This book is a natural page-turner which delves into the rise of a new "warrior cult" in the U.S. beginning in the mid-70's and gaining momentum in the 80's. Explores the (sometimes dangerous) sociological implications of this fascination with automatic weapons, camouflage clothing, violence, and the "lone warrior", although the author's reliance on Jungian and Freudian interpretations of this phenomenon goes a bit overboard at times. Nonetheless this is a valuable study overall. The assertion that this phenomenon is fulfilling a valid psychological need in its adherents, and suggestions of alternate ways of fulfilling these needs that do not glorify violence, should prove to be provocative and hopefully useful in working toward a less violent society.

This is probably one of the best primer books for anyone interested in the sociological aspects of masculinity in America. It is an easy read with tons of examples from relatively recent media sources. It reads like a novel but has a lot more to say. Any one interested in violence in media should put this at the top of their to read list.

This book was recommended to me in a politics chat room. When my friend described its topic with "paintball" "guns" "war movies" and "politics", I knew I had to read it (i had an interest in all of these things).

The book starts off describing how "New Warriors" (men with a "warrior" mentality in Post-Vietnam America) see and treat women/children/family, how they are effected by consumer culture of war/paramiltary books and movies, view guns.. paintball.

Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, along with Ollie North, Rambo, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris all embrace or help create the New War. Mass murderers, assassins, and mercenaries are influenced by it as well.

I'd like to see Gibson tackle the topic again. 5 years later, we've got an enormous computer/video game warrior culture, where hundreds of thousands of young men spend hours each day blasting each other to bits on the Internet.

I must first of all confess that, since reading Huck Finn as a kid, this is the only Twain I've read. I must also confess that the nearest comparison I can give for this book is the writings of William Burroughs!

In his last years Twain several times approached the idea of a story about a mysterious, "satanic" figure who appears to a small community and brings about an anti-religious revelation. This book contains his three attempts, thankfully free of the posthumous bowdlerisation that marred its previous publication.

The middle section is most like "classic" Twain, a semi-comic episode set in the familiar time and territory of Tom Sawyer. The "bookends", however, are set in a vaguely medieval middle-Europe and have a somewhat Gothic atmosphere. The first section is the most scathing, while the last is more like a dream.

The effect of these three substantial fragments being presented together is a remarkable insight into the creative processes of an extraordinarily imaginative mind. This breaking beyond narrative and into the writer's consciousness is the reason I draw the comparison with Burroughs. The result was never meant to be published as is, but nonetheless it is a challenging and haunting work, which provides a unique insight into the writer's mind.

THis is an excellent book! I really liked the main character and the way he love the ourdoors.

A word for those out there who are tempted to buy anything/everything related to _The Matrix_: the complete contents of _ The Matrix: The Shooting Script_ (including the scene notes) can be found in _The Art of the Matrix_, which contains additional material, both written and pictorial. I enjoy the material in _The Shooting Script_ version, but prefer the more detailed treatment in the bigger book.

Even the text of William Gibson's introduction appears in _The Art of the Matrix_, as an afterword. The author of _Neuromancer_ was slow to see _The Matrix_ when it first came out, knowing that it was in his own genre - although he'd been exposed to the screenplay, he hadn't anticipated how well the story would translate to film. Not only did he enjoy it when first persuaded to see it in theatrical relese, he promptly turned around and dragged others out to see it. :)

The scene notes following the body of the script aren't written by the Wachowski brothers, but by their assistant Phil Oosterhouse - the brothers being busy at the time with making the sequels. The notes accompanying _The Shooting Script_ omit discussion of some deleted scenes, but otherwise tally with the more complete version in _The Art of the Matrix_.

Essentially, this book is for anyone who's interested only in the no-frills text of the script, without the storyboards that were essential to the Wachowskis' campaign to persuade Warner Brothers to actually make the film, and without any extra discussion of scenes that were cut before the movie was actually shot. As far as it goes, it's fine.

I highly recommend the Matrix Shooting script. It not only covers the scenes that were in the movie, but also bits that had to be excluded.

The Forward is written by none other than Willaim Gibson [how's that for a seal of approval]. He says that 'Keanu's Neo is my favourite-ever science fiction hero, absolutely!'. You can't ask for anything more.

