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In this book, Bruce Horner provides a cultural materialist critique of discourse on work in composition. Each chapter traces the ways in which one of the defining terms of composition--work, students, politics, academic, traditional, and writing--operates as a site for competing constructions of composition's identity. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

A Unique Insight Into a Complex Mind
This book represents the best of jazz journalism. Radano writes extensivly about Braxton, but also captures the essence of the Chicago Jazz scene in the late 60's and the complexities of being a black avant-garde artist in an era where such things are just not accepted.

Part biography, part explication, part cultural critique, Radano manages to talk knowledgably and extensively about Braxton's music without resorting to technical jargon or waxing romantic like a fan...both serious mistakes of most jazz critics. And he also charts a sympethetic course through the philosophical divides of black artists in the 60's without taking sides or launching into unfounded polemics. Instead, Radaon's central premise, that Braxton's unique musical vision has never found a place in American musical society due to it's difficulty of classification (is it jazz? is it European oriented experimental music? What do we call this stuff?) and due to the less than orthodox education and views of it's creator, rings true in light of the facts of Braxto's life and the critical coverage and destruction that he recieved in the 70s and 80s.

Radano also does a marvelous job explaining Braxton's notoriously difficult philosophic/musical theories. The Triaxium writings are very difficult for the uninitiated (as are most free musician's theories - try making sense out of Ornette Coleman's descriptions of harmelodics...it's pretty tough going, though the results are stunning.) Radano strips away some of the deliberately obscure language that Braxton uses and gives us "Triaxium lite" as it were. Though this may seem on some level sacriligious, for many of us who truly admire Braxton and want to understand his thought, this helps enormously. It's made it possible for me to understand more of the liner notes on Braxton albums.

This book is recommended highly, both for fans of the composer/improvisor, and for anyone interested in the sad state of American culture at the end of the millenium. One hopes that Radano will decide to revise this book in light of the developments of the last 10 years (the book came out in 1993). Braxton's tenure as professor at Wesleyan University and his creation of an entirely new genre of music (Ghost Trance Music), along with a greater, belated appreciation of his notated music, may change some of Radano's conclusions, or at least inform them a bit.

This book examines Braxton's music & his treatment by media
This book is an excellent work of scholarship that examines Braxton'smusical education in Chicago (AACM) in the 60s, his music as it progressedthroughout the 70s, and, most importantly, how the media treated Braxtonduring these periods. It is essential reading for those who want a betterunderstanding of not only Braxton's music but also the definitions imposedon creative music by the media establishment. ... Read more

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Not everyone has access to a good critique group. If you're on your own and need someone to help polish your manuscript so it shines in the eyes of agents and editors, look no farther. Using examples from their own work and a huge dash of humor, veteran authors Jane Toombs and Janet Lane Walters guide both the new writer and the experienced through the labyrinth of self-editing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Becoming Your Own Critique Partner
Trying to critique your own writing is extremely difficult. Often, we as writers are far too close to work to really see all those little errors missed that if corrected could turn a rejection slip into a contract. Most writers quickly learn that finding a friend or writing group who is willing to read and comment on their work is invaluable.

Becoming Your Own Critique Partner is aimed at those writers who for whatever reason can't find someone else to critique their novel. I personally believe that this book will be equally valuable to all writers. Filling in potholes and finding extraneous distractions in your storyline will be beneficial whether you have a critique partner or not. The end result can be the difference between a publishable book and an unfulfilled wish.

I definitely recommend Becoming Your Own Critique Partner to anyone hoping to publish their novel. This book cover all the bases: character building, dialogue that adds to the storyline, creating meaningful scenes, choosing the correct mood, and avoiding repetition, clichés, and other misnomers. Plus, each section includes checklist and a variety of exercises to help build writing skills while critiquing your own work.

Becoming Your Oown Critique Parner
If you follow the directions and advice in this book, your writing should improve.It will help you in learning how to rid your manuscript of all those little errors that editors hate, as it walks you through the process of critiquing your own manuscript.There's a lot of information in here that has helped me with my own writing. If you don't have access to a critique group or want to do the job yourself, get this book and read it.
I would recommend that every writer have it in their reference library.

