Fantasy Of Modernity

Looks at the role of love in 1950s Bombay cinema in terms of its cultural function and its social significance.

A Lacanian reading of fantasy fiction 1887-1914 showing the return of atavistic horrors in the wake of the dissolution of traditional authorities. The book shows the critical power of fantasy read in conjunction with psychoanalysis in exploring profound socio-political questions.

Modern Japan's repressed anxieties, fears and hopes come to the surface in the fantastic. A close analysis of fantasy fiction, film and comics reveals the ambivalence felt by many Japanese towards the success story of the nation in the twentieth century. The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature explores the dark side to Japanese literature and Japanese society. It takes in the nightmarish future depicted in the animated film masterpiece, Akira, and the pastoral dream worlds created by Japan's Nobel Prize winning author Oe Kenzaburo. A wide range of fantasists, many discussed here in English for the first time, form the basis for a ground-breaking analysis of utopias, dystopias, the disturbing relationship between women, sexuality and modernity, and the role of the alien in the fantastic.

In an alternate America that runs on magic, a potential environmental disaster plunges an overworked bureaucrat into a deadly conspiracy of evil gods and darkest sorcery David Fisher pushes paper for the EPA in a world that’s a lot like ours . . . only different. In this California—and throughout the alternate United States—all gods are real, science doesn’t exist, and magic rules everything, running imp-driven computers and creating anxiety-inducing bumper-to-bumper flying-carpet rush hours. Unfortunately, unchecked magic use can leave dangerous residues, creating hours of mind-numbing deskwork for David and his fellow bureaucrats at the Environmental Perfection Agency. Now a leakage at a toxic spell dump in Angels City is about to complicate David’s life in ways he never imagined, unleashing vampires, werewolves, and soulless babies. Even the actual spooks at the CIA concerned. But looking too closely into what might be more than just an accident could have David stepping on the toes of some very nasty deities indeed, imperiling his future on the Other Side . . . and on this one, as well. When it comes to creating alternate histories—and worlds—no one does it better than the great Harry Turtledove. The multiple-award-winning master of the fantastic carries readers on a droll thrill ride through a richly detailed, ingeniously imagined fantasy reality where the impossible is mundane—and absolutely anything can happen.

WORLD FANTASY AWARD WINNER • A true horde of fantasy tales sure to delight fans, scholars, and even the greediest of dragons—from bestselling authors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer Step through a shimmering portal ... a worn wardrobe door ... a schism in sky ... into a bold new age of fantasy. When worlds beyond worlds became a genre unto itself. From the swinging sixties to the strange, strange seventies, the over-the-top eighties to the gnarly nineties—and beyond, into the twenty-first century—the VanderMeers have found the stories and the writers from around the world that reinvented and revitalized the fantasy genre after World War II. The stories in this collection represent twenty-two different countries, including Russia, Argentina, Nigeria, Columbia, Pakistan, Turkey, Finland, Sweden, China, the Philippines, and the Czech Republic. Five have never before been translated into English. From Jorge Luis Borges to Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock to Angela Carter, Terry Pratchett to Stephen King, the full range and glory of the fantastic are on display in these ninety-one stories in which dragons soar, giants stomp, and human children should still think twice about venturing alone into the dark forest. Completing Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's definitive The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, this companion volume to takes the genre into the twenty-first century with ninety-one astonishing, mind-bending stories. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL

How did one dine with a shogun? Or make solid gold soup, sculpt with a fish, or turn seaweed into a symbol of happiness? In this fresh and fascinating look at Japanese culinary history, Eric C. Rath delves into the writings of medieval and early modern Japanese chefs to answer these and other provocative questions, and to trace the development of Japanese cuisine from 1400 to 1868. Rath shows how medieval "fantasy food" rituals--where food was revered as symbol rather than consumed--were continued by early modern writers, who created whimsical dishes and fanciful banquets and turned dining into a voyeuristic literary pleasure. Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan offers the first extensive introduction to Japanese cookbooks, recipe collections, and gastronomic writings of the period. It traces the origins of familiar dishes like tempura, sushi, and sashimi while documenting Japanese cooking styles and dining customs, and demonstrates that for early modern Japanese cuisine, the central ingredient was the imagination.