The Tao of Jack Bauer

The Tao of Jack Bauer
Author: Steven Keslowitz
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2009-03
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1440120625

"As [a] post-9/11 television thriller, 24 has addressed critical issues relating to striking the proper balance between maintaining our civil liberties and ensuring our national security ... [This] study of Jack Bauer's influence in society [examines questions such as]: What does Jack Bauer teach us about torture? Does 24 glorify torture or does the series take a more nuanced approach to the issue? How can we maintain our civil liberties in the age of terrorism? How can we best fight terrorists while maintaining our core values? Is Jack Bauer a lawbreaker or a lawmaker?"--Amazon.com.

How to Justify Torture

How to Justify Torture
Author: Alex Adams
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2019-09-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 191224859X

From Batman Begins to Tom Clancy, How to Justify Torture shows how contemporary culture creates simplified narratives about good guy torturers and bad guy victims, how dangerous this is politically, and what we can do to challenge it. If there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, and you had the person responsible in your custody, would you torture them to get the information needed to stop the bomb exploding, preventing a devastating terrorist attack and saving thousands of lives? This is the ticking bomb scenario -- a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified. In How to Justify Torture, cultural critic Alex Adams examines the ticking bomb scenario in-depth, looking at the ways it is presented in films, novels, and TV shows -- from Batman Begins and Dirty Harry to French military thrillers and home invasion narratives. By critiquing its argument step by step, this short, provocative book reminds us that, despite what the ticking bomb scenario will have us believe, torture can never be justified.

Why You Better Call Saul

Why You Better Call Saul
Author: Steven Keslowitz
Publisher: QuillPop Books
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2017-04-21
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0998895121

Better Call Saul chronicles the transformation of a decent, likable guy named Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman, the morally bankrupt lawyer we met on Breaking Bad. Captivating and funny, the show provides far more than a few binge-watched hours of entertainment, raising questions about the legal system and human nature itself. Why You Better Call Saul: What Our Favorite TV Lawyer Says About Life, Love, and Scheming Your Way to Acquittal and a Large Cash Payout examines the many faces of our favorite fictional lawyer, as well as other characters in the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe: ls Saul Goodman a persona that Jimmy invents to attract a particular kind of client, or does he reflect Jimmy's true self? To what extent does Jimmy/Saul bend - or break - the rules to which attorneys are bound?What do Jimmy McGill and Mike Ehrmantraut have in common with Dexter Morgan? What do Jimmy's most important relationships teach us about the effect of outside influences on one's psyche? How do Saul Goodman and Walter White break free of societal constraints? How does Saul manipulate the media in order to promote his legal services? Is he defined by his tacky advertisements? And much more ... About the Author STEVEN KESLOWITZ is a practicing attorney and pop culture expert. He is the author of three other books - The World According to the Simpsons, The Tao of Jack Bauer, and From Poland to Brooklyn -- and several journal articles focused on the intersection of law and pop culture. Please visit his website at StevenKeslowitz.com

Remote Warfare

Remote Warfare
Author: Rebecca A. Adelman
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1452960984

Considers how people have confronted, challenged, and resisted remote warfare Drone warfare is now a routine, if not predominant, aspect of military engagement. Although this method of delivering violence at a distance has been a part of military arsenals for two decades, scholarly debate on remote warfare writ large has remained stuck in tired debates about practicality, efficacy, and ethics. Remote Warfare broadens the conversation, interrogating the cultural and political dimensions of distant warfare and examining how various stakeholders have responded to the reality of state-sponsored remote violence. The essays here represent a panoply of viewpoints, revealing overlooked histories of remoteness, novel methodologies, and new intellectual challenges. From the story arc of Homeland to redefining the idea of a “warrior,” these thirteen pieces consider the new nature of surveillance, similarities between killing with drones and gaming, literature written by veterans, and much more. Timely and provocative, Remote Warfare makes significant and lasting contributions to our understanding of drones and the cultural forces that shape and sustain them. Contributors: Syed Irfan Ashraf, U of Peshawar, Pakistan; Jens Borrebye Bjering, U of Southern Denmark; Annika Brunck, U of Tübingen; David A. Buchanan, U.S. Air Force Academy; Owen Coggins, Open U; Andreas Immanuel Graae, U of Southern Denmark; Brittany Hirth, Dickinson State U; Tim Jelfs, U of Groningen; Ann-Katrine S. Nielsen, Aarhus U; Nike Nivar Ortiz, U of Southern California; Michael Richardson, U of New South Wales; Kristin Shamas, U of Oklahoma; Sajdeep Soomal; Michael Zeitlin, U of British Columbia.

