While D.W. Griffith is famous (or infamous) for his breakthrough feature THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), his critics are just as divided over his follow-up, INTOLERANCE (1916). This epic tells four distinct stories at one time. The stories are linked thematically, as they show how one powerful person's intolerance of others can have tragic results. This film was the most expensive film produced up to that point in time, yet its structure remains "experimental" to this day.

Mr. Drew's analysis of this film is easy to read, and he does not indulge in some of the intangible film theories that many books of this type trot out. He begins by sketching Griffith's life and his career at this point in time. Next, he breaks the film down into the different "stories". From that, he explores the sources that Griffith used as a reference for his story, costumes and sets. This section is very interesting because the author points out the historical points that were important to Griffith as well as the facts he ignored. Griffith was also influenced by contemporary and historical authors, poets, and films. Finally, Griffith and the film were influenced by the Progressive political reform movement of the time.

The last two chapters of the book deal with the impact of INTOLERANCE at the time of release, and what major film critics have said about it. Griffith claimed that the film was a financial disaster. While the film did not make a lot of money, Drew shows that the film did quite well until the outbreak of World War I caused a major shift in the public's attitues toward the film.

I would recommend this film to anybody who is interested in D.W. Griffith and silent films of the 1910s. Just make sure that you see the film before reading the book.

Minutely researched, Richard Schickel really did his homework. Griffith emerges as an intriguing, if not altogether engaging, character. He seems to have been the first to understand what was to become the accepted language of popular cinema. For example, he showed that intercutting two sequences (a house on fire and the approaching fire engine) would not confuse an audience.

What I missed was more background in the world surrounding Griffith, Hollywood is so briefly sketched that one is left thinking Griffith worked in a vacuum. But maybe that's the point, he chose not to see how the feature film was developing around him.

Schickel lays to rest several myths about Griffith but seems unsure quite what note to strike about his racism. In the end Griffith remains a rather distant character.

When Griffith dies on p.604 it's relief and as someone you are intrigued, but not engaged, by you can't help feeling he got what he deserved.

If you were ever in the military you will get a chuckle, if you were in the Navy you will find a little of all your shipmates in Russell Quigley. I could completely identify with most of the situations in the book, I was a Navy photographer for 30 years.

I used this book in an introductory quantum class last semester, and found it to be a well-written, easy-to-read, and, perhaps most importantly, lively text. Griffiths deserves to be described by the old term for physicist: "natural philosopher." He makes sure to explain concepts using logical, physical arguments and reviews most of the relevant math needed to understand the physics. It's something of a letdown, then, that many of the problems are mere mathematical exercises in tedium. There are many good problems, however, and, on the whole, it's a great book, especially if you've seen quantum a little before, as I had.

This is a good place to start studying QM after being introduced to some basic quantum physics from a modern physics text such as Serway or Eisberg and Resnick. I especially like the treatment of the uncertainty principle done in this text and many of the side comments made are very interesting. It is not perfect however, as there are no solutions to problems and some of the later chapters have errors. You can download an errata list at the author's web site though and many of the problems are the types that you can be fairly certain if you have the right answer or not. If you want to just read it and not work many problems it can get a little annoying because in deriving some results Griffiths will often say something like "and because of the theorem you proved in problem 2.4, we see that..." This book is also a bit overpriced in my mind, but so are almost all of the serious intro QM texts. I've seen other reviewers saying that Griffiths is not very rigorous and I believe that these reviewers must be either mathematicians or people who already knew the subject before reading the book. It is fine on the rigor for an intro text in my mind and since it is a standard QM text in many undergraduate physics programs it looks as though some people agree with me. In many ways I like Liboff better than this text, yet Griffiths is better than Liboff in many ways also. Two two texts complement each other yet put a dent in your wallet. If only Dover could get ahold of the two!

Griffiths treads an unconventional, good-humored path in this book. Instead of starting, as many introductions to quantum mechanics do, with historical interpretations that lead up to the particle-wave equation, he jumps head-first into problems and examples. This text would be very difficult to tackle alone, but under the tutelage of a good instructor (to help with problems that could very well take all day) is well worth the effort. He never goes too deep, and comes closest to the median, that is, he writes at a level understandable to undergraduates. My biggest vice is his lack of physical or experimental examples; they seem to be an addendum to the mathematics. Also, it sticks to the Schrodinger interpretation nearly throughout, which I think is preferable as an intro to QM, but some fancy graduate students might whine (I think one or two problems deals with the Heisenberg/Linear Algebra approach, and some Singlet, Triplet stuff uses matrices, etc. but that's easy). He brings on some fairly traditional problems, so a student who doesn't have a strong math background might want to get another book as a reference. Like the other reviewer said, there are some very algebraically difficult problems that don't really emphasis conceptual understanding, but QM is hard work, so if you wanna get cookin' this is the book for you.

