Cease To Exist

Cease To Exist
Author: Charles Tex Watson
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2019-08-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9781083079879

Just included in the Los Angeles Times' "Making sense of the Manson family murders" reading list! An impressionable 22 year old kid from a small town in Texas comes to California like many thousands of others: to seek the freedom, good times, and easy living that the culture of the decade promised. After bumming around for a time, enjoying his new freedom from parents and a heavily Methodist small town, he picks up a hitchhiker on Sunset Blvd: Dennis Wilson, drummer of The Beach Boys, who invites him back to his home where there is a party going on. At the center is a gentle, charismatic hippie with a guitar, singing to a crowd of Hollywood's elite who all seem entranced by this man's every word.What he didn't know was that this guy named Charlie -whom the Hollywood jet-set embraced as a purveyor of good dope and easy girls- was a violent psychotic with extraordinary abilities for seduction and an apocalyptic vision of himself as Jesus Christ. Within eighteen short months, the young Texan would slaughter seven innocent people in cold blood for his guru Charles Manson in some of the most infamous crimes of the last 100 years. This is the first person account of descent into the madness of the Manson Family, directly through the eyes Manson's 'right-hand man' -and murderer of all seven of the Tate-LaBianca victims- Charles "Tex" Watson. Through 'Tex' Watson's eyes, readers will experience the Manson Family from a perspective that is not only authentic, unique, and chillingly close, but which sheds unexplored light on the social and political climate of the times and its contribution to the conditions that made such an unthinkable thing almost inevitable. Following the 'turn on, tune in, drop out' credo of the day, young Charles was on a quest for pleasure and freedom over the hard work and Christian values of his parents. On his own in LA, he was relatively easy prey for a charismatic cult leader dishing out plentiful psychoactive drugs and an army of young girls, along with frequent hints that he is perhaps the Jesus Christ that Watson's parents had pushed him to find. Meeting Charlie Manson and his 'Family' through a major celebrity -drummer Dennis Wilson- made the situation all the more enticing. This is the Manson saga from a unique perspective; one that is brimming with heretofore only partially known or entirely unknown facts, and which doesn't have to fictionalize anything or employ gimmicky storytelling to remain engrossing. It provides insight into seductive the promises of Manson and the adolescent fantasy world he created before turning to murderous hatred against the establishment. . At its heart, it's the cautionary tale of a young man's downward spiral to self-annihilation as he gets caught up in the times -and the events that forever changed those times. On this journey readers will encounter a series of historical pop-culture figures, bizarre counter-culture characters and events, and will witness firsthand the death throes of the most dynamic, exciting, and influential decade in American history. It also offers a front seat view to the turning point in Manson's pivot from peace and love to enraged vengeful blood lust: the perceived theft of Manson's song "Cease to Exist" by The Beach Boys. Originally released by a Christian publisher in the '70s under the title "Will You Die For Me?" the book remains -along with police-procedural "Helter Skelter"- by far the best account to understand the tragic events of August 1969. Charles Watson does not receive any benefit from this book other than the hope that others will look at his story as a cautionary tale, and not go down the path that destroyed the lives of seven human beings, arguably along with his own. "Charles "Tex" Watson is perhaps Manson's best piece of work, going from high school track star to knife wielding maniac in 18 LSD and belladonna soaked months"-John

When We Cease to Understand the World

When We Cease to Understand the World
Author: Benjamín Labatut
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2020-09-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1782276130

SELECTED FOR BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER READING LIST 'A monstrous and brilliant book' Philip Pullman 'Wholly mesmerising and revelatory... Completely fascinating' William Boyd Sometimes discovery brings destruction When We Cease to Understand the World shows us great minds striking out into dangerous, uncharted terrain. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger: these are among the luminaries into whose troubled lives we are thrust as they grapple with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, they alienate friends and lovers, they descend into isolated states of madness. Some of their discoveries revolutionise our world for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. With breakneck pace and wondrous detail, Benjamín Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to break open the stories of scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

Why Does the World Exist

Why Does the World Exist
Author: Jim Holt
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2012-07-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0871404095

In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.

Death and Nonexistence

Death and Nonexistence
Author: Palle Yourgrau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019-07-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190053968

The dead are gone. They count for nothing. Yet, if we count the dead, their number is staggering. And they account for most of what is great about civilization. Compared to the greatness of the dead, the accomplishments of the living are paltry. Which is it then: are the dead still there to be counted or not? And if they are still there, where exactly is "there"? We are confronted with the ancient paradox of nonexistence bequeathed us by Parmenides. The mystery of death is the mystery of nonexistence. A successful attempt to provide a metaphysics of death, then, must resolve the paradox of nonexistence. That is the aim of this study. At the same time, the metaphysics of death, of ceasing to exist, must serve as an account of birth, of coming to exist; the primary thesis of this book is that this demands going beyond existence and nonexistence to include what underlies both, which one can call, following tradition, "being." The dead and the unborn are therefore objects that lack existence but not being. Nonexistent objects - not corpses, or skeletons, or memories, all of which are existent objects - are what are "there" to be counted when we count the dead.

You Exist Too Much

You Exist Too Much
Author: Zaina Arafat
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2020-06-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1948226510

A “provocative and seductive debut” of desire and doubleness that follows the life of a young Palestinian American woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities as she endeavors to lead an authentic life (O, The Oprah Magazine). On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12–year–old Palestinian–American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter. Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East—from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine—Zaina Arafat’s debut novel traces her protagonist’s progress from blushing teen to sought–after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as “love addiction.” In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her. Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings—for love, and a place to call home.

The Collected Dialogues of Plato

The Collected Dialogues of Plato
Author: Plato
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 1770
Release: 1961-10-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1400835860

All the writings of Plato generally considered to be authentic are here presented in the only complete one-volume Plato available in English. The editors set out to choose the contents of this collected edition from the work of the best British and American translators of the last 100 years, ranging from Jowett (1871) to scholars of the present day. The volume contains prefatory notes to each dialogue, by Edith Hamilton; an introductory essay on Plato's philosophy and writings, by Huntington Cairns; and a comprehensive index which seeks, by means of cross references, to assist the reader with the philosophical vocabulary of the different translators.

AQA AS Philosophy

AQA AS Philosophy
Author: Dan Cardinal
Publisher: Hodder Education
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2014-10-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 147183509X

Help students navigate key concepts and philosophical arguments and develop their own points of view with our clear, engaging AS Philosophy textbook, written for the new AQA AS Philosophy specification Written by the authors of Philosophy in Focus, this book covers both units, Epistemology and Philosophy of Religion, and supports students in understanding difficult material through a clear style and visual examples of concepts and ideas. - Encourages students to engage with the anthology texts with clear prompts to read the relevant extracts, helpfully provided at the back of the book for ease of teaching and studying - Cements knowledge and understanding of key philosophical ideas through varied activities - Develops analytical skills and students' own philosophical viewpoints through practical tasks - Stretches students with clearly signposted extension material Contents Introduction Introduction to Descartes' Meditations Section 1: Epistemology Section 2: Philosophy of Religion Section 3: Preparing for the exam 3.1 How to approach the exam 3.2 How to read philosophy Section 4: Anthology extracts Glossary Notes Selected bibliography Index