I wanted to like this book, dealing as it does with a poet who more than anyone else discovered the boundaries of language, and then redefined it in a way which has since been much imitated, but never equaled. This book is beautifully produced and written in a chatty and engaging, if a little defensive, style - Benjamin Ivry does seem too intent at times at forcing Rimbaud into the role of militant gay icon when this was only one aspect of his life - and the photos and bibliography are excellent.

However, there are several unforgivable errors, ranging from the glaring (Rimbaud had his right leg amputated, not the left) to the merely annoying (quotes from a couple of poems are misattributed). Also, Ivry seems at times so carried away with his subject that he relies too much on supposition to prove a point: for example, there is absolutely no evidence that Verlaine commissioned Rosman's famous painting of a bed-ridden, gunshot-wounded Rimbaud.

What I did like about this book was the final chapter, a fascinating collection of quotes from gay artists, poets, writers and film-makers through the years, proving that, as Eugene Borza once said about Alexander the Great, there are as many Rimbauds as there are those who profess a serious interest in him.

In the early 1950s, Rene Etiemble published a doctoral dissertation of monumental proportions, "Le Mythe de Rimbaud", which enumerated the numerous, variegated and, ultimately, misleading and false mythologies which had been propogated about Rimbaud in the decades following his death in 1891. Etiemble devoted more than twenty years to researching and refuting these myths, including the myths of Rimbaud the seer, the Catholic, the Communard, the homosexual, the scoundrel, and the martyr. As Enid Starkie suggested in her definitive biography, Etiemble's work had a salutary effect on modern approaches to Rimbaud by showing that "no single one of these descriptions accurately fits him." The result, among other things, was to shift the focus of Rimbaud studies from hagiography, on the one hand, and demonization, on the other, to an exploration of Rimbaud's revolutionary poetic language and expression.

More than fifty years after Etiemble's watershed dissertation, Benjamin Ivry has written "Arthur Rimbaud", a brief, fascinating, but ultimately somewhat disingenuous biographical gloss on Rimbaud's life. Ivry's book is the first in a series of books to be published by Absolute Press, books intended "to explore and portray the various and often unexpected ways in which homosexuality has informed the life and creative work of the influential gay and lesbian artists, writers, singers, dancers, composers, and actors of our time." It is, in other words, a book which has an agenda--an agenda which once again seeks to fit the enigmatic nature of Rimbaud's biography into a mythology, this time a mythology of Rimbaud as a founding saint of modern gay culture. Thus, Rimbaud's brilliant, complex and poetically difficult masterpieces, "Une Saison en Enfer" and "Illuminations", works which are laden with symbol and mystery, with a radically innovative poetic vitality, are reduced by Ivry to the product of Rimbaud's erstwhile homoerotic relationship with Paul Verlaine. Every aspect of Rimbaud's brief life as a poet, in Ivry's depiction, is driven by Rimbaud's "gayness", by his love for Verlaine, by his presumed disinterest in women. Never mind other aspects of Rimbaud's biography--his severe mother, his absent father, his religious upbringing, his revolutionary poetic work itself! Moreover, while the book contains a useful bibliography, it is devoid of footnotes, so it is impossible to ascertain the veracity of the speculations which permeate Ivry's text.

Having said all of this, I also must say that Ivry is an outstanding writer--his prose sparkles--and this little book is definitely worth reading if you have an interest in Rimbaud because it provides fascinating details on Rimbaud's relationship with Verlaine and others. In particular, the book extensively discusses the gay aspects of Rimbaud's life and poetry and Rimbaud's influence on subsequent writers from Cocteau to Kerouac to Jim Morrison. These are aspects of Rimbaud's life which are not explored very closely by Starkie's definitive biography and, if you read Ivry's book with some degree of skepticism, it provides a fascinating and provocative complement to the standard treatment of Rimbaud's life

Benjamin Ivry's short, but informative tome is a refreshing outline on one of France's most controversial poets. Rimbaud (1854-1891) was a L'enfant terrible, writing all his major works before the age of 20! In Ivry's illuminating biography, the reader gets to understand the motivating factors behind his wrenching verse. Unlike many Rimbaud books, Ivry's book delves into the torrid, temultuous affair the young poet had with the older poet, Paul Verlaine. Their stormy affair is one of the most renowned in gay literary history. Ivry pulls no punches in his description of their near fatal relationship and through this understanding, we see where the pain and the power of his verse emanated from. He offers a fount of information on this rarely understood young artist and the demimonde of French literary society at the turn of the century. He also deconstructs many of Rimbaud's most infamous poems, so that even the novice can understand the power of his words. Stocked with rare photos and art, this wonderful little book also has an extensive bibliography!

