Do You Need Closure?
When it comes to the end of a relationship, the loss of a loved one, or even a national tragedy, we are often told we need “closure.” But while many people do find closure for their pain and grief, many more feel closure does not exist. They believe the notion only promises false hopes. Sociologist Nancy Berns explores these ideas and their ramifications in her timely book, Closure.
Order your copy at…
What Others Are Saying
It is my great hope that Nancy Bernsʼ wonderful book Closure will finally bring “closure” to that most misused and unhelpful term. Berns offers a penetrating analysis that moves beyond the ways that the term is actually destructive to grieving individuals to a consideration of the formidable forces that keep such a notion in the forefront of our discourse on loss. This book is a “must read” for any one interested in the grieving process.
Kenneth J. Doka, Ph.D.
Closure examines how contemporary Americans—with their inalienable right to pursue happiness—have created a new emotion to help themselves deal with disappointment, loss, and grief. The need to find closure can justify forgetting or remembering, moving on or getting even, to say nothing of making a buck. Sprinkled with examples that range from hilarious to heartbreaking, this book explores closureʼs many meanings and uses.
Joel Best, Ph.D.


Every town needs a central source of information but these tend to be centralised over here for this sort of information, and centralised over there for that sort of information, even if the information exists at all! In other words there is much running around, or telephoning or letter writing required to find out what you want to know. The Internet can change all that. By centralising the information at one point, and by using the Internet's powerful ability to link with other information areas, anyone, anywhere can access everything they want to know from one computer screen.
Hence ThamesWeb Windsor! An ever growing source of information 24 hours a day about Windsor.
Whilst it will take us some time to include all the stories and information that we want to include, we hope you will like the start we have made and even become a contributor in whatever area that interests you. How about Local Events? Perhaps Stories from the Past. Contribute some reminiscences about the town that you think should be recorded permanently. There are very many subject areas for which we would welcome News and Views - Sport maybe!
We particularly welcome photographs that relate to the History and Development of the town. We have already featured the Floods of 1947, The Great Freeze of 1963 and many other subjects and significant events relating to our town. Do please have a scout around and see what you can find.
Remember, unlike books and newspapers, the stories we feature will be permanently available to everyone, we hope, for ever. Equally, the printed word is 'cast in stone', so to speak, so mistakes cannot be rectified. But with ThamesWeb Windsor, if you spot a mistake or know of details that have changed, we can change it too, so accuracy should always be very high!
In short, our plan is that over the years the site will grow into a major source of reference and information about Windsor. We hope you find it of value.
We have prepared additional articles about our plans in our business section.


This evening, 18 October 2011, Nick Kochan and Robin Goodyear are launching their new book on corruption. The Foreword was written by Richard Alderman, the Director if the Serious Fraud Office. Our own partner Vivian Robinson QC, the former first General Counsel to the Serious Fraud Office is acknowledged by the authors as having assisted them with the book.
A significant number of journalists and other professionals working within the anti-corruption sphere have been invited to the book launch. Both Vivian Robinson QC and Richard Alderman will be speaking at the event.
Others including Barry Vitou is acknowledged for his work on director’s liability under the UK Bribery Act. Barry and Richard Kovalevsky QC blog frequently on their site www.thebriberyact.com, in association with Pinsent Masons on corruption issues.
From the inside cover:
“Concerns about corruption have advanced rapidly up the list of priorities for companies throughout the world. Today, firms of every size are under particular pressure as the recently passed UK Bribery Act places some onerous obligations on their directors and employees.
Now, for the first time, corporate strategy and responsibility have been analysed in the context of the new law as well as that of previous statutes and the law of other countries. This book provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the new legal and political landscape and examines future issues in compliance and enforcement.
Corruption: The New Corporate Challenge surveys the route of corruption, outlines worldwide efforts to combat the problem, and explores enforcement and policy choices for businesses faced with a new international environment that is ever more hostile to corruption.
Numerous case studies and practical compliance tips provide businesses with the knowledge needed to operate in high risk industrial sectors in geographical regions. The authors have conducted extensive interviews with senior figures in law enforcement, academics and lawyers to explore likely developments in the law, and predict how it might be enforced.
This book is essential reading not only for businesses that seek advice on tailoring compliance regimes but also for those wanting a deep context to the global crack down by governments and the courts on corruption. This is a subject that no corporation can avoid.
The strongest response to the new challenge is for a company to revaluate its ethical standards and to impress their standards upon its employees and associates. Failure to do so could be very costly indeed”.
Having recently been travelling around Sweden and America with Vivian Robinson speaking at various seminars to clients and contacts of the firm, I have only just started reading this new book, but what I have read so far is very good and I highly recommend it.


In Volume I of the Cyber Preppers Guide, ThreatTrack Security explored the major trends impacting cybersecurity. Created to help CISOs, CIOs and other security leaders build awareness in their organization about today’s increasingly sophisticated threat landscape, the Cyber Preppers Guide included hard data and industry research to make the argument that it was time to get serious about cybersecurity.
Now, the stakes are even higher. The Cyber Preppers Guide Volume 2 delves deeper into the security challenges every enterprise faces and offers best practices for frontline cyber defenders.
From clearly defining Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) to breaking the data breach cycle, the Cyber Preppers Guide Volume 2 offers even more advice and insight for cybersecurity professionals.
Download a free copy of the Cyber Preppers Guide Volume 2 here.
Make sure you also get your copy of the original Cyber Preppers Guide here.


