Beyond Flesh

Zionism was not only a political and ideological program but also a sexual one. The liberation of Jews and creation of a new nation were closely intertwined with a longing for the redemption and normalization of the Jewish male body. That body had to be rescued from anti-Semitic, scientific-medical discourse associating it with disease, madness, degeneracy, sexual perversity, and femininityeven with homosexuality. The Zionist movement was intent on transforming the very nature of European Jewish masculinity as it had existed in the diaspora. Zionist/Israeli films expressed this desire through visual and narrative tropes, enforcing the image of the hypermasculine, colonialist-explorer and militaristic nation-builder, an image dependent on the homophobic repudiation of the "feminine" within men. The creation of a new heterosexual Jewish man was further intertwined with attitudes on the breeding of children, bodily hygiene, racial improvement, and Orientalist perspectiveswhich associated the East, and especially Eastern bodies, with unsanitary practices, plagues, disease, and sexual perversity. By stigmatizing Israels Eastern populations as agents of death and degeneration, Zionism created internal biologized enemies, against whom the Zionist society had to defend itself. In the name of securing the life and reproduction of the new Ashkenazi Jewry, Israeli society discriminated against both its internal enemies, the Palestinians, and its own citizens, the Mizrahim (Oriental Jews). Yosefs critique of the construction of masculinities and queerness in Israeli cinema and culture also serves as a model for the investigation of the role of male sexuality within national culture in general.

Like Volumes One and Two, Volume Three of the Galanor Saga has been written in three parts, or “Books”, of five chapters each. But, unlike its predecessors this novel treats each of the three Books, as a distinct, five chapter novella, with its own cast of characters, plotline and story arc. Of course, each Book helps to develop the storyline of the novel as a whole. I hope you enjoy it... F. M. Viollis BOOK ONE: ALONG THE JOURNEY HOME We begin where Beyond Hope & Despair left off. Galanor and Nitiri have returned to Shuruppak, where they have been crowned monarchs. One morning, while Nitiri is asleep, Galanor rises and, while staring at the sunrise, reflects upon the events that transpired in the dungeons of Alenz Allure and afterwards. As his mind wanders back to that day, the story arc begins. He recalls their first moments together after having been torn apart by the crazed wizard, Malferion. He recalls how Nitiri found herself with an uncomfortable decision to make, and he, with concocting a plan to escape the tower. After discovering the route the wizard used, they make their way, with great trepidation, out of the dungeon, through the heart of the ancient mountain and out into the light of a new dawn. They make their way back to the farmhouse of Huai-Ti, Feng-Chi and Wan-Ye where Galanor and Anubis are reunited, only to discover that while Galanor was away, Lao–Fi’s forces have kidnapped Wan-Ye and Huai-Ti, in a fit of rage, goes after to confront the warlord in his fortress. Galanor vows to rescue them both. Along the way, he joins forces with a garrison of exiled soldiers, who, after much debate, agree to join forces with him, his queen and Anubis in the rescue attempt. At the same time Wan-Ye has become the concubine to the sadistic warlord. In time a rescue plan is conceived and executed, with results that are both joyful and tearful. When all is done, the three wanderers set out on a two year journey by land and sea, which bring them to Shuruppak and their ascension to the throne. The Book ends with Galanor receiving some startling news. BOOK TWO: WHAT THE GOD’S BRING FORTH Book two moves the storyline forward eighteen years. There are now three heirs to the throne: Tyr, Amara and Rama. Galanor and Nitiri, to no one's surprise, are wise and just rulers, but their reign is not without objection from some of the nobility. One morning, a rider is seen approaching from the west. He is intercepted and escorted into Shuruppak by a young, novice warrior. It is Mustir. He arrives with news of the most dire and consequential nature: Pharon has been struck down by mystical forces wielded by four, powerful and deadly riders, each determined to wreak havoc upon the world, in his own unique way. Mushtir presents his Captain with a token, handed to him by Pharon. Galanor recognizes the token, and the message behind it. He, Nitiri and Anubis prepare to journey to Pharon’s kingdom of Zeptepi, to help. As they prepare to leave, they are confronted by a conundrum for which they were not prepared and about which, they find themselves ill prepared to act. In time, as is the way with such things, matters resolve themselves, but not to everyone’s liking. Tearful moments transpire as their three children ride off in three different directions to battle one rider each, while Galanor, Nitiri and Anubis ride off to battle the fourth, and arguably the most powerful. While they are doing this, Pharon’s vampiric physician, a man driven by a powerful obsession to acquire knowledge at all costs, struggles to help his king. Meanwhile, while the monarchs of both kingdoms are busy, sinister forces, driven by greed and an ideology not their own, seek to rest control for themselves. With the aid of a potent talisman Galanor and Anubis confront the architect of the riders’ assault, beyond the edge of the universe and Nitiri battles the forces of death. BOOK THREE: BEYOND FLESH AND SPIRIT Book Three begins a few weeks after their return from Zeptepi. Nitiri has succumbed to wounds inflicted by the rider of death. Galanor abandons the throne and with Anubis by his side walks away from everything. Now, for the first time in decades, he is free of all obligations and ties. He and Anubis find themselves on a dusty road that rapidly becomes a hellscape. They are drawn to rift in time and space, where an entity of such power that it is impossible to measure, reaches out to consume them and through them, gain access to this universe. They are rescued by an entity that exists beyond imagination. Once free, they drift on until they find, and gain employment in a caravan journeying to a busy port city. Along the way, they are attacked by a massive army of bandit cutthroats. Finally, they make it to their destination where Galanor makes the acquaintance of an old flame. Their affair is reignited and he agrees to journey with her on her pirate vessel, one of the twelve original Atlantean Capital Ship used in the rescue of their people and the demise of their homeland. But, as fate would have it, they are attacked by mercenaries’ intent on slaughtering her crew and absconding with her. After yet another bloody battle, Galanor, weary beyond belief considers leaving his new found love and returning to the road. Events intercede and he agrees to stay and help her find the man responsible for the attack. In time, they do. With great cunning and much hard work, they discover his hiding place. It is an ancient island kingdom in an uncharted eastern sea. They journey there and find not only him, but a determined enemy from days long past.

