Noises In The Blood

The language of Jamaican popular culture—its folklore, idioms, music, poetry, song—even when written is based on a tradition of sound, an orality that has often been denigrated as not worthy of serious study. In Noises in the Blood, Carolyn Cooper critically examines the dismissed discourse of Jamaica’s vibrant popular culture and reclaims these cultural forms, both oral and textual, from an undeserved neglect. Cooper’s exploration of Jamaican popular culture covers a wide range of topics, including Bob Marley’s lyrics, the performance poetry of Louise Bennett, Mikey Smith, and Jean Binta Breeze, Michael Thelwell’s novelization of The Harder They Come, the Sistren Theater Collective’s Lionheart Gal, and the vitality of the Jamaican DJ culture. Her analysis of this cultural "noise" conveys the powerful and evocative content of these writers and performers and emphasizes their contribution to an undervalued Caribbean identity. Making the connection between this orality, the feminized Jamaican "mother tongue," and the characterization of this culture as low or coarse or vulgar, she incorporates issues of gender into her postcolonial perspective. Cooper powerfully argues that these contemporary vernacular forms must be recognized as genuine expressions of Jamaican culture and as expressions of resistance to marginalization, racism, and sexism. With its focus on the continuum of oral/textual performance in Jamaican culture, Noises in the Blood, vividly and stylishly written, offers a distinctive approach to Caribbean cultural studies.

DIVThe language of Jamaican popular culture & mdash;its folklore, idioms, music, poetry, song & mdash;even when written is based on a tradition of sound, an orality that has often been denigrated as not worthy of serious study. In Noises in the Blood, Carolyn Cooper critically examines the dismissed discourse of Jamaica & rsquo;s vibrant popular culture and reclaims these cultural forms, both oral and textual, from an undeserved neglect. Cooper & rsquo;s exploration of Jamaican popular culture covers a wide range of topics, including Bob Marley & rsquo;s lyrics, the performance poetry of Louise Bennett, Mikey Smith, and Jean Binta Breeze, Michael Thelwell & rsquo;s novelization of The Harder They Come, the Sistren Theater Collective & rsquo;s Lionheart Gal, and the vitality of the Jamaican DJ culture. Her analysis of this cultural "noise" conveys the powerful and evocative content of these writers and performers and emphasizes their contribution to an undervalued Caribbean identity. Making the connection between this orality, the feminized Jamaican "mother tongue," and the characterization of this culture as low or coarse or vulgar, she incorporates issues of gender into her postcolonial perspective. Cooper powerfully argues that these contemporary vernacular forms must be recognized as genuine expressions of Jamaican culture and as expressions of resistance to marginalization, racism, and sexism. With its focus on the continuum of oral/textual performance in Jamaican culture, Noises in the Blood, vividly and stylishly written, offers a distinctive approach to Caribbean cultural studies. /div

In this handbook on a growing public menace, Clifford R. Bragdon applies acoustical engineering and social science to the least understood—yet one of the most serious—environmental hazards of modern society. This book is a precision tool; it gives facts and figures, precise scientific measurements, and accurate data on what noise is, what it does, and how to combat it. The author pinpoints the noise levels—many of them illegal—of automobiles, buses, subways, airplanes, household appliances, and children's toys in numerous charts and tables and relates these data to the measurable social, physical, and psychological damage they do to human beings. He catalogues the "noise-free" claims of manufacturers of these products in an Appendix that speaks for itself. A thorough case study of an area near Philadelphia International Airport and other townships, including five hundred households, the author evaluates existing noise abatement programs on local, state, and federal levels, and finds most of them seriously inadequate. As steps toward the solution to the noise crisis, he proposes a system for rating environmental health, new approaches to community noise management, and a variety of architectural suggestions. The bibliography—probably the most complete and up-to-date source collection on the subject ever assembled—is an invaluable reference work in itself. It lists over five hundred sources, arranged in six major categories: Noise, General; Physical Effects; Psycho-Social Effects; Law; Noise Abatement; and Noise Sources. Noise Pollution is indispensable not only for the concerned citizen but for all those who can, and must, take immediate and effective action in our unquiet crisis: urban planners, architects, hospital administrators, public health officials, transportation executives, lawyers, realtors, sound engineers, manufacturers of transportation equipment and household appliances, and community leaders. It is a vital resource in dealing with the noise crisis that is destroying pleasure, lowering work performance, eroding health, causing physical injury, and even challenging basic human survival.