By Catherine Ferraro
When Mason historian Suzanne Smith was in graduate school at Yale University, she took a course in 20th-century African American culture and decided to write a seminar paper on Motown Records. As a native of Detroit, she had a special interest in the record label and how it affected her hometown. “I sometimes jokingly call it the seminar paper that would not die,” she says.
Smith’s professor told her that the paper had the potential to become a dissertation. Smith rose to the challenge and wrote the dissertation, graduating from Yale with a PhD in American studies in 1996. That work, which examined Motown and its relationship to the black community of Detroit and the civil rights movement, became her first book, Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit (Harvard University Press, 2000). The book received a third place Ralph Gleason Award, a prize sponsored by New York University, Broadcast Music Inc., and Rolling Stone magazine that recognizes achievement in critical writing about popular music.
To this day, the decision to write about Motown still influences Smith’s work. It was while researching the history of Motown that Smith learned how musicians would often steal away from the recording studio to a funeral home across the street to relax and unwind among the caskets. This fact intrigued her.
In her most recent book, Smith moves beyond Detroit and the music business to explore the role of African American funeral directors and their participation in the civil rights movement nationally.
During her research for To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death (Harvard University Press, 2010), Smith uncovered the rich history of African American funeral directors dating from colonial times to the present. Often revered in their communities for their ability to honor the dead, funeral directors were among the few economically independent African Americans who did not rely on white society.According to Smith, to understand the importance of the African American funeral, one must look back to the burial and mourning practices in West and Central Africa during the slave trade. Often described as a “homegoing,” slaves believed that death freed the deceased from a life of oppression and that the person’s soul would return to Africa.
“The slave funeral was a powerful refuge where slaves bonded together as family and community, and it helped to lay the groundwork for African American communal life,” says Smith, who is an associate professor of history at Mason. “Funeral directors began to have a very important role in African American culture because they were the individuals who oversaw death and burial.”
Throughout the 19th century, funeral directors and the funeral industry underwent a significant change as industrial America emerged. Funeral directors, instead of family members, were tasked with coming directly to the house and preparing the body for viewing and making other arrangements. The rise of the modern funeral industry, according to Smith, occurred during the Civil War when embalming became popular and necessary to preserve the bodies of soldiers during shipment home for proper burials.
Although the funeral industry was growing at a rapid pace, African American funeral directors and other business leaders realized that, with the rise of Jim Crow segregation laws in the 1880s, the key to their success lay in securing the African American market for themselves. This loyalty, however, was not always guaranteed, and funeral directors had to actively promote the cultural and economic benefits of supporting African American businesses.
When funeral homes began popping up in the 1920s, the funeral industry and directors took on a more active role in the civil rights movement. Smith found that many funeral homes became sanctuaries and meeting spaces in communities where Jim Crow restrictions were harsh.
Putting themselves at considerable personal and financial risk, many funeral directors supported causes such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, the result of Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. They also aided civil rights leaders and activists by providing inconspicuous transportation to and from rallies and other demonstrations.
“The civil rights movement provided a unique opportunity for African American funeral directors to not only honor the fallen dead, but also show their support by aiding civil rights leaders and activists,” says Smith. “However, this created quite an ambiguous role for funeral directors who were trying to stand up for their race by fighting discrimination at the same time as they were fighting for job security by encouraging individuals to support African American businesses.”
Smith has been traveling around the country to talk about her research and the book. She has been on such radio programs as NPR’s Morning Edition and the Kojo Nnamdi Show discussing African American funeral traditions. She has even given talks at funeral director conventions. Although she is still publishing and speaking about the African American funeral industry, she is already at work on a new project.
Smith’s new book, tentatively titled “Jesus Was a Capitalist,” will examine the role of entrepreneurship in the modern African American religious tradition, including the business careers of charismatic black televangelists such as Reverend Ike, as well as the rise of black mega churches.
“I think of my work as studying African American entrepreneurship through a cultural lens, using music, death, and now religion.”
Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress.


Updated: Nov 22, 2019
Introducing author Carol Johnson
We are pleased to introduce you to Carol Johnson. She is a wife and mother of six children although today she only has one living son. She is the author of “The Family Portrait." The Family Portrait is her complete story of struggle to have a family. While the majority of women don’t have difficulty conceiving and delivering a baby, that was not the case for Carol.
Carol and her husband married young. They both had very normal lives up until then. However, soon after saying their “I do’s,” her husband became deathly ill. That was their first challenge in life. As horrible as that was, the path that was ahead of them could not be imagined.
What Carol and her husband endured to have their son is depicted in "The Family Portrait."
Everyone knows someone who has lost a baby. Maybe you have lost a baby. When you have a baby, that baby changes your life forever. When you lose a baby, you lose your identity. Are you still a mom or a dad without your baby? This is a story of perseverance. A story everyone should read. https://www.carolmayjohnson.com


Make 2020 the year for professional development with ITECA webinars and events.
Improve your personal and business skills with a wide range of topics relevant to all registered training organisations (RTOs), while ensuring you remain compliant with RTO registration requirements.
Please visit the webinar links for a full description and outcomes and to register. If you would like to access the ITECA Webinar Library, please contact email@example.com or call 03 9412 5900 while our library site is undergoing maintenance.
ITECA 2020 PD Webinar Catalogue ―
Members and non-members can now access a wide range of resources and PD's available through the ITECA 2020 PD Catalogue Request Form.
To obtain the ITECA 2020 PD Catalogue Request Form, please contact ITECA at firstname.lastname@example.org.


Intractable Rare Dis Res. 2012;1(1):10-12. (DOI: 10.5582/irdr.2012.v1.1.10)
Rare diseases research in China: Opportunities, challenges, and solutions.
Han JX, Cui YZ, Zhou XY
Rare diseases research in China can be traced back to the 1980s. Currently, control of rare diseases has become a national concern. This paper describes developments concerning rare diseases in China with regard to epidemiology, case registration, basic research, establishment of medical networks, and orphan drugs. A national program for rare disease research is being implemented in China to promote international cooperation in the future.


Advanced search coming soon! Good news! Advanced searching is in the works! I will be rolling out the advanced options one-by-one so that they can be used immediately, so check back soon!
The Index Reverse is like the index, but this takes English words to help you find the Latin equivalent. Since more than one Latin word may have the same meanings in English, clicking on an English word will take you to all the Latin words in which that word is a definition.
Latin-English dictionary website featuring grammar resources and study aids like flash cards and an easy-to-read grammar section.
Welcome to the Latin Dictionary! Latin is a base language by which the Romance languages (including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and …
Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid. Type in the form of the word that you would expect to find in a dictionary or a truncated form of the word (e.g., stem only).
Latin English dictionary, online translation, grammar, texts and literature
A simple and powerful online Latin dictionary that can understand Latin inflections.
Tools. Look up highlighed word; URL for this entry: Recently viewed words:
Latin definition, an Italic language spoken in ancient Rome, fixed in the 2nd or 1st century b.c., and established as the official language of the Roman Empire. See more.
Lewis & Short A Latin Dictionary (1879) Logeion. For most purposes, this separate database for a single dictionary should now be obsolete. You can consult all these resources together in Logeion, which contains copies of the dictionaries that are more frequently updated, and more besides: the DGE and DuCange accompany LSJ and …


Ganit Kaise Padhe, Mathematics ki tayari kaise ki jaye,Tips for Maths study, Studyplan for maths…READ MORE
Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan was one of India’s greatest mathematical genius, was born at Erode in Tamil Nadu on 22 December, 1887.
His love of mathematics was unusual. Numbers seemed to draw him by a strange magnetism. In school itself at the age of thirteen, he came across a book called Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure Mathemetic by G. S. Carr. Though outdated, this book introduced him to the world of mathematics. He started working and developing his own ideas in mathematics. He used to write his ideas and results and make notes on his findings…READ MORE
Mathematics & Astronomy in Ancient India: Science and Mathematics were highly developed during the ancient period in India. Ancient Indians contributed immensely to the knowledge in Mathematics as well as various branches of Science. Many theories of modern day mathematics were actually known to ancient Indians. However, since ancient Indian mathematicians were not as good […]READ MORE
A brief info of Mathematics, its uses and perceptions of Great Persons about mathematics: Mathematics is a branch of Science that deals with Numbers, Quantity,Space,Structure & Change. Mathematics develops Objectivity and aptitude. A person starts thinking logically in real life with the knowledge of mathematics. There is great breadth, depth, complexity and beauty in the discipline […]READ MORE


