I read this book years ago, about 1964. It has been an all-time favorite. Beautifully written. Anyone who reads this book is going to love George the Stegosaurus and his two friends, Joey and Joan, the children who found him. This is a wonderful book to read to your older children, age 10 more or less. I suggest we all read this book again for old-times sake!! Enjoy.

By Christie Schultz I'm currently looking for titles by an author that I remember with fondness from my own childhood. I am a teacher, and have been trying to find them for my students, and my own son. E.S. Lampman wrote not only about Native Americans, but about fantasy worlds which put science fiction effectively into the hands of young people. The first two are the "Shy Stegosaurus" books. I found one of them listed and it is "hard to find"; the first is "The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs". It's about a stegosaurus which not unreasonably has a weird liking for bananas (the more ripe, the better), and at some point it is labled as an Indian spirit by the local Native American Shaman. You're right, it's a great story! The second book is "The Shy Stegosaurous of Cricket Creek", the story line of which I forget other than a brother and sister find the last living dinosaur, and it can talk to them. The children are out riding horses in the canyon, and suddenly they see the rock face move...the dinosaur has to live near a mineral spring to survive.... Lampman effectively uses biological concepts like natural camoflage of animals as plot devices, makes reasonable guesses about their dietary needs, and as well she shows an effective grasp of Native American cultural issues. One of her later sci-fi books, "Rusty's Spaceship", was pure fantasy with the weird visits to various planets in the solar system, but it is such a ripping good story that questionable science facts become immaterial! (Jules Verne wasn't accurate either, but he's still in print!). In fact, reading it as an adult, I see it for what it is, the book is a child's dream of what might really be on Jupiter (creatures made of gas bags) or on Mars (armies of flying ants) or how it might be to take your homemade spaceship into space. Another title by this author is "City Under the Back Steps", and it's a precursor to "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and a semi-steal from L.F Baum's "Policeman Bluejay" (another rarity from 1910 or so). Storyline: two children are bitten by the Queen ant and shrink down to ant size....and learn a good deal about the life of a hive of ants. Lampman had a very pithy sense of humor I thought at the time, and I enjoyed these books, and others by her, very much as a child. I wish they were around for youngsters today.

What's amazing is that there are five other reviews here of this obscure children's book, which has to be almost 40 years old. One reviewer here recalls reading the book back in 1964, which is about the year I would have read it. And we all seem to have fond memories of reading this delightful book. This story about George the shy stegosaurus was one of the most entertaining children's books I (and apparently, all the other reviewers here, too) ever read, which, from the title, you might think we were all nuts. But back in the early 60's this was state-of-the-art for children's books, and it really was a great little book. It skillfully integrated a dinosaur theme with the story of the curious little brother and sister who discovered his hideaway, and things take off from there. I understand there are occasional rare, used copies available--but unfortunately they're not cheap.

Lampman also wrote several other books, Rusty's Spaceship, one other shy stegosaurus book, The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs, and The World Under the Back Steps. Rusty's Spaceship was another one of my favorites. In this book, Rusty and his alien friend, Tipia, go gallivanting around the solar system, having various adventures, before returning to earth, where they have a few more in their invisible spaceship.

All these are great books for your kids. If you can find reasonably priced used copies, they're all worth picking up.

La noción de disclosive spaces y estilo nos produce una mayor apertura a otros mundos. Nos permite desarrollar sensibilidad a la manera de ser de cada uno y de los otros. La observación sistemática de anomalías pone más a la mano la posibilidad de innovación, le quita la connotación "mágica" que acarrea para nosotros. El estilo como esencia del ser histórico, y como juega con los disclosive spaces es una noción muy potente para impulsar cambios. Vivir cada cosa como momento único, para lo cual hay que darse tiempo para andar más lento por la vida.

