noel

McFarland Publishing

On an ancient planet within our galaxy, a dark and fearsome terror has awoken from its long slumber. Its task is to work quietly from the unseen, spreading dissent through the vulnerable territories of the free races; weakening them for its master. By a chance meeting, it comes across a young girl in the swampy and mist choked lands of Endmoor. Her name is Mim, and the pairing of her platinum hair and violet eyes has not been seen since the Great War 1,000 years earlier; and has attracted unwanted attention. Knowing it hunts her, Mim flees and starts on a journey that takes her far across the Great Isle of Aldaya; the only landmass that now sits above the waves. Unbeknownst to her, she is the key to unraveling the darkness that is falling over the Great Isle; an emptiness that threatens to swallow not only Aldaya, but the Sphere as well, and all its futures to come.

In Your Dreams: The Aldaya Series

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Fantasy

John Swan

Expanding on the information included in the manufacturer's official flight manual, which is compiled in strictly controlled test conditions, this guide details the performance and handling characteristics and limitations of the popular Robinson R22 helicopter in real-world flight conditions. It includes specialized preflight checklists, listing of R22 manufacturer safety notices, and preflight planning conversion tables providing pilots with invaluable information about what to expect when flying an R22 and how to operate one safely in a wide variety of flight situations.

Robinson R22: A Pilot's Guide

Engineering & Transportation

Transportation

Aviation Supplies and Academics, Inc.

Blame it on the neighbours: they're the ones that introduced ex-cop John Swan to Meg, a classic femme fatale. Before long Meg's made sure Swan has forgotten all about his recently deceased wife ... But what does Meg want with a guy like Swan? Is it anything to do with the possibility she's murdered her last husband?

Sap: A Mystery

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

Insomniac Pr

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Books by Swan, John