Man With A Camera

Paul Auster. Travels in the Scriptorium: A Novel. Picador, 2007
0312426291 From Publishers Weekly On the centennial year of Samuel Beckett's birth, Auster's new novel nods to the old master. We open with a man sitting in a room. The man doesn't remember his name, and a camera hidden in the ceiling takes a picture of him once a second. The man--whom the third-person narrator calls Mr. Blank--spends the single day spanned by the book being looked after, questioned and reading a fragmentary narrative written by a man named Sigmund Graf from a country called the Confederation who has been given the mission of tracking down a renegade soldier named Ernesto Land. During the course of the day, a former policeman, a doctor, two attendants and Mr. Blank's lawyer visit the room, and Mr. Blank learns he is accused of horrible crimes. (His lawyer claims he is accused of everything "from conspiracy to commit fraud to negligent homicide. From defamation of character to first-degree murder.") But this may or may not be true--the narrative veers toward ambiguity. While Auster's lean, poker-faced prose creates a satisfyingly claustrophobic allegory, the tidy, self-referential ending lends a writing-exercise patina to the work. (Feb.) Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From The Washington Post Reviewed by Howard Norman Determined reading keeps the mind's attention. And you will want to be very determined in reading Paul Auster's fictional treatise on crime and amnesia, Travels in the Scriptorium. It's not the characters or plot that is difficult to keep tabs on but your own emotions, as this is a chilling story of isolation. The setup is this: An old man, known only as Mr. Blank, wakes up in a sparsely furnished room. "He can't remember how long he has been here," Auster writes, "or the nature of the circumstances that precipitated his removal to this place. Perhaps he has always been here; perhaps this is where he has lived since the day he was born. What he knows is that his heart is filled with an implacable sense of guilt. At the same time, he can't escape the feeling that he is the victim of a terrible injustice." Because this is an Auster novel, writing itself has, almost inevitably, a spectral presence: Soon Mr. Blank begins to read a manuscript he finds on the desk. It's a harrowing account of another prisoner, Mr. Blank's doppelg?nger. This account immediately becomes part of a narrative duet. As time passes, characters from the manuscript show up, each slightly familiar to Mr. Blank, each delivering shards of his past life. Altogether they constitute an uncanny guest list of interlocutors. As a result of their visits -- visitations -- Mr. Blank becomes convinced that he may well have done dreadful things to these characters (some are from Auster's previous novels!). What's more, everything is recorded by an overhead camera and hidden microphone. Anna is Mr. Blank's most merciful visitor; yet in the way she sponge-bathes and even sexually services him, in her almost perversely accommodating conversation, scenes with her are mesmerizing and uncomfortable in equal measure. Auster keeps upping the voyeuristic ante: "It should be noted that a second camera and a second tape recorder have been planted in the bathroom ceiling, making it possible for all activities in that space to be recorded as well, and because the word all is an absolute term, the transcription of dialogue between Anna and Mr. Blank can be verified in every one of its details." With this passage, a reader understands that Mr. Blank will keep no secrets, except possibly from himself. Anna, another caretaker named Sophie, an ex-policeman named James P. Flood, a doctor named Samuel Farr -- all mention treacherous "missions" Mr. Blank sent them on in the past. Then there's that manuscript. It delineates a newly formed country called the Confederation and specifically chronicles the political quagmires of a certain Sigmund Graf, who, when he returns from a dangerous assignment in the forbidden Alien Terr.

Paperback, New

[SW: paul auster, 20th century american fiction, contemporary fiction, new york city, fiction, modern fiction, psychological, psychology,]

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Carr, Terry; Greenberg, Martin Harry (ed) - Keith Roberts, Thomas M. Disch, Shirley Jackson, Donald A. Wollheim, Henry Kuttner, A. Merritt, R. A. Lafferty, Joanna Russ, Clark Ashton Smith, Philip Jose Farmer, C. M. Kornbluth, H. P. Lovecraft, +++: Masters of Fantasy - The Woman of the Wood, Trouble with Water, Yesterday Was Monday, There Shall be No Darkness, Nine Yardes of Other Cloth, Man Overboard, My Dear Emily, The Rats in the Walls, The Coming of the White Worm, Our Fair City, Jeffy is Five + New York Galahad Books 1992
ISBN: 0883657864 Near Fine Henri Rousseau