Half the book talks about soundproofing, a quarter on VERY basic wiring, and a quarter on a glossary. It's miniature too-the size of a passport. Not a good basic overview of studio design.

Paul White certainly knows his stuff! An important addition to the ameteur recording artist's library. Brings you up-to-date with new technology, and their applications. Well written and easy reading.

People tend to criticize this book because it's too small and basic. Big deal! It's priced accordingly and the title clearly says "Basic". That aside, the information is as clear and concise and no-nonsense as you can get for this subject. I've read several more "complete" and technical books on the subject, and it was only until I read this book that things actually came into perspective. Believe me, there is no better book to get a clear overview on how to build a small, efficient studio. After that, and armed with foreknowlege, you can get the technical stuff.

The title of this book sound very great. SO I bought it and I might expect too high. The true story of one family who faced the very terrible situation should turn to be an exciting book. But when I turn it from page to page. I didn't quite feel with them especially for the writing style. It was so boring that I have to stop for some time . If you like this kind of stuff. I recommend "Ädrift"by Stephen Callahan or classic sailing "Survive the savage sea". With these 2 books I guarantee you won't be disappointed like I was when I finish this book.

Have you ever watched a movie about adventurers shipwrecked on a desert island and thought what an interesting and exciting experience that must be?

Well, read this book and you'll find out what it's really like. Everyone I tell this story to is amazed by this family's experience.

To fully appreciate this book you must periodically while reading the book imagine yourself in these folk's situation.

You'll never look at sailing across the ocean the same way again

The intense struggle to survive both physically and spiritually was well laid out in this first-person true life tale. The dramatic pace and intense emotions flowed smoothly and kept me entranced throughout the story. I read it in one sitting! Being able to meet both the author and his wife allowed me to experience their deep love and peace with life that was forged through their experience. Don't miss this chance to take a voyeuristic first person look at their horrific, yet heart-warming ordeal. I loved it, and you will too!

by a soulless man. De MAn understands nothing about the texts he reads, adn the reason for this is that it is clear that he has no real love of literature.

Paul de Man's "Blindness and Insight" stands as one of the cornerstones in contemporary literary criticism. Not only does De Man understand the essential open-endedness of every text, but also he is right when asserting the prior role of the reader in that open-endedness of every text and the rejection of the intentionality on behalf of the author. As Wlad Godzich asserts, "De Man does not read then to constitute his identity or that of the text, nor to reach some beyond of the text, by whatever name it may be called. He seeks to locate the blind spot of the text as the organizer of the space of the vision contained in the text, and the vision's concomitant blindness."
The intentionality of the author highly acclaimed by the New Critics is, from now on, collapsed. As a reader in favor of the active role of the reading process I must say this is a valuable work to understand the process of critical reading.

I must confess a sympathy for de man. He usually gets pilloried by the right and everyone who is for truth, justice and the american way, but his readings of texts are very precise. There is a certain mathematicism in de man, such that his interpretations can be stated very quickly and don't require the accumulation of much detail. For instance, his discussion of the second discourse as an allegory and the contrast of painting to music is very interesting, although I suspect that he borrows alot from Benjamin (who I have not read). The structure of the 2nd discourse is the argument of the 2nd discourse--very elegant and precise. Ultimately wrong, but there you go. Unfortunately, the precision has the effect of reducing texts to their form. For instance, if we know that "leonine Achilles" is a metaphor, and then think the structure of metaphor, we know nothing about why Achilles is compared to a lion, we know nothing more about Homer or the Iliad. De man is ultimately precise but dull.

This book failed to achieve the answers I was looking for. It also failed to conjure up any new questions. The book is unemotional, and steril in explaining, exploring, and examining the "...subconscious power of the blues...and illuminating the blues' deepest creative sources and exploring its far reaching influence and appeal" (from the back cover). The book barely scratched the surface of all the issues it presented such as "eros, aggression travel, night, animals" and other topics. Every bluesman in the world will tell you "blues is a feeling", and this book lacks it. There are many references to Peetie Wheatstraw and his lyrics as well as from others, and pictures through out the book. I mistakenly judged this book by its cover and paid the price. I suggest reading 1) The world Don't Owe Me Nothing the life and times of Honeyboy Edwards, 2) I say me for a parable autobiography of Mance Lipscomb,3) The Land Where the Blues Began by Alan Lomax, 4)Blues and Evil by Jon Michael Spencer. These are all excellent.

