
Written in Water
The Ephemeral Life of the Classic in Art
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Graybill
About this listen
A deeply personal yet broadly relevant exploration of the ephemeral life of the classic in art, from the eighteenth century to our own day
Is there such a thing as a timeless classic? More than a decade ago, Rochelle Gurstein set out to explore and establish a solid foundation for the classic in the history of taste. To her surprise, that history instead revealed repeated episodes of soaring and falling reputations, rediscoveries of long-forgotten artists, and radical shifts in the canon, all of which went so completely against common knowledge that it was hard to believe it was true.
Where does the idea of the timeless classic come from? And how has it become so fiercely contested? By recovering disputes about works of art from the eighteenth century to the close of the twentieth, Gurstein takes us into unfamiliar aesthetic and moral terrain, providing a richly imagined historical alternative to accounts offered by both cultural theorists advancing attacks on the politics of taste and those who continue to cling to the ideal of universal values embodied in the classic. As Gurstein brings to life the competing responses of generations of artists, art lovers, and critics to specific works of art, she makes us see the same object vividly and directly through their eyes and feel, in all its enlarging intensity, what they felt.
©2024 Rochelle Gurstein (P)2024 TantorRelated to this topic
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As a resident great general summary of the history of the city
- By marco on 01-13-25
By: Dennis Romano
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Spycraft
- Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration
- By: Pete Langman, Nadine Akkerman
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In this engaging, accessible account, Nadine Akkerman and Pete Langman explore the methods spies actually used in the period, including disguises, invisible inks, and even poisons. Drawing on a vast array of archival sources, they show how understanding the tricks and tools of espionage allows us to reimagine well-known stories such as the Babington and Gunpowder plots.
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Needs accompanying PDF
- By Amazon Customer on 09-26-24
By: Pete Langman, and others
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Infantilised
- How Our Culture Killed Adulthood
- By: Keith J. Hayward
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Noticing society's creeping descent into infantilisation is one thing, however understanding the roots and causes of the phenomenon is not quite so easy. But in this topical and vitally important new work, cultural theorist and academic, Dr Keith Hayward, exposes the deep social, psychological and political dangers of a world characterised by denuded adult autonomy.
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A well reasoned and soundly documented thesis
- By Lee O. Stokowski on 09-21-24
By: Keith J. Hayward
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The Horse
- A Galloping History of Humanity
- By: Timothy C. Winegard
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Timothy C. Winegard’s The Horse is an epic history unlike any other. Its story begins more than 5,500 years ago on the windswept grasslands of the Eurasian Steppe; when one human tamed one horse, an unbreakable bond was forged and the future of humanity was instantly rewritten, placing the reins of destiny firmly in human hands. Since that pivotal day, the horse has carried the history of civilizations on its powerful back.
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Virtue signaling on 4 legs
- By K N on 08-25-24
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Dark Wire
- The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever
- By: Joseph Cox
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in 2018, a powerful app for secure communications, called Anom, began to take root among drug dealers and other criminals. It had extraordinary safeguards to keep out prying eyes--the power to quickly wipe data, voice-masking technology, and more. It was better than other apps popular among organized crime syndicates, except for one thing: it was secretly run by law enforcement. Over the next few years, the FBI, along with law enforcement partners in Australia and parts of Europe, got a front row seat to the global criminal underworld.
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Amazing story
- By Katie W. on 06-08-24
By: Joseph Cox
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World on the Brink
- How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century
- By: Dmitri Alperovitch, Garrett M. Graff - contributor
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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A leading national security expert, who publicly predicted Vladimir Putin's intention to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine months before it took place, lays out the case for why China's Xi Jinping is preparing to conquer Taiwan in the coming years and the dire stakes for America and the whole world if he is not deterred.
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a must read book!
- By Val Lendaro on 06-02-24
By: Dmitri Alperovitch, and others