The study investigates the cultural production of the visual iconography of popular pleasure grounds from the eighteenth century pleasure garden to the contemporary theme park. Deborah Philips identifies the literary genres, including fairy tale, gothic horror, Egyptiana and the Western which are common to carnival sites and traces their historical transition across a range of media to become familiar icons of popular culture.Though the bricolage of narratives and imagery found in the contemporary leisure zone has been read by many as emblematic of postmodern culture, the author argues that the clash of genres and stories is less a consequence of postmodern pastiche than it is the result of a history and popular tradition of conventionalized iconography.

Imagine: if we could combine dreams and reality in a world where we live forever.Oliver believes his life to be one of disappointment and failure. Haunted by the memory of a mysterious woman he encountered thirty years ago, and obsessed with finding her, he embarks on a journey embracing grief, hope, myths and legends to find her. He is drawn into diverse worlds, from ancient rural beliefs and traditions to emerging medical science, as he and the reader are led to question the boundaries between dreams, reality and imagination. This original speculative fiction title has been described as 'It's a Wonderful Life for the 21st Century' "Another Life is a beautiful and thought-provoking meditation on the meaning and purpose of life, seen through the lens of a mystery story steeped in English folklore...The book's narrative voice and its depiction of details from the natural world are outstanding." British Fantasy Society

Lucas and his friends have the perfect college life. Lucas has a personal friendship with the dean of the Roman City campus and is also the captain of a very famous basketball team. Together, they are the coolest kids on the block, and life couldn't get any better when they find out they are heading on an all-expense-paid trip to the city of Rome to embrace their campus's history. Things begin to turn when Rachael, an aspiring mythologist, notices a historical artifact that is older than three thousand years and in the wrong place Her curiosity causes her to find a secret passage to a ritual room-the Tomb of the Gods Lucas and the rest of his friends try to persuade Rachael to leave, but she is enticed by the ritual and feels it couldn't hurt to attempt it. The ritual goes downhill, and Lucas, April, and the others all black out in a whirlwind of chaos. Lucas awakes in his hotel room with no memory of what happened, but what happened in the Tomb of the Gods would change his and his friends' lives forever

"After years of wandering around the world of love, I found the truth about it. I met face-to-face with that wonderful fairy Love, and she shared with me that despite the pain that was tearing her apart, she is very happy and didn't want to part with it. In my fantasy, that fairy was standing smiling among the deserted sands and was holding a heart in love. There was blood dripping from her hands, but she looked hard and firm. She split the heart in two and threw the two halves away from her. They fell with ominous strength on the glowing sand, started burning, and burned away. The fairy told me that that had been my heart, and that this evil destiny awaited it. She opened her scarlet lips and said that love hurts and it was like a cloud, which carried many tears to my eyes in love. Nevertheless, I decided to follow my heart, and it was saying: "When Love looks you in the eyes, you will know, I will tell you, and then you take it right away, hold it tight, hide it here with me, to be happy.'"

This book shows that many characters in the Sanskrit epics - men and women of all varnas and mixed-varna - discuss and criticize discrimination based on gender, varna, poverty, age, and disability. On the basis of philosophy, logic and devotion, these characters argue that such categories are ever-changing, mixed and ultimately unreal therefore humans should be judged on the basis of their actions, not birth. The book explores the dharmas of singleness, friendship, marriage, parenting, and ruling. Bhakta poets such as Kabir, Tulsidas, Rahim and Raidas drew on ideas and characters from the epics to present a vision of oneness. Justice is indivisible, all bodies are made of the same matter, all beings suffer, and all consciousnesses are akin. This book makes the radical argument that in the epics, kindness to animals, the dharma available to all, is inseparable from all other forms of dharma.