The Paradox Of Paradise

As a child, Katia Barnes has a recurring nightmare. In the dream, she is a young Victorian woman, alone in a dark house at twilight, desperately searching for something. She is caught by surprise by a man with a pistol. A chase ensues, and she is killed. Katia wakes up in terror, knowing she has just experienced this woman´s death. The dream eventually fades away, but always remains in the back of her mind. Katia becomes a romance novelist, and after churning out the same book thirty times over, becomes disenchanted with her chosen genre. Her father dies, leaving her an unexpected legacy; an old Rosedale mansion left to him by a mysterious, unknown aunt. Immediately upon seeing the house, Katia recognizes it as the same one from her childhood dream. The Victorian house is named Eden. Inspired by its sense of mystery, Katia moves in, and starts renovations, planning to open a Bed and Breakfast. Soon, she finds out what she has in fact inherited is a former Victorian brothel. Katia also finds a trunk full of diaries, written by a woman named Adela, who lived in the house from 1899 to 1912. Katia starts reading the diaries, becoming obsessed with them. Adela was born in Cairo, Egypt, the illegitimate daughter of a British newspaper correspondent, and an Egyptian bellydancer. Her mother dies when she is a small child, and she and her brother are taken to England by their father. Victorian London is not kind to Adela, she is considered "half-African", and shunned. As a young woman, Adela journeys to Canada to start a new life. On board the ship, she meets Doctor Anthony Maxwell, a wealthy Canadian businessman, who has a unique philosophy based upon ancient Egypt. They fall in love, deciding to marry upon their arrival in Montréal. However, Adela gets more than she bargained for. Not only is Maxwell bisexual, he also has a sideline providing "courtesans" for Toronto´s elite. Katia is engrossed by the diaries, and discovers many unusual features in the house; a secret passageway, for one. Strange paranormal experiences begin to happen. Katia calls upon her friend Raine, who is a psychic. Raine advises Katia that it is her "Karma" to clean up a mess from the past, and in doing so, she will find her own life will be changed for the better. The diaries lead Katia on a mystical journey of discovery, unveiling her family´s hidden past. Adela´s story reveals many "dirty secrets" of Victorian/Edwardian Toronto; a world of extremes in both wealth and poverty, widespread narcotics use, racism, and the many problems and struggles faced by women. The Paradox of Paradise is rich in substance, covering a spectrum of life topics; history, philosophy, love, heartache, sexuality, and the paranormal. Through a strange journey, the two heroines´ lives become intertwined. Katia solves most of the mystery, except for the most important part; who killed Adela, and why? The answer comes in an ending with a twist, which does indeed change Katia´s life. Katia discovers the meaning of "The Paradox of Paradise".

Rabbi Akiba is famously reported to have said, 'Heaven forbid that any one in Israel ever disputed that the Song of Songs is holy, for the whole world is not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel, for all the writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies'. This book is an extended elaboration of Rabbi Akiba's statement. It argues that the Song is a Hellenistic composition, drawing on the resources of ancient Near Eastern erotic poetry and characterized by a complex though fragile unity. Through the metaphors, the lovers progressively see themselves reflected in each other, as well as in the world about them and the poetry of love. The poem celebrates the land of Israel in spring, an ideal humanity, and a perfected language. It culminates in the contestation of love and death, and the assertion that only love survives the exigencies of time. The pervasive ambiguity of the Song, in which one never quite knows what happens, is related to the ambivalence of beauty, which is closely related to ugliness. Hence the surrealist imagery of the Song verges upon the grotesque and stretches the resources of our imagination. Through a detailed comparison with the Garden of Eden story, Landy argues that the Song is a vision of paradise seen from the outside, through the ironic poetic gaze, in a world potentially hostile or indifferent.

Moving to the Dominican Republic: The Paradox of Paradise is the hilarious yet serious story of an American moving to the Dominican Republic. It is a must read for anyone who has wondered what it would be like to live in the Caribbean. Ross Weber uses humor and real life experiences to describe the culture shock and other setbacks of making the transition from living in the United States to living in the Dominican Republic. Ross includes personal stories as well as unique observations to describe the ups and downs of living on an Island. If you have visited the Dominican Republic you will love this book. If you are planning to go to the Dominican Republic, the great lessons in this book will help you prepare. If you are interested in international living, or possibly retiring in the Caribbean, this is the perfect book for you!

This book provides readers with a study of the characteristics that make life unique for sexual minorities in Brazil while also viewing Brazil in relation to global LGBT sociopolitical movements. It critically assesses the complex relationship(s) between the visual arts and political activism, carefully analyzing artistic, cinematic, and photographic representations of LGBTQ identities. Brazil provides a useful case to example, with the cultivation of ambiguity in contemporary (re)constructions of queer life. In this book, the author conducts the first comprehensive discourse analysis of the dynamics and features of the largest LGBT Pride Parade in the world. This problematizes and analyzes the relationship between burgeoning critical socio-political movements and institutions and the language and new media discourses used to configure and conceptualize them. The aim of this project is to create a theoretical scholarly framework promoting linkages between political activism and academic scholarship and by using discourse analysis, the intricacies of terminology Brazilian sexual minorities adopt and adapt, illustrating the development of LGBTQ identities through performative language use.

The Paradox of Paradise focuses on the trajectory of urban coastal tourism in Spain from the late Franco years to the present through the lens of Spanish cultural production. "Sun and fun" destinations like Torremolinos (located in the Costa del Sol) and Benidorm (located in the Costa Blanca) established a model for urban renewal that literally built the coasts to accommodate and expand foreign tourism as the driving force of the so-called Spanish Economic Miracle. In addition to inserting the coasts into the scope of Iberian urban studies (typically dominated by studies of Madrid and Barcelona), this project breaks new ground by bringing to the fore unexplored cultural artifacts vital to the narrative of development along the coasts in Spain—in particular the ubiquitous tourist postcard, which advances not only the post-Franco economic miracle, but does so by highlighting the transformation of the actual Spanish landscape along its coasts. The Paradox of Paradise features more than twenty-five striking images of coastal Spain in the throes of its own coming of age. Author William J. Nichols has unlocked a strange, self-conscious archive that tells us as much about our own age of advertising as it does about the hotels and resorts and people on display.

In 1967 the Peace Corps sent P. F. Kluge to paradise - or so the American possessions in Micronesia seemed. His assignment was as noble as it was adventurous: to help the people of those half-forgotten Pacific islands move from old to new, so that paradise would have prosperity and freedom as well as physical beauty. He immersed himself in the lives of the diverse peoples of the islands. He composed speeches for their leaders. He wrote a stirring manifesto that became the Preamble to the Constitution of Micronesia. He began a friendship with a man who would one day be president of Palau. And then, a generation later, P. F. Kluge went back. . . . The result is a book the New Yorker called "remarkably effective," the Economist deemed "terrific"; a book Smithsonian Magazine found to be "written from the heart." The Edge of Paradise shows the impact and ironies of America's presence in an undeveloped part of the world, how perhaps there's no way "a big place can touch a little one without harming it."

From the author of the classic A LITTLE LIFE, a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances. These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness. TO PARADISE is a fin de siecle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love—partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens—and the pain that ensues when we cannot.