-----Green boards with gilt on spine, (xv) 512 pages, headband. no names, dust jacket is in Near Fine condition. Contents include: The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft / Sail On! Sail On! by Philip Jose Farmer / The Loom of Darkness by Jack Vance / The Hellbound Train by Robert Bloch / Come and Go Mad by Fredric Brown / Narrow Valley by R. A. Lafferty / Divine Madness by Roger Zelazny / Man Overboard by John Collier / Descending by Thomas M. Disch / My Dear Emily by Joanna Russ / Our Fair City by Robert A. Heinlein / They Bite by Anthony Boucher / Call Him Demon by Henry Kuttner / Daemon by C. L. Moore / There Shall Be No Darkness by James Blish / The Coming of the White Worm by Clark Ashton Smith / One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts by Shirley Jackson / Nine Yards of Other Cloth by Manly Wade Wellman / Yesterday Was Monday by Theodore Sturgeon / Through a Glass - Darkly by Zenna Henderson / The Montavarde Camera by Avram Davidson / Within the Walls of Tyre by Michael Bishop / Four Ghosts in Hamlet by Fritz Leiber / Displaced Person by Eric Frank Russell / The Black Ferris by Ray Bradbury / Timothy by Keith Roberts / Jeffy Is Five by Harlan Ellison / The Rag Thing by Donald A. Wolheim / Thirteen O'Clock by C. M. Kornbluth / Trouble with Water by H. L. Gold / The Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt. Book weight is over 1 Kilo so depending on destination extra shipping may be asked. Any image directly beside this listing is the actual book and not a stock photo First Galahad Edition NF Hard Cover 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

[SW: FANTASY FICTION HISTORY CRITICISM LITERARY, -----Green boards with gilt on spine, (xv) 512 pages, headband. no names, dust jacket is in Near Fine condition. Contents include: The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft / Sail On! Sail On! by Philip Jose Farmer / The Loom of Darkness by Jack Vance / The Hellbound Train by Robert Bloch / Come and Go Mad by Fredric Brown / Narrow Valley by R. A. Lafferty / Divine Madness by Roger Zelazny / Man Overboard by John Collier / Descending by Thomas M. Disch / My Dear Emily by Joanna Russ / Our Fair City by Robert A. Heinlein / They Bite by Anthony Boucher / Call Him Demon by Henry Kuttner / Daemon by C. L. Moore / There Shall Be No Darkness by James Blish / The Coming of the White Worm by Clark Ashton Smith / One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts by Shirley Jackson / Nine Yards of Other Cloth by Manly Wade Wellman / Yesterday Was Monday by Theodore Sturgeon / Through a Glass - Darkly by Zenna Henderson / The Montavarde Camera by Avram Davidson / Within the Walls of Tyre by Michael Bishop / Four Ghosts in Hamlet by Fritz Leiber / Displaced Person by Eric Frank Russell / The Black Ferris by Ray Bradbury / Timothy by Keith Roberts / Jeffy Is Five by Harlan Ellison / The Rag Thing by Donald A. Wolheim / Thirteen O'Clock by C. M. Kornbluth / Trouble with Water by H. L. Gold / The Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt. Any image directly beside this listing is the actual book and not a stock Photo, Henri RousseauFantasy and Science Fiction Vance, Jack]

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(Stoddard, Seneca Ray; and Stanley, Henry M.). 29 ORIGINAL NEGATIVES AND 4 PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AFRICAN EXPLORER STANLEY & HIS PARTY FROM THE STUDIO OF THE GREAT ADIRONDACK PHOTOGRAPHER, SENECA RAY STODDARD (1844-1917) OF GLENS FALLS, NEW YORK. TOGETHER WITH ENVELOPES ANNOTATED AND SIGNED BY STANLEY.