En la Introducción "Historia o el Fin de la Historia?", los autores declaran querer ayudar al lector a desarrollar una habilidad considerada esencial para ser un emprendedor, un virtuoso ciudadano y un cultivador de la solidaridad: " la de mirarse personalmente y ver al mundo, en forma regular y como cosa natural, de un modo nuevo. El propósito es desafiante para alguien que suscriba el pensamiento de G.K. Chesterton según el cual "cada vez que me proponen algo nuevo leo a San Pablo..." Prosiguen los escribientes diciendo que lo hacen "para apoyar las prácticas de los emprendedores en las economías capitalistas de mercado, de los grupos de acción ciudadana en las modernas democracias representativas y de las figuras de la cultura que cultivan la solidaridad entre los diversos pueblos de las naciones modernas". Creen, además que "esas prácticas deben ser preservadas. Spinosa y sus colegas divisan una destreza que subyace en los tres ámbitos de actividad descritos y la denominan "hacedora-de-la-historia". Describen el "feminismo" y la "carrera del espacio" impulsada por J.F. Kennedy como destrezas "hacedoras de historia". Luego de ensalzar las contribuciones de Galileo y Descartes a los hábitos de razonamiento, destacan como una prominente contribución de este último "el desapego" (o "la distancia") para interpretarse a si mismo y a las cosas. No obstante, resaltan quee -si bien- las prácticas cartesianas producen triunfos científicos, ellas nublan la adaptación a los cambios. Y un cambio mayor en nuestra época, descrito como "histórico", es la aparición de INTERNET que, penetrando en nuestras vidas se muestra como una habilidad occidental "hacedora de la historia" denominada "reconfiguración". Se reproduce,luego, un agudo análisis de Sherry Turkle sobre la inmensa influencia de INTERNET: "ha llegado a ser un importante laboratorio social para experimentar con la construcción y reconstrucción de si mismos, que caracteriza la vida moderna...estamos en transición en la manera de entendernos nosotros mismos... el NET funciona para facilitar el conocimiento de si mismo y el crecimiento personal". Deducen los autores que, en la era del NET(si ella llega), tendremos muchas destrezas diferentes para la construcción de identidad y nos moveremos alrededor de espacios virtuales y reales buscando maneras de exhibir estas destrezas, poderes y pasiones lo mejor posible. Al término de la Introducción se hace un recuerdo de nuestra relación personal con la generación a que pertenecemos y se insta a desarrollar una sensibilidad para decidir el camino de nuestras vidas en vez de seguir simplemente las tendencias imperantes. La intención del libro es, pues, "llamar la atención a que todos podemos hacer historia, tanto en nuestras vidas personales como cuando actuamos como emprendedores, ciudadanos virtuosos o cultivadores de la solidaridad". Creemos que los capítulos siguientes de este texto denso y desafiante ayudarán a los lectores a transitar por las vías que abren la profundas reflexiones de Spinosa, Flores y Dreyfus para encarar el mundo de la incertidumbre, el mundo del tercer milenio.

Hasta ahora, ser emprendedor me parecía ajeno a mis dominios. Sin embargo después de leer el primer capítulo y hojear el resto, me queda claro que las prácticas emprendedoras están a la mano y nuestra ceguera impide verlas. Es más, logré ver algunos aspectos de mi vida reflejados en la lectura y apareció frente a mi una conclusión: ¡Cuando joven me encontraba más cerca de ser un emprendedor!¿la razón?, muchos miedos se han apoderado de mí. Por consiguiente, debo no solo comprometerme con una práctica de atisbamiento sino que intentar transformarme en un atisbador y al menos a través de una articulación recuperativa explicitar algunas prácticas olvidadas y adaptar mi estilo. ¿Porqué digo una mirada lateral?, la razón básica radica en que aún leo desde un punto de vista cartesiano y este libro me invita a conversar, a observar y a observarme en mi distintos "disclosive space". Hasta aquí la humanidad se ha preocupado prioritariamente de extender sus sentidos. La cuchara es una extensión de la mano, los binoculares son una extensión de la vista, pero que solo permiten un mayor alcance. ¿Y el ser humano logra cultivarse con estas extensiones?. Es un libro con el cuál debo conversar una y otra vez y que me invita a una espiral de crecimiento personal.

