Aztec Paper | The Blog for San Diego State University Press and Hyperbole Books

aVANT-pOP: Weakening the Ideologies that Keep the People Calm.

2012-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

"The emerging wave of Avant-Pop artists now arriving on the scene find themselves caught in this struggle to rapidly transform our sick, commodity-infested workaday culture into a more sensual, trippy, exotic and networked experience."

-Mark Amerika & Lance Olsen

In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop is a collection of works by some of the main proponents of the Avant-Pop literary art movement. If you need another reason to fuel your passion for the protection and freedom of the internet, this collection will give you a real good one.

Avant-Pop recognizes the popular media for what it is: a vile monster of distracting misinformation and zombifying"entertainment" that holds a tenacious grip on the minds of a majority of people, insidiously defining them from without and diverting their attention from more important things like the revocation of their rights and freedoms. The Avant-Pop artist believes it's too late to fight against it, so he or she gears up for a journey into the heart of the beast in an attempt to change it from within.

Ron Sukenick writes it best in his essay aVANT-pOP, sUR-fICTION, hYPER-fICTION:

"...actually what we have here is a reversal of the old consumerist tactic of 'co-optation' -i.e., if some rebel-rousing movement comes along, defang it, package it and sell it, absorb it into the mass market, render it harmless -Avant-Pop, on the other hand, co-opts mass-market schlock, twists it and tortures it till it becomes dangerous and injects it back into the market as a virus that destroys its host from within...where monolithic mass market was, many mini-markets there shall be, making clear the difference between consumerism's 'free market,' and a democratic market which offers the consumer a wide spectrum of choice."

That "spectrum of choice" may become much more difficult or impossible to offer if Congress passes SOPA. It would limit the people's choices even further, decreasing their amplitude of vision and insight by serving up only the few narrow options provided by popular media.

Avant-Pop wants to widen and enrich our options, encourage individuality, and support the sharing of our ideas and art.

To learn more about Avant-Pop and get inspired to create art that keeps communication open purchase a copy of In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop from SDSU Press.

Also, check out the editors Mark Amerika and Lance Olsen.
And to learn more about the Stop Online Piracy Act click here.

Coming Soon From SDSU PRESS: A Re-issue of our Popular BORDER LIVES volume! | Featuring a New IZEL VARGAS-laced COVER!

2012-01-05T21:13:00.001-08:00

The Rise of Californian Literature: Get what you need from SDSU Press!

2012-01-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we forget how cool it is to be from California, a place that so many people around the world have formed ideas and wild dreams about from movies, books, music...etc.
We're rich in a very unique kind of culture and the academic world has taken notice! More and more courses focused on literature distinctive to California are being offered in colleges and universities across the U.S.
Hit the image on the right for an article on the rise of Californian literature.

AND...

Be on the forefront of this movement with the help of SDSU Press!

Check out our selection of Californian literature:

The exploration writings of missionary Juan Crespi:
A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770

A collection of studies, art, and discussions on everything Steinbeck:

Homer from Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for California

Plus, click here to browse through our U.S./Mexico Border literature.

A Critical look at Military History: Jean Norton Cru's War Books

2011-12-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

After fighting in WWI, Jean Norton Cru realized that the prevailing accounts that made up a widely accepted military history were written by high ranking officials, most of whom never experienced front line combat. War Books is the result of Cru's effort to sift through the romanticized image of a soldier in war. His aim is to get to the true individual accounts of those who lived, toiled, and experienced the war on the front lines and endured life in the trenches.
Cru clearly outlines how he went about the critical process of dissecting military history. He lists age-old legends and common notions that civilians have about war and sets out to dispel them with the compilation of writings from those who really lived it. Cru helps you realize that as a civilian, one really knows nothing about being a soldier.