Just in time for summer reading these should help you brush up on your game and get inspired to play and in the right mindset for winning. Great gift ideas here as well.
String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis A new release by our favorite trusted source....The Library of America. David Foster Wallace is "The best mind of his generation and the best tennis-writer of all time", (NY Times). An insider authority and irrepressible fan he writes profiles of Roger Federer, and famous essays on tennis. This makes a perfect summer guest gift!
- Privet Lives: Perry Guillot This poetic book is the perfect coffee table book for the Hamptons Home. It has beautiful illustrations worthy of leaving it open to a spread regaling the statuesque designs that privet can be molded into. It is also humorous: "The manic depressive Hedge-Long weekends filled with horrendous traffic, uninvited guests, and rainy weather soon bring down this fellow's high expectations of having a little quiet time relaxing in the country."
The Stylish Life of Tennis: TeNeues Explore the sophisticated, glamorous world surrounding tennis. From legendary players and modern stars to Hollywood onlookers and royalty, witness the characters who define tennis culture. Eye-catching vintage and contemporary images illustrate luxurious locales, sporty outfits, and much more. This book inspired our entire Hedge Collection!
Caddy For Life: John Feinstein This isn’t a golf story. It’s a love story. This book chronicles the life, and untimely death, of Bruce Edwards and his 30-year personal and professional relationship with Hall of Fame golfer Tom Watson. Edwards’ story is told by family, friends and medical professionals, who give insight into the love he had for his profession as well as the awful disease that took his life. “It’s going to be clear what a wonderful, passionate person Bruce was, and still is, in my mind. What he gave to life is more than he ever got,” said Watson. This is the perfect father’s day gift!
The Art of Lawn Tennis, by Bill Tilden Although it was first published over 90 years ago, this book is full of incredible insights and instruction that are useful today. Bill Tilden was a World No. 1 for seven years and won 14 Majors, including 10 Grand Slams. In 1920, he became the first American to win a Wimbledon singles title. Bill's insights and instruction on basic strokes, fundamental skills and techniques are useful and on-point. Get it. It’s good.


|31 FREE Funny Short bedtime Stories
This is a GREAT kids story book for Families to interact with their
children before bedtime and Kids love it!
|My Very Easy Method
e e a a
r n r r
c u t s
u s h
Just Set up Nine Planets Son
u a r e l u
p t a p u n
i u n t t
t r u u o
e n s n
This free story for kids is an easy way for Children to remember the
names of planets in our solar system
The colors in this kids story are Planet correct
Share this funny online story book with others and keep it free for kids!
|The Little Red
Bedtime Story Books for children online
PO BOX 1744
Cave Junction, 97523
© 2007 to present
All Rights Reserved
|Once upon our time,
There is a Moon, who has a Sun, with the Mother Earth, and
a bunch of other little planets who's names are Pluto, Neptune,
Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and little Mercury, who
all exist with the Stars, within the darkness of the light.
|Now Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn,
Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, never
stray far from mother Earths side, and
together they play around the oldest Sun!
Every once in a while, just for fun, mother
Earth, and the Moon, will play a game of
hide and seek, they call eclipse, and take
turns hiding each other from the Sun and all
the Stars twinkle with de-lite, some shooting
out of sight!


Handbook of BereavementTheory, Research, and Intervention
Autor: Hrsg.: Margaret S. Stroebe, Robert O. Hansson, Wolfgang Stroebe
Verlag: Cambridge University Press
Erscheinungsdatum: März 1993
The Handbook of Bereavement constitutes a comprehensive review of scientific knowledge on the consequences of losing a loved person through death. The volume brings into focus a wide variety of theoretical approaches that have been incorporated into bereavement research. Physiological changes associated with the mental and physical consequences of bereavement, where significant advances in knowledge have been made, are surveyed. The phenomenology of grief, distinctions between normal and pathological grief, as well as measurement and assessment techniques, are given detailed coverage. Chapters document not only detrimental effects to mental and physical health, but a much broader range of consequences associated with loss. The Handbook of Bereavement brings together an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars to report research and explore key issues on the topic of bereavement. Focusing on methodologically sound, theoretically oriented, and empirically derived knowledge, the authors provide a structured framework for researchers and practitioners.


Saturday, November 21, 2009
The History Channel just finished premiering the series, WWII in HD. This series features rare footage from WWII shot in color. The footage was found during a two-year search through archives and basements around the world. WWII has always fascinated me. I'd describe myself as a huge WWII buff. Because of this, I've seen and read a lot on WWII. I wondered if WWII in HD would be all that different from the many other WWII documentaries. Let me tell you, it is. I was awestruck while watching it, literally gasping at some parts. It's amazing how different it is to see something in color. Explosions, the Pacific Ocean, Hitler - they all look so different. It was like seeing some things for the first time. The color footage was awesome, but so are the stories the series covers. The war is told through the eyes of 12 different Americans, including a female Army nurse, an African American Tuskegee Airman, a Jewish Austrian who immigrated just before the war, and a Japanese American soldier. If you're even slightly interested in WWII, this is the series to see.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Students: "What? They couldn't be alone? What about making out?"
Me: "That would have been considered inappropriate. In fact, it would have been fairly scandalous."
Students: "So, not even kissing?"
Me: "No. Many people wouldn't have kissed until their wedding day."
Student: "So, when did french kissing start? Did it start in France?"
At this point I was dying. The students were so sincere in their questions and I was trying to be good with my answers, but I lost it and burst out laughing. Luckily, the bell was about to ring and I put an end to the inquiry by having them clean up.
Friday, November 06, 2009
So, I finally finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It has been one of the hardest books to read. I had a hard time getting use to the narration (the narrator is Death) and some parts were so very tedious. Despite these difficulties, this book moved me more than any other work of fiction. I know, it's weird. I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book, yet I loved it. Again, a weird contradiction. So, why did I love The Book Thief? The book talks about the power of words - I love that. Unfortunately, Zusak isn't very consistent with his own words - some sections of The Book Thief are masterfully written, while others are a rambling mess. Here are a few I consider masterful:
She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain. (page 80)
People may tell you that Nazi Germany was built on anti-Semitism, a somewhat overzealous leader, and a nation of hate-fed bigots, but it would all have come to nothing had the Germans not loved one particular activity: To burn. The Germans loved to burn things. Shops, synagogues, Reichstags, houses, personal items, slain people, and of course, books. (page 84)
There was once a strange, small man. He decided three important details about his life: 1. He would part his hair from the opposite side to everyone else. 2. He would make himself a small, strange mustache. 3. He would one day rule the world. The young man wandered around for quite some time, thinking, planning, and figuring out exactly how to make the world his. Then one day, out of nowhere, it struck him - the perfect plan. He'd seen a mother walking with her child. At one point, she admonished the small boy, until finally he began to cry. Within a few minutes, she spoke very softly to him, after which he was soothed and even smiled. The young man rushed to the woman and embraced her. "Words!" he grinned. "What?" But there was no reply. He was already gone. Yes, the Fuhrer decided that he would rule the world with words. "I will never fire a gun," he devised. "I will not have to." His first plan of attack was to plant the words in as many areas of his homeland as possible. He planted them day and night, and cultivated them. He watched them grow, until eventually, great forests of words had risen through Germany . . . . It was a nation of farmed thoughts. (page 445)
She tore a page from the book and ripped it in half. Then a chapter. Soon, there was nothing but scraps of words littered between her legs and all around her. The words. Why did they have to exist? Without them there wouldn't be any of this. Without words, the Fuhrer was nothing. (page 521)


by Thomas Hardy
This was the book chosen for me to read for the Classics Club Spin #28, and I really enjoyed it. I read all the best-known Thomas Hardy books in my teens, and it is many years since I have reread any, so I was delighted to find this one at a charity shop, and to add it to my Classics Club list. I have managed to read quite a few from my list this year, and this book represents #32 of the 50 I have pledged to read before August 2024, so I am well on track!
The Trumpet-Major is one of several main characters in this novel, set during the Napoleonic period, when the locals of a small coastal village are worried about invasion. The story revolves around a young woman who is the love interest of 3 young men, only one of whom actually deserves her, but of course she falls for the charmer. One of the men is completely odious, but the girl’s mother prefers him because he is likely to come into money, whereas the other two (brothers) are poor miller’s sons. As always with classics, it is interesting (though depressing) to read about social behaviour that was apparently acceptable at that time – in this case stalking and assault that the man apparently thought would win him the love of a girl who was clearly unwilling.
The thing that I really enjoyed about this book was the humour – Hardy is such a clever writer and his descriptions of the characters and their behaviours were so relatable to people we might know today, despite the very different social climate, and I often found myself smiling. Hardy is not known for his humour – in fact I think of his books as generally depressing – so I am keen to reread some as I am sure I was not as aware of the quality of his writing when I read the books many years ago. This was a good find.
2 thoughts on “The Trumpet-Major”
I haven’t heard of this one by Hardy, so this was a fun review to read. I loved his books in high school and have reread some of them. I’m going to put this one on my TBR list.
I’ve enjoyed several of Hardy’s novels but haven’t come across this one. It sounds like a good one! Glad the Spin spun you a winner!


