Showing papers on "nobody published in 1986"

The Garden of Eden

Abstract: A sensational bestseller when it appeared in 1986, "The Garden of Eden" is the last uncompleted novel of Ernest Hemingway, which he worked on intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. Set on the Cote d'Azur in the 1920s, it is the story of a young American writer, David Bourne, his glamorous wife, Catherine, and the dangerous, erotic game they play when they fall in love with the same woman. "A lean, sensuous narrative...taut, chic, and strangely contemporary," "The Garden of Eden" represents vintage Hemingway, the master "doing what nobody did better" (R. Z. Sheppard, "Time).""

Law as Institutional Fact

Abstract: Every legal philosopher and jurisprudent is concerned to see law as fact, though only one, Olivecrona, gave that title to a book. Though not everyone has called himself ‘a realist’, nobody has ever announced an intention to indulge in unrealistic jurisprudence, and it seems a safe bet that nobody will, at least not so long as the subject continues to be a source of gainful employment. The problem we all face is not whether to be realistic, but how, not whether to portray law as fact rather than fiction, but what counts as a fact and what, therefore, as a factual portrayal of it. By the title of this essay I have put my cards on the table, though by its obscurity I have probably failed to put them face up. If law exists at all, it exists not on the level of brute creation along with shoes and ships and sealing wax or for that matter cabbages, but rather along with kings and other paid officers of state on the plane of institutional fact.

Fractals and the Rebirth of Iteration Theory

Abstract: No more than six years ago! Only ten and twenty-odd years ago! On many days, I find it hard to believe that only six years have passed since I first saw and described the structure of the beautiful set which is celebrated in the present book, and to which I am honored and delighted that my name should be attached. No more than twenty-odd years have passed since I be­came convinced that my varied forays into unfashionable and lonely corners of the Unknown were not separate enterprises. No one had seen any unity between them, other than provided by my personality; yet, around 1964, they showed promise of consolidating one day into an organized field, which I proceeded to investigate systematically. And no more than ten years have passed since my field had consolidated enough to justify writing a book about it, hence giving it a name, which led me to coin the word fractal geometry. The beauty of many fractals is the more extraordinary for its having been wholly unexpected: they were meant to be mathematical diagrams drawn to make a scholarly point, and one might have expected them to be dull and dry. It is true that the poet wrote that Euclid gazed at beauty bare, but the full and continuing appreciation of the beauty of Euclid demands hard and long train­ing, and perhaps also a special gift. To the contrary, it seems that nobody is in­different to fractals. In fact, many view their first encounter with fractal geome­try as a totally new experience from the viewpoints of aesthetics as well as science. From these viewpoints, fractals are indeed as new as can be.

The Function of Violence in Richard Wright's Native Son

Abstract: Since the appearance of Native Son in 1940, critics have raised questions about its heavy preoccupation with violence. In an early review of the book, Malcolm Cowley, then a strong defender of Wright, nevertheless worried that "the author's deep sense of the inequities heaped upon his race" would result in his "revenging himself by a whole series of symbolic murders" in his fiction (67). David Daiches complained in a subsequent review that the novel's thesis was seriously undercut because the killing of Mary Dalton was so "violent and unusual," a melodramatic action which was too bizarre to verify the book's claims about the general condition of blacks in America (95). Twenty-one years later, James Baldwin put the case most pointedly in Nobody Knows My Name, arguing that "one of the severest criticisms that can be leveled" against Native Son is Wright's "gratuitous and compulsive" interest in violence in the book: "The violence is gratuitous and compulsive because the root of the violence is never examined. The root is rage. It is the rage, almost literally the howl, of a man who is being castrated"

Public Finance During the Korean Modernization Process

Abstract: In this blistering critique of our failing public schools and our fuzzy thinking about how to fix them, Myron Lieberman explains why public education is in irreversible and terminal decline and tells us what we must do to get American schooling back on track. No other book on educational policy or reform covers such a broad range of issues or draws upon such extensive empirical data across such diverse academic disciplines. This is a refreshingly clear analysis of our educational crisis and a rallying cry for market-system approaches to school reform. Nobody emerges unscathed--Lieberman's analysis challenges the advocates of choice as well as the defenders of the public schools.

The trouble with performance measurement

Abstract: My message is short and simple. I hope it is also stimulating, entertaining, alarming, depressing, and nihilistic. If you finish the article thinking you are measuring investment performance only because you don't know of any better way to spend your time (remuneratively, of course), I will be a happy man. I am going to tell you why: 1. Nobody knows how to measure investment performance; 2. Nobody ever will know how to measure investment performance, and 3. Nobody would want to measure investment performance even if they did know how.