Consider the possibilities when the mind and body are things of the past. These cutting-edge techno-tales by Poul Anderson, Greg Egan, Michael Swanwick, and other masters explore the infinite ways that new technology will free humankind from the boundaries of the flesh. "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson "Learning to Be Me" by Greg Egan "Pretty Boy Crossover" by Pat Cadigan "Ancient Engines" by Michael Swanwick "Winemaster" by Robert Reed "More Adventures on Other Planets" by Michael Cassutt "Nevermore" by Ian R. MacLeod "Approaching Perimelasma" by Geoffrey A. Landis "The Gravity Mine" by Stephen Baxter "Reef" by Paul J. McAuley At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

In a "return" to Edmund Husserl and Sigmund Freud, Intimacy and the Anxieties of Cinematic Flesh explores how we can engage these foundational thinkers of phenomenology and psychoanalysis in an original approach to film. The idea of the intimate spectator caught up in anxiety is developed to investigate a range of topics central to these critical approaches and cinema, including: flesh as a disruptive state formed in the relationships of intimacy and anxiety; time and the formation of cinema's enduring objects; space and things; the sensual, the "real" and the unconscious; wildness, disruption, and resistance; and the nightmare, reading "phantasy" across the critical fields. Along with Husserl and Freud, other key thinkers discussed include Edith Stein, Roman Ingarden, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Mikel Dufrenne in phenomenology; Melanie Klein, Ernest Jones, Julia Kristeva, and Rosine Lefort in psychoanalysis. Framing these issues and critical approaches is the question: how might Husserlian phenomenology and Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis, so often seen as contradistinctive, be explored through their potential commonalities rather than differences? In addressing such a question, this book postulates a new approach to film through this phenomenological/psychoanalytic reconceptualization. A wide range of films are examined not simply as exemplars, but to test the idea that cinema itself can be a version of critical thinking.

The apostle Paul was a man of many journeys. We are usually familiar with the geographical ones he made in his own time. This volume traces others--Paul's journeys in our time, as he is co-opted or invited to travel (sometimes as abused slave, sometimes as trusted guide) with modern and recent Continental philosophers and political theorists. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Benjamin; Taubes, Badiou, Zizek, and Agamben--Paul journeys here among the philosophers. In these essays you are invited to travel with them into the regions of philosophy, hermeneutics, political theory, and theology. You will certainly hear the philosophers speak. But Paul will not remain silent. Above the sounds of the journey his voice comes through, loud and clear.

Though the Russian Symbolist movement was dominated by a concern with transcending sex, many of the writers associated with the movement exhibited an intense preoccupation with matters of the flesh. Drawing on poetry, plays, short stories, essays, memoirs, and letters, as well as feminist and psychoanalytic theory, Beyond the Flesh documents the often unexpected form that this obsession with gender and the body took in the life and art of two of the most important Russian Symbolists. Jenifer Presto argues that the difficulties encountered in reading Alexander Blok and Zinaida Gippius within either a feminist or a traditional, binary gendered framework derive not only from the peculiarities of their creative personalities but also from the specific Russian cultural context. Although these two poets engaged in gendered practices that, at times, appeared to be highly idiosyncratic and even incited gossip among their contemporaries, they were not operating in a vacuum. Instead, they were responding to philosophical concepts that were central to Russian Symbolism and that would continue to shape modernism in Russia.

Beyond Flesh and Blood: The Ultimate Guide To Angels and Demons goes far beyond the average Sunday School teaching on spiritual warfare. Minister Fortson takes an in depth look at the origin of both angels and demons, and attempts to answer the tough questions on the minds of many Christians. 1) When were angels created? 2) When did Lucifer rebel against God? 3) Where do angels fit into human history? 4) Are fallen angels and demons the same thing? 5) Were the gods of mythology really fallen angels? 6) What do angels have to do with modern UFO sightings? 7) Is our current scientific pursuit of transhumanism a spiritual issue? These questions are just the beginning of the journey. As the book progresses, Minister Fortson tackles many other areas of the supernatural, such as the origin of ghosts, vampires, and our modern obsession with UFOs and aliens. You will also discover what our modern pursuit of creating hybrids has in common with various ancient mythologies from around the world, and the possible origin of these pursuits. Throughout the book, Minister Fortson explores historical text from many different cultures and belief systems in order to find out if the Hebrews were the only culture to encounter both angels and demons. The Bible tells us that our war is not with flesh and blood, but what does that statement really mean? Is the spiritual war crossing over into the physical realm? One thing is for sure, after you read this book, you will never look at the world we live in the same again.

In 1968, George Romero's film Night of the Living Dead premiered, launching a growing preoccupation with zombies within mass and literary fiction, film, television, and video games. Romero's creativity and enduring influence make him a worthy object of inquiry in his own right, and his long career helps us take stock of the shifting interest in zombies since the 1960s. Examining his work promotes a better understanding of the current state of the zombie and where it is going amidst the political and social turmoil of the twenty-first century. These new essays document, interpret, and explain the meaning of the still-budding Romero legacy, drawing cross-disciplinary perspectives from such fields as literature, political science, philosophy, and comparative film studies. Essays consider some of the sources of Romero's inspiration (including comics, science fiction, and Westerns), chart his influence as a storyteller and a social critic, and consider the legacy he leaves for viewers, artists, and those studying the living dead.