Not bad, but if you were really looking for some real knowledge of Lewis' teaching style this isn't it...it's pleasant reading, but not terribly informative. Also, it does not show the complete Lewis character. Based on sources at Oxford, the real C.S. Lewis was impersonal (even by British academic standards) with some of his students, and could be withering to those whom he felt were not terribly bright or motivated.

I've always been a bit surprised and suspicious of the C. S. Lewis industry: the fact that I like reading Lewis, doesn't mean I like reading about him. (Though, if push comes to shove, I have to admit I do. Just no slobbering, please.) Fortunately this is a collection of essays by colleagues, students, and friends of Lewis who, even while writing about Lewis, have other things on their minds -- the purpose of English teaching, Oxford, redemption, even (in the gardener's case) his own bad jokes. There are even a few critical stories. Most of the essays are well written and insightful, and gave plenty of Boswell-like anecdotes not only of Lewis, but of other peculiar denizens of Oxford as well. Graham could have saved himself the occasional bone thrown to evangelicals, though, as far as I'm concerned. I really don't care how Bob Jones reconciles the work of the Holy Spirit and beer. Billy Graham and J. I. Packer didn't seem to have much to say. Also, the editor protested a bit too much about "hero worship." There's no need to apologize for this book, otherwise.

The book arrived in the mail on Friday afternoon. By Saturday afternoon I was chewing on crumbs.

To me, one of the most interest comments was the suggestion by one writer that Lewis had been influenced by the marvellous chapter "The Ethics of Elfland" in G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. I am beginning to suspect that Wilhelm Grimm was a very clever, and also successful, evangelist, and that there might be a secret link between the Seven Dwarves and Trumpkin.

author, Jesus and the Religions of Man

This is going to be an unpopular review...I know many have found Mr. Zukov's book a very rewarding read. I, on the other hand, could not have been more disappointed. I finished the book for the express purpose of writing this review.

As a student of religion and culture, I was extremely disappointed with the manner in which Zukov approached his subject matter. He speaks of such issues as the nature of the soul, reincarnation, the souls of animals vs. those of people, higher order guides and teachers, and numerous other mystical concepts with ABSOLUTELY NO REFERENCE to where his thoughts and ideas come from. He states them as though we all agree that his model of the way the universe works is a given, and then proceeds to flesh out some of the details related to that model. His model, of course, is a curious mish-mash of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Aristotlean thought, psychic experience and science, all blended in a creative, but highly unsubstantiated paradigm. As a scientist, I think he leans WAY to heavily on the inkling of quantum physics he gained while writing "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" and has made an abomination of some of those concepts. For instance, he speaks of the human soul as literally being composed of light. Not metaphorically, but literally. But not light as SCIENCE knows. Oh no. That would run him up against some problems when physics attempted to measure the wavelength of the soul. No, his light is a DIFFERENT kind of light, but light nonetheless. Are there relationships to quantum physics that could be drawn upon to understand the human condition and psyche? Absolutely. Did he address any of the legitimate ones? Not one.

His igorance shines through in countless examples throughout the book (mine is marked up almost beyond recognition). For instance, in the chapter on reverence, he expresses shock that mankind would do "one thing that would risk the balance of the Earth's ecosystem." If he was really a student of evolution and dynamical systems, he would know damn well that ecosystems are CONSTANTLY moved out of balance, and that is exactly why there is evolution in the first place! So the fact that there are human beings at all, and they do stuff to the ecosystem is because that's the way the system works! No one, not dolphins or squirrels or trees or people or even Mr. Zukov can prevent having an "impact on the balance of the ecosystem."

There are myriads of inconsistencies in his thought paradigm that leaves the careful reader genuinely confused as to what he's trying to say. For instance, he speaks a great deal of the impersonal Universe that acts without judgement, being essentially the medium that allows life to unfold (not unlike the "Tao" of Taoism or the "Way" of Zen). And then later he speaks of a Universe that has been Divinely planned and executed to make sure that it is the perfect opportunity for each soul to achieve karmic balance. Or he says "not one action of the Universe is without compassion." These suggestions are anything BUT the actions of in impersonal universe! So which is it? Are we evolving according to principal, or are we guided by a grand blue-print? Another example of his inconsistency is in the chapter on souls, where he states that Angels cannot be understood in human terms, and then goes on to describe the nature of Angels! The inconsistency alone grates on me, but the audacity of the man to speak matter of factly about the nature of Angels or anything else "that cannot be understood in human terms" is absurd.

