- Table View
- List View
The Correspondence of Dr William Hunter Vol 2
by Helen BrockBorn in Scotland, Dr William Hunter (1718-83) pursued an extensive medical education in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Paris. He settled in London where he made his name as an anatomist and obstetrician before being elected to the Royal Society in 1767. This book presents all of his known correspondence, drawing upon archives around the world.
The Correspondence of Dr William Hunter Vol 2
by Helen BrockBorn in Scotland, Dr William Hunter (1718-83) pursued an extensive medical education in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Paris. He settled in London where he made his name as an anatomist and obstetrician before being elected to the Royal Society in 1767. This book presents all of his known correspondence, drawing upon archives around the world.
The Correspondence of Ezra Pound and the Frobenius Institute, 1930-1959 (Modernist Archives)
by Ezra PoundCollecting in full for the first time the correspondence between Ezra Pound and members of Leo Frobenius' Forschungsinstitut für Kulturmorphologie in Frankfurt across a 30 year period, this book sheds new light on an important but previously unexplored influence on Pound's controversial intellectual development in the Fascist era. Ezra Pound's long-term interest in anthropology and ethnography exerted a profound influence on early 20th century literary Modernism. These letters reveal the extent of the influence of Frobenius' concept of 'Paideuma' on Pound's poetic and political writings during this period and his growing engagement with the culture of Nazi Germany. Annotated throughout, the letters are supported by contextualising essays by leading Modernist scholars as well as relevant contemporary published articles by Pound himself and his leading correspondent at the Institute, the American Douglas C. Fox.
The Correspondence of Ezra Pound and the Frobenius Institute, 1930-1959 (Modernist Archives)
by Ezra PoundCollecting in full for the first time the correspondence between Ezra Pound and members of Leo Frobenius' Forschungsinstitut für Kulturmorphologie in Frankfurt across a 30 year period, this book sheds new light on an important but previously unexplored influence on Pound's controversial intellectual development in the Fascist era. Ezra Pound's long-term interest in anthropology and ethnography exerted a profound influence on early 20th century literary Modernism. These letters reveal the extent of the influence of Frobenius' concept of 'Paideuma' on Pound's poetic and political writings during this period and his growing engagement with the culture of Nazi Germany. Annotated throughout, the letters are supported by contextualising essays by leading Modernist scholars as well as relevant contemporary published articles by Pound himself and his leading correspondent at the Institute, the American Douglas C. Fox.
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 2 1904–1918 (The Correspondence of H.G. Wells #2)
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films. Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 1 1880–1903 (The Correspondence of H.G. Wells #1)
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films. Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 3 1919–1934 (The Correspondence of H.G. Wells #3)
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films. Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 1 1880–1903 (The Correspondence of H.G. Wells #1)
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films. Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 3 1919–1934 (The Correspondence of H.G. Wells #3)
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films. Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 2 1904–1918 (The Correspondence of H.G. Wells #2)
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films. Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volumes 1–4
by David C. SmithThis collection of H.G. Wells's correspondence draws on over 50 archives and libraries worldwide, including the papers of Wells's daughter by Amber Reeves. The book contains over 2,000 letters, and while a few are business – to publishers, agents and secretaries – the majority are much more personal. Wells's private correspondence extends from letters to President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and A.J. Balfour, to persons such as ‘Mark Benney’, who wrote novels based on his life in the slums and his time in prison. There is correspondence too with his many female friends and lovers, among them Rebecca West, Eileen Power, Gertrude Stein, Marie Stopes, Lilah MacCarthy and Dorothy Richardson. For example, a letter from Moura Budberg, with whom Wells had a long-standing affair, which announces that she is pregnant by him and about to have an abortion, reveals how an advocate of birth control is himself caught out. Wells also enjoyed correspondence with the press, particularly during the two World Wars, and with various BBC officials and people who worked on his films.Some of his letters on the controversies of free love, socialism, birth control, the Fabian Society, and the nature of the curriculum of the new London University in the 1890s are included. Interspersed chronologically with Wells's letters is a small selection of about 40 letters to Wells, where letters from him are not extant. Among these are letters from Ray Lankester, Joseph Conrad, C.G. Jung, Trotsky, Hedy Gatternigg (the woman who attempted suicide in Wells's flat), and J.C. Smuts. The letters are arranged in these periods: Volume 1 1878–1900; Volume 2 1901–1912; Volume 3 1913–1930; and Volume 4 1930–1946. H.G. Wells's works include The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and A Short History of the World (1922).
The Correspondence of Henry James and the House of Macmillan, 1877–1914: ‘All the Links in the Chain’
by Rayburn S. MooreThis is the first book to collect nearly all of the extant correspondence between Henry James and Macmillan in London and, to a lesser degree, in New York. The letters, chiefly between James and Frederick Macmillan over a period of thirty-seven years, deal primarily with business matters, but they also include comment on literary and social affairs. The editorial apparatus seeks to provide context and information sufficient to make the letters available to an academic as well as a general audience.
