Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Throughout the East, writing is held to be a gift from the gods, and the divinely inspired letters and characters are objects of the highest veneration. The religious significance of calligraphy has thus led to a unique development of the art of brush and ink in Japan, China, India, and Tibet. This beautifully illustrated book covers such topics as the history and spirit of Eastern calligraphy, the art of copying religious texts, the biographies of important Zen calligraphers, and practical instructions on materials and techniques for the contemporary student. No knowledge of the languages discussed is required for the reader to appreciate the study of this ancient practice.
John Stevens lived in Japan for thirty-five years, where he was a professor of Buddhist studies at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai. Stevens is a widely respected translator, an ordained Buddhist priest, a curator of several major exhibitions of Zen art, and an aikido instructor. He has authored over thirty books and is one of the foremost Western experts on Aikido, holding a ranking of 7th dan Aikikai. Stevens has also studied calligraphy for decades, authoring this classic Sacred Calligraphy of the East. Other John Stevens titles that are likely to be of interest include The Philosophy of Aikido, Extraordinary Zen Masters, and The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei.
Readers interested in related titles from John Stevens will also want to see: Abundant Peace (ISBN: 1626543232), Aikido: The Way of Harmony (ISBN: 1626543275), Secrets of Aikido (ISBN: 1626543259), The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei (ISBN: 1626549958), The Philosophy of Aikido (ISBN: 1626549931), Extraordinary Zen Masters (ISBN: 1626549923).
Synopsis
In this fascinating book, Sander L. Gilman traces the history of how sexuality has been represented in Western civilization since the advent of Christianity. In so doing, he shows how these cultures define themselves and are shaped by their concepts of beauty and ugliness, masculinity and femininity, health and sickness, the sacred and profane. Gilman demonstrates how such concepts are elements in the greater tapestry of Western culture, through which run threads that have remained unbroken for nearly two millennia.
With the help of over three-hundred and twenty pictorial representations produced throughout the ages (most of them unavailable elsewhere), he provides a thorough, comparative look at the foundations and mechanisms of Western sexual constructs and their impact on every aspect of life. From the Middle Ages through current myth-making about AIDS, he draws on materials from medicine, anatomy, pathology, art, and literature to show how ideas of the body and the sexual are and have been portrayed.
Sexuality: An Illustrated History is a fascinating-and sometimes disturbing-contribution to the current discourse on sexual ethics and politics. It helps in defining sexuality and the understanding and portrayal of the body as a social and historical phenomenon while exposing the sources and mechanisms of cultures' most deep-seated prejudices.
Sander L. Gilman, PhD, is a distinguished professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University. A respected educator, he has served as Old Dominion Visiting Professor of English at Princeton; Northrop Frye Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto; Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at Tulane University; Goldwin Smith Professor of Humane Studies at Cornell University; and Professor of the History of Psychiatry at Cornell Medical College. He has written and edited several books including The Face of Madness and Seeing the Insane.
Readers interested in related titles from Sander L. Gilman will also want to see: Face of Madness: Hugh W. Diamond and the Origin of Psychiatric Photography (ISBN: 1626549230), Seeing the Insane (ISBN: 162654915X ).