Franklin and the Letters of the Republic

Abstract: FRANKLIN'S CAREER AS A republican statesman centers on an inescapable difficulty: while the statesman's task is to embody legitimate power, the task of republicanism was to take legitimacy out of the hands of persons. In the new republican polity, as Francois Furet has remarked of the French context, "power would belong only to the people, that is, to nobody.... The 'people' was not a datum or a concept that reflected existing society. Rather, it was the Revolution's claim to legitimacy, its very definition as it were; for henceforth all power, all political endeavour revolved around that founding principle, which it was nonetheless impossible to embody."' The republican statesman, therefore, is in some measure a contradiction in terms: he is the embodiment of that which, by definition, cannot be embodied. How could such a contradiction be mediated or disguised? In the case of Franklin, I will argue, the answer lies in the involution of republicanism and print. To the extent that Franklin succeeded in embodying representational legitimacy, he was able to do so by virtue of his career as a printer and man of letters. In the epitaph he wrote for himself, for example, Franklin announces his peculiar relation to print in a dramatic way:

A Defense of Common-Sense Morality

Abstract: Derek Parfit has argued that Common-Sense Morality (or M) is "directly, collectively, self-defeating" (chap. 4):1 that is, there are circumstances in which, if everybody correctly followed M, each person's Mgiven aims would be worse achieved than if nobody had followed M. Parfit believes that this is a serious disorder to which Consequentialism (or C) is immune. To remedy it, M must be qualified by R, a set of principles which are Consequentialist in character. This brings M closer to C. At the same time, Parfit is prepared to acknowledge that C is "indirectly, collectively self-defeating" (pp. 24-28): that is, if we were all disposed to make outcomes as good as possible (which is our ultimate, C-given aim) and that disposition were so strong as to override any and all other factors which might motivate us to action, then outcomes would not be as good as we could possibly make them. C's ultimate aim is better served if, instead of being pure do-gooders, most people were strongly disposed

Welfare law and the welfare principle in social work practice

Abstract: “I have learnt that we are local government officers first and a social worker second … nobody can act outside the law and nobody can act outside their policy.” “Her father's remarried. She's fourteen and feels the outsider in Dad's new family. It's really classic. She's an obvious scapegoat. It's really good. I think I can do some really interesting work with it… family therapy is what I'll do possibly joint work, male and female therapists. I wish we had more cases like this in social services. It really makes you feel you've something to offer.”2

Is cost containment for real

Abstract: "ETHOS vs. Exigencies: Medicine's Dilemma" was the theme of the tenth Annual Symposium of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Illinois, held Oct 18, 1985, in Chicago. There were four participants in the opening session entitled "Managing the Cost of Care—The Key to Survival"; I was assigned the anchor role. Representative Daniel Rostenkowski, the first presenter, argued in favor of his proposal that Congress impose a ceiling of $300 per month on tax-free health benefits, emphasizing that only 5% of all families would be adversely affected. In his view, this was a much more reasonable approach than that of the President, who recommended taxing the first $25 of any employer contribution, a plan that, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee pointed out, "nobody in the Administration or out defends... as good politics or good health policy." 1(p2) C. McClain Haddow, acting administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, next sang

