Architecture and Fire

Architecture and Fire
Author: Stamatis Zografos
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2019-06-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1787353729

Architecture and Fire develops a conceptual reassessment of architectural conservation through the study of the intimate relationship between architecture and fire. Stamatis Zografos expands on the general agreement among many theorists that the primitive hut was erected around fire – locating fire as the first memory of architecture, at the very beginning of architectural evolution. Following the introduction, Zografos analyses the archive and the renewed interest in the study of archives through the psychoanalysis of Jacques Derrida. He moves on to explore the ambivalent nature of fire, employing the conflicting philosophies of Gaston Bachelard and Henri Bergson to do so, before discussing architectural conservation and the relationship between listed buildings, the function of archives, and the preservation of memories from the past. The following chapter investigates how architecture evolves by absorbing and accommodating fire, while the penultimate chapter examines the critical moment of architectural evolution: the destruction of buildings by fire, with a focus on the tragic disaster at London’s Grenfell Tower in 2017. Zografos concludes with thoughts on Freud’s drive theory. He argues the practice of architectural conservation is an expression of the life drive and a simultaneous repression of the death drive, which suggests controlled destruction should be an integral part of the conservation agenda. Architecture and Fire is founded in new interdisciplinary research navigating across the boundaries of architecture, conservation, archival theory, classical mythology, evolutionary theory, thermodynamics, philosophy and psychoanalysis. It will be of interest to readers working in and around these disciplines.

Mnemosyne's Altar

Mnemosyne's Altar
Author: D. L. Bradley
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2015-01-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1312864095

Born in Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression, the fictionalized author narrates for his children the story of his life in the Twentieth Century. His account begins with the loss of innocence during childhood and concludes with realization of his pending last moments. It is an account which moves him from a life among a little known religious sect, The Brethren of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, through some of the defining moments of the Twentieth Century as experienced by one who both reflects about, and acts upon that which is happening.

Instructions for the Netherworld

Instructions for the Netherworld
Author: Alberto Bernabé Pajares
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004163719

Orphic gold tables are key documents for the knowledge of rites and beliefs of Orphics, an atypical group that configured a highly original creed and that influenced powerfully over other Greek writers and thinkers. The recent discovery of some tablets has forced a noteworthy modification of some points of view and a review ofthe different hypothesis proposed about them. The book presents a complete edition of the texts, their translation and some fundamental keys for their interpretation, in an attempt at updating our current knowledge on Orphic ideas about the soul and the Afterlife stated in those texts. The work is improved with an appendix of iconographic annotations in which some plastic representations in drawings are reproduced related to the universe of tablets, selected and commented on by Ricardo Olmos.

Greek Memories

Greek Memories
Author: Luca Castagnoli
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 445
Release: 2019-01-24
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1108691331

Greek Memories aims to identify and examine the central concepts underlying the theories and practices of memory in the Greek world, from the archaic period to Late Antiquity, across all the main literary genres, and to trace some fundamental changes in these theories and practices. It explores the interaction and development of different 'disciplinary' approaches to memory in Ancient Greece, which will enable a fuller and deeper understanding of the whole phenomenon, and of its specific manifestations. This collection of papers contributes to enriching the current scholarly discussion by refocusing it on the question of how various theories and practices of memory, recollection, and forgetting play themselves out in specific texts and authors from Ancient Greece, within a wide chronological span (from the Homeric poems to Plotinus), and across a broad range of genres and disciplines (epic and lyric poetry, tragedy, comedy, historiography, philosophy and scientific prose treatises).

The Comparative Perspective

The Comparative Perspective
Author: Andrea Ercolani
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2016-03-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110428717

The book is the third and concluding part of the investigation on Submerged literature in ancient Greece and beyond. The book expands the inquiry to a comparative perspective, in order to test the validity and usefulness of the hermeneutical approach in other fields and cultures. The comparative case studies deal with gnostic text, Qumran texts, the Hebrew Bible, Early Christianity, Cuneiform Texts, Arabic-Islamic literature, ancient Rome, Medieval China, and contemporary southern Italy. The volume tackles themes and questions relating to author and authorship, cultural translation and transmission, the interaction between orality and literacy, myth and folktale. A particular emphasis is given to anthropological themes and methods. In this vein, the book further explores dynamics of emergence and submersion in ancient Greece, including cultural trends promoted respectively by Sparta and Athens. The volume provides the reader with a wide range of tools and methodological suggestions to reconstruct literary phenomena and cultural processes in a given historical epoch and context, as well as offering new insights for both classical and comparative studies.