An Excellent and Indispensable Tool For All Writers
Checking out the Internet as well as various other sources I notice there is a great deal of excellent advice on writing techniques. Unfortunately, many aspiring writers as well as experienced ones either neglect the advice or are unaware of its existence.
There are also local critique groups and countless workshops, seminars, and other avenues where writers can learn how to improve their writing skills, however often it is not convenient for one reason or another to participate in these tutorials.
Authors Jane Toombs and Janet Lane Walters have combined their 63 years of writing experience and knowledge to come up with a practical solution to help us become our own critique partner with their 236 page manual, Becoming Your Own Critique Partner, particularly when participation in a critique group is either impossible or impractical.

The primary focus of the book is, as the authors mention in their introduction, "to find the flaws in your manuscript and correct them."The most obvious flaws that are examined and explored are telling too much and not showing, weak and flat dialogue, the black moment when the focus character (villain or hero) in the story believes all is lost, scenes and their relevance, where to use adjectives and adverbs, finding ways to use the appropriate senses, pacing, effectively using points of view, plugging holes in your plot, cutting the fat from the bone, avoiding clichés, what not to do with the details, places where mood in the story affects your characters, finding your theme and using it to solidify your plot, spotting awkward time and place shifts, characters and their motivation, ways to keep the heart in your writing, questions writers should ask themselves about minor but pertinent errors, and the proper use of words that are not annoying.

The chapters of the book are knitted together into a cohesive whole in the form of a workshop-style. Each concludes with a checklist and useful exercises that help the reader reinforce the principles that are expounded upon. There are numerous examples taken from the authors' own published works illustrating the wrong and right ways of writing as well as the various stumbling points to keep you from being led astray.

Although Becoming Your Own Critique Partner is not meant to be the last word on the technique of good writing, it is nevertheless an excellent and indispensable tool for writers seeking to improve their skills. No doubt this book will prove to be a valuable addition to any writer's personal collection.

Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures

Mayra Calvani--Midwest Book Review
This new book on self-editing written by two very prolific authors is one you'll definitely want to add to your bookshelf.

What are the major problems you should be on the lookout for when editing your own work? The answer isn't always easy, as authors tend to become so involved in their plot and characters they turn blind to the obvious. Sometimes the problems are easy to spot and fix, sometimes not. Whatever the case, Walters and Toombs guide you through the process of completely editing your fiction manuscript.

With specific examples taken from their own works, the authors demonstrate how to handle telling instead of showing, stilted and flat dialogue, weak and unrealistic characters, unnecessary scenes, overuse of adjectives and adverbs, lack of atmosphere, point of view shifts, bloated prose, clichés, among others. They also share the secret to strong characters and the six necessary elements to a master plot. Each chapter concentrates on a specific subject, with helpful exercises at the end of it.

Written in a clear, friendly, straight-forward style, Becoming Your Own Critique Partner is a reference book that both beginners and professionals will profit from.
... Read more

Product Description
Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre is the first comprehensive survey and analysis of theatrical presence to be published. Theatre as an art form has often been associated with notions of presence. The 'live' immediacy of the actor, the unmediated unfolding of dramatic action and the 'energy' generated through an actor-audience relationship are among the ideas frequently used to explain theatrical experience - and all are underpinned by some understanding of 'presence.' Precisely what is meant by presence in the theatre is part of what Presence in Play sets out to explain. While this work is rooted in twentieth century theatre and performance since modernism, the author draws on a range of historical and theoretical material. Encompassing ideas from semiotics and phenomenology, Presence in Play puts forward a framework for thinking about presence in theatre, enriched by poststructuralist theory, forcefully arguing in favour of 'presence' as a key concept for theatre studies today. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Skin & Allergy News, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1641 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Licorice, Part I.(Cosmeceutical Critique)(Drug overview)
Author: Leslie S. Baumann
Publication: Skin & Allergy News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 38Issue: 3Page: 24(1)

Article Type: Drug overview

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Skin & Allergy News, published by International Medical News Group on December 1, 2003. The length of the article is 627 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cosmeceutical critique: hyaluronic acid.(Dermatologic Therapy)
Author: Leslie S. Baumann
Publication: Skin & Allergy News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2003
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 34Issue: 12Page: 16(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1868Original Publisher: NimmoNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or an index.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Skin & Allergy News, published by International Medical News Group on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 967 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cosmeceutical critique: ginger.(Dermatologic Therapy)
Author: Leslie S. Baumann
Publication: Skin & Allergy News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2003
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 34Issue: 8Page: 33(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Skin & Allergy News, published by International Medical News Group on January 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1122 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cosmeceutical critique: pomegranate.(Dermatologic Therapy)
Author: Leslie S. Baumann
Publication: Skin & Allergy News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2004
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 35Issue: 1Page: 42(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Skin & Allergy News, published by International Medical News Group on September 1, 2001. The length of the article is 884 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: COSMECEUTICAL CRITIQUE: SALICYLIC ACID.
Author: Leslie Baumann
Publication: Skin & Allergy News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2001
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 32Issue: 9Page: 33