In Conversations with the Capeman, Richard Jacoby brings to light with concise objectivity, and yet a fierce sense of empathetic compassion for his fellowman, the bizarre and wretched existence of Salvador Agron. Jacoby, through both letters and a personal observation of Agron during their twenty year relationship...takes his readers on a horrifying journey with the capeman. From the mean streets of New York's Spanish Harlem where he roamed 'till the age of sixteen as a mindless, illiterate young predator...throughout his twenty odd years where he experienced the entire cycle of hell in New York's prison system. From the initial empty minded rebel, to the well read psuedo-revolutionary, tutored by elders in Marx..Lenin..Mao..Franz Fanon, etc. ... to Jesus Christ for some sense of redemption, to homosexuality to fill the emptiness in a soul where nobody had ever truly lived. And finally, culminating in death shortly after his release from prison. Salvador Agron was never to know a serene existence. But as small miracles would have it, the dehumanization process was over, and somehow, I couldn't help but lay this book down with the feeling that the "Capemans" ultimate victim was, Salvador Agron.

It is a wonder how a book like this wasn't published before. To tell such a compelling story with such first hand information is the way it should have be done. Richard Jacoby, a friend Salvador Agron counted on, was as good as his word. He gave an account of Salvador's life that couldn't have been told by anyone else. Not always do we get to have inside information on a person, especially a convicted criminal, society doesn't allow that...Here we have it all, every account that needs to be said is written down, everything that you wanted to know about life in prison, and life on the street for a young man who really didn't have a chance in an era that was new to everyone. Good job Richard, definitely take a bow for this true to life book.

I just recently finished reading this book and i was at a loss for words. It was overall shocking. But thats what I loved most about. It was all truth it captured his (Salvadors) life as it happened,which was most important,and the words were his own. We know what he suffered through and what he cherished most. I can honestly say when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I loved it. Its a great read!

This book attempts to put Zen into the realm of western thinking. It has the right stuff. Unfortunately, it is sometimes very difficult to read and comprehend. Perhaps it is the translation from French, but I found the phrasing, punctuation, and some of the vocabulary very cumbersome.

Take a look at the excerpts on this page to see a sample of the style. Nonetheless, this book is a must read for anyone seriously investigating What Is.

There are many diamonds here, but you will need a pick and shovel.

Zen is probably the most radical approach to existence devised through human history. Authentic Zen has nothing New Age or feel-good about it: it promises no comfort or self-aggrandizement, only absolute existential salvation, and THAT only have a laborious emptying out of the cup of ego that runneth over.

Most Zen masters refuse to discuss the discipline or explain it. Hubert Benoit takes the opposite, and for intellectually-inclined Westerners, the more accessible path, and discusses Zen in exhaustive detail in terms of psychology and philosophy--especially phenomenology and existentialism. I was skeptical of this approach until I actually read this book. Benoit writes at an extremely high level of abstraction (something quite alien to traditional Zen, which deals mainly in parables) but any experienced meditator will concur that practically every word Benoit writes rings with utter truth and fidelty to the workings of consciousness. He is clearly a man who has absorbed the Zen teachings and then examined the workings of his own mind with unfailing rigor and perceptiveness; he has taken those findings and translated them into language with a care and accuracy that nobody else, to my knowledge, has ever matched. The results are utterly profound.

Indispensable for anybody interested in Zen or the expansion of consciousness.

***Note*** This is an update of a review I wrote in 1999 ......
Few of us have the opportunity to retreat into an actual monastic way of life for years and years in order to sink into the nature of Zen experience. Therefore, many branches of Zen, with their emphasis on monastic methods, are often somewhat anachronistic amid the modern world of busyness, speed, information, and seemingly continual bombardment from every direction. Hubert Benoit's Zen and the Psychology of Transformation goes back to the impetus of Zen--a philosophy called Chan that derived in China in the 7th century from an illiterate philosopher named Hui Neng--in order to offer a form of Zen that is fully possible in the context of modern life. Chan is not centered in sitting meditation, or in traditional zazen techniques, but rather simply in a restful type of introspection that leads one directly to the core of Zen experience. Benoit details the mechanics of this introspective life in poetic and technical form, and in a way that leaves one with a clear and simple knowledge of how one is to live one's life according to the restful life of Zen.
Hubert Benoit, like the Greeks and other thinkers before him, was a philosopher dedicated to the study of nature-as-a-whole. Often such thinkers choose to conduct such an expansive study through a single, chosen aspect of nature. The Greeks used, among other things, Logos. Modern physicists often use atoms, as did the Greek Democritus. Modern biologists use such vehicles as the cell, the macromolecule, or evolutionary theory. For some modern mathematicians, the fractal or the topological structure is used. In many ways, these areas overlap one another. The mind is another instrument that can be adopted for this study. To Benoit, as to many modern thinkers, the mind is simply another aspect of nature, much like an insectile or anthropoid form, or much like a cause, an effect, a black-hole singularity, a volume of space, an atom of light, or a duration of time--all different aspects of nature. Benoit's vehicle for investigating the mind--and therefore morphology of reality--was not biology, math, or physics, but Chan Buddhism, the earliest form of Zen; however, he dabbled also with Western Philosophy, the Greeks, conceptual science, and other areas in order to carry out his very personal, rational-inquiry. Benoit has nearly nothing to do with the popular, degenerate form of Buddhism commonly known as "American Zen" or "Western Buddhism," which is one of the main engines of the New Age Movement. Chan, being the original form of Zen, is nearly unrecognizable to the rest of the modern, socially-oriented Buddhist forms. It is however, very much aligned with archaic Taoism, as invented by Lao tsu.
Chan, in its ancient form, is bent on enlightenment. Yet it simultaneously claims that enlightenment does not exist. Contradictions such as this abound in Chan, and to the outsider, initially Chan will appear to be a wholly nihilistic, anti-social philosophy replete with allegorical tales of violence and destructive insanity, self mutilation and self torment, and monks lambasting each other even to the point of death. These elements are of no consequence to the serious student of Chan.

