This book, first published in 1947, is an anthology of Chinese poetry from a period when it was entering an entirely new world, where all or nearly all the ancient poetic traditions were being cast aside. No longer could Chinese poetry be regarded as the graceful accomplishment of retired sages: the new voices were powerful, realistic, even brutal.

This book, first published in 1947, is an anthology of Chinese poetry from a period when it was entering an entirely new world, where all or nearly all the ancient poetic traditions were being cast aside. No longer could Chinese poetry be regarded as the graceful accomplishment of retired sages: the new voices were powerful, realistic, even brutal.

Liking, sharing, friending, going viral: what would it mean to recognize these current modes of media interaction as promiscuous? In a contemporary network culture characterized by a proliferation of new forms of intimate mediated sociality, this book argues that promiscuity is a new standard of user engagement. Intimate relations among media users and between users and their media are increasingly structured by an entrepreneurial logic and put to work for the economic interests of media corporations. But these multiple intimacies can also be understood as technologies of promiscuous desire serving both to liberalize mediated social connection and to contain it within normative frames of value. Payne brings crucial questions of gender, sexuality, intimacy, and attention back into conversation with recent thinking on network culture and social media, identifying the queer undercurrents of these current media dynamics.

Liking, sharing, friending, going viral: what would it mean to recognize these current modes of media interaction as promiscuous? In a contemporary network culture characterized by a proliferation of new forms of intimate mediated sociality, this book argues that promiscuity is a new standard of user engagement. Intimate relations among media users and between users and their media are increasingly structured by an entrepreneurial logic and put to work for the economic interests of media corporations. But these multiple intimacies can also be understood as technologies of promiscuous desire serving both to liberalize mediated social connection and to contain it within normative frames of value. Payne brings crucial questions of gender, sexuality, intimacy, and attention back into conversation with recent thinking on network culture and social media, identifying the queer undercurrents of these current media dynamics.

"First we shape things, then they shape us," was Churchill's view. What kind of architecture can be said to shape? Who does it shape? And by what means does it shape? The author's answers to these questions are a surprise in this diverting manifesto.

This is a comprehensive account of the eight religious wars between the Christian West and the Muslim East that dominated the Middle Ages. Calling themselves "pilgrims of Christ," thousands of Europeans from all stations in life undertook the harsh and bloody quest to reclaim Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and Christ's tomb for Christendom. Robert Payne brings to life every step of the Crusaders' thousand-mile journey: the deprivation; the desperate, rapacious, and brutal raids for food and supplies; the epic battles for Antioch, Jerusalem, and Acre; the barbarous treatment of captives; and the quarreling European princes who vied for power and wealth in the Near East. An epic tale of the glorious and the base, of unshakable faith and unspeakable atrocities, The Dream and the Tomb captures not only the events but the very essence of the Crusades.

Drawn into the circuit of men cruising for sex in and around a train station, restless adolescent Henri begins a frenzied pursuit of a dangerously charismatic older man, with sometimes violent and ultimately tragic consequences. Premiering at Cannes in 1983, Patrice Chereau's L'Homme blesse (The Wounded Man) was one of France's first major cinematic releases to depict homosexual desire and queer sexual cultures in an unapologetic and complex way. It is a film that continues to resonate to this day. L'Homme blesse generated controversy with its dark tone and its treatment of an adolescent's obsessive homoerotic desire, as well as Chereau's denial that the film is about homosexuality. Robert Payne guides readers through the powerfully erotic underworld of L'Homme blesse, where the film sidesteps fixed identities and draws viewers into the ambiguous spaces of queer desire, and argues that its visual composition depicts queer ways of seeing and generates queer ways of feeling. A look into the production's historical and cultural backdrop uncovers a behind-the-scenes story of power and desire between its two screenwriters and the presence of HIV/AIDS hovering ominously and inevitably off screen. Original interviews trace the lives of L'Homme blesse across three continents and three decades and measure the film's enduring value beyond its prestigious debut. Payne cements L'Homme blesse in its rightful place within queer cultural history and introduces the film to a new generation of viewers.

Studying both France and Germany in its discussion of post-war issues, this book uses a new cultural-theoretical approach to develop a philosophy to overcome post-war traumata, or the traumatization effects that affect entire national cultures.

In the sheer scope, the Roman epoch is unsurpassed in history. What has endured to our own time is its great legacy to Western civilization-in law, language, architecture, and the art of government-and the fascination of its story. Ancient Rome presents the history and heritage of that remarkable era. In this richly illustrated volume, the reader can enjoy an all-around introduction to the politics, people, culture, and everyday life of the world ruled by Rome. Unlike most general histories of the subject, it enables the reader to know the Romans not only from reading about them, but by hearing directly from them, through the words of orators, philosophers, historians, poets, playwrights, and satirists. Here is an intelligent and remarkably handsome survey of ancient Rome, designed for anyone who would welcome the chance to learn more about that 1,200-year epic with ease, clarity, and accuracy.

This is a collection of 40 short stories from author Anton Chekhov, and ranging from the abashed happiness of a woman in the presence of the husband who abandoned her years before, to the poignant astonishment of an aging Don Juan overtaken by love, and many more.

.."..entertaining, and ... highly illuminating ... his research has been thorough and he offers some intriguing speculations regarding the influence on certain plays of ... national events ... He also offers some excellent shafts of criticism, particularly with respect to the final plays." -Publishers' Weekly