- What is being offered here are original 3-3/4"x3-5/8" negatives contained in two of Seneca Ray Stoddard's personal 4"x5-1/8" envelopes with "S.R. Stoddard, Publisher, Glens Falls, N.Y." printed in black at the top left of each. These images were sent to the famous tour manager James B. Pond. The African explorer Henry Stanley has annotated and signed each envelope, enclosing the negatives and photos with his opinion as to their possible usefulness. The flap of each envelope has been torn open and the envelopes themselves are slightly soiled & spotted. There is some slight damage to the bottom corner of the second envelope. Stanley has penciled the following note on the envelope which contains the first group of 20 negatives: "The enclosed negatives will give fairly good slides if the subjects are indispensable, otherwise sort out. Return all that are especially desired and keep the balance. Stanley". Pond has additionally penciled "Stanley Party" at the top of this envelope. A second group of 9 negatives are contained within an envelope upon which Stanley has penciled the following note: "It will be impossible to get satisfactory lantern slides from the enclosed negatives. If any are necessary to your hap-piness however I will do the best I can with them. Stanley." Two photographs printed from these negatives are present. These photos are mounted on 5-1/8"x4-3/16" card stock with decorative backing bearing the "Kodak Camera" logo on the verso. Two other photos, obviously produced from the same shooting as they depict Stanley & his wife at a train station, are also present but without the negatives. These latter 2 photos are simply printed on 4-3/8"x3-3/4" photographic paper. One of these photos depicts an older white bearded black man with the Stanleys. This unidentified black man is impeccably dressed and wearing a white top hat. Although there are only a few images of Stanley himself, all of the images depict members of Stanley's party and occasional scenery as they traveled on a lecture tour. Several images were shot at a train station. Palm trees can be seen in some of the photographs. One beautifully composed image depicts four black children in front of a door at the train station, and another apparently shot from the train window depicts a Native-American Indian riding a horse through the prairie. All of the images are set within an oval, possibly so designed in order to be projected as slides.<p>Though the negatives are slightly rumpled at the edges, this is a nonetheless superb archive.<p>James B. Pond and Seneca Ray Stoddard had a professional relationship. "Mr. Stoddard's lectures are illustrated by means of a large stereopticon, the pictures for which he makes himself, being a practicing photographer of more than thirty years' experience. Of these pictures Mr. J.B. Pond, under whose management the lectures are given, says, 'Mr. Stoddard's pictures are the most beautiful ever shown before an American audience, and I do not believe that they are equaled in any part of the world!'" [DeSorno" "Seneca Ray Stoddard: Versatile Camera Artist", page 129].<p>Stanley's lecture tour began on November 11, 1890. His party consisted of Stanley, his wife Dorothy Tennant and her mother, Lieutenant Mounteney Jephson, and a London literary man, Hamilton Aide.<p>Includes recent positives on plain paper that have been made from scans of the negatives.

[SW: ORIGINAL NEGATIVES; ORIGINAL PHOTOS; PHOTOGRAPHS; AUTOGRAPH; HENRY M. STANLEY; TRAVEL; PHOTOGRAPHY; SENECA RAY STODDARD; EXPLORATION; JAMES B. POND; TRAVEL; EXPLORATION; AFRICAN EXPLORER; DOROTHY TENNANT; LIEUTENANT MOUNTENEY JEPHSON; HAMILTON AIDE; LECTURE TOUR; TRAIN STATIONS; SLIDES; AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED; ANS; NOTES; A.N.S.; SIGNATURE.]

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Singh, Raghubir: The Grand Trunk Road. A Passage Through India. Historical Essay by Jean Deloche. Aperture, 1996. ISBN: 0893816442
Singh's photos of the Grand Trunk Road, taken with what he modestly calls a "democratic eye," require careful examination. The truth in them lies often in the corners of the frames. mother jones Singh's pictures do not offer straightforward descriptions of Indian life, but instead depict it in richly allusive terms. THE NEW YORK TIMES "Singh is an artist with a camera whose eye is filled with deep and evident love for his subject and who possesses the sensibility and skill to capture what his mind sees. These photographs . . . are suffused with exquisite light. . . . By some extraordinary alchemy, they seem to transcend the camera's record of a mere moment in time to offer an intimation of the timeless." time magazine For centuries traders, religious seers, nomads, migrants, and conquerors have travelled the Grand Trunk Road-the axis of the Indian sub-continent's heavily populated and politi-cally dominant north. This ancient road, the country's pri-mary commercial route, is the channel by which changes have historically coursed through Indian society. Raghubir Singh's vibrant color photographs evoke the energies and contrasts of a modern journey along the road Singh terms "a living panorama of north India's people." Singh photographs the so-called "GT" with a democrat-ic eye, which places equal importance on "the truck driver, the cattle and sheep herder, the farmer burned brown by the sun, the women with big head loads, the itinerant musician, the man with the performing bear, the man with the sacred bull, the groundsman at the Taj with his broom, the man fixing nails and horseshoes on animal hooves, the disappearing ekka driver, the mechanic and small repairman, the Sikh farmer on his string cot watching his flood-affected paddy dry on the GT, the housewife in her shack-open to the road-cooking a meal for her sculptor husband busy chisel-ling gods out of stone, and so many others. . . ." An essay by Jean Deloche, of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, in Pondicherry, India, provides a com-pelling history of the Grand Trunk Road since its emergence as ancient India's first route for traders and invaders. The French historian and geographer interweaves literary refer-ences and excerpts from early travellers' accounts into his essay. Singh's photographs and gripping firsthand account of his remarkable travels draw the reader into an unforgettable journey down the lifeline of northern India, where, as Singh writes, "the past and the present breathe side by side."

127 Seiten, 29,6 cm, gebundene Ausgabe, Schutzumschlag, gut bis sehr gut,

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