Lastly, I echo the criticisms of others that point out how unbelievably redundant this book is. I don't know HOW many times he points out the relationship of the personality to the soul, and the difference between the 5-sensory and the multi-sensory person. The book is 90% filler and 10% stuff, and only a fraction of that "stuff" was convincingly insightful.

Space does not allow for a point by point criticism of this book, and you don't want to read it anyway. Suffice it to say that anyone that purports to "know" anything had better be able to back it up with direct experience, or at least produce a coherent synthesis of the accepted work of others. Zukov has done neither. He has launched himself on a creative flight of fancy and tried to pass it off as wisdom regarding the manner in which the soul exists. It is not wisdom. It is not philosphy. It is not religion. It is nothing more than Mr. Zukov's ideas, written in a creative way that demonstrates his gifts in the realm of English far more than in the realm of spirituality or mysticism. (If he would have just SAID as much, that these are just his own thoughts and ideas, then I would have let go all of my angst over this book, but he never does. He just speaks as though he knows, and assumes we will simply believe him. Well, not all of us are willing to do that.)

As an afterthought, I expect there are those who are fuming at this review, and who assume I am a narrow-minded person with no bent to the psychic or the spiritual, or that I have an over-dependence on things concrete and tangible. Nothing could be further from the truth. I consider myself extremely open to the possibilities that exist in the Universe, and pretend nothing when it comes to my own experience and knowledge. I am a student of life and living, thought and creativity, religion and philosophy and culture and science, and STILL this book left me empty and irritated. For those who love the book, my appologies. For those who have not yet read it, be cautious.

As author of Psychology of the Hero Soul, (an inspirational book on promoting heroes and responsible leaders in the workplace and everyday life), I used Dr. Zukav's work in "The Seat of the Soul" to research more about the meaning of soul and the noble values of the soul.

I found Dr. Zukav's book to be an educational and informative
read in the field of spiritual and personal growth and found his academic disertation on the higher values of the soul to be quite enlightening. I would recommend this book to people on the hero's journey of spiritual awakening.

It's amazing the divergent opinions one gets from reading the reviews of this book. It's also amazing, at least for me, how a second reading can completely change the way I feel about a book. When I read 'The Seat of the Soul' the first time I was completely turned off by the absolutism that is very apparent on many pages of the book. Yet a second reading changed my opinion of this book dramatically. I will cover the positive, and then the negative. One other point I want to make up front - for those who seek 'scientific proof' for spiritual concepts, I am afraid there isn't any under the current scientific model. I read this in many of the reviews.

I believe that Mr. Zukav defines what he intends to cover in the book very well from the outset, which is how to transform oneself from a five-sensory physical being to a multi-sensory 'spirit in a body.' I believe that he also explains what one can achieve in that transformation, which he calls 'authentic power,' remarkably well. Starting from evolution, which he asks us to see as souls experiencing multiple lifetimes rather than survival of the fittest physical beings, Zukav does rehash the basic teachings from Eastern religion, such as karma and reincarnation, but with precision and clarity. His insights are not really new, but they are of reference-level quality - if you should ever meet a person who starts to ponder certain aspects of the soul and were thinking of recommending one book, 'The Seat of the Soul' would be one to consider, for sure.

I liked his using the evolution of science as a metaphor for the evolution of our (hopefully) attaining spiritual consciousness as a species, found on p. 67. Indeed quantum physics has shown, no matter how much the determinists tell us otherwise, that our consciousness does interact with reality and thus creates it, at least in a sense.

Finally on the positive side, Zukav's explanation of how the process in which a person observes him/herself in a non-judgemental way is, next to Krishnamurti's ('The First and Last Freedom' and many other books) 'choiceless awareness,' the best I've encountered, and again all I say is that I do believe that if you follow the process he outlines you will attain higher levels of consciousness. The chapter entitled 'Illusion' is especially good, the way he interweaves that while we do need to learn lessons and know who we are at the deepest possible levels, from a broader perspective it really is an illusion! It is not easy to explain this paradox, but Zukav succeeds well.