BEING-IN-THE-WORLD : A Commentary on Heidegger's 'Being and Time,' Division I. By Herbert L. Dreyfus. 370 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, Eighth Printing 1999 (1991). ISBN 0-262-54056-8 (pbk.)

Anyone who attempts to study Heidegger's commentators will quickly discover that many of them can be even more difficult than Heidegger himself. One notable exception is George Steiner, whose 'Martin Heidegger' (1989) is such an interesting book that one wishes it had been two or three times longer. As a general introduction to Heidegger's life and thought, however, it can only take one so far, and those wishing for a fuller treatment would be well advised to take a look at the present equally lucid and stimulating study by Dreyfus.

He explains that he has limited detailed treatment of 'Being and Time' to Division I of Part One (i.e., the first half), because he considers this "the most original and important section of the work, for it is [here] that Heidegger works out his account of being-in-the-world and uses it to ground a profound critique of traditional ontology and epistemology" (p.vii). Division II, though containing important material, is marred by "some errors so serious as to block any consistent reading" (p.viii), though it is taken up in a 57-page Appendix.

In his brief but extremely interesting Introduction, Dreyfus sets out to answer the question, 'Why study Heidegger?' If I have understood Dreyfus correctly, what he seems to be saying is that Western thought has been fundamentally in error since the time of Plato : "Plato and our tradition got off on the wrong track by thinking that one could have a theory of everything.... Heidegger is not against theory. He thinks it powerful and important, but limited" (p.2).

Heidegger, in other words, although accepting a reasonable use of reason, has seen through the folly of that worship of reason which leads to its unreasonable and excessive use. Dreyfus tells us that Heidegger seeks to clear away five main false assumptions :

1. Explicitness. "Heidegger questions both the possibility and desirability of making our everyday understanding explicit" (p.4). There are and always will be many things in life that cannot be made explicit, that cannot be explained, that are not amenable to "critical reflection," things, for example, such as human skills.

2. Mental Representation. "Heidegger questions the view that experience is always and most basically a relation between a self-contained subject with mental content (the inner) and an independent object (the outer)." For him "there is a more fundamental way of being-in-the-world that cannot be understood in subject/object terms" (p.5).

3. Theoretical Holism. Heidegger "insists that we return to the phenomenon of everyday human activity and stop ringing the changes on the traditional oppositions of immanent/transcendent ... subject/ object ... explicit/tacit ... etc." (p.6).

4. Detachment and Objectivity. "From the Greeks we inherit not only our assumption that we can obtain theoretical knowledge of every domain, even human activities, but also our assumption that the detached theoretical viewpoint is superior to the involved practical viewpoint" (p.6). Heidegger, following the insights of Nietzsche, Peirce, James and Dewey, denies these assumptions.

5. Methodological Individualism. Heidegger, "in his emphasis on the social context as the ultimate foundation of intelligibility [shares with Wittgenstein] the view that most philosophical problems can be dis(solved) [sic] by a description of everyday social practices" (p.7). In other words, they are pseudo-problems.