"Come and Play with Us": The Play Metaphor in Kubrick's Shining

Abstract: Critical interpretations of Stanley Kubrick The Shining (Warner Bros., 1980) have depended upon two putative assumptions: 1) that Kubrick "is the cinema's anthropologist: a hunter in the atavistic jungle of human nature . . .," that Kubrick "is looking for human essentials" which reveal themselves "when the shell of society and manners ... is broken, ' and 2) that the logo "A Stanley Kubrick Film" is a supra-generic imprint which predisposes one to expect this thematic predilection." Nonetheless, some critics have noted that an ironic principle is operating in the film and that it is presumably a "crazy comedy" of some kind. Thus, while the meaning of The Shining is seen as ultimately serious, indeed pessimistic, the presentation is conceded to be partly playful. Questioning the above two presuppositions, we contend that there is a cohesive metaphor of play which is far more significant than critics have been willing to acknowledge, and that Kubrick uses it not merely to undercut form- i.e. , genre- but content- i.e. , meaning- as well. We define play as the intentional creation, through a restriction of time and space, of an environment in which participants carry out non-utilitarian acts performed in accordance with freely accepted limitations of alternatives. These acts have no ends beyond themselves. First of all, Kubrick is careful to establish his setting, the Overlook Hotel, as an enormous playground. The Overlook is isolated, and properly speaking it is a classic resort, since it is open only in the summer and thus offers no such vulgar entertainments as skiing. Its clientele, manager Stuart Ullman boasts, includes movie stars, politicians-"all the best people." In short, it is a seasonal watering-hole for the idle rich. The Torrance family- Jack, Wendy, and their son Danny- who sign on as winter caretakers, are attracted to the Overlook largely by the prospect of play. They have only recently moved to Colorado from Vermont and, as Danny tells his mother, he has "nobody to play with." His only playmate is "Tony," an entity whom his parents dismiss as an "imaginary friend," but who is actually the boy's psychic power- oor "shining," externalized. Though "Tony" shows Danny dreadful portents concerning the Overlook, Danny's mother assures him they're "all gonna have a real good time," and indeed, Danny soon discovers that the Overlook's opportunities for play are enormous: it has a complete Games Room; its abstract geometric carpet patterns are well-suited as roadways and parking-spaces for the boy's miniature cars and trucks; the hotel corridors are ideal for Danny's endless tricycle riding. TV reception at the Hotel is never interrupted, even by the worst of storms, and outdoor play is also available: Danny explores the Hotel's huge hedge maze, plays tag, and engages in snowball fights with his mother. For Jack, the Overlook seems to provide a perfect environment in which to pursue his own kinds of play. He is aware that the caretaker's job affords him leisure and solitude for writing, a preoccupation newly discovered after years of professional failure. We discover in his interview with Ullman that he has been teaching "to make ends meet." but is now "outlining a new writing project." He is "looking for a change," a confession which refers not only to his avocation but to his familial relationship as well. His previous alcohol problem has strained his relationship with his wife and son- particularly since he once drunkenly dislocated Danny's shoulder. Thus he has also the opportunity to reaffirm his role as husband and father. Within a month he tells Wendy that he has "never felt so comfortable or happy anywhere" as in the Hotel. Wendy exploits the opportunity the Overlook offers for re-establishing and consolidating her role as housewife and mother. The Hotel's enormous kitchen and inexhaustible pantries seem ideal, despite their tendency to dwarf her, and we soon see her playing in this great doll-house the role she wishes to perfect: housewife. …