The correspondence of John Dryden
by Stephen Bernard John McTagueThe correspondence of John Dryden is the definitive edition of the letters of the most important playwright and poet of the late seventeenth century. He defined an age and his newly transcribed disparate correspondence is placed in the context of contemporaneous and current debates about literature, politics and religion. It is also the most important account of the relationship between an author and his bookseller of the time.The illustrated correspondence contains a full biographical, textual introduction and calendar of letters. It is transcribed diplomatically and structured chronologically, with contextualising sections about particular correspondences.The readership will be undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students and academics with an interest in seventeenth century literature, politics, religion and culture.The editor won the MLA Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters.
The correspondence of John Dryden
by Stephen Bernard John McTagueThe correspondence of John Dryden is the definitive edition of the letters of the most important playwright and poet of the late seventeenth century. He defined an age and his newly transcribed disparate correspondence is placed in the context of contemporaneous and current debates about literature, politics and religion. It is also the most important account of the relationship between an author and his bookseller of the time.The illustrated correspondence contains a full biographical, textual introduction and calendar of letters. It is transcribed diplomatically and structured chronologically, with contextualising sections about particular correspondences.The readership will be undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students and academics with an interest in seventeenth century literature, politics, religion and culture.The editor won the MLA Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters.
The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940
by Walter BenjaminCalled “the most important critic of his time” by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin has only become more influential over the years, as his work has assumed a crucial place in current debates over the interactions of art, culture, and meaning. A “natural and extraordinary talent for letter writing was one of the most captivating facets of his nature,” writes Gershom Scholem in his Foreword to this volume; and Benjamin's correspondence reveals the evolution of some of his most powerful ideas, while also offering an intimate picture of Benjamin himself and the times in which he lived. Writing at length to Scholem and Theodor Adorno, and exchanging letters with Rainer Maria Rilke, Hannah Arendt, Max Brod, and Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin elaborates on his ideas about metaphor and language. He reflects on literary figures from Kafka to Karl Kraus, and expounds his personal attitudes toward such subjects as Marxism and French national character. Providing an indispensable tool for any scholar wrestling with Benjamin’s work, The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910–1940 is a revelatory look at the man behind much of the twentieth century’s most significant criticism.
The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940
by Walter BenjaminCalled “the most important critic of his time” by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin has only become more influential over the years, as his work has assumed a crucial place in current debates over the interactions of art, culture, and meaning. A “natural and extraordinary talent for letter writing was one of the most captivating facets of his nature,” writes Gershom Scholem in his Foreword to this volume; and Benjamin's correspondence reveals the evolution of some of his most powerful ideas, while also offering an intimate picture of Benjamin himself and the times in which he lived. Writing at length to Scholem and Theodor Adorno, and exchanging letters with Rainer Maria Rilke, Hannah Arendt, Max Brod, and Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin elaborates on his ideas about metaphor and language. He reflects on literary figures from Kafka to Karl Kraus, and expounds his personal attitudes toward such subjects as Marxism and French national character. Providing an indispensable tool for any scholar wrestling with Benjamin’s work, The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910–1940 is a revelatory look at the man behind much of the twentieth century’s most significant criticism.
The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940
by Walter BenjaminCalled “the most important critic of his time” by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin has only become more influential over the years, as his work has assumed a crucial place in current debates over the interactions of art, culture, and meaning. A “natural and extraordinary talent for letter writing was one of the most captivating facets of his nature,” writes Gershom Scholem in his Foreword to this volume; and Benjamin's correspondence reveals the evolution of some of his most powerful ideas, while also offering an intimate picture of Benjamin himself and the times in which he lived. Writing at length to Scholem and Theodor Adorno, and exchanging letters with Rainer Maria Rilke, Hannah Arendt, Max Brod, and Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin elaborates on his ideas about metaphor and language. He reflects on literary figures from Kafka to Karl Kraus, and expounds his personal attitudes toward such subjects as Marxism and French national character. Providing an indispensable tool for any scholar wrestling with Benjamin’s work, The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910–1940 is a revelatory look at the man behind much of the twentieth century’s most significant criticism.
Correspondences and Contrasts in Foreign Language Pedagogy and Translation Studies (Second Language Learning and Teaching)
by Katarzyna Piątkowska and Ewa Kościałkowska-OkońskaThe book constitutes a selection of 18 papers on foreign language pedagogy (11 papers) and translation studies (9 papers). The first part of the book is devoted to foreign language pedagogy. The articles in this part focus on issues such as English as lingua franca, foreign language teacher training, the role of individual learner differences in language learning and teaching especially with respect to strategies of language learning as well as psychological and socioaffective factors. The part focusing on translation studies comprises articles devoted to a variety of topics. It places a wide range of readings within the context of varying translation domains such as translation competence, literary translation, translation strategies, translation teaching (including strategies of dictionary use) and translator training. The combination of the above aspects intends to underline the truly interdisciplinary nature of translation.