Essential reading. One of the top five blues books, unique in the field. This is easily the best analysis of blues lyrics, treating black music as black power (beware pale imitations). To say it lacks feeling is to miss the point by a solid mile.

Recently, while working on editing a soon to be published Autonomedia anthology under the title "Surrealist Subversion," I had the opportunity to revisit Paul Garon's classic American surrealist volume, "Blues and the Poetic Spirit," now in a second (1996) edition thanks to City Lights Publishers. This latest edition includes a new Introduction by Garon updating and expanding upon his original 1975 blues treatise and an always insightful Afterward by fellow surrealist Franklin Rosemont. As Rosemont puts it in the course of his discussion of the inherently subversive core of the blues, "Notwithstanding the whimpering objections of a few tired skeptics, this revolt cannot be 'assimilated' into the abject mainstream of American bourgeois/Christian culture except by way of dilution and/or outright falsification. The 'dark truth' of Afro American music remains unquestionably 'oppositional'." Lately, a leader in the ever growing call and response chorus of praise for the book has been African American cultural historian Robin D.G. Kelley, author of "Yo' Mama's DisFUNKtional" (Beacon Press), who calls the Garon work, "absolutely the best book on blues music." And in her new volume, "Blues Legacies and Black Feminism" (Pantheon), noted black scholar and activist Angela Davis singles out Garon's tome for favorable mention while freely dissing the bulk of the blues literary canon. These two plaudits must be particularly gratifying to Garon since he has always insisted that the blues must be discussed first and foremost as a black poetry of resistance to racist oppression and Eurocentric notions of white supremacy. As Garon says in his book, "Poetry, kindled by desire, is the light that can dispel the pallor of bourgeois civilization. It does this through its use of 'images', 'convulsive' images, images of the fantastic and the marvelous, images of 'desire'." In exploring the fertile crossroads between art and the politics of desire that has shaped the popular cultural form known as the blues, no other book even comes close.

This book reads like Jim Bouton's real-life diary of the major leagues. The problem is it's a fictional account and not all that enlightening or interesting.

A fast and funny book. Very relistic and thought-provoking about baseball and life. The way Brett scuffs the baseball is pure genius.

I usually don't read sports fiction, but tried this one on the advice of a friend and wasn't disappointed. I like things to be the way they really are when reading fiction and this book delivers. I am a huge baseball fan and I reccommend Breaking Balls highly.

Wexler's work has its genesis in a 200-year-old effort to demonstrate that the modern Jew has no relationship with the ancient people who occupied the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Other works have followed the same course, arguing that sephardic Jews (those of Arab/Spanish origin) come from other places entirely. Several major holes in his argument render is unworkable.

Firstly, most of his evidence is linguistic, based an argument that Yiddish has Slavic roots. Now ignoring for the moment that such arguments might extend to saying that African-Americans come from England because they speak English, the thesis is flawed for other reasons. Yiddish was spoken throughout central, eastern, and southern Europe and includes words and idiom from a range of languages across this region.

That said, the crucial proof that Wexler theory is false is genetic rather than linguistic. The Y chromosome of Jews (which passes from son to son, altered only through mutation) has similar markers that are found on Jews from every region. In other words, Jews from France, Poland, Yemen, Iraq, and India, all show clear indication of common ancestry. Moreover, certain genetic diseases seem to be common among the various groups. If as Wexler argues, the decedents of native European people's who adopted Jewish religion and custom made up the majority of modern Jews, than they would be genetically distinct from the rest of world Jewry. Given that they are not, Wexler's argument does not hold water.

This book desribes the ethnogenesis of eastern european Yiddish speaking Jews, known as Ashkenazi's. Documentary, archeological, cultural, and linguistic evidence has proven that the majority of these Jews came to Eastern Europe from Germany, Austria, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Byzantium, and the Middle East. However, the author stresses the arguement that western Slavic tribes who were pagan, converted to Judaism, (probably as a result of encountering Jews from Germany and even being sold to them as slaves by Teutonic Knights). The cultural and linguistic evidence presented by P. Wexler is very convincing, but there is a problem: without a doubt Ashkenazic Jews have many Slavic words in Yiddish (a language originated in Germany, a German "jargon" dialect written in Hebrew letters). But, is it because the Ashkenazi Jews converted the Slavs to Judaism and intermixed with them, or merely because they lived side by side for some 800 years plus? Furthermore, absolutely no evidence is presented, neither cultural nor linguistic, to show the relation of Ashkenazi's to Turks. There were speculations that some Turkic Avar tribes, or Kabar tribes, or even Cuman tribes converted to Judaism, but that is merely a speculation, not backed by any stable archeological evidence or definite scholarly support. All in all, it is possible that there were minor SLAVIC pagan tribes who converted to Judaism and intermixed with the Ashkenazi Jews.