I also love the commentary by Phil Oosterhouse, who was Assistant Director on the movie. He gives wonderful insights into little nuances of the scenes and the commitment of the actors and directors to produce the very best movie they could.

The book also has stills from the movie in cool black and white. It's a book any true Matrix fan should be without.

Enjoy!

Reading this collection of articles gave me a better understanding of the people and ideas that helped shape computer-based communication. The contributors are for the most part well chosen; a few that I might well have done without, I must admit -- but far more excellent choices than "questionable" ones. The organization of the book is interesting as well. I was reminded of the magazine "Mondo 2000" that I subscribed to in the early '90's (multimedia/geek chic).

This book is a must read for anyone interested in modern art and culture, and where its going. The companion web site on www.artmuseum.net is a brilliant compliment to the book, with 50 video clips, rare photos and other treats. Finally, a publishing project that "gets it" how to use the web + printed book in a way where the sum is greater than the parts. Its amazing to see how long artists and scientists have been working (alone, and in some cases together) towards this goal. Prehaps the following decade will witness a true "waking up" by the mass culture to this new syntax, new reading-practice, of multi-media hyper-texted information. This book may mark a point in time where we started acknowledging the depth and extent of our post-Guttenburg world. Bravo to Randall Packer and Ken Jordon for pulling this project off.

The revised edition of Barclay's commentaries was issued in 1975 and was prepared not by William Barclay, but by the Rev. James Martin. According to the introduction, the revised edition renews the printer's type, restyles the books, corrects some errors in the text and removes some references which have become outdated. In addition, Biblical quotations in the commentaries use the Revised Standard Version instead of the King James Version (however Barclay's own translation is retained at the beginning of each daily section).

The reality of the revised edition is quite different. What the introduction fails to mention is that the 17 volumes of the revised edition of the New Testament have 12.6% fewer pages than the now out-of-print 2nd edition. Only the 2nd edition contains all of Barclay's commentary on the New Testament. For example, in the 2 volumes on the Gospel of John, the revised edition contains 547 pages; however the 2nd edition contained 634 pages. Thus, the revised edition has 13.7% fewer pages than the 2nd edition. In the 2 volumes on Revelation, the reduction is over 20%.

I first noticed the selective deletion of portions of Barclay's original commentary in the commentary for John 13:33-35, in which Jesus speaks of loving one another as he loved us. In the 2nd edition, Barclay so beautifully states the following: "He [Jesus] knew all their [his disciples] weaknesses and yet He still loved them. Those who really love us are the people who know us at our worst and who still love us." However, these two sentences do not appear in Martin's revised edition. Repeatedly, key sentences and phrases are deleted from the revised edition. The revised edition is in fact a condensed and inferior version of the commentaries actually written by William Barclay. I do believe that William Barclay's commentaries are the most insightful and meaningful commentaries that I have ever read on the New Testament, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They have truly changed my life. However, if you want to read all of what Barclay actually said instead of what Martin thought was important enough to leave in, then check with a used book store or do a used book search on the internet to get the 2nd editions of the Gospel of John or other volumes in the Daily Study Bible.

Lke Caruso or Babe Ruth, Barclay is in a class by himself.As a commentator he had a combination of skills I have not found equalled by anyone else He was and remains the best in thefield. His writing style is accessible but eloquent Anglo-English (he was Scotch). His erudition peerless,(he knew more about Judiasm as a religion than almost all specialists I have read in that field) His intellectual intergrity is breathtaking. He will acknowledge and discuss that the original Mark did not make a strongarguement for the Resurrection, that John was brillant but probably wrong about the actual day of the crucifixtion etc etc etc. His analysis of many issues (like the authorship of John's Gospel)while easy to understand, is far more sophisticated than what you will find in the Expositer's.

Barclay will educate you, strengthen your faith, and leave you shaking your head in regret that "they dont make them like him anymore. I have read a bunch of these guys. Barclay is the geniune article, in a class by himself, the standard by which I and I think you too will judge everyone else.

Barclay's writings speak to me like none other. William Barclay passed on in the early 1980's, but thankfully, he left behind so much of his useful and practical knowledge.

Of these DSB series, John is my favorite.