Cru identifies the main flaw in popular military history:

"It is inferior because it concerns itself with special facts, facts which the witnesses, the chroniclers, the historians of the time, all those whose writings constitute our only documents, have exercised their wits to misrepresent, through motives of patriotism, of vainglory, or of tradition."

and Jean Norton Cru really hoped to provide a work that would prompt people to see that war is not glorious in any way:

"These testimonies will teach...that man comes to the point of making war only by a miracle of persuasion and deception...; that if people knew what the soldier learns at his baptism of fire, nobody would consent to a solution by force of arms; not friends, not enemies, not government, not legislative bodies, not voters, not reservists, not even professional soldiers."

War Books is great because it can knock some sense into any civilian that claims to know what it is to fight in a war and reminds the reader why war is completely senseless and unnecessary. It can also enrich one's perspective because it provides a raw and arguably more accurate military history; a favorable alternative to the common history that is rife with distorting pride.
More specifically, it can provide essential background knowledge for the English literature major because it was compiled by a veteran of World War I; a war characterized by an inhumanity that helped inspire Modernism and some of the greatest English poets and writers.

Get War Books now, on sale from SDSU Press.

Comic Relief for us all!: Hector Ortega's The Comic Trial of Joseph K. from SDSU Press

2011-12-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

Hector Ortega’s stage adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial is eerily pertinent to our times. Accused of some unknown crimeand put through a wacky, illogical judicial system, Joseph K. feels the strangeuncertainty of having his fate in the hands of simple-minded power trippers. Whatmakes this The Comic Trial of Joseph K. is Ortega’s ability to pick up onKafka’s humor latent in the original. It’s this humor that makes the gravity ofJoseph’s circumstances easier to swallow and it breathes a sharp wit into the stage version. Thebook includes essays analyzing Ortega’s adaptation, giving the reader a betterunderstanding of Joseph’s character and the importance of the comic element.The most beautiful is Ortega’s own essay in which he expresses a genuinepassion for Kafka, his personal character, and his work. Here are some excerpts from Ortega's essay:

"The truth is that the 'Kafkaesque' situation in which we continuously see ourselves involved in the offices of bureaucracy keep on making us experience feelings of impotence; we feel controlled by superior authoritarian forces that manipulate our lives."

Ortega also writes about the common misconception that Kafka had a dire attitude. The truth was that he held out hope for mankind, something so beautiful that we all need to inspire passion and action in us -not from fear- but from a source of love.

"Kafka, like all prophets, is a man full of rage and pain, but, in spite of all commonplaces, like all prophets of desperation he is a man full of love for mankind, with hope in humanity. From him I have received the most hopeful and desolate phrase I have ever heard; it is a phrase from his diary: 'Even if there is no redemption in this world, we should all live as if there were.' It is the most beautiful example I have found of human dignity."

It's with that same Kafka attitude that we face things like the Supreme Court saying that corporations are people and Congress passing next year's defense spending bill. Hector Ortega's The Comic Trial of Joseph K. can be inspiring now more than ever. Ortega brings out Kafka's view that no matter how far authority imposes injustice we must keep in mind that there are no "others," we work against injustice all while knowing that eventually everyone will be reminded of the things that make us human. Franz Kafka's convictions are the kind that can help shift the trajectory of mankind for the better.

Purchase a copy of Hector Ortega's The Comic Trial of Joseph K.: Text and Context from SDSU Press.

Comparative WAR Analysis from SDSU PRESS: Jean Norton Cru's WAR BOOKS: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL CRITICISM

2011-12-14T08:05:00.001-08:00

click for the link

The Perfect Gift for the (Thoughtful) Sports Fan or a Christmas Super Bowl Fan's Delight: Coroebus Triumphs: The Alliance of Sport and the Arts by Susan Bandy

2011-11-23T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hit the image above for the the AMAZON instantlink

or here...

