Zen And The Art Of The Monologue

Jay Sankey--stand-up comic, magician, and cartoonist--is back with another book for performers. Building on the success of his Zen and the Art of Stand-up Comedy, Jay is moving further into the uncharted wilds of solo performance.

In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and the Ryoanji dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture. First published in German in 1948 and translated into Japanese in 1956, Herrigel’s book popularized ideas of Zen both in the West and in Japan. Yamada traces the prewar history of Japanese archery, reveals how Herrigel mistakenly came to understand it as a traditional practice, and explains why the Japanese themselves embraced his interpretation as spiritual discipline. Turning to Ryoanji, Yamada argues that this epitome of Zen in fact bears little relation to Buddhism and is best understood in relation to Chinese myth. For much of its modern history, Ryoanji was a weedy, neglected plot; only after its allegorical role in a 1949 Ozu film was it popularly linked to Zen. Westerners have had a part in redefining Ryoanji, but as in the case of archery, Yamada’s interest is primarily in how the Japanese themselves have invested this cultural site with new value through a spurious association with Zen.

In this engaging and disarmingly frank book, comic Jay Sankey spills the beans, explaining not only how to write and perform stand-up comedy, but how to improve and perfect your work. Much more than a how-to manual Zen and the Art of Stand-Up Comedy is the most detailed and comprehensive book on the subject to date.

Wash the dishes, do the laundry, mop the floors, scrub the toilets, make the beds, vacuum the rugs…the list goes on and on, with little time to stop, breathe, and take in your beautiful surroundings. Now you can. Learn to be at peace and attain enlightenment while doing all the “little” things around the house. Your floors and counters will shine as you become one with your home and gain an elevated sense of being. Zen and the Art of Housekeeping challenges you to put more than elbow grease into your daily routine. You’ll learn how to spirit yourself away during mundane chores as you muse over thought-provoking Zen koans like: If the kitchen is the heart of the home, what is the heart of the kitchen? What is the color of clean? If the purpose of cleaning is to remove dirt, what is the purpose of dirt? What fills empty spaces? Whose footprints are on your floor? With Zen and the Art of Housekeeping, you’ll scrub your way to enlightenment—and a spotless sink.

The celebrated author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles offers inspiration and insight on finding one’s muse and channeling it onto the page. Acclaimed writer of novels and short stories as well as screen- and stage plays, Ray Bradbury has established himself as one of the most legendary voices in science fiction and fantasy. In Zen in the Art of Writing, he shares how his unbridled passion for creating worlds made him a master of the craft. Part memoir, part philosophical guide, the essays in this book teach the joy of writing. Rather than focusing on the mechanics of putting words together, Bradbury’s zen is found in the celebration of storytelling that drove him to write every day. Bringing together eleven essays and a series of poems written with his own unique style and fervor, Zen in the Art of Writing is a must read for all prospective writers and Bradbury fans. “Bradbury lovers will find this a Bradbury feast.” —Kirkus Reviews

Explores relationships between classical and contemporary approaches to rhetoric and their connection to the underlying assumptions at work in Zen Buddhism.

"In this suggestive and delightful book we will go around a road full of strange characters that will show us, at first hand, what Zen is, what it is about, and its amazing connection to the art and pleasure of wine tasting. Considering its deep roots, which go back to the dawn of the history of humanity, it will reveal us how two worlds apparently different, but complementing and enriching each other in an almost magical way, merge. As the renowned chef Ferran Adrià depicts in his prologue, through Zen philosophy, using its millenary knowledge and some of its techniques (such as zazen), I. M. Maciel’s work reveals the subtle connection between two forms of spirit, two orbs, different but with numerous and suggestive contact points. It is in this way how the reader will discover in its pages the seven precepts that will help him to enjoy, even more than he expected, the wonderful experience of wine tasting; but also to pay attention to the little things that we usually overlook, which hide inside the secret of real happiness".

Zen & the Art of Masturbation by Mark Oglesby Deftly wielding tongue-in-cheek humor and lyrically acrobatic prose, author Mark Oglesby takes aim at the absurdity of working and living in our highly technical, commercialized society. With a plot that hopscotches across time and space and a cast of characters foolish and farcical, Zen & the Art of Masturbation is a satire in the vein of Tom Robbins or Catch-22, holding a funhouse mirror up to the modern online-retail monopoly—and our own insatiable hunger for stupid ass-scratching stuff just one click away.