Barclay's book on John says that this disciple was portrayed as "The Eagle" because he saw things from a higher, more spiritual view and his writings had more metaphysical meat to them.

Barclay's exegesis on John really brings that out.

And the thing I love most about this book is the practicality of his teachings. It's not a dry or dusty interpretation, but a here and now explanation. He makes the writings of these men come alive and then shows how the teachings of Jesus are practical and applicable to all the needs of mankind - for now and forever.

As someone else once said of this remarkable man, William Barclay, "he saved the Bible from the experts."

John was the first of this series that I read. And then I went out and bought Matthew. And then Luke. And then Mark and before I was done - I'd purchased and read them all.

The revised edition of Barclay's commentaries on the New Testament was published in the 1970's, replacing the 2nd edition. It was prepared not by William Barclay, but by the Rev. James Martin. According to the introduction, the revised edition renews the printer's type, restyles the books, corrects some errors in the text and removes some references which have become outdated. In addition, Biblical quotations in the revised edition use the Revised Standard Version instead of the King James Version (however Barclay's own translation is retained at the beginning of each daily section).

What the introduction of the revised edition fails to mention is that while the 17 volumes of the previous 2nd edition contains a total of 5,195 pages, the revised edition prepared by Martin has only 4,541 pages, or a reduction of 12.6%. The removal of portions of Barclay's text in the revised edition varies among the 17 volumes, but nowhere is it more pronounced than in the 2 volumes on Revelation. In the 2nd edition, the 2 volumes contain 528 pages, but in the revised edition the 2 volumes only contain 415 pages, a reduction of 113 pages, or 21.4%. One of the worst cases of the removal of portions of Barclay's commentary occurs in the commentary for Revelation 3:1-6 (Sardis: A Lifeless Church). In that particular commentary, well over 50% of the text from the 2nd edition is removed in the revised edition. Repeatedly, key sentences and phrases are deleted from the revised edition. The revised edition is in fact a condensed and inferior version of the commentaries actually written by William Barclay.

However, I do want to make it clear that I found that the 2nd edition of the Daily Study Bible, including the 2 volumes on Revelation, are by far the most insightful and meaningful commentaries that I have ever read on the New Testament, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Barclay's 2nd edition commentary on Revelation did an outstanding job of explaining the historical background and the meaning of this difficult text. Any serious study of Revelation would benefit tremendously by the use of Barclay's commentary. However, if you want to read all of what Barclay actually said instead of what Martin thought was important enough to leave in, then check with a used book store or do a used book search on the internet to get the 2nd editions of the 2 volumes on Revelation or other volumes in the Daily Study Bible series.

I was looking for Volume II and am using this "review" as a means to inquire. Volume I covers chapters 1-5. I assume Vol. II would cover chapters 6-18? I would like to purchase Vol. II.(As a small review: Mr. Barclay has taken on the most difficult book and made it much easier to understand.)

The breakdown of the written text was very informative for me an arm chair catholic bible reader. The recommended interpretations are all viable and the "more likely meanings" of the text seemed well founded. However, a volume 2 would be a great finish to the reading.

Readers should note that this site does not distinguish between the various editions of Shakespeare, so the reviews you read may be for audiotapes, modern translations, etc. I am reviewing the Kenneth Branaugh BBC Radio recording of Hamlet. It is adequate, which I consider high praise for this challenging play. Like Branaugh's movie a few years later, it includes the entire text of the play, which is a nice way to remind yourself of some issues you may have forgotten.

The performances are pretty good, and include Branaugh (of course) as Hamlet and Derek Jacobi as Claudius, giving us a hint of the performances they would later give in the movie. No one's performance really blew me away, although Jacobi was excellent.

Ultimately, the play loses quite a bit when transferred to audio only. There's a lot to be conveyed with stage placement, physican action, expression, etc. Somehow, listening to the play limited my imagination on those issues, preventing my from using my "mind's eye" to the fullest.