Border Lives! On Sale Now on AMAZON.com

2011-11-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

Border Lives: Personal Essay on the U.S.-Mexico Border

Harry Polkinhorn, et al., eds.
(translated by Tomàs Di Bella and Harry Polkinhorn)

Border Lives explores the living, changing genre of the personal essay as it is being practiced along the U.S.-Mexico border. The seventh in the Binational Press border series (SDSU Press/UABC Press), Border Lives contains work by James Bradley, David Clayton, José Manuel Di Bella, Carlos Fabián Saravia, Emily Hicks, Ramona Mejía, William A. Nericcio, Harry Polkinhorn, Leobardo Saravia Quiroz, Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz 1995 | Trade paperback: 680 pages; illustrated ISBN 968-7326-43-3; $25 plus shipping/handling OR $5.00 (through January 31, 2012) plus shipping direct from AMAZON.COM

Here are some screenshots of the book:

the covers...

from an essay by William A. Nericcio

from an essay by D. Emily Hicks

A Couple of Scans from Our Massive FEDERMAN RECYCLOPEDIA VOLUME..... | Hardcover edition on sale now via AMAZON.COM

2011-11-07T09:13:00.000-08:00

Our amazing Raymond Federman encyclopedia is on sale now via our cyberbookseller outlet mall @ Amazon.com

Below appear a couple of pages scanned at random from this Federmaniac opus!

The Mind's Organs: Noam Chomsky's Modular Approaches to the Study of the Mind

2011-10-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

The processes with which the mind perceives the outer world exist only in the abstract. Compared to the study of the body where we have tangible organs that we can dissect to discover a specific purpose, the mind has"mental representations" that serve to prompt the absorption of an outer concept.

But the thought of how much painstaking and meticulous work it takes to explain in words how these mental representations function can be discouraging. Thankfully, the world has Noam Chomsky and his book Modular Approaches to the Study of the Mind.

Chomsky outlines a way to study the cognitive systems that determine how humans understand external reality and does it with a clarity that dissolves whatever hesitation the reader had about even approaching the daunting subject. The more you read, the better you feel about your ability to understand and explain the concepts yourself.

Purchase a copy of this enlightening work here and click to read an interview with Chomsky about the mind's language organ.

Language by the Border: A phenomenon worth learning about now!

2011-10-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

The regions that outline the border between Mexico and the U.S. give off a palpable energy unique to the specific dynamics between the two countries. Although many people can feel or sense this energy, it is difficult to pinpoint and define one of the innumerable aspects that -along with a million other factors- work together to create this atmosphere. Sergio Gómez Montero takes on the task of researching particular facets of border atmosphere and delineates how each of them affect and shape the way people use language along the border. Montero believes that research into the border language phenomenon will become increasingly important and hopes to establish the basis for this branch of study in
The Border: The Future of Postmodernity

Anyone that spends time in the immediate area surrounding the U.S./Mexico border can attest to the existence of a real cultural, economic, and political synthesis that undoubtedly creates a manner of communicating that slightly deviates from the national norm of both countries. Montero recognizes this and seems to be one of the first to develop a scholarly investigation into the formof speech and writing emerging from the one of the busiest international borders in the world.

The Border: The Future of Postmodernity endows the reader with knowledge of this emerging field of communication, giving them an edge on a very novel area of language studies.

Purchase a copy of Montero's pioneering work here.

Steven F. Butterman's Perversions On Parade: An in depth look at the work of Glauco Mattoso.

2011-10-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Perversions on Parade is the first extensive critical analysis of Brazilian author Glauco Mattoso's work. Author Steven Butterman asserts that Mattoso makes a significant contribution to postmodern literature as well as a worthwhile study of the potentialities of human sexuality. Butterman focuses on a variety of effects that Mattoso's work inspires. Rather than just brushing over it's evident anti-aestheticism, Butterman discusses what that anti-aestheticism sets out to achieve. The answer is to bring to light the existence of a primal human sexuality that has been obscured and oppressed by the aesthetic standards of civilization. The book goes into how Mattoso's writing dares people to think beyond the societal structures of what's right and wrong or what actions or body parts are considered pleasurably satisfying and which are written off as disgusting. Once people take steps toward questioning the basis and validity of the rules, they are introduced to a new level of freedom and perhaps an unprecedented level of satisfaction.