If Heidegger were only clearing the ground of 2,500 years of sheer wrongheadedness, he would of course still be an extremely important and valuable thinker. But, as Dreyfus explains, he goes further, for "he has a positive account of authentic human being and a positive methodological proposal for how human being should be systematically studied" (p.8). His influence, which today extends into many areas, has been and continues to be enormous as more and more specialists and experts and technicians of every kind begin to appreciate the fruitfulness of his way of thinking in contrast to the often dismal results produced by their own.

Heidegger's 'Being and Time' is a notoriously difficult book, and Dreyfus' commentary is to be welcomed as the first study that succeeds in making it both intelligible and exciting, even to the non-specialist reader such as myself. As one of the clearest accounts of Heidegger's thought to date, it belongs in the library of anyone who is at all interested in this revolutionary and amazing thinker.

I ordered Hubert Dreyfus' "Being-in-the-World", and I am cheerfully cruising through it at one chapter per day, and I am getting a lot out of this reading experience. If you are not a philosophy specialist, this is the right place to start on Heidegger.

Best thing is that Dreyfus provides life-examples that Heidegger would never trouble himself about. Also, he fills in the conceptual voids created and ignored in Heidegger's text.

Thanks to the other reviewers, I am going to check out Dreyfus' other books. Think about it: It does not necessarily follow that a brilliantly creative person (like Heidegger) is even a passable communicator of his own ideas.

I got to this book after reading "Disclosing New Worlds" by Charles Spinosa, Fernando Flores, and Hubert L. Dreyfus, a very profound work that tries to recover our abilities to make sense of each of us as historical beings, helping us to "live life at its best."

Reading Being-in-the-World has had a great impact on the way I now understand our everyday life in terms of the practices that we pick up -as Heidegger puts it- from the society we are brought up in and not in terms of abstract theories that try to relate our specific actions to mental states. As a management consultant, it guides me away from trying to specify precisely, say, the 'things' a salesman should say and do in a conversation with a client. I'd be better off if I can find another salesman that exhibits the results I'm interested in, and managing a "learning-in-action" program, so that the first salesman learns from the more experienced salesman. As a father, it guides me away from getting my son to hold on to vast amounts of information -the purpose of our modern educational system- but to situating him in an environment where he can pickup successful practices for dealing with diverse situations- including technical and interpersonal problems.

Being-in-the-World was not an easy read for me, since my background is in Computer Science and Management (I had to do some research in the philosophical traditions and problemas that Heidegger was attacking). However, Dreyfus' commentary is most relevant to people in Computer Science and Management - guiding them away from the utopias of Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems.

I recommend this book to anyone willing to make an effort in understanding one of the deepest thinkers on what it means to be a human being "living life at its best."

I am a NC State student, and I cheeked this book out from the library here at school. I just have to say this is the best book I have ever read. I have had it only a few days now and I have already read around 150 pages. I can't put it down. I wish I had to read this in school instead of something like Withering Heights (It was a good book too, no car stuff though). But hey, what am I doing this for I need to get back to reading... So my suggestion is that you buy this book, or at least check it out like me. Who ever said that a library was not a cool place? I would also recommend buying and MGB.

I bought this book back in 1979, a year after I got my driver's license, 4 months after I bought my 396 Chevy, and about a month after a buddy of mine dropped a Car Craft Magazine on my desk in open class in High School, thus starting a life-long passion with cars and motorsports.

At that time I was thirsty for "true" knowledge about engines, especially high-performance engines, and quickly came to the conclusion I wasn't going to get that from my buddies who inanely swore that their 2-barrel 350 Novas were turning 10-second 1/4-miles ("I'm certain of it man, I clocked it myself"). This book was reviewed in a Road & Track issue, I picked it up, and became truly educated about all facets of basic engine design and the physics and principles behind true horsepower production.

I found the text easy to read and understand, and the delivery of information, although technical, certainly not above anyone's understanding. This is not a "get out your slide rule" type of book; but it does lay things out in a clear, direct manner, making it easy to absorb and understand, even as a newby 17 year-old gearhead.