Protecting the Look and Feel of Computer Software

Abstract: level, the program can be characterized as the entire user interface or its total look and feel. Ultimately, the most abstract level is the fundamental idea or function of the program. Viewed as part of this 59. Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp., 45 F.2d 119, 121 (2d Cir. 1930). 60. See 3 M. NIMMER, supra note 2, § 13.03[A], at 13-29 to -30. 61. The majority rule is that a "plot" so defined is copyrightable. Id., § 13.03[A], at 13-29. See also Chafee, Reflections on the Law of Copyright: 1, 45 COLUM. L. REv. 503, 514 (1945). 62. 3 M. NIMMER, supra note 2, § 13.03[AJ, at 13-25 to -26. LOOK AND FEEL 421 422 HIGH TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL Vol. 1:411 hierarchy, the look and feel of a program should not receive copyright protection because it is positioned at the abstract end of the hierarchy. Second, an alternative hierarchy focuses on the design structure of computer software. The bottom layer again consists of the programming code. At a somewhat more abstract level, a program is described by the specific structure of the subroutines. Even more abstract, a program is characterized by a flowchart. Finally, a program can be represented by an algorithm and, ultimately, by its basic idea or purpose. Under this analysis, the programming code of a word processing program, for example, is clearly protected, 63 while the idea of using a computer to input, store, and edit text is not protected.64 Unfortunately, look and feel does not fit within this hierarchy because it consists of the program's output and user interface which does not directly correspond with the design structure. The concept of look and feel is not a flowchart, algorithm, or any other design stage; look and feel conceptually permeates several layers of this hierarchy. Thus, overall, neither hierarchy supports copyright protection of a program's look and feel. Another difficulty is that, even assuming look and feel can be pinned to a particular level of a hierarchy, this test does not provide any guidance for determining which intermediary levels of abstraction are protected expressions and which levels are unprotected ideas. The levels of abstraction test is only a starting point in understanding the idea/expression distinction because it does not easily differentiate between an idea and its expression. On the other hand, "[nlo court or commentator ... has been able to improve on Judge Learned Hand's famous abstractions test."' 65 The test is useful in conceptualizing the problem, but is not a means of drawing the line between ideas and expressions in any given work.6 6 Judge Hand himself admitted: "[n]obody has ever been able to fix that boundary [between idea and expression] and nobody ever can." 67 Therefore, "the test for infringement is of necessity vague .... Obviously, no principle can be stated as to when an imitator has gone beyond copying the 'idea,' and has borrowed its 'expression.' Decisions must therefore inevitably be ad hoc." 68 63. See supra notes 2-3 and accompanying text. 64. See supra note 52 and accompanying text. 65. Krofft, 562 F.2d at 1163. 66. 3 M. NIMMER, supra note 2, § 13.03[A], at 13-20.1. 67. Nichols v. Universal, 45 F.2d at 121. 68. Peter Pan Fabrics, Inc. v. Martin Weiner Corp., 274 F.2d 487, 489 (2d Cir. 1960). See Atari v. North American Philips Consumer Elecs. Corp., 672 F.2d 607, 615 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 880 (1982); Reback & Siegal, supra note 50, at 4-5 (test is subjective). 1986 LOOK AND FEEL 423 The problem is even more acute when facing a new copyright issue such as the proper scope of protection for the look and feel of computer software. Deciding which levels deserve protection is more difficult in the realm of computer programs because, unlike literary works, computer programs are functional, utilitarian creations. Professor Raymond Nimmer explains: "[t]he software environment uniquely blends idea, expression, and process in a manner that cannot be compared readily to books or articles that describe systems. Computer programs not only describe a process or idea, but in an appropriate form directly implement it." 69 The function of the program pervades every level of the hierarchy because the function can be viewed as either very concrete or very abstract. Therefore, the problem of distinguishing idea from expression is even more complicated in the area of functional computer software. Although the failure of the levels of abstraction test to provide a mechanism for determining which levels should be protected may not be so critical in the area of literary works, this failure limits use of the test in the area of computer software. In short, the levels of abstraction test is difficult to apply to look and feel of software. Even if applied, this test yields the result that total look and feel should not be protected. B. The "Commercial Value" Approach The "commercial value" approach focuses on the "substantive value" of the plaintiff's work. 70 "[The] method is to identify the commercially or artistically central elements of the first work and then to inquire what the effect of protecting these would be on subsequent works." 71 Advocates for the protection of look and feel often try to justify copyright protection based on the commercial value of software development expenditures. 72 Exclusive reliance on the commercial value approach, however, raises mercantile concerns which have not been part of traditional copyright analysis.73 The courts have rejected the argument that an otherwise 69. R. NIMMER, supra note 18, 9 1.03, at 1-10. 70. Atari v. North American, 672 F.2d at 619; Universal Pictures Co. v. Harold Lloyd Corp., 162 F.2d 354, 361 (9th Cir. 1947). 71. R. NIMMER, supra note 18, 9 1.07, at 1-49. 72. For example, Leon Williams, president and chief executive officer of Micropro International Corporation stated in reference to the Broderbund decision, "[p]eople who are blazing new trails in software need this kind of protection. A lot of people are spending a lot of money and time to develop advanced software." Court backs 'Look & Feel' Copyright, INFOWORLD, Oct. 20, 1986, at 1, 8. See supra note 9 and accompanying text. Meanwhile, opponents of copyright protection for look and feel argue that protection "could curtail development of software built on the features of existing products." LaPlante, Suits Trigger Debate Over Ramifications, INFOWORLD, Jan. 19, 1987, at 1. 73. "The decision should and will turn even more explicitly on a balance that in424 HIGH TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL Vol. 1:411 uncopyrightable process should be given protection simply "because the plaintiff has expended a large amount of money, time, and effort in promoting, developing and ... market[ing] its system." 74 Moreover, the test is premised on the erroneous assumption that dollar value and creativity are synonymous. Finally, such an approach overly protects the original author at the expense of idea dissemination. The application of this approach to the Apple/DRI conflict, for example, would extend Apple's potential copyright protection to monopolistic proportions. The commercial value of Macintosh resides primarily in the unique user friendly environment of FINDER, the heart of the program's look and feel. 75 Thus, using the commercial value approach, menu bars, windows, desktop, and animation sequences would all be protected since these characteristics make Macintosh easy to use, and hence commercially valuable. 76 However, allowing Apple to copyright these features would also stifle subsequent creativity.1 Although the commercial value test provides some economic incentive to produce commercially valuable works, it does not optimally encourage productivity because it creates monopolistic property rights. The FINDER animation sequence, 78 for example, is so basic that allowing copyright protection would severely hamper competing operating systems. Although certain video screen arrangements are copyrightable, 79 extending protection to Macintosh's animation sequence would, in effect, confer a monopoly over a simplified process of inputting (or outputting) data on a computer. So characterized, the sequences constitute ideas and must remain available to other computer