Butterman also stresses that Glauco Mattoso's work is pertinent to gender studies,

considering how it breaks from the rigid conventions that a person can and should only obtain satisfaction from certain body parts of someone of the opposite gender.

Even more interesting is the connection that Butterman makes between Mattoso's increasingly transgressive work and how it parallels the progressive increase in social and

political freedom that occurred during the same time period in Brazil.

Whether you want to learn more about alternative modes of personal expression, gain a better more well-rounded understanding of human behavior, or study the dynamics between national politics and cultural movements, Steven Butterman's Perversions on Parade is an engaging, compelling, and exciting way of achieving any or all of those goals.

Purchase a copy here.

Click Here to visit Glauco Mattoso's official website!

...Butterman's analysis of Mattoso's work is irresistibly compelling if you're intellectually curious enough to seek an understanding of how or why the human animal develops fetishes. One famous example is Quentin Tarantino's love of feet, as seen here:

New Jane Goodall Movie | Get the "In the Shadow of Man" Distinguished Lecture Series, SDSU

2011-09-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

SDSU Press and San Diego State University are big fans of Jane Goodall (and of primates in general). Click the image opposite to read about JANE'S JOURNEY in the LA Times.

After that, give some thought to ordering San Diego State University Press' JANE GOODALL classic, In the Shadow of Man (Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture, 4th) [Paperback]

Here's a trailer from the new film:

...and an interview with Goodall and Angelina Jolie:

Daniel Quirós' VERANO ROJO now available via AMAZON.COM from SDSU PRESS and HYPERBOLE BOOKS

2011-08-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

Click the shopping cart for the instalink to some of Latin America's finest crime fiction! Here's more on Daniel and his work {en Español} and some shots of the books cover materials...

Renato Barilli's Thrilling Enterprise: VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE WORD, from SDSU PRESS

2011-08-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

Voyage to the End of the Word argues for a deeper literary dive into “intraverbal” play. Following the notion that conventional ways of expression are completely exhausted, Renato Barilli presents us with the idea that shattering the smallest unit of writing opens up a whole new world of unexplored expression for producers of literature. Inside the microscopic space of letters and in between linked syntagms that symbiotically rely on each other for significance, there exists a broad landscape in which one could play and create refreshingly original work. Barilli explains how the further breakdown of the smallest linguistic units facilitates the exploration of this new world. While it inevitably blocks off the conventional path, it forces the writer to turn around and see the vastness within the words and letters themselves. Barilli makes the reader truly feel the importance and excitement of exploring this literary path. If writers adopt the artistic implements of avant-garde art and music, they increase their navigability through this new world. Once the words are broken down, the boundaries of sight and sound are expanded, allowing the writer to create a unique work consisting of novel sounds, synthesized words, and a visual puzzle.

What makes it more exciting is the fact that the creation can be utterly contemporary with the employment of technology like audio recordings, film, typography, graphic design, and photocopies of original hand-written work. On another front, the venture into the word turns a work of literature into an interactive game between the writer and the reader. It becomes the inviting instigator of a playful, witty banter between

producer and consumer. An anthology of such work is provided in the second half of the book so the reader can experience what Barilli is talking about. His preceding arguments certainly build up anticipation in the reader and he or she arrives at the anthology with the eagerness of a child running towards the jungle gym.

This book is a treasure for anyone in search of a better understanding of experimental literature. Its meticulous discussion of linguistics and aesthetics makes terms and concepts easier to grasp and can be a great educational resource for professors. And a writer or poet in need of new avenues of expression can find this book invaluable in helping them discover that new outlet.

Purchase a copy of Voyage to the End of the Word now.

Arrigo Lora Totino is one of the featured writers in Barilli's anthology. The following video is an example of how audio and video enhances the experimental literary journey. Barilli writes:

"So, for example, the opportunity to work "within" the word, below the phrase, is today strongly called for and facilitated precisely by certain technological developments. The instruments of sound recording (records, electromagnetic tape) have enlarged the phonosphere and made it familiar and accessible to us, thereby rendering the phenomenon of homophony more incisive and present than in the past."