Even though we've seen a tremendous advance in engineering regarding the internal combustion engine since 1979, to this day the principles delivered in this book ring true. You cannot go wrong, nor do I think you can do better, than starting here on your quest for horsepower knowledge--learn the basics first, and go from there. (For real slide-rule stuff, consult the book Scientific Design of Exhaust and Intake Systems, to learn where the heart of any internal combustion engine resides.)

I still have guys my age swearing that they're doing truly unbelievable things with a certain engine and car; the crazy stories never fade, but you'll do better than tell stories after learning what this book has to say.

Absolutely awesome book! A book that is a must, for the library of every mechanic or racer. Even if you are just a enthusiast, the book is incredibly informing, whether you are a certified mechanic or just an everyday driver, that wants to know what's going on inside the engine. I've owned the book for years, and I plan on buying a new copy, to give to my son, when he hits the driving age. This book is a must, for any engine builder, from the weekeng warrior to Nascar or the IRL. This book is a must!

This book is not an easy read, not so much due to its translation as to its depth and subtly. Like the mark of great Teachers words remembered in hindsight; with each re-reading of this book deeper and deeper lessons can be learned. Though this is not for the novice, nor would I call Beniot a Zen master as such, this book sits side by side on my shelf of important works along with Philip Kapleau's Three Pillers, and Shunryu Suzuki's Beginners Mind.

Enhanced for the reader with an informative Foreward by Aldous Huxley, Hubert Benoit's The Supreme Doctrine is a masterful survey and exploration of Zen Buddhism. A spectrum of issues and subjects are addressed including the existential, mechanistic, and metaphysical aspects of Zen. Exceptionally well reasoned, written, and presented, this major treatise is a highly recommended and very welcome contribution to the growing library of Buddhist literature for the Western reader.

This is one of the great books of all time. The author was a psychiatrist who was bed ridden and took the opportunity to investigate the human mind and body. He used scientific observation as his tool. As many eastern Zen masters have said. Just watch as a good shepherd watches his flock. The sheep will be contented and well cared for. He will know each one by their sound. These are not different techniques.

Benoit created with this book a western scientific basis of Zen. Carlotte Joko Beck and her students have created a new Zen called "Ordinary Mind Zen" from a synthesis of Benoit's work and Japanese formal Zen practice.

This is a very difficult book to read. The book was translated from the French. Long paragraphs are one sentence. The book is also written in a dry academic style. The translator was must not have been able to understand what Hubert Benoit wrote, except in a literal sense. I was only able to read it by reading a couple of pages at a time each morning as I took a tub bath. I have read it several times that way. It does get easier the third or fourth time. Unfortunately, formal mediation practice over years would be necessary for a practical usage of this material. The book does have great academic value for people who are interested in the real thing.

Wow. I am at a loss for words. Never in my life have tears fallen freely from my eyes as I finished a book.

These characters come to life in the readers imagination, and it is hard to believe that such powerful writing is possible from the human mind. This novel is harrowing to read, and while you hope for things to get better for the people inside these pages, it is simply not to be. Completely devoid of cliches, there is not one phony moment in the entire read. The movie really did an admirable job of recreating the story, yet it is when Selby gets into the characters heads that we experience emotions that no movie can really create. It is disturbing and heartbreaking to travel down the dark path of addiction with Sara, Marion, Tyrone and Harry. One can only assume that Selby had some kind of personal experience with addiction, as the writing seems to come from a place of deep understanding and empathy. I have no idea what to read now, as I can't imagine I will ever read anything again in my life that pulls me in so far emotionally. I will absolutely never forget this book, and as someone who also has been through the hell of addiction, I can honestly say that this book pulls no punches, and truly manages to avoid glamorizing drug addiction, while avoiding pedantic or trite exploration of the subject. There is nothing preachy about the book - just brutal brutal honesty and complete tragedy. I cared about these people, and wanted so badly for them to find a way out of their pain. It will be a while before I recover from this one.