If you could read only one thing in your lifetime Hamlet should be that one thing. It is Shakespeare's best work by far, and within its pages is more meaning than you could find within the pages of an entire library full of books, or plays as the case may be. A mere review, a couple words, cannot do Hamlet justice. At times I realize that the language of Shakespeare can be difficult that is why I recommend the Folger version because it helps to make the images expressed by Shakespeare's characters clear to the reader, and allows them to get their own deep personal meaning from Hamlet, Shakespeare's greatest work, with out being bogged down in trying to decipher and interpret his antiquarian English. Don't just listen to what I say, or read what I write, read the play on your own outside the cumbersome restraints of a classroom and see for yourself what I mean.

If you're not familiar with Hamlet, a pox on you! Hamlet is the most famous failed law student in Western culture. Go see a live production. Read the play. Or get a video, or listen to an audio version. Do all four. Versions of Hamlet have been done by Laurence Olivier, Nicol Williamson, Mel Gibson, Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, or the unattainable version done by Baylor University Theater in the 1950s - the film version won a world film festival in Brussels in 1957. (Yes, I know Jacobi plays the King in Branagh's version, but Jacobi himself played Hamlet - - about the time when Branagh was 15 years old. It's better than his I, Claudius.)

Hamlet, like Shakespeare's other plays, has created a huge cottage industry of scholars, actors, theaters and books. The force of Hamlet's personality dwarfs all others, however. To see a man driven mad, and while mad, feign madness, is one of the most clever story twists of world literature. The mind and heart of Hamlet has been thrown into great, tortured pain by several levers -- the death of his father, the overhasty marriage of his mother to his uncle, the usurpation of his throne by his uncle, the threat to the entire kingdom from Fortinbras, the horrifying appearance of the ghost of his father in purgatory torments, the news of the murder of his father from a supernatural phenomenon. The rejection by his lover, Orphelia, and his ensuing mistrust of her, adds nuclear fission to the fire.

You must experience Hamlet. Oh, for a true friend like Horatio!

This is, indeed, an excellently written book. It's difficult to miss Gibson's heartful, chic, mindbendingly poetic wording, how his words flow in a sheer sea of mind-altering cyber-induced electricity! I love the way he wrote this book--he made you feel the dark, technology-beset, cyber-LSD-laced, futuristic environment; he made you feel Case's addictions, Riviera's insanity, Molly's lethality, and he made you feel Cyberspace. He forced you to experience everything with his artful prose. The ABSOLUTE ONLY reason that I gave Mr. Gibson four stars instead of five for this cool techno novel is because, even in his masterful writing, the plot was rather difficult to follow. Yeah, I understood Case and the rest of the characters, the amoral society, the dark techno-ridden, corporate-run urban future, but I found it hard to understand what was actually going on, what the story was. So many elements of the plot were hard to catch. Other than this, however, his writing is beautiful! (Language is rather vulgar, though).

Although he practically invented the genre, the story is typical cyberpunk: computer cowboy in a post-nation-state corporate-controlled world is forced to complete a suspenseful mission--in this case freeing an AI.

But like I said about Pattern Recognition, Gibson's gift is not so much in story-making (although the story here is still great), but in his command of the language. A very apt description of his prose in this book is "mindbending." His descriptions are psychadelic and surreal and unexpected. And his techno-culturally sensitive and clever inventions like the "Turing Police" are delicious.

It is amazing Gibson wrote this book over 20 years ago; it seems so ahead of its time. For one thing, he coined the term "cyberspace" in this book. It is also amazing how much of The Matrix is copied from its pages. And not just subtle concepts, but names like "The Matrix" and "Zion" and whatnot. I hope he's getting some royalties. I wonder if Gibson ever read Nozick and his experience machine?

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

So begins William Gibson's prophetic and apocryphal novel NEUROMANCER, the first in his SPRAWL Trilogy and arguably the most important Science Fiction novel of the Century. In a single, mind-bending work, Gibson propelled an entire generation into a new era of information perception, an era that has since woven itself strand-by-strand into the global information nexus we call the World Wide Web.

It begins with Case, a young and bitter cyberspace cowboy prowling the neon-lit streets of Chiba City, in search of his lost identity. Robbed of his talent for working the Matrix as a data thief and cyberspace pirate, his life is a bleak and desolate journey towards self-destruction. Until the day a mirror-eyed assassin offers him a second chance.