Corrupted into Song: The Complete Poems of Alvin Feinman
by Alvin Feinman Deborah Dorfman Harold Bloom James GearyAccording to Harold Bloom, "The best of Alvin Feinman's poetry is as good as anything by a twentieth-century American. His work achieves the greatness of the American sublime." Yet, in part because he published so sparsely, Feinman remained little-read and largely unknown when he died in 2008. This definitive edition of Feinman's complete work, which includes fifty-seven previously published poems and thirty-nine unpublished poems discovered among his manuscripts, introduces a new generation of readers to the lyrical intensity and philosophical ambition of this major American poet. Harold Bloom, a lifelong friend of Feinman, provides a preface in which he examines Feinman's work in the context of the strongest poets of his generation—John Ashbery, James Merrill, and A. R. Ammons—while the introduction by James Geary, who studied with Feinman at Bennington College, presents a biographical and critical sketch of this remarkable poet and teacher. Corrupted into Song restores Feinman's work to its rightful place alongside that of poets like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, with whom his poetry and poetics have so much in common.
Corrupted into Song: The Complete Poems of Alvin Feinman (PDF)
by Alvin Feinman Deborah Dorfman Harold Bloom James GearyAccording to Harold Bloom, "The best of Alvin Feinman's poetry is as good as anything by a twentieth-century American. His work achieves the greatness of the American sublime." Yet, in part because he published so sparsely, Feinman remained little-read and largely unknown when he died in 2008. This definitive edition of Feinman's complete work, which includes fifty-seven previously published poems and thirty-nine unpublished poems discovered among his manuscripts, introduces a new generation of readers to the lyrical intensity and philosophical ambition of this major American poet. Harold Bloom, a lifelong friend of Feinman, provides a preface in which he examines Feinman's work in the context of the strongest poets of his generation—John Ashbery, James Merrill, and A. R. Ammons—while the introduction by James Geary, who studied with Feinman at Bennington College, presents a biographical and critical sketch of this remarkable poet and teacher. Corrupted into Song restores Feinman's work to its rightful place alongside that of poets like Hart Crane and Wallace Stevens, with whom his poetry and poetics have so much in common.
Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment
by Charles TaylorA major new work by Charles Taylor: the long-awaited follow-up to The Language Animal, exploring the Romantic poetics central to his theory of language.The Language Animal, Charles Taylor’s 2016 account of human linguistic capacity, was a revelation, toppling scholarly conventions and illuminating our most fundamental selves. But, as Taylor noted in that work, there was much more to be said. Cosmic Connections continues Taylor’s exploration of Romantic and post-Romantic responses to disenchantment and innovations in language.Reacting to the fall of cosmic orders that were at once metaphysical and moral, the Romantics used the symbols and music of poetry to recover contact with reality beyond fragmented existence. They sought to overcome disenchantment and groped toward a new meaning of life. Their accomplishments have been extended by post-Romantic generations into the present day. Taylor’s magisterial work takes us from Hölderlin, Novalis, Keats, and Shelley to Hopkins, Rilke, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé, and on to Eliot, Miłosz, and beyond.In seeking deeper understanding and a different orientation to life, the language of poetry is not merely a pleasurable presentation of doctrines already elaborated elsewhere. Rather, Taylor insists, poetry persuades us through the experience of connection. The resulting conviction is very different from that gained through the force of argument. By its very nature, poetry’s reasoning will often be incomplete, tentative, and enigmatic. But at the same time, its insight is too moving—too obviously true—to be ignored.
The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the Twentieth Century
by N. Katherine HaylesFrom the central concept of the field—which depicts the world as a mutually interactive whole, with each part connected to every other part by an underlying field— have come models as diverse as quantum mathematics and Saussure’s theory of language. In The Cosmic Web, N. Katherine Hayles seeks to establish the scope of the field concept and to assess its importance for contemporary thought. She then explores the literary strategies that are attributable directly or indirectly to the new paradigm; among the texts at which she looks closely are Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Nabokov’s Ada, D. H. Lawrence’s early novels and essays, Borges’s fiction, and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.
The Cosmic Zoom: Scale, Knowledge, and Mediation
by Zachary HortonIn The Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, a view of two people enjoying a picnic zooms up and away to show their surroundings, moving progressively farther into space, then zooms back in for a close-up of the hand of the picnicker, travelling deep into the microscopic realm. This is one of the most iconic examples of the “cosmic zoom,” a trope that has influenced countless media forms over the past seventy years. Horton uses the cosmic zoom as a starting point to develop a cross-disciplinary theory of scale as mediated difference. He considers the origins of our notions of scale, how scalar mediation functions differently in analog and digital modes, and how cosmic zoom media has influenced scientific and popular views of the world. Analyzing literature, film, digital media, and database history, Horton establishes a much-needed framework for thinking about scale across multiple domains and disciplines.