Procedural thinking, programming, and computer use

Abstract: Information processing technologies are spreading rapidly throughout the industrialized world Can we identify cognitive prerequisites — knowledge and skills — which are particular to understanding, using, and constructing such devices? If so, we will be better prepared to deal with present difficulties of novices and workers, to educate people for future mastering of the technology, and to foresee psychological and social consequences that the dissemination of these abilities may engender The assumption behind the talk of “computer literacy” is that such cognitive prerequisites exist and can be taught, though nobody seems to agree what they are I shall begin by presenting and discussing a proposal about the cognitive contents of computer literacy, put forward at a conference in Houston a few years ago by BA Sheil (1981), a psychologist at Xerox

Violence against wives : a crime 'sui generis'

Abstract: Although most people "like to think of the family as the abode of love; a safe retreat where any member of the family is sure of support and protection; of grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and children as a closely - linked network of individuals who will stand united in the face of a threat, the reality is rather different". With specific reference to the problem of violence against wives within the Zimbabwean context it has been said: "Everybody knows it exists. Everybody knows there is a great deal of it. But nobody knows its extent. There are no figures." It can be reasonably assumed that victims of this violence want to be protected from their husbands. This article examines the legal provisions governing violence against wives, their adequacy, appropriateness and as well as their current implementation.

On Desk-Bound Parochialism, Commonsense Perspectives, and Lousy Evidence: A Reply to Robert Conquest

Abstract: My differences with Robert Conquest center on the nature and use of evidence. In this reply, I will challenge his approach to the primary and secondary materials and defend my own. I am delighted that he now believes that "life went on, games were played" and so on during the Ezhovshchina, for that is simply not the picture he has presented to date. The Great Terror portrays the 1930s as ranging from grim to grimmer, at best, for the Soviet people as a whole. So does the work of Ulam, Friedrich and Brzezinski, Arendt, and seven recent general histories of the USSR; only one of the latter even mentions the possibility of games, recreation, or fun. The overwhelming impression all these treatments provide is one of unrelieved suffering and exploitation.' Virtually the whole field has been sorely in need of a little common sense and a careful reading of old and new memoirs. Contrary to Conquest's implication, I did not make up the "total fear" theory. Arendt wrote of "total terror,"2 and Michael Kort opines that "nobody could ever feel safe" between 1936 and 1938.3 Friedrich and Brzezinski tell us that when "totalitarian terror reaches an extreme . . . it embraces the entire society.... Total fear reigns."4 Here I agree with Conquest: I too do not think there is much common sense in these phrases. Regarding the "Letter of an Old Bolshevik," Boris Nicolaevsky said that it was "originally written not as the reflections of an Old Bolshevik, but as an account of my conversations with Bukharin." Then he changed the text, added "information from other sources, above all Charles Rappoport, a well-known French-Russian Communist" and published it "as though it were a verbatim report,"5 I believe that the muddle is the "Letter," not my note on it. We simply don't know how much of it is from Nicolaevsky and how much from Bukharin. My note, however, should have stated that it was presented as largely a report of conversations with Bukharin. The point remains that the "Letter" and other widely used reports on high politics in the 1930s should be treated with skepticism.

Look It Up! Check It Out!.