Suddenly Case is an unwitting pawn in a game whose board stretches from Chiba to the Sprawl to an orbiting pleasure colony populated by Ninja clones and Zion-worshipping Rastafarian spacers. The job: to hack the unhackable. To break the ICE around an Artificial Intelligence and release it from its own hardwired mind. But at every turn Case is haunted by the shadows of his own dark past, and pursued by a faceless enemy whose very presence can kill.

Ironically, William Gibson tapped out the wonders of NEUROMANCER on a manual typewriter, and was certain it was fated for the Out Of Print stack or a quiet cult following. But now, over ten years later and still in print, it has become a kind of cultural landmark in a sea of Information; a chrome-and-silicon avatar of everything from the World Wide Web to Virtual Reality. NEUROMANCER must not be explained or related; it must be experienced, taken in through the pores and rolled against the tongue like electric adrenaline. And there is only one way to do so.

Pick up a copy. And jack in.

Clay Douglas Major

What would you do if you fell in love with the wrong person? Well Romeo and Juliet are in this same situation. The scene is set in Verona where two household families share the same social status. From the birth of these two enemies come Romeo and Juliet....P>This book was amazing. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. I felt as if I wanted to get in the story and try to fix all their problems. Shakespeare is a creative writer. He put in true life problems that teenagers deal with today. Shakespeare taught me never to give up and to accomplish my goals. In this book, Romeo and Juliet are not allowed to fall in love. Their parents band them from seeing each other and they wouldn't allow them to following their hearts. But they did it anyway. This book taught me to follow what I believe in and to think for myself, not to listen to what other people want me to do. If I did, then my life would have been miserable. The only thing I didn't like with this book was that it was so hard to understand because it was written in Old English.

I recommend the book, Romeo and Juliet, to anyone who loves to read tragic love stories, who is interested in reading Shakespeare's writings, or who is interested in reading an outstanding book.

I have seen all movie versions about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and still love the book everytime I revisit the story. Every word captivates the reader into truly feeling the passion and tragedy of these two lovers. Even a character such as Tybalt Capulet won me over as far as description goes. Shakespearian writing is very much complex and confusing but it has a touch romance and anger which adds to the emotion of the story. Read this classic tragedy!

I have seen plenty of time the story about Romeo and Juliet and it still captures me.The way all the characters express themselves,the way Shakespear combines hate and love in the same story.It tells you how much two peple can really love each other and they gave up their lifes for their love.
The character I liked most is Tybalt, because I feel reflected. The way he acts, the way he feels towards the Montagues and the most important the way he expresses himself.I won't summarize the plot, as it is one of the best-known tales in all literature, and deservedly so. Being a classic, it can be read from different perspectives and standpoints.
Shakespearian writing is very much complex and confusing but it has a touch romance and anger which adds to the emotion of the story.Read this classic tragedy!

Unlike his famous Neuromancer, Pattern Recognition is set in the here-and-now. September 11 has happened. Cayce Pollard, the protagonist, lost her father that day in that very city, but no body was ever found. She works as a freelance coolhunter who's allergic to logos.

The story revolves round finding the creator of video clips that has achieved cult status on the Internet. An ad exec considers this "footage" to be the greatest marketing idea of the young 21st Century and hires Cayce to find the maker.

Her hunt takes her from London, to Tokyo, back to London, then to Russia. Gibson paces the story well. If he wanted to he could get bogged down in the intricacies of steganography, viral marketing, or signal intelligence. He doesn't. Instead, we follow Cayce running into interesting characters who's lives all revolve around late 20th. Century technology.

There are references to old calculators and old computers, and there's the Net itself playing a supporting role without any lines. The global linking of computers, digital devices, and minds allows the story to even exist. The footage first appeared on the Net. That's where obsessive fans analyze every pixel on message boards. We read Cayce's e-mails to friends, business partners, and her mother.

PR isn't an action-filled novel. There is a small fight and chase through Tokyo. What drives the story is the intrigue: who's really working for who? what are someone's motives? what is the purpose of the footage?

These questions do get answered. What Gibson also addresses is the role of Media in our lives. It permeates our every waking moment, whether we know it or know. We're not just passive, only consuming, we also produce media by how we communicate with others to how we wear our clothes. The constant questioning of the Man/Media relationship threads itself throughout.