Political Torture in Popular Culture

Political Torture in Popular Culture
Author: Alex Adams
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2016-06-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317289382

Political Torture in Popular Culture argues that the literary, filmic, and popular cultural representation of political torture has been one of the defining dimensions of the torture debate that has taken place in the course of the post-9/11 global war on terrorism. The book argues that cultural representations provide a vital arena in which political meaning is generated, negotiated, and contested. Adams explores whether liberal democracies can ever legitimately perpetrate torture, contrasting assertions that torture can function as a legitimate counterterrorism measure with human rights-based arguments that torture is never morally permissible. He examines the philosophical foundations of pro- and anti-torture positions, looking at their manifestations in a range of literary, filmic and popular cultural texts, and assesses the material effects of these representations. Literary novels, televisual texts, films, and critical theoretical discourse are all covered, focusing on the ways that aesthetic and textual strategies are mobilised to create specific political effects. This book is the first sustained analysis of the torture debate and the role that cultural narratives and representations play within it. It will be of great use to scholars interested in the emerging canon of post-9/11 cultural texts about torture, as well as scholars and students working in politics, history, geography, human rights, international relations, and terrorism studies, literary studies, cultural studies, and film studies.

Reading Tao Yuanming

Reading Tao Yuanming
Author: Wendy Swartz
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2008
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Reclusion -- "Personality" -- Literary Reception, Part I: -- Literary Reception, Part II -- Conclusion -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- Harvard East Asian Monographs.

The World According to the Simpsons

The World According to the Simpsons
Author: Steven Keslowitz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2006
Genre: Humor
ISBN:

This entertaining and informative book is a fun and intelligent look at how our society is reflected in the hit TV show The Simpsons, and how The Simpsons is reflected in society.

The Transport of Reading

The Transport of Reading
Author: Robert Ashmore
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Chinese poetry
ISBN: 9780674053212

"This book uses questions concerning address and understanding in Tao Qian's poetry as a lens through which to explore both the poet and the cultures of reading and interpretation of the Six Dynasties classicist tradition"--Provided by publisher.

Strategic Reading Level 1 Student's Book

Strategic Reading Level 1 Student's Book
Author: Jack C. Richards
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2012-02-13
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0521281121

Strategic Reading Second edition is a three-level series designed to develop reading, fluency, vocabulary-building, and critical-thinking skills. Strategic Reading Level 1 is a reading skills book that contains twelve thematic units, each with three high interest readings. All readings come from authentic sources and have been slightly adapted to be appropriate for study by intermediate-level students. Exercise material surrounding the readings builds students' vocabulary and develops their reading and critical thinking skills.

The Digital Dystopias of Black Mirror and Electric Dreams

The Digital Dystopias of Black Mirror and Electric Dreams
Author: Steven Keslowitz
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476678685

This critical examination of two dystopian television series--Black Mirror and Electric Dreams--focuses on pop culture depictions of technology and its impact on human existence. Representations of a wide range of modern and futuristic technologies are explored, from early portrayals of artificial intelligence (Rossum's Universal Robots, 1921) to digital consciousness transference as envisioned in Black Mirror's "San Junipero." These representations reflect societal anxieties about unfettered technological development and how a world infused with invasive artificial intelligence might redefine life and death, power and control. The impact of social media platforms is considered in the contexts of modern-day communication and political manipulation.