The latest eBook from The Sustainable Human, to be released soon...
The Art of Graceful Transition: The Process, Purpose and Practice Series.
This compilation of essays is dedicated to the understanding and practice of: “The Art of Graceful Transition.” It is divided into 3 essay segments that build a basic framework of understanding. It is intended to spark a remembrance of the art of transition and bring clarity to this process.
The construct of these essays is designed to develop and unfold information in a multilayered format. "It is not my intent to prove or convince, but rather to share this information for your own consideration and your own individual discernment. My role and my purpose is to 'plant new seeds - in a new way' and to hold the highest levels of awareness and information available to assist in the understanding and expansion of the New Human Consciousness.” -Deborah Sorkin
The Sustainable Human 101- Basic Life Support- ABCs is now published and available on iTunes – iBooks, free to download as our gift to you. This book is designed to be a foundational primer, basic toolkit and prelude to a forthcoming enhanced A-V, e-book series. Click the "Get Free eBook Here" button to go to iTune and download the iBook.
If your iOS is not compatible with the downloadable format, email us and we will send a PDF format. Request a PDF: firstname.lastname@example.org
We look forward to our time together.
Wishing You - Love, Peace Joy and Amazing Adventures….
The Sustainable Human 101 Team


Narrative and Composition Analysis
In Greek and Roman mythology, the satyr Marsyas challenged the god Apollo to a music competition to be judged by the Muses. (1)The goddess Athena had created a flute but thrown it away; Marsyas found it and had become so skilled with it that he thought he was more skilled than a god. (2) Apollo accepted the challenge and played the lyre. The contest stipulated that the winner could do whatever he wanted to do with the loser. (3)
Initially, Apollo and Marsyas were evenly matched in the contest, but then Apollo played his lyre backwards, something Marsyas could not do with his flute. (4) Thus Marsyas lost the contest, and Apollo chose to flay him alive. Apollo tied Marsyas to a tree and flayed him; Marsyas’ blood, or the tears of his fellow satyrs and woodland companions, formed the river Marsyas. (5) During his torture Marsyas expressed his regret: “Aah! I repent […]Aah! Music is not worth this pain!” (6)
The story illustrates the consequences of a mortal attempting to best a god. Apollo unmercifully punished Marsyas’ pride despite winning the contest through ingenuity rather than musical ability. Marsyas’ bound, skinned corpse served as a warning to those who might think they could challenge a god; in the end, the gods will triumph.
Balthasar Permoser’s Bust of Marsyas distills the narrative of Marsyas and Apollo’s musical competition into one moment: the flaying of Marsyas. Marsyas’ feelings during the flaying represent the moral of the story and the price one pays after challenging the gods. Permoser further concentrates the narrative by sculpting only Marsyas’ head. He channels all of Marsyas’ emotions of anguish, defeat, and despair into the bust. Permoser does not include the gore of the flaying or other characters, which would distract from the raw emotion he conveys through Marsyas’ expression.
Without knowing the story of Marsyas, his specific punishment is not evident. His face conveys severe pain, but does not exhibit any physical signs of maltreatment, thus leaving the punishment to the imagination. Permoser relies on an understanding of the narrative on the part of the viewer which allows him to omit extraneous details and focus on a singular, concentrated element of the narrative which conveys the whole. In contrast, a cursory understanding of Greek mythology will suffice to understand Melchior Meier’s 1582 Apollo, Marsyas, and the Judgment of Midas or Jusepe de Ribera’s 1637 Apollo Flaying Marsyas. Both pieces depict the flaying of Marsyas, but do so with the inclusion of other characters, notably Apollo, and a woodland background. These pieces give Marsyas’ punishment context in a way that Peromoser’s bust does not. This comes, however, at the cost of diverting attention away to other aspects of the pieces from the pivotal moment: Marsyas’ punishment.
Marsyas’ curly, animated hair, the visible tendons in his angled neck and his open, screaming mouth convey a sense of energy and struggle in Permoser's bust. These elements combine to show the feeling of the moment and an understanding of Marsyas’ experience. From the instance captured in sculpture, the events leading up to and following it can be extrapolated with the story in mind. Rather than attempt to convey the whole narrative, Permoser captures its climax.
Permoser’s bust communicates the narrative differently than Meier or Ribera’s work due to the three-dimensionality of the medium. Marsyas takes up space; passing to the side of one of the two-dimensional pieces ends its viewing, but a walk around Permoser’s bust only lends to the experience. Different angles highlight Marsyas’ struggle against his inevitable punishment and death; the bust brings the narrative into the real world in a way that two-dimensional representations cannot. Viewing the work from different angles adds to its understanding, a dimension that painting lacks.
The lack of setting, costume, or other figures lends the bust a sense of timelessness. There is no clothing or background to date it; only an ageless expression that is relatable regardless of time period. Both Meier Ribera’s works convey the narrative more fully by depicting Apollo flaying Marsyas in front of other characters, but at the expense of drawing attention away from Marsyas. The bust’s concentration on the emotion of the moment is the only object of focus, whereas the two other works draw attention to other characters. The other works put Marsyas in a particular classical moment, whereas Permoser’s bust is not tied to any particular time period.
By choosing to represent only Marsyas’ bust, Permoser does not take liberties with the narrative itself; instead, he manipulates it by choosing one aspect of the narrative, Marsyas’ bust during the flaying, to represent the narrative as a whole. Meier and Ribera’s works convey a sense of the narrative in its entirety by representing other characters and background. This gives context to the work, but changes its message. Other characters' points of view are apparent in the other works, but Permoser's bust makes Marsyas' punishment the central, representative event in the narrative, rather than focusing on Apollo or other aspects of the narrative. The message of Meier and Ribera’s works are tied closely to the message of the narrative, but by singling out a facet of the narrative Permoser only conveys the experience of one character.
Recognition of the bust as a representation of Marsyas relies on a conception of the face of the satyr. A man's face with horse-like features is the classical image of a satyr. Unless the bust was included in a collection of mythological pieces, Permoser had to rely on a familiarity of Marsyas’ likeness on the part of the audience, or else some accompanying explanatory text.
The bust is life-sized and detailed, lending itself to a close viewing. The intricately carved hair and nuanced facial expression lend themselves to close examination. The unpainted white marble has no decorations to distract from the emotion of the work, in keeping with the other aspects of the piece that lead focus to the facial expression. The bust functions as a display piece that can withstand close scrutiny from the front and sides, although the lower back of the bust remains unfinished; this detail suggests that the bust may have been mounted against a wall.
1. "Marsyas." Grant, M. & Hazel, J. Who's Who in Classical Mythology. 2002.
6. Ovid. Metamorphoses. VI 382-400.
Marsyas. (2002). M. Grant & J. Hazel, Who's who in classical mythology, Routledge. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
"Marsyas". The Classical Tradition, edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Translated by A. S. Kline. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000. http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Ovhome.htm