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Not suitable for die-hard Potter fans, Destiny Unfulfilled is fundamentally critical of the Potter series, examining such issues as the role of a protagonist, the writer's contract with her readers, characterization, and shaggy dog resolutions.In Stein on Writing, Sol Stein tells us of "the value of dissecting a piece of writing repeatedly until it surrender[s] its secrets." Destiny Unfulfilled is an example of that very sort of intense analysis. Covering all seven books of the Potter series, Destiny Unfulfilled dives deep under the covers, ferreting out secrets that at times are dark and disquieting, but which will prove enlightening to students of both creative writing and literary criticism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A top pick for literary criticism collections
Although the "Harry Potter" series is massively popular, popularity does not excuse its faults. "Destiny Unfulfilled: A Critique of the Harry Potter Series" analyzes the Harry Potter series with a scrutinizing eye, providing much insights into the flaws of the series, stating that some literary problems lie within the books, as Jim Adam exposes them and offers tips to other blossoming writers who may take the Potter books as influence. "Destiny Unfulfilled" is a top pick for literary criticism collections.

this is so disappointing
The entire book is ridiculous. It was obviously written by someone who is jealous of JK's talent. Ask yourselves this: is his name a legend? NO. Is JK's? YES. Jim Adam is a sorry excuse for a writer. What the world needs is this... DESTINY UNFULFILLED: A CRITIQUE OF JIM ADAM.

Excellent analysis
If, like me, you loved the HP books, this may be a little difficult.But if, like me, you're a true lover of good literature, you'll recognize the truth in it.The author does a terrific job not only identifying continuity errors but also dissecting where the series falls short of its full potential.The author's point is assuredly not to trash Rowling's accomplishments, but rather to say that what she did is so good that she ought to undertake a revised/corrected edition that repairs the understandable, but regrettable, errors that crept in over the ten years she spent writing them.She would be in fine company -- Dickens and Tolkien, to mention only a few.

Great for writers or writer wannabes
If you write fantasy and dream of creating world-class fiction, if your bookshelf is filled with "how-to" titles devoted to the craft of writing, if your favorite website is [...] or something similar, then this is the book you need to read!

Many literary critiques are obtuse and impossible to read for anyone lacking an ivy-league doctorate.If you do have the academics and vocabulary to understand a serious literary critique, then you already know they are irrelevant to anyone seeking to master the craft of writing something people want to read."Destiny Unfulfilled" deconstructs the Harry Potter series character by character and book by book.It expounds on and defines those annoying flaws that a serious reader immediately sees but can't quite explain.Along the way you'll find a wealth of material about creating three-dimensional characters and constructing a believable plot.

If you've always wanted to be a fantasy writer and never quite understood what you're doing wrong, this is the book you need to read!

I beg to differ...
I am extremely impressed by 'Destiny Unfulfilled,' not only as a writer myself but as an academic who has taught the HP series to college students. I believe Adam has put his finger on the massive dissatisfaction/disappointment I feel with the entire Series. While I admire 'Sorcerer's Stone' hugely, and agree that it is a classic, I agree even more fully that, as the Series progressed, Rowling missed several very obvious ways of making the entire Series a classic. For example, Rowling made a tragic mistake killing D. off rather than staging his 'death' as one of many strategies for bring about V's downfall (and consequently avoiding the deadly tediousness of the final book). ... Read more

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Although originally published more then 50 years ago, this little Cassuto book is still probably the best, most focused attack on Wellhausen's Documentary Hypothesis and a powerful defense of the integrity of the biblical text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

a good introduction to the topic
This book only focuses on the book of Genesis, and by its own admission is just a sneak preview of a much longer book by the same author- so it was not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of the topic.

Nevertheless, this book is at least useful as an introduction to the pros and cons of the Documentary Hypothesis ("DH") (the theory, still widely believed in secular academic circles, that the Torah was the work of four authors identifiable by various verbal tics).Not being an expert on the topic, I can't fully evaluate Cassuto's arguments- but I can say that this book is at least an interesting introduction.