Let me say this up front - Requiem is very, very dark - the setting, the characters, and the message of the book are pretty bleak and hopeless. So why should you read it? First, the characters - Selby has drawn each of the four participants in this race to hell with stunning precision - after reading the book (and seeing the largely faithful movie) you feel as if you honestly know these people. Second, the terrifyingly accurate portrait of the downward spiral of addiction. Each of these characters reacts differently to his/her being hooked, but, with the exception of Sara, the brutal truth finally becomes too evident to ignore, at least until the next "little taste". The isolation of the addict is brilliantly rendered as Sara declines to go out, Tyrone gladly says goodbye to his "fine fox", and Harry and Marion lose the intensity of their love for each other to their more urgent love of heroin. Finally, it is Selby's gifts as a storyteller that provide the main reason for this book's classic status - I have read "stream of consciousness" before, but never have I been so riveted by it. The final 50 pages or so just go by in a horrible blur. Don't expect a light at the end of the tunnel - Selby doesn't celebrate dreamers, he condemns them for obscuring their view of what is with delusions of what could be. Powerful stuff.

I,... was immediately gripped with a desire to read this book after seeing Darren Aronofsky's film. I remember reading a review of the movie calling it the "Feelbad" experience of the year, well this book is a "FeelWorse". This is definitely one of the most powerful works of fiction I've ever read -it left me far more shell-shocked than the movie and even depressed for some time afterwards.
What struck me most of all was the light/darkness aspect of the storyline which pretty much mirrors the experience of using drugs or other stimulants. The first part of the book is generally upbeat with only some hints as to what beckons for our protagonists in the future. Indeed there are many moments of humour and Selby seems to promise some hope and happiness for Harry, Marion, Tyrone and Sarah which is partly why what eventually ensues is so utterly gut-wrenching. I was also struck by the religious overtones to this story, there are a couple of verses from scripture at the start of the book which I read and re-read trying to extract the real meaning, but I think now think are quite straightforward. The message seems to be that simple faith in God is a surer compass than any attempt by human beings to create Heaven on Earth or in Harry's case the quest for a pound of pure. I kept thinking over and over again of the commandment 'Thou shalt not have False Gods before me' while reading this book, is Heroin not unlike the Golden Calf from the Old Testament? With all it's allure and false promises it seems to be just as appealing to mankind and equally as destructive.
I found myself on the point of tears on many occasions during the final odyssey into hell but was particularly moved by the passage where Marion prostitutes herself in return for drug-money. Arnold her shrink, is concerned by the tracks on her arms and scarcely wants to believe the reality of her condition.
She responds to his protests in a way that chills the blood, "Because it makes me feel whole...satisfied.".
This is all the more disturbing because she has already been presented as such an intelligent self-confident young woman who lacks for nothing. You realise that she has crossed that magic boundary into the world of self-delusion.
There is no brighter tomorrow for these characters, just the constant spiral towards destruction. This book will drive an icicle into your spine - I definitely recommend it.

Not Bill Peet's best work, but stil a good story. Hubert the Lion experiences a downfall when he loses his beautiful mane and is forced into hiding.

A chivalrous elephant comes to his rescue by setting out on a difficult journey to retrieve the hair tonic that the Lion needs.

But the fun just begins.

First published in 1959, this is one of more than 30 books written by the great Bill Peet. In it, a proud young lion loses his hair in an accident, and his animal friends come out to solve his problem. An elephant remembers a cure (crocodile tears), but no animal is brave enough to collect them except the clever elephant. However, the croc tonic works so too well, and a baboon is dispatched to trim the overgrown mane. The resulting haircut is a tribute to nonconformity:

"You can search every jungle, each circus and zoo, From San Francisco to Timbuctoo But I doubt that you'll find though you look everywhere A lion whose main is so perfectly square ............So there!"

The rhymes are delightful and the pictures are fun, relaxed, and absorbing! Peet worked as an illustrator, scriptwriter, and producer for Walt Disney, so you may see some Disney-esque touches in the expressive animal drawings. It's a great children's book (38 pages long). Recommended!

Some people have said this may be too long, but kids today are used to quick and dirty. My bet is most kids will happily sit for this rhythmical tale. It has kept my five children's attention at every sitting. It was so popular with my younger brother that he memorized it years ago and now recites it to his son. Peet's illustrations are the perfect compliment to this humorous story. (You may recognize his style - he was an illustrator for Disney.)

Like the other viewer said, I think this is a useful book for anyone looking to understand Foucault particularly the Order of Things but I should warn you before you buy it that this book is slightly dated as you may have guessed by the title. The interview in the back of my edition is also helpful but in all of his interviews Foucault tries to redo parts of his work so read it closely and in relation to his other interviews.