Someone once said that we buy books because we like to imagine we will one day have the time to read them. That's me to a tee. Every time I go into my Barnes & Noble I see 20 books I'd love to read but know I likely never will. I spend so much time reading magazines and newspapers and the internet that I really only allow myself to read books on plane rides.
So, in two hour bursts, I am currently working my way through Volume Two of Simon Callow's massive three- part biography of Orson Welles, called Hello Americans. It is dense but worth it, much like Scarlett Johansson. I knew quite a bit about Welles' early triumphs with the Mercury Radio Theater and, of course, Citizen Kane, but was really interested in finding out how that brilliant career was derailed so soon after his film debut and reading about the decades of meandering and often unfinished projects afterward. It is a fascinating read about a talented man who was his own worst enemy.
When I am done with Orson I am really looking forward to the new biography of cartoonist Charles Schulz, just out. Authorized by Chucks' estate, some of whom are now complaining that their patriarch is portrayed as too melancholy and not the fun man they knew, it's called Schulz and Peanuts by David Michaelis.
From Publisher's Weekly: "For all the joy Charlie Brown and the gang gave readers over half a century, their creator, Charles Schulz, was a profoundly unhappy man. It's widely known that he hated the name Peanuts, which was foisted on the strip by his syndicate. But Michaelis, given access to family, friends and personal papers, reveals the full extent of Schulz's depression, tracing its origins in his Minnesota childhood, with parents reluctant to encourage his artistic dreams and yearbook editors who scrapped his illustrations without explanation. Nearly 250 Peanuts strips are woven into the biography, demonstrating just how much of his life story Schulz poured into the cartoon. In one sequence, Snoopy's crush on a girl dog is revealed as a barely disguised retelling of the artist's extramarital affair. Michaelis is especially strong in recounting Schulz's artistic development, teasing out the influences on his unique characterization of children. And Michaelis makes plain the full impact of Peanuts' first decades and how much it puzzled and unnerved other cartoonists. This is a fascinating account of an artist who devoted his life to his work in the painful belief that it was all he had."


The LEGO Star Wars A New Hope DK Readers 1 Hardcover Book is the exciting story of the iconic Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope movie, retold for young readers with their favorite LEGO Star Wars minifigures and sets. This Level 1 Reader follows our heroes as they attempt to rescue rebel leader Princess Leia from the evil empire.
Ages 4 and up!
Spans 32 pages.
Book cover may vary
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11/29/1832 Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania to Bronson and Abigail May Alcott.
1840 The Alcott family moves to Concord, Massachussetts. Lousia is educated by her father and his close friends, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
1843 Family moves yet again to an experimental commune, known as the Fruitlands. The project failed and the family returns to Concord, two years later.
1849 Writes Inheritance. Written for young people, it would be almost 150 years before is was published.
1854 Her first book, Flower Fables, is published. It was originally written to amuse Ralph Waldo Emerson`s daughter.
1863 Hospital Sketches is published. This work is about her time as a nurse during the Civil War.
1864 On Picket Duty, and Other Tales published.
1864 The Rose Family: A Fairy Tale is published.
1865 Moods, another book aimed at adults, is published.
1866 Writes A Long Fatal Love Chase, which is rejected by her publisher as too sensational and lost.
1867 Morning-Glories and Other Stories is published.
1868 Writes her best known book, Little Women. This book is partly autobiographical, with Jo March being Louisa. This book stands as one of the most popular children`s books of all time.
1868 Three Proverb Stories is published.
1869 Good Wives published.
1870 Old Fashioned Girl published.
1871 Little Men published.
Approx 1872 Aunt Jo`s Scrap-Bag is published
1873 Work: A Story of Experience is published.
1875 Eight Cousins published.
1875 Beginning Again, Being a Continuation of "Work is published.
1876 Rose in Bloom is published.
1876 Silver Pitchers, and Independence: A Centennial Love Story is published.
1877 Under the Lilacs published.
1877 A Modern Mephistopheles is published.
1879 Becomes the first women to register to vote in a town election.
1880 Jack and Jill: A Village Story is published.
1886 Jo`s Boys published.
1886 Lulu`s Library is published.
1888 A Garland for Girls is published.
03/06/1888 Louisa May Alcott dies, only a few days after her father. She is buried in Concord Massachussetts.
1995 A Long Fatal Love Chase, recently rediscovered, is published for the first time.
1996 The Inheritance is published, almost 150 years after it was written.


WinMM.Net is a .NET style wrapper for the winmm.dll functionality. First release concentrates on audio Recording and Playback and includes multithreaded WaveIn and WaveOut classes.
Also includes plain sound file playback support in the form of the PlaySound API.
Released under the MIT license.
We eventually would like to support all of the functionality of the winmm.dll library in one easy-to-use managed library.
After any issues have been worked out with the audio portion, expect to see a MIDI and a Joystick portion soon.


All Roads Lead to Darwin
I’ve been reading a few books lately that seem to have tendrils and threads woven effortlessly into their texts. One name that keeps cropping up is Darwin.
I am not, you may have guessed, reading books on the Evolution of the Species. That would not exactly be worthy of note. Reading about Darwinism, you say? And Darwin keeps popping up? You don’t say.
It all started with a science book. Well, not the last one. The one before it. Or was it the one before that?
Let’s start at the start, shall we?
At the start of the year I read Oliver Sacks’ Uncle Tungsten. I’m not sure how this led me to the next science book, but there was a lot of adventure and chemistry. He may even have mentioned Darwin. There were many science heroes delivered here, so you never know.
The next book was The Philosophical Breakfast Club, by Laura J. Snyder. There are many, many tales for me to tell from this book. The main thing to say is: read it. It’s leading me in all sorts of wonderful directions. So many amazing men and women of science. I can’t think where to start, so I shan’t. Just go away. Don’t read the rest of what I have to say. Get that book and read it.
In the ‘Breakfast Club’ there is mention of Charles Babbage’s likely influence on Charles Darwin. Darwin is mentioned a few times in this book and it is difficult not to want to read more of him and his works.
I found myself an online copy of Darwin’s Red Notebook and, while I’m looking forward to reading it, I’m first resting up with a little non-science reading. I can’t wait to read his work though. He’s such an eloquent and insightful writer.
So, now I find myself reading a book about writing. The Little Red Writing Book by Mark Treddinick is not a quick read, but it is a hugely satisfying one. It’s not quick, because it asks things of you. I am finding myself with little exercises on every second page. And I’m loving it.
But what else do I find? Charles Darwin. Not for his scientific prowess is he hiding in this book. No, he’s here for his writing style. For his ability to state the complex simply. To make the most difficult ideas understandable and to say it well.
Well, well. Mister Darwin, it appears you wish me to read you.
Who am I to resist?