Cassuto addresses a variety of arguments for the DH, including the following:

1.The argument based on various Divine names.Some parts of the Torah call God "Elohim", while others use other names.DH supporters view this discrepancy as evidence of multiple authorship; Cassuto, by contrast, argues that the author of the Torah uses different names in different contexts- for example, using a more "personal" name (Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay) in "literature having a purely Israelite" content, and "Elohim" in more universalistic passages.Thus, one author could have comfortably used different names for God in different contexts (Cassuto expresses no opinion as to whether that author was Divine, at least not in this work).
In support of this view, Cassuto notes that similar dichotomies exist in Egyptian and Babylonian literature.

One problem with Cassuto's view: he cites about half a dozen varying ground rules for which name should be used, and admits that these rules sometimes come into conflict with each other.Thus, there is no "bright line" rule separating Elohist passages and Y-H-V-H passages, which means that Cassuto's explanation is not capable of being logically proved.

2.The argument based on style; DH supporters rely on differences in style, while Cassuto argues that the same author can write differently in different contexts (just to simplify a complex issue).

3.The argument based on substance.DH supporters argue that substantive differences such as varying chronologies are evidence of multiple authorship; Cassuto wonders why an editor of these multiple authors would allow inconsistencies to flourish.Cassuto suggests that one author might have cited preexisting traditions even when they were (or appeared to be) contradictory, in order to preserve tradition or to speak to different readers on different levels.

This is an important book for understanding how the Bible was written
This book is a necessary tool that MUST be in any serious Bible scholar's library.

Cassuto Destroys the Documentary Hypothesis
In a series of eight lectures Cassuto destroys the Documentary Hypothesis, the theory that the text of the Pentateuch was edited from four independent source-documents.
Cassuto describes the development of the theory, and the evidence on which it is based: the use of different names for God in the Pentateuch, variations of its language and style, apparent contradictions and divergences, duplications and repetitions and signs of composite structure in the text.
Cassuto argues that these pieces of evidence, individually and cumulatively, do not render the Documentary Hypothesis probable. Cassuto provides simpler explanations of the evidence. These explanations also fit in better with our background knowledge, including knowledge of the style of ancient near eastern texts.
For example, Cassuto points out that the different divine names are used consistently in different contexts. This is best explained by the divine names having different meanings (but the same reference). Further literature of the ancient near east evinces similar context-sensitive usage of different divine names. If the Documentary Hypothesis is not true, we would find precisely the usage of divine names that we do find.
Cassuto defends his claims with numerous sources, his extensive knowledge of ancient literature and Biblical Hebrew. In contrast, the proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis resort to circular reasoning and outlandish explanations of the text, as Cassuto shows.
Cassuto's understanding of the details and rules of Biblical Hebrew is profound, and there is much to learn here that I have not found elsewhere. This includes five rules used in the Bible to determine which first person pronoun is to be used, how the Bible decides to use descending or ascending order in compound numerals, and the difference between expressions such as "karath berith" and "heqim berith".
The beauty of Cassuto's style of writing is matched only by the clarity of his exposition.
Cassuto's opinion on the origin of the text does not appear to be religious. Rather, he believes that the Pentateuch selected and refined ancient traditions; Cassuto compares this to Dante who transforms material derived from many sources into a unique harmony. Whether or not one believes in the divine origin of the Pentateuch, however, Cassuto's book is an unanswerable attack on the Documentary Hypothesis and a powerful defense of the unity of the text.
I strongly recommend Cassuto's book along with Kitchen's "On the Reliability of the Old Testament".

The Best Work in this Field...Awesome and Majestic
This book is the best in this field for both serious scholar and/or anyone who wonders about the reliability and credibility of the first five books in Bible, especially Genesis.If the documentary hypothesis by Wellhausenover 100 years ago shakes one's faith and confidence in Bible (OldTestament), this book dismantles the very foundation of the documentaryhypothesis.Cassuto's excellent scholarship and majestic presentation willcapture his readers as if walking between the walls of waters in Exodus. This book settles the whole matters of controversy. This is an awesomebook!I almost think that this is a modern-day miracle that we have anauthor like him and this very book. Richard K. Min, Dallas, Texas,September 22, 1999. ... Read more