Myths of the Underworld Journey

Myths of the Underworld Journey
Author: Radcliffe G. Edmonds, III
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2004-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781139456005

This book was first published in 2004. Plato, Aristophanes and the creators of the 'Orphic' gold tablets employ the traditional tale of a journey to the realm of the dead to redefine, within the mythic narrative, the boundaries of their societies. Rather than being the relics of a faded ritual tradition or the products of Orphic influence, these myths can only reveal their meanings through a close analysis of the specific ways in which each author makes use of the tradition. For these authors, myth is an agonistic discourse, neither a kind of sacred dogma nor a mere literary diversion, but rather a flexible tool that serves the wide variety of uses to which it is put. The traditional tale of the journey to the Underworld in Greek mythology is neither simple nor single, but each telling reveals a perspective on the cosmos, a reflection of the order of this world through the image of the other.

Gods and Goddesses of Greece and Rome (Reference)

Gods and Goddesses of Greece and Rome (Reference)
Author: Brian Kinsey
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2012-01-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0761479511

This title explores the many gods, goddesses, and mythological figures that have pervaded human culture from prehistoric times through today.

Dreamgates

Dreamgates
Author: Robert Moss
Publisher: New World Library
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2010-09-24
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1577318927

A world-renowned authority on the history, uses, and power of dreaming, Robert Moss guides neophyte and experienced adventurers alike to open their own dreamgates. Through these gates await otherwise inaccessible realms of reality as well as soul remembering — the “recovering of knowledge that belonged to us before we came into this life experience.” Exercises, meditations, and the mesmerizing tales of fellow dream travelers outline Moss’s Active Dreaming technique, a kind of shamanic soul-flight that offers “frequent flyers” a passport between worlds. In this world beyond physical reality, Moss points to wellsprings of healing, creativity, and insight. As readers move into these different ways of seeing and knowing, they may also communicate with spiritual guides and departed loved ones in ways that transform their everyday lives.

Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism

Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism
Author: Stanley E. Porter
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 632
Release: 2012-10-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004234764

In Christian Origins and Hellenistic Judaism, Stanley E. Porter and Andrew W. Pitts assemble an international team of scholars whose work has focused on reconstructing the social matrix for earliest Christianity through reference to Hellenistic Judaism and its literary forms.

The Hidden Secrets of Water

The Hidden Secrets of Water
Author: Paolo Consigli
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Total Pages: 540
Release: 2017-09-19
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1786781107

There is no more important substance on earth than water: it is the source of life, one of the four classic elements and makes up over 70% of our bodies and our planet. This remarkable new book allows us to discover and understand more about this most common of molecules. Water is the most common, and also the most important substance on Earth. We are hypnotically attracted to its simplicity, purity and transparency, as well as its astonishing physical behaviour, structural vibrations and ordered flow, not to mention its amazing therapeutic virtues. Despite its prevalence, however, this astonishing molecule still harbours many mysteries. Through the ages, not only scientists but also philosophers and mystics have sought to interpret the fact that our lives are completely dependent on water. They have drawn parallels with spiritual growth: water is always ready to change, to adapt itself, to create and transform; it could be seen as nature’s guide to improving and renewing ourselves in wisdom and serenity. By going further than just describing its attributes and celebrating its physical properties, The Hidden Secrets of Water seeks to uncover and understand the true depths of this most enigmatic of elements, taking the reader on a journey of discovery that covers the whole spectrum of water’s influence, traversing scientific, social and spiritual planes. From the Ancient Chinese concept of Yin and Yang to numerical and literary symbolism in the Torah, the Fibonacci sequence to string theory, this innovative, intelligent and far-reaching exploration seamlessly brings together modern science and ancient wisdom, technology and humanism, logic and mysticism in a way that will inspire and stimulate all.