These devotionals start on March 4, 2020 and ends on April 12, 2020! Are you up for the challenge?
The Forty-Day Devotional Challenge (previously called Forty-Day Impact Challenge) is a devotional series for believers who want to set aside a period of 40 days to press into the Lord and seek His will for their lives. These daily devotionals are to be read over a span of 40 days in order to encourage believers as they dedicate themselves to the Lord through prayer, fasting, and the reading of Scripture in order to discover their kingdom purpose and equip themselves for God’s calling on their lives.
- The Growth and Maturity of an American-Born Chinese (Part 2) - June 8, 2022
- The Growth and Maturity of an American-Born Chinese (Part 1) - May 26, 2022
- Learning to Listen: A Father’s Story of Reading with His Son - April 27, 2022


“Mathematical intrigue in Buffalo” is the title of the latest book written by the architect Gaetano Callocchia and published in late October 2019 by Marna Editrice. The work, based on a true story, tells the adventures of Domenico, a young Abruzzese who leaves his native country in the early 1900s to go to work, like many other Italians, abroad with hope to get a better future, at least from an economic point of view. The highlight of the novel is when Domenico arouses the admiration of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, for whom he works on the construction of Darwin D. Martin House Complex in Buffalo, manages to define and interpret the proportions and the building modules that were the basis of the Wrightian architectural project.
Mathematical intrigue in Buffalo
Author: Gaetano Callocchia
Year of publication: 2019
Editorial brand: Marna Editrice
Code ISBN: 978-88-7203-705-8
Cover price: €16,00


A bit like Arthur Lintgen
, Berkeley Lab physicists Carl Haber and Vitaliy Fadeyev have developed a computer that “reads” records
. IRENE (Image, Reconstruct, Erase, Noise, Etc.)
scans thousands of high-resolution digital images of a record’s surface, maps them out, and then replicates the audio by analyzing the grooves—all without using a needle
. In the process, they can also visually edit out scratches and dust. Since a needle isn’t needed, the record can be warped, moldy, or even broken. Berkeley Labs is hosting some samples on their site
, including “Goodnight Irene” of course. They also have an introductory video
(QT .mov, 32,953 KB).
Since August, Haber and Fadeyev have been helping the Library of Congress recover and preserve the sound from rare or delicate recordings. They have also developed a device to scan 3D recordings like wax cylinders.
As they point out, these processes are no way superior to current restoration methods. Yet they’re much safer than using a needle on fragile mediums like acetates, shellac, wax, cellulose, and metal foil. Instantly having unlimited copies of the digitized audio file is a nice bonus, too.
Sound Reproduction R & D Home Page (Lawrence Berkeley Natl. Lab.)
From the new Library of Congress blog.


Change in Syntax for Accessing NAG Library Functions
From OriginLab Wiki
In versions 7.0 and 7.5, NAG library functions were accessible via a collection of wrapper functions. These functions were then listed in the Global Functions category in the Origin C language reference section.
Since version 8.0 these wrapper functions were discontinued. Thus Origin C code written in 7.0/7.5 that accessed the old wrapper functions will not compile in 8.0 or later versions.
What the upgrade user needs to do is to replace the old wrapper function calls with direct calls to the corresponding NAG functions. The syntax for direct NAG function calls can be found in the NAG PDFs which are optionally installed during Origin installation. The function documentation is provided in the Origin C help files installed with the product. It can also be found on the Origin C wiki.
Code examples on how to access the NAG functions in Origin 8 or later versions can also be found on the Origin C guide. If you have Origin version 8.1 SR1 or higher, you may also refer to the tutorial.


Current projects in Namibia
Today, the library opens every weekday from 1 to 5 pm. Children and teenagers come to find peace and quiet to do their homework or to read one of the 2500 books available. Textbooks are also available, as well as two computers with internet access. The three local coordinators are present to guide them in their research, to read stories to the youngest and to help the older ones with their schoolwork.
On Saturday mornings, the library opens its doors for a playful moment. On program, board games, Lego, puzzles, manual activities or sports, film projection… The children, especially the youngest, are very fond of these three hours
In October 2015, after months of preparation and the support of sponsors (Clay House Project, B2Gold, Ecole et Collège du Sacré Choeur at Thonon les Bains, Millard North High School) Peri Naua opens a neighborhood library, primarily aimed for pupils of primary level to support their reading learning. The success is immediate. More than words, the blog of Sylvain recounts the beginning of this adventure
For a virtual tour of the library, Lily, a French volunteer, and the library’s beneficiaries created this video presentation
Peri-Naua in Namibia
Peri Naua’s actions in France
Current projects in France- Exhibitions and sales, participation in different world markets, in the International Solidarity Week to collect...
The cultural center
Current projects in NamibiaSince the closing of the school in 2020, Peri Naua has been working on the creation of a cultural center in its premises...
Peri Naua Preprimary School Otjiwarongo
Background in NamibiaPreprimary School OtjiwarongoThe fortuitous meeting between Monique, a Frenchwoman living in Namibia, in Otjiwarongo since...
Background in NamibiaOndundu SchoolFrom 2003 to 2010, Peri Naua helped the association Help the Helpless, developer of a kindergarten in Ondundu...
Volunteer, donations, supports, informations… : firstname.lastname@example.org
Visit of our projets in Namibia : email@example.com
As all the persons in the organization are volunteers, they may not reply immediately, due professional reasons. However, we guarantee an answer to each and every mail. Peri Naua’s Team


Date : 01 August ,2020 Time : 1:30am Place : Virtual
Genpro Research was pleased to be part of plenary sessions at ‘Phuse go Virtual’ Hyderabad, the first-ever virtual event conducted by Phuse. Our product manager Mr. Niyas Mohammed presented on the topic ‘Automating Structured Literature Search Using AI & NLP’. The topic discussed how AI & NLP is re-defining the SLR process to accelerate productivity by automating tedious tasks involved in the SLR. The topic was aimed for medical affairs professionals, medical writers and scientific writers who spend hours creating a medical literature summaries and systematic literature review. Would you like to learn more about this event and the topic ‘Automating Structured Literature Search Using AL & NLP’? Feel free to write to us at firstname.lastname@example.org.