Yet as I stated at the outset, the first time I read the book I was totally turned off by the unfortunate absolutism that permeates much of the writing. I agree with the reviewer who asked 'how does he know,' and another review that stated that he is uncomfortable with 'mystery and ambiguity.' This quest for absolute certainty is perhaps my biggest 'beef' with many New Age writers, and it diminishes the insights of 'The Seat of the Soul.'

I will give just one example. I don't think anyone would disagree that in general we get what we put out, but it is not an absolute truth. I have experienced over and over that life gives me *not* what I put out, but rather what I need to learn. I often project a lot of anger, and what I receive is not anger, but rather good feelings, which shows me that my projection is not the way the world is. But by observing it, 'choicelessly,' as Zukav and Krishnamurti teach, at least I transcend it to a certain extent.

I could give many other examples of general truths turned into absolutes, but suffice it to say that Mr. Zukav tends to use expressions like 'in all cases,' 'always,' and other absolutisms carelessly. On p. 53, while discussing reverence in a very meaningful way, he states that a reverent person 'harms nothing.' Excuse me, even vegetarians do harm. I would prefer him discussing this point using terms like ahimsa, which more accurately conveys the idea of 'least harm.'

At the beginning of the book Mr. Zukav claims that 'there is no such thing as an expert on the human experience.' Perhaps he should have heeded his own truth in certain wordings in this otherwise fine book.

Primarily because this book is too basic. Any claims by the author to reply back to email*s* (again, emails, not one!) have been false.

Please don't write any such books just to rip us off... please!

I made a mistake buying Graphics Programming with JFC ... the book is not bad but it's extremely superficial.If you need something more deep than opening an Image File you should look for something different (I haven't found yet...).

It says it covers the 2D and 3D APIs. However, as near as I can tell, it covers the Java 2D API in much detail. Then it covers how to do 3D using the 2D API, but never covers the 3D API directly. This is still useful because any 3D API will make certain tradeoffs and if the tradeoffs don't match your needs, you might have to implement your own 3D API using the 2D API.

The book is very heavy on code examples. Each section seems to have an introduction, a code example, and then commentary on the code example. However, I think the book would be better with more text to go with the code.

While I don't think the strength of this book is the cover-to-cover readability, I think it is an excellent reference resource. If you are trying to do a particular graphical task, you can just look it up and there will be a code example there waiting for you, which is enormously useful.

If this book really does cost what it says it does, then the editorial review is less than useless. It's sad. Hey, I understand your stock prices are dropping, but don't start loosing the quality.

IS THIS PRICE RIGHT? IKNOW A FRIEND WHO PURCHAED ONE LESS THAN I EXPECTED. AM I WRONG?

The information on the famous sights of Paris is useful for kids (not little ones) who have some interest in history, but the Pop-ups are all "assembly required", do-it-yourselfers, and pretty complicated at that. I just wasn't expecting a time-consuming craft project, although with careful work (adult help needed)the results are pretty impressive.

Discover Visual Cafe... because you certainly won't be "taught' anything by this book. This book appeals to two groups, those looking for help in creating Java Applets, and those wanting a reference for Symantec's Visual Cafe. Unfortunately, it won't benefit either one. It says, "Teach Yourself" on the front cover... this is the only beneficial advice the book has to offer... (They should have written, "so why get this book" underneath). Overall, I want a refund!!!

A lightweight introductory text with insufficient detail. The "Tear-out Card" and "Discovery Center" are a complete waste of paper. This book is of no use to anyone with programming experience if they've already spent an hour or two playing around with Visual Cafe.

Everything about this book seems like a rush job: take a huge helping of boilerplate about the Java language, then append lots of screenshots of Visual Café and write some text around them, add some pro forma glossaries, print and ship. The book has about 400 pages of text, not counting contents and index. Of that, the first 185 pages - almost half - pretty much exclusively discuss the Java language itself, with only scant passing reference to Visual Café! In fact, I could find only three, very terse mentions of Visual Café in this whole section, which amounts to nearly half the book! The text doesn't even tell you how to use Visual Café to type-in and run the examples. Even the sections on objects, classes and events make NO use of Visual Café's graphical construction tools, or the Interaction dialog. The front and back covers of the books tout that the CDROM includes "a complete component reference guide". That squib is grossly untrue! There is only a smidgen of info about the barest handful of the supplied components. Throwing ingredients together and serving them immediately does not make a stew. In the same way, you won't find much in "Discover Visual Café" on tying Java and Visual Café together! It talks about Java, and then it talks about Visual Café. When it's talking about Java, it barely touches on how you can follow along with Visual Café. When it's talking about Visual Café, the language at hand might as well be COBOL for all the interest this part of the text has in Java.