This is a scholarly account of the history of the Bear as a cultural and religious symbol. Pastoureau is a distinguished French historian who specializes in the history of colors and in the symbolism of animals. Here, he begins with the story of the bear as the most ferocious, most feared, most revered animal in antiquity, and not coincidentally the animal that most resembled a human. From ancient Greece to medieval Europe he finds evidence of bear "cults" and of the pervasive symbolism of the bear's power (the name "Arthur," as in King Arthur, comes from an old word for bear, as does the name Beowulf). But in the 12th century the Catholic Church saw bear-worship as a rival to Christianity and embarked on a centuries-long compaign to degrade the bear as a symbol. Gradually he becomes a figure of ridicule in circuses, in traveling shows, in toys, and he is replaced by the lion as the king of beasts.
The oldest discovered statue, fashioned some fifteen to twenty thousand years ago, is of a bear. The lion was not always king. From antiquity to the Middle Ages, the bear's centrality in cults and mythologies left traces in European languages, literatures, and legends from the Slavic East to Celtic Britain. Historian Michel Pastoureau considers how this once venerated creature was deposed by the advent of Christianity and continued to sink lower in the symbolic bestiary before rising again in Pyrrhic triumph as a popular toy.
The early Church was threatened by pagan legends of the bear's power, among them a…
Although he is a psychologist, Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in Economics for this book. It's a long, dense study of how we make mistakes in thinking about . . . about just about anything. He calls our rapid, intuitive, emotional thinking System One, our slower, careful thinking System Two. There is a place in his world for System One, for intuition. But it leads us astray so often! A basketball scout sees a physical resemblance between a possible recruit and Michael Jordan. He's misled by the resemblance and thinks (System One) the recruit is likely to be an outstanding player----though there is no real logic to this; it's the fallacy of resemblance. Or his famous "Linda is a bank teller" formulation, which demonstrates another fallacy that pervades our rapid thinking. Economists used to talk of "The Rational Man" is describing economic decisions. As Kahneman shows, that's System One talking. There is no "Rational Man."
The phenomenal international bestseller - 2 million copies sold - that will change the way you make decisions
'A lifetime's worth of wisdom' Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics 'There have been many good books on human rationality and irrationality, but only one masterpiece. That masterpiece is Thinking, Fast and Slow' Financial Times
Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast,…
I have read the Iliad in other translations. Until now, I thought the standard to beat was the one by Richmond Lattimore. But Robert Fagles's version is far and away the best translation I've ever encountered. Fagles has avoided making Homer sound like a Victorian sage or a twenty-first century hipster---he has given him a distinctive voice, not quite modern. And, almost as important, he has avoided making Homer sound like a lyric poet, which he is most certainly not. The battle scenes are as direct, gruesome, and matter-of-fact as they are in the original text. His Achilles comes through as a great warrior and petty human being, and his rage is terrifying, though in the end (as they always do) the gods laugh at him. His Paris is indeed the sniveler that Home meant him to be. His Hector is almost noble, or as close to it as people get. The whole great panorama of the poem is here. I knew the story, I knew the text, yet I read Fagles's book at a gallop. A ninth century BC page turner.
One of the greatest epics in Western literature, THE ILIAD recounts the story of the Trojan wars. This timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves to its tragic conclusion. In his introduction, Bernard Knox observes that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it co-exists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.
An historical thriller, set in Paris in 1926. Toby Keats is a wise-cracking reporter for the old Chicago Tribune and a veteran of the tunnel wars in World War I. Elsie Short works for Thomas Edison in Europe, searching for realistic dolls that walk and talk that Edison can improve and sell at home. But she runs across evidence of the famous (and long missing) 18th-century automate, "Vaucanson's duck," which would her fortune if she could find it. Or if Toby Keats didn't stumble across it first. The result is a fascinating trip into the world of automates, mechanical people, and one very sinister German doll-maker. Paris in the twenties, romance, and a bit of comedy. Publishers Weekly said "Fans of 'The Maltese Falcon' will be delighted.