Tolley's new guide to flex
Perhaps the key challenge of introducing flexible benefits is knowing where to start and how to best project manage the different elements of the scheme. Tolley's Flexible Benefits: A practical guide offers you a detailed step-by-step guide to the key elements involved in introducing flex.
Organisations are increasingly re-evaluating their employee benefits strategy to ensure that rewards match the needs of a diverse and ageing workforce. A batch of research studies suggest that the number of flexible benefits schemes in the UK has doubled over the last few years and is set to increase over the next decade.
Tolley's Flexible Benefits is a practical, step-by-step guide to the process of introducing flexible benefits in the workplace. The book's author, Philip Hutchinson, head of reward consulting at Jardine Lloyd Thompson Consultants, takes a multi-disciplinary approach and looks at the process from the pensions, HR, employment, tax and IT standpoints.
A practical approach
The book is highly practical in approach with the use of illustrative examples, tips on best practice and frequently asked questions.
This unique guide addresses issues such as:
l What are the best methods of changing to a flexible benefits scheme?
l What benefits should be offered?
l What are the costs to consider?
l What are the tax implications?
l What employment issues should be considered?
l How do you go about communicating the plan?
l What are the key criteria for success?
What you will find in this Tolley guide
This guide provides detailed guidance on the design, development, implementation and administration of a flexible benefits scheme. Across 421 pages, it contains sections on:
Basic principles of a flexible benefits scheme and why organisations introduce flex. The costs, savings and risks associated with flex schemes are also examined, with helpful hints on how to manage them effectively and profitably.
Establishing the feasibility of a flexible benefits scheme, developing a business case for its introduction and setting objectives.
Strategy and design process
Project managing the introduction of flex, setting up the project team, deciding on the timetable and key milestones, agreeing the basic design and framework.
The advantage and disadvantage of including pensions in your flex scheme.
Tax and legal implications
The correct management of tax in a flex plan, plus the effect of mixing different types of benefits and funding options and the main employment law issues.
Company communications required and alternative methods of delivering them. Also includes a review of use of technology and total reward statements
Management and administration
Different options available to manage and administer a flex scheme, including web-based systems. Practical review of outsourcing flex including guidance on selecting and managing outsourcers.
Installation and implementation
A step-by-step guide to installing and implementing a flex scheme with hints on fine-tuning and fault finding.
Key criteria for success
Getting it right with particular emphasis on establishing a clear strategy linked to the overall objectives of the business.
Want to know more?
Title: Tolley's Flexible Benefits: A practical guide, Philip Hutchinson, published by Butterworths Tolley.
Availability: This title can be ordered from Butterworths Tolley customer services department, tel: 0208 662 2000, or email email@example.com
To find out more about Butterworths Tolley publications visit www.butterworths.com
Posted 3 March 2003


I was tagged A SUPER long time ago to do this by the wonderful Jessica @ The Awkward Book Blogger! Be sure to head over and not only check out her answers for this as well but to just check out her amazing blog! Thanks for tagging me Jessica (it only took me a year haha!)
What book is on your nightstand right now?
I’m currently reading my ARC of this book which is about an alien invasion told from the POV of both one of the invading aliens as well as a surviving teenage girl. So far it’s interesting but not really anything special.
What was the last truly great book you read?
It’s a tie since I finished both of these recently and honestly can’t choose between them! “Gentleman’s Guide” was the the funnest book I’ve read in a while full of adventure, good humor, fantastic writing, and the most adorable of romances (which is also M/M!). While “Queens of Geek” was also a ton of fun I mostly really enjoyed how diverse and relatable the characters all were, the geek culture, and how positively many issues were handled!
If you could meet one author (living or dead), who would it be? What would you ask?
I’m sure almost everyone says this but I’ll have to go with J.K. Rowling because while I could hold a good conversation with many of my favorite authors I just feel I’d have so much more to ask her! I’d love to know how she came up with so many different aspects of the Harry Potter universe but mostly I’d have to ask why she chose Harry to end up with Ginny. My inquiring, nosy, Harry x Hermione loving mind would like to know!
What books might we be surprised to see on your shelf?
The Vampire Academy series probably! I’m not really one for any urban fantasy books anymore and I really don’t like a lot of trope-filled YA romances so I think it’s at least slightly surprising to see I have the entire Vampire Academy series. I really loved this series though!
How do you organize your personal library?
I kind of….don’t really. I of course keep series together and books with the same authors together but other than that it’s pretty much a free for all. I keep the books I’m going to read soon along with books I read and loved on the top to middle shelves and the books I’m not going to read for a while or didn’t enjoy as much on the bottom shelves.
What book have you always meant to read but haven’t gotten around to yet?
I’m actually really ashamed of myself for this because while I did read “The Hobbit” and absolutely worship all of the movies I just haven’t read this one yet. The writing is a little harder to click with but I keep telling myself I’m going to read it eventually!
Disappointing, overrated, just not good: what book did you feel you were supposed to like but didn’t?
I usually like YA mystery/thrillers and I thought I’d love this one especially since it drew some inspiration from The Breakfast Club (which I love) but it was not for me at all. I thought it was pretty cliched and didn’t spend enough time building up suspense or thrills either.
What kind of stories are you drawn to?
Fantasy stories for sure, there’s just something about being transported to a completely new and imaginative world! I find that for the most part Fantasy is a genre that is more complex and immersive and the biggest part of why I read is to be immersed in new worlds and stories.
If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?
Harry Potter is just kind of my for fun answer because…it’s Harry Potter but honestly out of the books I have read I feel “The Hate U Give” is a very powerful, moving, and important read and I feel someone in such a position of power could benefit from reading it.
What do you plan to read next?
I have an ARC of this book as well which is being released at the end of the month so I’m planning on reading it next!
If you’d like to give this tag a try then go right ahead, I tag you!


Categories: Home > Heritage and Archives
The Southwest Region’s Heritage and Archives Committee is dedicated to ensuring that Sorors are aware of the history of the Southwest Region. The committee will provide tools for chapters to preserve their rich history by way of retention, recovery, and preservation of the chapter’s articles, documents, and memorabilia.
We encourage you to visit this page for historical facts and photographs showcasing the Region’s history. Sorors are encouraged to contact the Southwest Region Heritage and Archives Committee Chair, Tonya Adkism, if you have historical information regarding the Southwest Region, including but not limited to photographs, newspaper articles, and Sorority artifacts that you would like to share.