This book has been numbered as the most authoritative interpretation of Foucault. The main question of the book is how to classify Foucault¡¯s thought. Foucault has been characterized as a typical structuralist. But as the subtitle of this book implies, he is not a structuralist, authors argue. He attempted to overcome the dichotomy of structuralism and hermeneutics. Early works like ¡®The Order of Things¡¯ and ¡®The Archaeology of Knowledge¡¯ might be seen as a breakthrough in structuralist line. But late works like ¡®Discipline and Punishment¡¯ and ¡®The History of Sexuality¡¯ have some flavor of hermeneutics. In this regard, Foucault could not be classified as structuralist or hermeneutist. Then Foucault¡¯s thought, one might guess, seemed to shift from structuralism to hermeneutics. To clear the confusion, we should visit Foucault¡¯s conception of discourse. The discourse is actually how the human-being understand and construct its world. Then the question of ¡®what is discourse?¡¯ is translated into ¡®what is understanding the world?¡¯ the most dominant approaches to that question are phenomenology, hermeneutics and structuralism. But they hasn¡¯t presented satisfactory solution. In Husserlian approach, the world is understood by meaning-giving transcendental subject. In structuralist approach, both meaning and subject give way to objective law (structure). Structure governs the subject. Hermeneutics is a bit subtler than them. Human-being is a meaning-giving subject, but meaning is located in the social practices like tradition or convetion, routine. (for more details, see my review on Eagleton¡¯s ¡®Literary Theory: An Introduction) Foucault gyrates along those three positions, which makes Foucault hard to be pinpointed. The trajectory Foucault traced reveals how he attempted to set up his own solution.
The questions raised by hermeneutics and structuralism converges into the question, ¡®What lies beyond discourse?¡¯ structuralism answers ¡®it¡¯s the structure.¡¯ In the world of structuralism, the concept of meaning is altogether eliminated. Hermeneutics, according to Gadamer, answers ¡®it¡¯s the profound understanding of Being embedded in traditional linguistic practices.¡¯ They all focus on linguistic practices, the discourse. It seems that in the early works, ¡®The Archaeology of Knowledge¡¯ and ¡®The Order of things¡¯, Foucault followed the structuralist doctrines: the discourse appears as self-regulating and autonomous. The methodology he hired, archaeology is indifferent to the meaning in the discourse, just as ethnologists methodically distantiate themselves both from one¡¯s own culture and from the culture under investigation. With the method of structuralist archaeology, Foucault could achieve such a distanciation. Discourse in mere object to be dissected. But the influences from social institution, which is the essential to Foucualt¡¯s conception of discourse, couldn¡¯t be seen. According to Giddens, discourse has always some intended effect to bring about. So it plays some role in social life. As demonstrated in vivid manner on ¡®Madness and Civilization¡¯, discourse not only talks about object-being-there, but also makes it. Madness emerged as the effect of discourse. It was not naturally there. Here comes the conception of power. Early method of archaeology serves to isolate and analyze discourse. But it doesn¡¯t mean that Foucault turned to hermeneutics. Actually, he denied the meaning-giving subject with advocating the disappearance of the subject. Unlike Wittgenstein or Giddens, power is the attribute not of individual social actors but of dominating system. So discourse is not the business of individuals. In the ¡®History of Sexuality¡¯, he showed how the deep meaning like identity is related to social dominance, in other word practices of power. The subject speaking deep truth or meaning is actually the product of power. But it makes it the elusive question, where the power resides in or what the power is at all. The authors are right when saying Foucault is neither structuralist nor hermeneutist. But Foucault¡¯s position is inherently ambiguous: he seems stuck in middle, I think.

Indeed, Dreyfus and Rabinow have "cleared up" much of Foucaults difficult methods. I would say that reading this does not excuse anyone from Foucaults works; it could be read alongside them to help clarify themes and connect seemingly useless portions that most people would like to skip through. Besides, without actually reading Foucault you are missing out on some of the most profound, stylistic, and original philosophy of the twentieth century. An excellent introduction and guide, but comprehensive enough to warrant FIVE stars. Trust me. Dreyfus and Rabinow have written a surprisingly original book here; their view and support of Foucault as "beyond structuralism and hermeneutics" is brilliantly explained.