Watch Totino perform his work:

Click here for a larger version of the cover of SDSU PRESS's Barilli volume.

Top 5 Reasons to Scoop Up a Copy of Everett Gee Jackson' Goat Tails and Doodlebugs

2011-07-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

First reason? It's a gorgeous book! But who is Everett Gee Jackson? and what is Goat Tails and Doodlebugs? Jackson was a former professor and longtime chair of the SDSU Department of Art (now School of Art, Design, and Art History at San Diego State University). His lavishly illustrated Goat Tails and Doodlebugs reflects on his past, attempting to establish connections to his career as a painter. Unlike his previous books (for instance, Four Trips to Antiquity, also with SDSU Press) that document his experiences painting in Mexico and Central America, Goat Tails and Doodlebugs is a compilation of vignettes tracing all the way back to his early childhood years in Texas up and attempts to discover the progression and development of his artwork (example, below; more here).

source

Jackson delivers unique stories, both moving and captivating-- each story feels familiar and draws us into this special and intimate part of his life, giving us a real and profound understanding of who he is and how that was bound up with his painting. He shares memories that are emotional and lighthearted at the same time and that have the ability to make us laugh as well as cry. The stories are accompanied by his own illustrations and paintings, beautiful and captivating in themselves, that add much to the overall effect of the book.

The Fishing Barge

Everett Gee Jackson, 1933

The Flight of the Eagle: Poetry of the U.S.-Mexican Border

2011-06-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Flight of the Eagle: Poetry of the U.S.-Mexico Border transforms the voices of eight different poets from the U.S. and Mexico into a beautiful, unique, and moving project. If we lost you at poetry- maybe you've had a bad experience with it in the past or it's just not your thing- whatever the case may be, these are not your standard poems and are far from what you're used to reading. Each poet has his/her own unique flavor; there's something, if not more, for everyone inside. Every section has a different story to tell and a different way of telling it; however, as a whole they seem to stand together as one and speak the same words. This collection of poetry is for the most part easy to read and accessible to the general public, however, this is not to say that the poems lack literary or academic value; they are in fact full of complex cultural and literary references.

They deal with issues about life on and beyond the U.S.-Mexican border; it is a fusion of experiences specific to border life such as gaining citizenship, adapting to American life, culture clash, mistreatment, and everyday struggles, as well as those more universal such as family, love, sex, loss, heart break, struggle, pain, death, and war. While border life is for the most part the central focus of these poems, they are relatable, applicable, and insightful to people of all cultures and creeds. Moreover, this project is not merely a study of the U.S.-Mexican border, but rather of borders in general, dealing with a broad spectrum of borders and liminal spaces such as sexuality, race, culture, and gender, thus reaching out to

all audiences.

This creative compilation of memoir, history, and voice captures and speaks for and about a community/people that fall beneath the radar, that are underrepresented and mistreated daily, and most importantly that when heard can teach us new ways of seeing, understanding, and living in the world; all we have to do is listen, or in this case read.

Listen to Jose Montalvo, one of the featured poets and also an activist, talk about and read some of his poetry!

Now Available! pacificREVIEW 2011...

2011-05-24T15:40:00.001-07:00

get it HERE!

The 2011 edition of pacificREVIEW: A West Coast Arts Review Annual edited by Lindsey Messner with undergraduates and graduate students from SDSU and published by San Diego State University Press; contributors include: Melissa Castillo-Garsow, Doug Cox, Jason Joyce, Paul David, Paris Brown, Shane Roeschlein, Joshua Gage, Vivekanand Jha, Alan Britt, Elisabeth Sharp McKetta, Kristin Berkey-Abbott, Frank Scozzari, Deepak Chaswal, Ken Poyner, James B. Nicola, Eric Barnes, M. Kaat Toy, Janice Pisello, Roger Camp, Kent Cooper, Scott McFarland, Guy J. Jackson, Stephen Lackaye, Catherine McGuire, Darren Fernando, Kelly Talbot, Carroll Susco, and Christopher Mulrooney.