[ HUG reproduces a second appraisal and an early critique of Soumyabrata Choudhury’s newly published book Theatre, Number, Event: Three Studies on the Relationship between Sovereignty, Power and Truth, IIAS, Delhi, 2013. The writer was a panelist in the recently organised session at C.S.D.S. , New Delhi on the occasion of the release of the book. This is the concluding essay in this series.]
Soumya is a very old friend from my university days, and it is a special feeling to be discussing his book. In that it is indeed a discussion rather than a comprehensive review of the book, and I do not even claim to do justice to the book’s ambitious narrative and unusual analytic frame. Soumya is an extraordinary mind. He is a philosopher, a literature student, a performer, a director of plays, a teacher and now I see also a historian. The book, therefore, like he himself, is a challenge for any friend and comrade, who like me shares his passion for politics and philosophy, but thinks very differently, perhaps even incommensurably. What I shall say by way of discussing the book is then a kind of response to this intimate challenge that Soumya poses before me.
First, let me present briefly how I read Soumya’s book. The book is about sovereignty – sovereignty as simultaneously political sovereignty and sovereignty of thought, sovereignty as that of philosophy on the one hand and on the other, of the king/Christ/state and eventually of that impossible, uncountable entity, namely the people. Soumya works through a series of historical moments, though not chronologically (something to which we shall come back later) – 5th century BC Greece with its theatre and its civic assemblies of gods, citizens, faceless slaves and women, 12th century Europe with its notion of Christian theological kingship, 8th-9th century Byzantium with its controversy regarding the question of the icon and the idol and the worship and circulation of the same, 18th century France with its revolution, terror and increasingly medicalised madness, and finally the contemporary with its war on terror and its democratic revolutions. Soumya’s project is to tease out histories of the constitution of sovereign power in this long story of Europe (and he shall argue the world).
Soumya implies that the history of sovereignty is produced at two levels – one, as the story of the sovereign as a figure and two, as the question of the ground, the basis, the founding principles of sovereignty. The figures of sovereignty as they appear in history, and yet fail to acquire full presence and stability (which is what the whole story is about), are the Greek gods with their strategic intelligence and liturgical role, the consecrated Christian king backed by the notion of eucharist transformation that transubstantiates the inscrutable idea of divinity into flesh, and the post-revolutionary republican people, counted as a disassembled numerical order of populations and while being mobilized as the One, the singular Nation. The ground of sovereignty on its part appears in two senses. One as jurisdiction – of law, administration and taxation – that appear through history as fisc and empire and patrie, in different ways assigning a territoriality, a world-extension to sovereignty itself. The ground also appears as the ground of thinking the power of the universal, which in the history of Europe appear as philosophy and theology and in modern times, mathematics. Through what Soumya calls a ‘commensuration’ of the figure and the ground, the book goes on to show that the ground of thought is also the ground of sovereignty, the ground which underpins the exercise of both power and truth.
Soumya’s story is full of fascinating moments – as when he demonstrates that the imperative of governmentality is as old as and indeed part of the imperative of sovereignty; or when he lays out the long history of tithes and taxes in Europe as a dialectic between the debt to and debt of the sovereign; or when he excavates an older history of the economy as a domain of regulation mapped by the circulation of Christian icons, making the economy into God’s worldly plan for the salvation of mankind. We do not have time here to dwell on these details, though each of these by itself can be major point of discussion. I shall only mention here that in Soumya’s imagination, all these discrete moments make up what he calls an ‘inconsistent’ history of sovereign power, i.e. a history without unity or necessity. This means, in my understanding, that no straight-forward chronological or successional history is possible for sovereignty, precisely because the career of sovereignty is also repeatedly a history of its siege, its failure, its dysfunctionality – the manifestation of the groundlessness, the voiding of sovereignty, despite its cunning, its ruses and indeed its claim to truths. In that sense, despite its historicity, sovereignty, at different times must be set up anew, following its own failure. The place of the French Revolution in the book is precisely to show up such a moment of the failure of sovereign power and of the difficult search for a new ground and a new figure of sovereignty, namely the people. As Soumya shows through his reading of Michelet’s history of the French revolution, it is not as if forms of sovereignty, power and truth make successive paradigm shifts in a long history of political society, but that everything must be recommenced, the present reinvented every time, by rewriting once again its past and its future, following upon the defaulting of an earlier form of sovereign presence.
Soumya’s account of the career of sovereignty is persuasive in its own terms, but in my eyes, the account comes up against a critical unresolved question – namely, the question of the relationship between history and philosophy. Soumya imagines this relationship as a kind mismatch – sometimes there is the glimpse of geological metaphors, a faultine, an abyss – between the metaphysics of truth and the structure of possible actualisations of power, between the philosophical mandate and the historical logic. It is this perpetually restless, quaking faultine between history as actualization and philosophy as the axiomatic instance, as he aptly calls it, which causes what he calls torsion, a violent twisting, of thought – a torsion through which thought moves as it were. In my reading, however, this formulation retains the place of history and the place of philosophy somewhat undisturbed, even though teetering on both sides of the abyss – while I would have thought that it were precisely those places, those habitations of history and philosophy that would come under question in his account. My feeling is that this is because Soumya does not face squarely the different ways in which modern western philosophy has harnessed history to itself – or the ways in which history and philosophy have sought to take each other’s place through time. Of course, in modern times and with Hegel, history itself – world history to be precise – was transfigured into a philosophy of global sovereignty.
But even if we consider the Hegelian moment passé, there is another way in which philosophy continues to harness history to itself even today. In the western tradition, philosophy operates as always already history of philosophy, through which not only is an exclusive philosophical canon set up, but more importantly a strange contemporaneity is set up amongst philosophers of diverse times and contexts, from Plato to Marx, from antiquity to today, such that thought appears to undo its own historicity and assume an infinite, universal and eternal form, becoming in a way thought unto itself. In other words, in this tradition philosophy becomes its own history in such as way as to pitch itself beyond the ephemeral and the contingent – that being the truth-procedure of western philosophy itself. And even when a contemporary philosopher such as Alain Badiou – who seems to hugely influence Soumya – grants autonomy to history, he does so in the name of the Event with capital E – making true history incumbent upon emblematic dates, exceptional events and proper names. But this precisely is the imagination of history against which subalterns have had to struggle incessantly, in the name of long durations as well as contingencies, of the everyday and the quotidian, of the anonymous and the defeated.
All this is not to argue against Soumya’s effort at bringing philosophy and history together within the same frame. On the contrary, that is exactly the importance of the book. This is only to say that one cannot any longer presume to be innocent about the close complicity, and not just the antagonism, between history of a kind and philosophy of a kind. Indeed, one cannot be innocent about history itself, and I do sense such an innocence in Soumya. One cannot presume, in obedience to Badiou, that the event with capital E will show itself inexorably and obviously and force new thought, new truths, and new subject-bodies who appear purely in fidelity to the event. Instead, it is in the very process of historicisation, in the assigning of a new past and a new future to it, that an event becomes an Event. In other words, it is precisely through new periodisations that politics moves – as our experience with the regime of the modern tells us at our own peril. I think it is critical the way Soumya makes the choice and arranges the sequence of his historical instances – whether Greece or Byzantium or France, whether classical, medieval or modern. But he hesitates to make the political stakes in his choice explicit. I also think that he is too quick in the way that he extrapolates a global paradigm of sovereignty from these very particular and local European instances. I am not quite certain that this seamless passage into the global is not the residual conceit of philosophy itself – even if this philosophy is humbled before the contingency of the event.
But Soumya does make a critical move away from the Badiou-kind of history-philosophy problematic – not only because he seeks to theorise sovereignty (taking Foucault on board, Foucault whom Badiou does not consider a philosopher) rather than truth or being or subjectivity, but also because he inflects his story of philosophy and history by a third entity – namely, theatre. He does not use quite use theatre in the way that Badiou or Ranciere or Virno does – by raising questions of spectatorship, passivity, agency, publicity, community so on i.e. by making the question of theatre isomorphic with the question of politics itself. Soumya invokes theatre from perspective of theatre itself, but he also does not reduce it to a generalized notion of performance which leads to trite observations such as politics is performative and so on. Soumya counterpoises theatre with philosophy, and I shall add also history. This is because theatre dislodges both the philosopher’s truth and the historian’s real. As Soumya says, theatre puts forth the mask, the actor’s mask, which is in a disjunctive relationship with any natural, ontological or legal position. Theatre also displaces the map of subjects and objects by distributing figures on the stage merely though a logic of positions rather than through epistemologics. In that sense, Soumya reconfigures the history-philosophy binary into the evocative triad of history-philosophy-theatre. But once again, Soumya does much less with theatre than he promises, tantalizingly, in the beginning of the book. At the very end of the book, however, he quotes a long passage from Antonin Artaud, where he says (and I quote from the quote) “Once the plague is established in the city, normal order collapses. …At this point, theatre establishes itself. Theatre that is to say the momentary pointlesslessness which drives people to useless acts without immediate profit or point.” This Soumya proposes is a moment of exception to both the law and the liturgy of sovereignty – leading to a kind of activation beyond the limits of civic and cultural participation. I really wish that Soumya would write more on this other notion of action and subjectivity that theatre helps us imagine.
Prathama Banerjee is Fellow, C.S.D.S., New Delhi. She is the author of the book Politics of Time: Primitives and History-Writing in a Colonial Society, published in 2006.