Books about Portent from Amazon.com

The renowned cultural theorist reveals the deeper meanings of popular cultural phenomena in post 9/11 life in America

The intellectual atmosphere in America following the event known as 9/11 was such that opinion deviating from the officially sanctioned narrative of good vs. evil was actively discouraged, the majority of the media toeing President Bush's war-mongering line. Thus it was left largely to European philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, and Slavoj Zizek to think through the international consequences of this era-defining moment. However, behind the official smoke screen, certain American intellectuals maintained a critical distance from the propaganda and sought to understand the forces at work within US society.

In this perceptive work, Susan Willis examines a series of phenomena peculiar to post-9/11 America, including the Washington DC snipers, the Stars 'n' Stripes fever, and the anthrax hoaxes, arguing that even minor or seemingly aberrant cultural manifestations bear interpretation and reveal meaning which is inherently inimical to officially promulgated versions of the current climate of fear. As a "primer," this is an ambitious project that seeks to lay the ground for a renaissance of critical thought in America..
Price: $9.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Now in its fifth hit season, Babylon 5--TV's hottest interstellar science fiction phenomenon--has spawned its own series of definitive episode guides! Catch up on all the action, show by show, from the very beginning with the Babylon 5: Season by Season guidebooks.

Babylon 5: Signs and Portents, kicks off with a foreword by actor Michael O'Hare, better known to viewers as Commander Sinclair, and features a fascinating look at how series creator J. Michael Straczynski brought his ambitious vision to the screen.

Then launch into a comprehensive overview of the groundbreaking premiere season, including in-depth, episode-by-episode summaries of all of the first twenty-two shows--from the pilot, "The Gathering," through the climactic season finale, "Chrysalis"--with analysis by author and B5 expert Jane Killick.

Veteran viewers or first-time fans, relive the adventure--or find out what you've been missing--with the complete companions to Babylon 5!.
Price: $4.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Humankind's awesome fascination with dreams and the occult is ageless Between the covers of The Interpretation of Dreams and Portents in Antiquity, readers will find some of the earliest examples of this fascination.

Collected for the first time are translations of some of the basic works used by ancient seers. Here, in their own words, are their interpretations of dreams, unraveling of signs, and their views on the significance of many kinds of unusual occurrences.

This reprint of the 1976 Samuel Stevens Hackert & Co. edition, with a new foreword by Napthali Lewis, will be of interest to psychiatrists, psychologists, classicists, and historians of religion.

From the Publisher

Man's efforts to explain the act of dreaming and to interpret or rationalize its visual content are almost as old as history itself. Lewis' Dreams and Portents is the first collection to bring together a representative variety of ancient world sources of dream interpretation, divination, and astrology featuring: - Dreams and Their Interpretations including: The Egyptian Dream Book, The Babylonian-Assyrian Dream Book, Ancient Greek and Roman Literary Allusions, Early Christian Interpretations, A Christian Dream Book - Divinations, Omens, and Prodigies - Astrology, or The Stars and Their Influence - New foreword to the 1996 edition

Also available:

The Hero and the Sea: Patterns of Chaos in Ancient Myth - ISBN 0865165084
On Unbelievable Tales (Palaephatus: Peri Apiston) - ISBN 0865163200.
Price: $38.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book traces the origins of the insurgency in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir The first theoretically-grounded account, and the most complete, it is based on extensive interviews. Ganguly's central argument is that the insurgency can be explained by political mobilization and institutional decay. In an attempt to woo the Muslims, the government dramatically expanded literacy, mass media, and higher education. Meanwhile, fearing potential secessionist proclivities, it stifled the development of political institutions. Unable to express dissent in an institutional context, the Kashmiris resorted to violence..
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From Britain's acclaimed master of dark fantasy comes this terrifying new novel of an epic struggle against evil in the midst of environmental catastrophe.

Around the world, forces of unimaginable violence are being unleashed -- earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, deadly hailstorms -- all signs of a coming titanic struggle between the forces of darkness and light. This is the story of two very special children who unknowingly hold the future of the planet in their hands... and the grotesque matriarch of a bizarre New Orleans cult who is determined to destroy them.

"Delivers a breathtaking finish, its dazzling special effects conveyed with the panache of a literary Steven Spielberg."--London Sunday Times .
Price: $42.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]