Books about Iconoclastic from Amazon.com

The epigraph for Howl is from Walt Whitman: "Unscrew the locks from the doors!/Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!" Announcing his intentions with this ringing motto, Allen Ginsberg published a volume of poetry which broke so many social taboos that copies were impounded as obscene, and the publisher, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was arrested. The court case that followed found for Ginsberg and his publisher, and the publicity made both the poet and the book famous. Ginsberg went on from this beginning to become a cultural icon of sixties radicalism. This works seminal place in the culture is indicated in Czeslaw Milosz's poetic tribute to Ginsberg: "Your blasphemous howl still resounds in a neon desert where the human tribe wanders, sentenced to unreality"..
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What is Zen and how does it apply to the world of the Japanese Samurai? Kaiten Kukariya explores the secrets of Zen tracing it's past to Origin of Zen in India, and then to the Introduction of Zen into China. The author also looks at the many schools of Buddhism in Japan. The Physical and Mental Training that goes which are the scret of zen and the Three Important Elements of Zen..
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Prior to this meticulously researched biography, legendary producer Sam Spiegel had loomed large in countless Hollywood memoirs, but was rarely the subject of close examination Praiseworthy for negotiating a maze of apocryphal stories and unverified details, Sam Spiegel solves many of the mysteries resulting from the falsehoods of "Spiegelese," for the renowned producer--whose crowning achievements included The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia--was perhaps the most inventive liar to gain prominence in Hollywood. With a refreshing absence of judgment, this unflinching study portrays Spiegel as a consummate manipulator, hedonist, philanderer, absentee father, sexaholic (a foot fetishist who favored young girls well into his '70s), and globetrotting entertainer of the social elite, "incapable of guilt" and so charming that he could achieve miracles (and numerous faked heart attacks, to disarm his detractors) while producing some of the greatest films of Hollywood's post-Golden era.

As a first-time biographer, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni (a French journalist who worked as an assistant on Spiegel's final film, 1983's Betrayal) fails to plumb the depths of Spiegel's enigmatic character (so effectively hidden behind his luxurious lifestyle), offering little insight into Spiegel's unique combination of intellect and roguish insincerity. She compensates with a journalist's greatest assets: exacting research and seemingly limitless access to Spiegel's surviving contemporaries, from the late Billy Wilder to On the Waterfront director Elia Kazan and many, many others. The result is a fair and balanced portrait of one of Hollywood's classiest scoundrels, a master thief with impeccable taste and an uncanny instinct for cinematic prestige. --Jeff Shannon.
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Wearing thick glasses, speaking in her thick Icelandic accent, and, well, seeming a touch thick, Bjork stormed the public consciousness in 2000 as an unlikely heroine in the experimental musical film Dancer In the Dark. Army of She is an in-depth look at the woman who first took the public stage twenty-three years ago, analyzing her rise from child prodigy to punk anarchist to New Wave novelty (as member of the Sugarcubes) to hit soloist to film star..
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From bestselling author David Brin comes a collected work that takes the reader on a swooping, controversial ride through worlds of fiction, nonfiction and film. Through Stranger Eyes is a freedom-of-expression free-for-all, offering more than two dozen reviews and commentaries that are sure to enlighten and entertain, possibly infuriate, even make you laugh. From carefully measured views on J.R.R. Tolkien to Brin's infamous, outraged rant about the Star Wars saga, to unusual appraisals of familiar and unfamiliar works, you are guaranteed to come away with perspectives you never imagined before. As readers, we have enjoyed Brin's fiction - the Uplift universe, books like Sundiver and Earth. Now venture into the mind and world of the journey into the mind of one of the most popular authors alive today, and see what he sees through stranger eyes..
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