You Know Where You Are Now: A Look Inside Border Lives

2011-04-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

source

There is no faster or more effective way to mainline the feeling of existential vertigo than spending time along the borderlands dividing Mexico from the United States of America. Life along this border is an incongruous, sensory-overloading experience: visions of ludicrous corporate wealth propelled by extreme social poverty; floating, malleable identities and competing histories; no fixed addresses; no clear, concise version of any one lasting truth to tie it all together.

It’s a psychically battering experience, but a rewarding one as well, in terms of expanded insight and cross-cultural empathy, and SDSU Press’s essay collection Border Lives: Personal Essay on the U.S.-Mexico Border/Vidas Fronterizas: La Crónica en la Frontera México-Estados Unidos , has all three—the battery, the insight, and the empathy—in spades.

The ten essays collected in Border Lives (each one presented back-to-back in Spanish and English translations) offer deeply personal and haunting snapshots of life and death along the border, but amidst the varying tones, backgrounds, and approaches employed by the writers here assembled, some common narrative threads emerge to provide the reader with an explosively visceral experience of life along this interzone of cultural, political, and economic conflict.

Strongest amongst these commonalities is the feeling that to live a border life is to experience a sense of disconnect on a daily basis, but a disconnect one cannot disassociate from. It’s always present, a source code of freeway signs and graffiti tags, bible verses and rock lyrics, corporate sloganeering and calls for la revolución, Prozac prescriptions and cocaine addictions, that constantly throw off one’s effort to express a thought as simply cogent as “This is who I am and this is where I’m from.”

In the end, this disconnect is what renders the essay as the perfect literary form to explore the vast complexities of life on the border. As SDSU Press Director Harry Polkinhorn puts it in the collection’s opening piece, essays “provide us with a unique blend of philosophical meditation, travel impressions, character sketch, autobiographical reference, and journalistic observation, all inflected by the wit, irony, or lofty sentiments which color the quality of their writer’s lives.”

The writers of Border Lives present the reader with stories both intimate in emotion and all-encompassing in scale: Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz undertakes a time-traveling dissection of his youth in northern Mexico and coming-of-age as a rock & roll-loving medical student in Jalisco; William Nericcio questions the tenets of memory and truth while exploring the contrast between border towns like Laredo, Texas, where class, not race, is the dominant factor in the social fabric of society, and San Diego, California, where ethnic and political prejudices assign class to each race; Emily Hicks injects a flair of performance art into her story of betrayal, breakdowns, and single motherhood; and James Bradley, amidst his own personal reflections of border life, ruminates on the United States’ shameful history of land-grabs, political power plays, and military interventions in Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Border Lives is an excellent resource for anyone hoping to gain a more comprehensive perspective on life along the U.S-Mexico border, but be warned: You may be thrown off by what you find when you get here. The landscape is jarring, jagged, much of it an industrial wasteland bled dry by corporate interests. People here travel through time-loops and commune with ghosts. The weight of history, and the desperate efforts of those who wish to re-write or wish it away, makes it nearly impossible to know where you’ve been, where you’re going, or who you even are anymore. The only thing that can be known along the border is where you are right now; the rest is up for grabs.

Fluxus! Our Best-selling Study of Fluxus by Owen F. Smith...

