Larry Gonick is a veteran American cartoonist best known for his delightful comic-book guides to science and history, many of which have previews online. Chief among them is his long-running
Cartoon History of the Universe (later
The Cartoon History of the Modern World), a sprawling multi-volume opus documenting everything from the Big Bang to the Bush administration. Published over the course of three decades, it takes a truly global view -- its time-traveling Professor thoroughly explores not only familiar topics like Rome and World War II but the oft-neglected stories of Asia and Africa, blending caricature and myth with careful scholarship (cited by
fun illustrated bibliographies) and tackling even the most obscure events
with intelligence and wit. This savvy satire carried over to Gonick's
Zinn-by-way-of-
Pogo chronicle
The Cartoon History of the United States, along with a bevy of
Cartoon Guides to other topics, including
Genetics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, The Environment, and (yes!)
Sex. Gonick has also maintained a few sideprojects, such as
a webcomic look at Chinese invention,
assorted math comics (
previously), the
Muse magazine mainstay
Kokopelli & Co. (featuring the shenanigans of his
"New Muses"), and
more. See also
these lengthy interview snippets, linked
previously. Want more? Amazon links to the complete oeuvre inside!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 6, 2011 -
29 comments
Paula K. Shimatsu-u, who
worked behind the scenes at
Twin Peaks, has a book coming out with previously unpublished photos from on and off the set.
Wired has a gallery that boasts, among other delights,
Michael Horse reading a book beside a deer's head, and
Sheryl Lee with Sherilyn Fenn wearing, respectively, a lovely bobble cap and a very fetching jumper.
posted by Stan Carey
on Aug 14, 2010 -
15 comments
"I went and saw
Iron Man 2 today, pretty good, I read
Anathem too, yeah, not bad, I think, and I finally managed to work though those last two seasons of
The Wire": few personal cultural blogs are interesting.
with hidden noise is different. The blog of Dan Visel of the
Institute for the Future of the Book, it covers, regularly and in depth, reading material that's genuinely fascinating and often surprising — and he actually cares, seriously, about culture.
Some of the books covered include Nicholson Baker's
U and I, Aeschylus'
The Oresteia, Jean-Philippe Toussaint's
Self-Portrait Abroad and Donald Barthelme's
Paradise. (Also, his
immortal review of ulillillia's
The Legend of the Ten Elemental Masters, though it's not on this particular blog cannot be missed.)
posted by colinmarshall
on Jun 11, 2010 -
24 comments
From the Bookstalls of a Nigerian Market.
Onitsha Market Literature consists of stories, plays, advice and moral discourses published primarily in the 1960s by local presses in the lively market town of Onitsha [
in then-newly-independent Nigeria]...
In the fresh and vigorous genre of Onitsha Market Literature, the commoner wrote pulp fiction and didactic handbooks for those who perused the bookstalls of Onitsha Market, one of Africa’s largest trading centers. Examples:
How To Write And Reply Letters For Marriage, Engagement Letters, Love Letters And How To Know A Girl To Marry,
Learn To Speak 360 Interesting Proverbs And Know Your True Brother,
Struggle For Money [All full-text links are in pdf format, and some are quite large]. With links to
additional resources.
posted by amyms
on Jun 4, 2008 -
25 comments
Speaking of speeches, David Eggers
delivers one at TED on grassroots community tutoring for kids who need help with their English homework: "There's something about the kids finishing their homework in a given day, working one on one, getting all this attention. They finish their homework, they go home -- they're finished. They don't stall. They don't do their homework in front of the TV. They're allowed to go home 5:30, enjoy their family, enjoy other hobbies, get outside, play and that makes a happy family. A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right? So, the key to it all is homework." Love him or hate him (
mefi consensus) it's a great example of
nervous energy microphilanthropy,
social entrepreneurship and, if I may make the connection,
machines of
loving grace. [
previously]
posted by kliuless
on Mar 23, 2008 -
26 comments
Fairfax County Public Library system ditches the classics. If titles remain untouched for two years, they may be discarded--permanently. "We're being very ruthless," boasts library director Sam Clay.... Books by Charlotte Brontë, William Faulkner, Thomas Hardy, Marcel Proust and Alexander Solzhenitsyn have recently been pulled.
posted by caddis
on Jan 4, 2007 -
99 comments
What Good Are the Arts? asks John Carey’s recent book of the same name. The New Criterion think Carey’s thesis is informed by cynical political motives rather than earnest convictions, and accuses Carey of dabbling in the risky art of aesthetic relativism: Obviously, art is ultimately about
“the search for truth” (a lesson we’d do well to remember before society falls apart). But as Carey and others point out to the contrary, the
Third Reich was all about art—and yet, art under the Third Reich had precious little to do with “searching for truth.” So just what good are the arts? Here’s what
a few others have to say on the subject.
posted by saulgoodman
on Oct 4, 2006 -
45 comments
XXX: 30 P9RN STAR PORTRAITS (a bit NSFW, obviously) by
photographer Timothy Greenfield-
Sanders, is a
book that features paired portraits (one clothed and one nude) of the top stars in p6rn, straight and gay, from legends like (
best-
selling memoirist)
Jenna Jameson,
Ron Jeremy and Nina Hartley to (ahem) rising stars like Sunrise Adams, Belladonna, Chad Hunt. The
book includes short essays on the intersection of p6rnography and culture by a wide range of writers, from
Salman Rushdie to
AM Homes. XXX is, essentially, about the much-dreaded
"p6rnification" of the culture at large,
recently featured in the New York Times.
As
Gore Vidal writes in the book's introduction, “Doubtless, sex tales were told about the Neanderthal campfire and perhaps instructive positions drawn on cave walls. Meanwhile, the human race was busy establishing such exciting institutions as slavery and its first cousin, marriage.”
(more inside, with totally NSFW Terry Richardson)
posted by matteo
on Sep 18, 2004 -
12 comments
Culture as Culprit. Myron Magnet is the author of
The Dream and the Nightmare, which George W. Bush has called the most influential book -- aside from the Bible -- that he's ever read. Is poverty in American less an economic matter than a cultural one?
posted by techgnollogic
on Apr 6, 2001 -
9 comments
Snap to Grid: A User's Guide to Digital Arts, Media, and Cultures is one of the best readings on the interactions between artists, technology, and culture I've found so far.
I found a quote here by Sir Isaiah Berlin which is very appropriate to my experience and perhaps those who search for sites like Metafilter:
Loneliness is not just the absence of others but far more living among people who do not understand what you are saying.
posted by Taken Outtacontext
on Jul 3, 2000 -
1 comment
