David Eldridges new version of Ibsens classic play; published to coincide with the production at the Royal Exchange Theatre; Manchester.When the lighthouse keepers daughter Ellida meets the widower Dr Wangel; she tries to put her long-lost first love far behind her and begin a new life as a wife and stepmother. But the tide is turning; an English ship is coming down the fjord; and the undercurrents threaten to drag a whole family beneath the surface in this passionate and sweeping drama. Ellida must choose between the values of the land: solidity and reliability against those of the sea: mystery and fluidity. Ibsens lyrical masterpiece includes powerful symbolism and supernatural overtones. Similar to Hedda Gabler and A Dolls House; The Lady from the Sea looks at the constrained social position of women; exploring themes of choice; marriage; responsibility and freedom. David Eldridges translation is sensitive to Ibsens language; subtle and faithful; and makes this classic play accessible to the English reader without compromising any of the originals intensely poetic and atmospheric tone.
#2605453 in eBooks 2013-12-10 2013-12-10File Name: B00GMIUFH2
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ldquo;Art starts when things get strange.rdquo; P. 100By WayneAlva Noe; In Strange Tools; brings us through the semiotics of writing (ldquo;Art is writing ourselvesrdquo; p. 206)); a strange tool (not merely functional) of Noersquo;s creativity (ldquo;Art looks like technology. It is useless technology; works of art are strange toolsrdquo; p. 64); putting on display the aesthetical and philosophical engagement with the problem of what is art; what is philosophy; what is human nature. He presents this problem as a kind of solution; not as product or as a goal reached; but as a reorganizational experience of what we have known as true about ourselves and the world; toward a new creation of understanding ourselves differently from before; more richly and meaningfully as experiencing a new reality of ourselves and our world. He expresses how this creative process is the domain not only of art (not just as aesthetics); but also of philosophy (not just as intellect).Art and philosophy at their core both put our known selves on display from a new; previously unknown perspective to a greater creative capacity of appreciation; understanding and richness of ourselves and our world. This is the Kantian beautiful (sublime) of Alva Noersquo;s display of the similar resonance and power of art and philosophy to transform our lives. ldquo;Art is disruptive and destabilizing; and also . . . a mode of investigation; a form of research aiming at transformation and reorganization . . . a philosophical practicerdquo; (p. 73) Art in John Deweyrsquo;s image is ldquo;a transaction of doing and undergoing.rdquo; (p. 78)ldquo;Consciousness is not a neural event inside us . . . experiences are temporally extended patterns of active engagement between whole living being and their worlds (including; I might add; their social world). As Francisco Varela and Evan Thompson write: brain; body and world make consciousness happen.rdquo; (p. 124) ldquo;Dewey said: art is experience . . . itrsquo;s about what we do with the art objects . . . the work of art.rdquo; (p. 133) ldquo;Art stands forth for youmdash;as Heidegger might say; it shines ndash;as exemplary . . . it affords you an experience.rdquo; (p. 205).To progress to deeper levels of Noersquo;s project is to pay even greater attention to the prodigious notes at the end of his work; Strange Tools 2.0; where we find his interactions with Heidegger; Kant and deeper philosophical and aesthetic issues.He refers to Heideggerrsquo;s classical expression of his phenomenological position in ldquo;The Origin of the Work of Artrdquo; as how we encounter Van Goghrsquo;s painting of the pair of shoes: ldquo;The painting spoke. In the vicinity of the work we were suddenly somewhere else than we usually tend to be . . . the art work lets us know what shoes [a piece of equipment] are in truth . . . the equipmentality of equipment first genuinely arrives at its appearance through the work and only in the work.rdquo; (pp.34-35) Heidegger brings us to phenomenology of experience of the work as objective equipment which also has an effect on our experiencemdash;ldquo;somewhere else than we usually tend to be.rdquo; However he still does not articulate the full process of how work is primarily a singularity; a unique nonrepresentational event of becoming based not on the equivocity of the identity of Being which privileges the anthropocentric; but on the univocity of difference as being based on immanence; multiplicity; virtuality; and the creation of nonrepresentational concepts.There is a similar problem with Kant regarding the aesthetic in ldquo;The Critique of Judgmentrdquo; which Noe affirmatively quotes: ldquo;When he puts a thing on a pedestal and calls it beautiful; he demands the same delight from others. He judges not merely for himself but for all men and then speaks of beauty as if it were a property of things.rdquo; (S212) Noe says about this; ldquo;If you try to deny the claims to universality implied in our aesthetic judgments; the you lose a grip on the phenomenal itself. This is Kantrsquo;s fundamental insight.rdquo; (p. 261) Again uniqueness of experience is subjugated to the universal and the representational; the claim of truth of aesthetic judgment; at the expense of the singular and the creative power of nonrepresentational experiences and concepts.6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Art and Philosophy are transformative activitiesBy britton frostSome years ago; I was talking with an artist. He asked me about the science of visual perception. I explained that the vision scientists seek to understand how it is we see so muchndash;the colorful and detailed world of objects spread out around us in spacendash;when what we are given are tiny distorted upside-down images in the eyes. How do we see so much on the basis of so little? I was startled by the artistrsquo;s reply. Nonesense! he scoffed. Thatrsquo;s not the question we should ask. The important question is this: Why are we so blind; why do we see so little; when there is so much around us to see? ndash;Alva Noeuml;The quote above is from the Preface of Alva Noeuml;rsquo;s latest book Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature. Noeuml; is a philosopher at UC-Berkeley who focuses his research on mind and cognition. I have been a fan of his work for the last year or so; so I was excited when he came out with this latest book which deals with a subject that I concern myself with in my own work. His work initially caught my attention because he already does very well what I seek to do to some degree: blurring boundaries between disciplines and shattering harmful ideologies. After all; is this not necessary if we are to advance thought?It turns out that there is a lot that Noeuml; and I agree on concerning art; and there was even more for me to learn concerning the relationship between art and philosophy more generally. He argues that both art and philosophy are transformative in that they force us to look at the world in different ways. As he explains in Chapter 8; a good work of art carries the message ldquo;See me if you can!rdquo; One cannot understand it with one simple glance. It takes a timely process of organizing and reorganizing our conception of a work of art to fully understand it; just as we must organize and reorganize many aspects of our lives. It is not until we understand the work to this degree that we are qualified to make a critical judgment about it. Art is a transformative tool; like philosophy or language; for shaping our understanding and expression of reality and of ourselves.In one of his previous works entitled Out of our Heads; Noeuml; makes a convincing and nearly irrefutable case that we are not merely our brains. There is more to consciousness than neural functioning inside the brain. When we confine the mind to the brain; we leave out a crucial part of our being. We are not mere ldquo;lumbering robotsrdquo; as Richard Dawkins argues. We have rights; responsibilities; and the power to make conscious decisions. What exactly is beyond our brains; whatever its nature; is still up for debate. Regardless; this transformation is not something that happens in the art itself; nor does it happen in us; as in; in our brains; as neuroaesthetics would suggest. Rather; art; and also philosophy; happen to us. Yes; there will be correlative changes in brain functioning; but those are merely byproducts of our active engagement with the work.Art is to the artist as philosophy is to the philosopher. It is the beginning of a conversation that can cause controversy or enlightenment. It might make us uncomfortable at first because it causes us to question our perception as philosophy forces us to question our beliefs. But; it is later humbling; rewarding; and intellectually engaging. It is a tool for thinking critically; and it is strange because it is difficult to understand. Art and philosophy are both Strange Tools.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Its truly excellent!By A. ReedThis book brought art into a light I have continued to appreciate since reading it. Its truly excellent!
