Barthes, Roland; Howard, Richard, trans. Mourning Diary: October 26, 19977—September 15, 1979; (2010) FIRST LINE: “First wedding night. But first mourning night”? LAST LINE: “Not very happy. It was an inheritance.” ICI SHELF: Current Book Project Accession #: ICI-02580 ICI HISTORY: Barthes’ Tear (2010-2014); First … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Mourning Diary
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ed.; Monster Theory: Reading Culture (1996) FIRST LINE: “We live in a time of monsters.” LAST LINE: “The fear of the family is its founding romance: Spielberg rightly protects his children from his incestuous creation.” ICI SHELF: Body ICI HISTORY: First Line: … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Monster Theory
Foucault, Michel (trans. Alan Sheridan); Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) ICI Shelf: Philosophy Last Line: [on Panopticism] “Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?” ICI History: Today at the ICI — Twitter Feed (10-17-19) … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: The Birth of the Prison
Dyer, Richard White (1997) FIRST LINE: “White people are not literally or symbolically white, yet they are called white.” LAST LINE: “The combination of extreme whiteness with plain, unwhite whiteness means that white people can both lay claim to the spirit that aspires to the … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: White
Crimp, Douglas (1944-2019) On the Museum’s Ruins (1993) FIRST LINE: “From the parochial perspective of the late-1970s art world, photography appeared as a watershed.” (From “The Postmodern Museum) “Knowing full well that postmodern architecture is loaded with historical gimmicks, sly references, visual puns, I will … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: On the Museum’s Ruins
Camille, Micheal; Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (1992) ICI Shelf: Books about books First Line: “I could begin, like St Bernard, by asking what do they all mean, those lascivious apes, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Image on the Edge
Raspe, Rudolf Erich; Baron Munchausen’s Travels: The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1907) ICI Shelf: Trotter First Line: “Why is it that scamps and scoundrels are so often clever and generally interesting, whilst the average human being is so often dull and generally … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Baron Munchausen’s Travels
Solomon, Barbara Miller; In the Company of Educated Women: a history of women and higher education in America (1985) ICI Shelf: Trotter First Line: “Education, over the last two hundred years, has profoundly changed the contours of women’s lives in America.” Last Line: “The means … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: In the Company of Educated Women
Dyle, Arthur Conan; The Coming of the Fairies (ca.1922) FIRST LINE: “The series of incidents set forth in this little volume represent either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax every played upon the public, or else they constitute an event in human history which may … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: The Coming of the Fairies
Lord Dufferin Letters From High Latitudes: Being Some Account of a Voyage, in 1856, in the Schooner Yacht “Foam,” to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen (ca.1882) FIRST LINE: “Our start has not been prosperous.” LAST LINE: “Through her white columned halls in silence glide, nor mingling … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Letters From High Latitudes