A problem with Gibson's books are they get dated quickly. Neuromancer founded the cyberpunk genre, but I laugh reading his guess of a vast global network far into the future (we're already there). The same thing will happened with PR. There are just too many references that fit perfectly in 2003, but will get stale in a few years (characters "Google" each other). Fun, yes, but not timeless.

I am surprised by the lack of comments on the reverberating shock from September 11 that runs through this book. Grief, sadness, pain -- are these words too embarrassing for sci fi fans to use? Can we force ourselves to write "hope?" For such is the unexpected late guest at the dark feast that began with Neuromancer. Gibson, creator of worlds where our traumatized children long to become information flow while their bodies rot, seems to have looked up and caught a glimpse of the sun. We can wonder that September 11 has made his landscape far less bleak.

Cayce Pollard is Gibson's most fragile and human creation. Her friends care for her. She emails her mom. (Did the word "mom" even appear in any of his other books?) She is numb with loneliness and grief for her father (missing on Sept. 11). While logos and brand names and Product seem to describe the limits of her world, her hunt for the footage takes her instead into the heart of a very human story, where the motive for bleeding edge technology turns out to be fierce protectiveness for the wounded and -- go on, you can say it -- love.

I found this book surprisingly comforting. Gibson, the high priest of cyber-alienation, holds out hope that our technology can connect us. We are not cyborgs yet. Pain hurts. And remaining human is not a bad thing.

I feel I should start of by stating that this is my first William Gibson novel, so if you're looking for an evaluation of "Pattern Recognition" within the context of his other books, there's no point in reading further. That said, I found "Pattern Recognition" to be a remarkable, moving novel that was a joy to read. Specifically, it is a fascinating look at the paranoia and hope of the post 9/11 world. Gibson deftly considers the difference between crass consumer culture and genuine art, and then swirls them together via our information saturated culture.

As his protagonist, Gibson creates Cayce Pollard, something of a marketing prodigy whose claim to fame is that she can unerringly determine whether or not a brand logo will be successful on first sight. It is therefore intensely ironic that she has a phobia of all commercial branding that manifests itself through something that is akin to a cross between a panic attack and a migraine. Her revulsion to consumer culture is so intense, she goes so far as to remove labels from everything she owns, and dresses in the most stripped down manner possible.

Wrapped inside this duality is the additional one that Cayce, despite her odd phobias, who seems to be an inherently trusting and positive person, is grappling with the death, or more accurately the disappearance of her father in the events surrounding 9/11. Thus her vision of the future is touched by the background, but pervasive, fear that seems to have become part and parcel to our new century.

Cayce's escape from these twin phantoms is an oddly alluring film that is being released piece by piece on the internet (those familiar with Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves" may see an echo here). The "footage", as it is known, enjoys a grass roots fascination globally that borders on cultish, except that the reaction is overwhelmingly positive, and disconnected from pop culture. The footage is apparently being released out of sequence, and seems to take place out of time and in some undefined location. As chatroom battles rage over whether it is a work in progress or a completed film, there seems to be no argument that the footage is a thing of shocking, pure beauty, totally untainted by popular culture.

However, it is when Cayce is asked by her enigmatic and enormously influential colleague to track the footage to the source that things get weird. It would be impossible to recount the plot here without spoiling it, but the dualities mentioned above, art and pop-culture, past and future, act, react and interact in fascinating ways. Gibson argues eloquently that the future is informed by the past, but not determined by it. Moreover, he seems to be arguing that there is no such thing as consumer-culture or art, but rather that they are all part of one increasingly global CULTURE. This blurring of the lines is neither good nor bad, but instead a consequence of the Information Age. As such, the definitions and boundaries of art are shifting.

I could go on, but I suspect that this is the type of novel that allows (and encourages) a multitude of conclusions. So I will finish by saying that on top of the fascinating, puzzling plot, and the interesting thematic elements, this is also a very cathartic book to read. While 9/11 plays a relatively small role in terms of lines of text, the horror of that day saturates Cayce, and the themes of the book. At it's conclusion, however, "Pattern Recognition" points the way to a release of those emotions, or more accurately of a way to place them within a personal historical context. Thus, this remarkable novel points to a chance for hope in our troubled brave new world.