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THE LANGUAGE OF VISION

Name: THE LANGUAGE OF VISION
Author: Jamake Highwater
ISBN: 0-8021-1518-7

MEDITATIONS ON MYTH AND METAPHOR

by Jamake Highwater ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1994

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The prolific and controversial Highwater (Dark Legend, 1994) leaves behind his interest in American Indians and turns to his other obsession, aesthetics, in this ethereal and silly collection of essays. Examining the complex relationship among art, myth, and metaphor, the author contends that much of what we term ``reality'' is nothing more than our dreams turned into banalities. Real truth and meaning are to be found in the dreams themselves, but we lack the language to do them justice. Art, therefore, becomes the means by which we touch this ultimate reality. The job of the artist is thus to lead others to the realm of dreams and back again in such a way as to show that dreams are possible. The present volume explores the ways various artists seek to accomplish this task. Each of the essays takes its title from one of the 22 cards in the Tarot's Major Arcana. For instance, Highwater uses the Falling Tower, which symbolizes disorder and loss of old beliefs, as a springboard to discuss the modern period's divorce of art from the sacred. The Magician, who represents free will, creativity, and guile, serves as a metaphor for the modern artist who struggles against convention to speak in new forms. With the Empress, who stands for feminine power and terrestrial creation, Highwater returns to one of his familiar themes: ritual and our relation to the earth itself. In his final chapter he turns to the World, a nude figure of a woman symbolizing completion. By his own admission, he ends the volume as he began: Much of the final essay is a virtual verbatim repeat of the first. Filled with Jungian psychology, this unoriginal book relies heavily on the words and work of others, especially the late Joseph Campbell—who's a lot more fun to read.

Pub Date: July 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-8021-1518-7

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MYTHOLOGY OF TRANSGRESSION
by Jamake Highwater

- BOOK REVIEW
RAMA
by Jamake Highwater

- BOOK REVIEW
DARK LEGEND
by Jamake Highwater

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.