Morpheus Possessed: The Conflict Between Dream and Reality

Morpheus Possessed: The Conflict Between Dream and Reality
Author: W. E. Gutman
Publisher: CCB Publishing
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2015-08-09
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1771432411

Morpheus Possessed is a book about dreams. In it, the author, who unabashedly shares some of his most graphic and bizarre visions, asks: Do we dream the life we live? Or are we the misshapen leftovers of someone else’s wild imagination? Are the memories we erect and store along the way mere mental constructs lacking tangible reality? If life is a wakeful dream, is reality the lethal mirror image of the dreams we weave? One thing is clear: When we cease to dream, all that we are ceases to be. Everything else is a tawdry cliché.

The Nightly Act of Dreaming

The Nightly Act of Dreaming
Author: Ryan Curtis Friesen
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2019-05-28
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 178284659X

The search for a shared practice of storytelling around which a popular study of cognitive narratology might form need look no further than our nightly experience of dreams. Dreams and memories are inseparable, complicating and building upon one another, reminding us that knowledge of ourselves based on our memories relies upon fictionalized narratives we create for ourselves. Psychologists refer to confabulation, the creation of false or distorted memories about oneself and the world we inhabit, albeit without any conscious intention to deceive. This process and narrative, inherent in the dreamlife of all people, is at odds with the daily menu of cultural myths and politicized fictions fed to the Western world through print and social media, and for which there is constant divisiveness and disagreement. Cognitive Narratology and the Shared Identity of Myth uses insights gained from the scientific study of dreaming to explain how the shared experience of dreamlife can work in service to the common good. Primary texts and literary works, chosen for their influence on contemporary thinking, provide a rationale and historical background: From Artemidorus (a professional diviner) and Aristotle; to the Church fathers Tertullian, St. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Sinesius of Cyrene; to The Wanderer (Old English poem) and Chaucers Book of the Duchess; to Coleridges writings and R. L. Stevensons A Chapter on Dreams; and to twentieth-century dream theory, and dream use in film. The purpose is to enable readers through subjective self-analysis to recognize what they share with their fellow dreamers; shared identity in formation of a shared act of dreaming creation is a universal across centuries and throughout Western culture, albeit currently misrepresented and rarely acted upon.

Alternate Americas

Alternate Americas
Author: M. Keith Booker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2006-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0313025142

For more than 50 years, science fiction films have been among the most important and successful products of American cinema, and are worthy of study for that reason alone. On a deeper level, the genre has reflected important themes, concerns and developments in American society, so that a history of science fiction film also serves as a cultural history of America over the past half century. M. Keith Booker has selected fifteen of the most successful and innovative science fiction films of all time, and examined each of them at length—from cultural, technical and cinematic perspectives—to see where they came from and what they meant for the future of cinema and for America at large. From Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Star Wars, from Blade Runner to The Matrix, these landmark films have expressed our fears and dreams, our abilities and our deficiencies. In this deep-seeking investigation, we can all find something of ourselves that we recognize, as well as something that we've never recognized before. The focus on a fairly small number of landmark films allows detailed attention to genuinely original movies, including: Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Robocop, The Abyss, Independence Day, and The Matrix. This book is ideal for general readers interested in science fiction and film.

The Sandman: The kindly ones

The Sandman: The kindly ones
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Death
ISBN:

An attempt to summon and imprison Death, instead results in the capture of her brother, Morpheus, the Sandman, who after making his escape must regain the tools of his powers. Follow the King of Dreams, brother of the Endless, as he travels through myriad landscapes to meet with the gods, demons, and others who inhabit Earth and the other realms.

Openness of Comics

Openness of Comics
Author: Maaheen Ahmed
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2016-04-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1496805941

Never before have comics seemed so popular or diversified, proliferating across a broad spectrum of genres, experimenting with a variety of techniques, and gaining recognition as a legitimate, rich form of art. Maaheen Ahmed examines this trend by taking up philosopher Umberto Eco's notion of the open work of art, whereby the reader—or listener or viewer, as the case may be—is offered several possibilities of interpretation in a cohesive narrative and aesthetic structure. Ahmed delineates the visual, literary, and other medium-specific features used by comics to form open rather than closed works, methods by which comics generate or limit meaning as well as increase and structure the scope of reading into a work. Ahmed analyzes a diverse group of British, American, and European (Franco-Belgian, German, Finnish) comics. She treats examples from the key genre categories of fictionalized memoirs and biographies, adventure and superhero, noir, black comedy and crime, science fiction and fantasy. Her analyses demonstrate the ways in which comics generate openness by concentrating on the gaps essential to the very medium of comics, the range of meaning ensconced within words and images as well as their interaction with each other. The analyzed comics, extending from famous to lesser known works, include Will Eisner's The Contract with God Trilogy, Jacques Tardi's It Was the War of the Trenches, Hugo Pratt's The Ballad of the Salty Sea, Edmond Baudoin's The Voyage, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum, Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, Moebius's Arzach, Yslaire's Cloud 99 series, and Jarmo Mäkilä's Taxi Ride to Van Gogh's Ear.

The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia

The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia
Author: Phil Jimenez
Publisher: Del Rey
Total Pages: 530
Release: 2011-08-17
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 0307779920

WONDER NO MORE—GET ALL THE FACTS ON DC COMICS’ FOREMOST SUPER HEROINE! She’s as beautiful as Aphrodite and as wise as Athena, stronger then Hercules and swifter than Hermes. Blessed at birth by the gods themselves, Princess Diana left an idyllic island paradise ruled by wise and brave women to bring the peace, love, and nobility of the Amazons to the tumultuous world of humankind. In January 1942, Wonder Woman took the world of comics—and its pantheon of superpowered males—by storm. Wielding her impervious silver bracelets and golden Lasso of Truth, she’s battled forces of evil from the Axis powers to a slew of super-villains worldwide, teamed up with the likes of Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and the Flash, and become a high-flying feminist icon and pop-culture superstar. Now, for the first time in more than thirty years, here’s a definitive A-to-Z volume that draws together all the knowledge about the star-spangled, action-packed history of Wonder Woman. In more than 400 fact-packed pages you’ll find • the complete story of Wonder Woman’s origins, as imagined and reinterpreted by generations of comics writers—including her groundbreaking creator, William Moulton Marston • biographies of every major character in Wonder Woman’s universe, including her mother, Hippolyta; sister, Donna Troy; and mortal ally Steve Trevor—as well as such classic foes as Ares, Cheetah, Hades, and the members of Villainy Inc. • classic black-and-white comic book artwork throughout • two sixteen-page full-color artwork inserts—plus a dazzling original cover illustration by fan-favorite artist Adam Hughes Written by veteran Wonder Woman artist and writer Phil Jimenez and comics historian John Wells, The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia is the ultimate archive, proving that die-hard devotees of the gorgeous go-to goddess don’t have to visit Paradise Island for a taste of heaven on earth. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Sandman

The Sandman
Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Titan Books (UK)
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1994
Genre: Comic books, strips, etc
ISBN: 9781852865771

The story of the search for Sandman's missing brother, Destruction, and the consequences of that endeavour. Sandman and his sister Delirium have to travel through the waking world to find the missing member of the Endless family. Sandman also manages to resolve his relationship with his son.