Abstract: advanced civilizations the period loosely called Alexandrian is usually associated with flexible morals, perfunctory religion, populist standards and cosmopolitan tastes, feminism, exotic cults, and the rapid turnover of high and low fads in short, a falling away (which is all that decadence means) from the strictness of traditional rules, embodied in character and enforced from within But another sign of such times is: reference books The old civilization has piled up works of the mind for centuries the attic is crammed full and direct access to the treasures grows less easy, less frequent, as the social revolution brings more and more of the untaught and the selfindulgent out of bondage At that point the museum is born, and the research library And the inmates scholars and specialists begin to digest, organize, theorize, and publish reference books The term Alexandrian comes from the famous establishment of this sort the Mouseion, the Muses' library and scholar's hostel, at Alexandria in the third century bc Alexandrianism comes in various sizes; small ones can be followed by vigorous returns to discipline, firsthand knowledge, and creativeness, as happened at the tail end of the Middle Ages and again at the turn of the eighteenth century Similarly, a healthy barbarian invasion clears the air and the bookshelves But during the very pleasant time of relaxed mental life through culture by handbook, nobody can tell what is to happen next Today, judging solely by the output of reference books, one would say that our Alexandrianism was of the largest dimensions since Alexandria itself Just try to count the guides to single subjects, from poetry and gastronomy to witchcraft and world myths; the "companions" to world literatures; the "encyclopedias of modern culture"; the tremendous Scribner series of reading-reference works that digest in single chapters the lives and works of writers from Homer to Pinter, or that survey such large subjects as American Diplomatic History, Shakespeare, and the Dance

Gorbachev Visit: A Historical Perspective:

Abstract: The greatest victory is one in which nobody is defeated and all can share in the victory.Lord Buddba

Refusing to be Invisible: Turkish Women in Berlin

Abstract: Aysel Ozakin, a Turkish writer and broadcaster in her late thirties, has made a name for herself in political and literary circles in West Berlin. Articles about her have appeared in German newspapers. As a writer who dresses in jeans and sweaters, she is seen as atypical; Berlin women express astonishment that although she had been living in Berlin for only a few years, her ideas are so ‘modern’ and her dress style so fashionable. Aysel finds this unacceptable. She dislikes being patronised in ways which reinforce German stereotypes of Turkish women. Similarly, although she has written on both feminist and migrant worker themes, she rejects these categories as too limited for characterising her work: ‘Nobody expected that Henry Miller would only write about the problems of being a foreigner in France’ (Berliner Tageszeitung, 20 April 84).

Upstairs, Downstairs: or the Roots of Reformation*

Abstract: There has never been a lack of writing asserting that the English Erasmians and the Thomas More circle had a fundamental impact on the course of the English Reformation, by supplying its foundational motifs. Until 1948, when Zeeveld published his Foundations of Tudor Policy, it could be objected that nobody had ever demonstrated their influence on the course of events. But over the next twenty-five years an important literature grew up on that very question and was capped by Professor Elton's embrace of the thesis that Cromwell's program had been shaped by Humanist ideas.' For Elton this was nothing less than a conversion, as all will recognize who remember his scathing denunciation of any who saw in "those poor stirrings of protestantism . . . or in the new humanistic learning . . . anything that could cause . the Reformation in England. "2 That was vastly to overrate the role of intellectuals and vastly to misjudge the revolution that took place. The crown had led the way, without benefit of religious ideas, plans, or programs-one wants to say without benefit of clergy. What has been missing from this discussion of the roots of reformation is any fundamental challenge to the hierarchic theory which confines Reformation to the mediation of events through ideas. This formula obscures the relationship of events to the daily experience of the common people. Humanists faced in common with others conditions that provoked in them a sense of disorder. They vented this through representations of right order, filtered through their literary, historical, theological, and ecclesiological apparatus. This apparatus undergirded their notion that history had an intelligible structure susceptible to alteration. But reformers and restorers agreed that the common people were incapable of conceptualizing right order

Advertising in poetry: a reading of E. E. Cummings' ‘Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr Vinal’

Abstract: Since the early 1920s, partisans and practitioners of American advertising have gone to extraordinary lengths in promoting their profession and their genre. Not only has advertising been viewed as a lynchpin of our free enterprise system and as the core of American democracy, it has been zealously elevated to a distinctively sacred, unimpeachable realm. Indeed, one of the major conclusions to be drawn from Bruce Barton's 1925 bestseller, The Man Nobody Knows, is that Jesus of Nazareth, the world's Almighty Copywriter, has conferred upon his twentieth-century disciples a divine status whose detractors must perforce be infidels undeserving of mercy or forgiveness. Similar chauvinism and hype abound today as contemporary advertising professionals invoke freedom of choice, religion, and even poetry to make the case for their seminal roles as effective communicators, artists, and facilitators within an open, capitalistic marketplace.1

How to Read this Monograph

Abstract: Many potential readers of this book will probably think: “Yet another monograph about breast cancer!”. The temptation to rapidly conceal this work in the library, without even an annoyed glance at the table of contents, will therefore be considerable. Are the authors of this monograph the victims of the demands of consumer society, which compel us to the continuous production of books almost nobody will read?