This book establishes the theory that the Ashkenazic Jews are largely descendants of converts to Judaism, especially West Slavic converts such as Sorbians and Polabians. The main focus of this book is linguistic, and certain sections will be difficult to follow for the average reader. Paul Wexler, an Israeli professor, shows that Yiddish contains many Slavic words and also that Yiddish culture has a large Slavic base. He also presents new archaeological evidence -- from Jewish sites in Chelarevo (Serbia), Aphrodisias, and Switzerland -- that many peoples converted to Judaism or adopted Judaic beliefs.

I do not feel that Wexler is correct that Yiddish is structurally a Slavic language rather than a Germanic language. I also disagree with his conclusion that the Turkic ancestors of many Ashkenazim came from the Balkans, because evidence quite clearly shows that most Turks who became Jews lived in the territory which is now Ukraine and Russia. He also fails to prove that the West Slavs definitely converted to Judaism. His hypothesis essentially is that Sorbians and Polabians were owned by Jews as slaves and that they converted to Judaism, but he admits that there is no documentary evidence that these particular Slavic groups ever converted, and almost entirely relies upon linguistic and cultural arguments, many of which are untenable.

This book's title and topics sounds very attractive. Unfortunately, it has nothing more than like a reference card!! The content need more detail presentation and analysis to give readers something valuable. A book with only about 200 pages of headlines sale for more than $70, this is absolutely ridiculous!! The worst book in my colletion.

Within this book, various algorithms can be found. The algorithms are implemented on various DSPs (TI C3x',AD 21xxx and etc) as well. Would be a great reference for students working on their DSP projects.

C Algorithms for Real-Time DSP, by Paul Embree, is a stimulating book. When I finished reading it, I went straight to my workstation and started experimenting with DSP algorithms. Embree clearly knows this subject and presents it in a straightforward manner. This is a refreshing change from the academic approach taken by the seven digital-signal processing books currently on my bookshelf. Not that Embree doesn't reference some heavy math. C Algorithms for Real-Time DSP is not for the mathematically weak of heart. To feel comfortable with the book, you should be familiar with time- and frequency-domain math as well as filter terminology&emdash;topics Embree reviews in the first part of the book. Reading this section reminded me of how my entire high-school education was summarized in my first week of college.

it's a good thing this book is out of print. It was absolutely garbage.

This book was ok - it covered a decent amount of FAQs but I think it should have also focused on C++ tooo. I like the C++ FAQ book a little better

I disagree with the previous reviewer. I actually thought it was pretty good, and answered a lot of my questions.

Don't be fooled by the witty writing; the writers are either ill-informed or malicious. 2 of 3 hotels they recommended were downright seedy. The Miramar at La Ciotat (three stars, "a classy, updated old hotel amid pine groves, by the beach") turned out to be a nicotine-saturated, dimly lit dive that charged our credit card before we arrived (we didn't stay). Pine groves? The hotel sits shadeless on an ugly stretch of tarmac. The "pine groves" were a few trees in the parking lot behind the hotel. There are many good guides to Provence; choose another.

In planning a trip for my wife and I to Provence, I bought several guide books for assistance. This one stood out. The authors have clearly walked the paths, stayed in the lodgings and eaten at many of the resturants they write about. Since they were bound to cover the entire area, it seemed I could tell when they had not actually been there, but these parts were few. Their style gives a really good feeling about a place, and the practical matters of sight seeing, hiking, biking, sleeping, eating and especially resting are well done. Not every place gets a good review; I especially liked the comments on what to miss. I found this all too often lacking in competing guides, that read more like they were edited by the local Chamber of Commerce. Another plus - Cagodan Provence was published this year, making it one of the most current available. My recommendation: If you're going, buy it.

Disclosure: I've never met or heard of the authors or their book before finding it on Amazon.

Having been to Provence about ten times in the last twenty years, I've read plenty of guides, and none have gone as directly to the heart of the matter as this one. There are plenty of posey guides out there, but if you want to know what makes the region tick, warts and all, I recommend Facaros and Pauls. The others seem shallow in comparison. And these guys make me laugh, an added bonus!