2011-04-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge

Fluxus: The History of an Attitude is based on the Owen F. Smith's exhaustive archival research tracking the physical remains of this fascinating interdisciplinary and international arts movement that began in the 1960s. In his dynamic introduction, Smith recalls how:

Fluxus was once called 'the most radical and experimental art movement of the sixties,' but for anyone seeking to learn more about the historical nature of Fluxus and its conceptual framework it might more readily seem to be just plain frustrating rather than radical. This is in part the case because Fluxus is historically complex and philosophically difficult to define. This very ambiguity, however, is an aspect of its radicality. Fluxus is both an attitude towards art-making and culture that is not historically limited, and a specific historical group. As an attitude, Fluxus is part of a larger conceptual development that is a significant, although often overlooked, current of the twentieth-century Western avant-garde. This attitude is in part traceable to the network of interrelated ideas about culture, politics, and society explored earlier in the twentieth century by the Futurists, the Dadaists, and the Surrealists. Some of these same ideas were later explored after World War II by artists associated with groups such as Letterism, International Situationism, Nouveau Realisme, and Fluxus itself.

Click to enlarge

Also, Smith claims the Fluxus is still very much alive today and that "Fluxus is by nature anti-reductivist, for it does not seek the illumination of some end or fact but celebrates participation in a non-hierarchal density of experience. In this way Fluxus does not refer to a style or even a procedure as such but to the presence of a totality of social activities. Fluxus seeks to shift from traditional utilitarian-based proscriptions to an open-ended, less evaluative participation in the processes themselves." Smith's singular study is emerging as one of the more important meditations on Fluxus--our SDSU Press volume is provided with a comprehensive bibliography and index.

Order it now from SDSU Press via Amazon.com.

New Books from SDSU PRESS and Hyperbole Books! Mark Wheeler, ed.DARWIN 150 Years of Evolution and Spencer Dew's ACKER Learning for Revolution

2011-04-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Buy these new books by Marc Wheeler and Spencer Dew here; high-res covers for the book appear below--just hit the images to enlarge...

SDSU PRESS Announcing a New Collection of Essays on Charles Darwin

2011-03-27T09:10:00.001-07:00

New and IN PRINT: Learning for Revolution: The Work of Kathy Acker by Spencer Dew

2011-03-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hyperbole Books! Studied in Graphic/Rhetoric Textbook

2011-02-20T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hit the image to see it huge; this link for the googlebooks source.

WORKING THE STONE; DIGGING UP THE PAST AND PRESENT

2011-02-19T17:25:00.000-08:00

If you recognized either of these men, it was probably the one on the right, American novelist Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick. But who's the other guy, you ask?

His name is Paul Metcalf, Melville's great-grandson, and one of the authors of Working the Stone, a special SDSU Press volume published back in 2004--the author passed away in 1999. While they never actually met or had any contact, Melville died years before Metcalf was even born, their shared ancestry has had much influence on Metcalf's writings. Metcalf, in an interview, acknowledges American poets such as Pound and Williams as having been great influences on his writing career, traits plainly in evidence in the experimental style of Working the Stone. {Online you can find a cool interview here where Metcalf talks about his writings and influences, as well as his connection to and inheritance from great-grandfather Herman Melville, the protagonist of Genoa, one of Metcalf's other novels}

Let's get back to the real reason we're here; Paul Metcalf and Lucia Saradoff's Working the Stone: The Natural, Social, and Industrial History of the Village of Farnams, Town of Cheshire, County of Berkshire, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Metcalf and Saradoff take us on a visual and literary journey through the history of a town in New England called Farnams, home of a once booming and successful limestone quarry. The compilation of narratives and oral histories of the laborers who recall their experiences of working in the quarry, including the development of machinery that eventually replaced the need for the workers, not only gives us insight into life in Farnams, but of American life as a laborer as a whole. Metcalf and Saradoff also incorporate the geography and geology of the area into the text dating back hundreds of millions of years, through which we see how it was formed and learn about major events in American history that took place in Farnams or impacted its development, such as it having served as a place of refuge for runaway slaves traveling along the Underground Railroad, as well as the impact the Civil War had on the development of the quarry.

While factual evidence runs throughout the text, it is far from being the conventional fact-based historical documentation we are so used to. Rather, Metcalf and Saradoff play with the presentation of their collection of information and factual evidence, establishing a poetic, collective, visual, and thus beautiful voice that speaks the living history of Farnams.

Here's a glimpse at the photography featured throughout the text...

New Books Coming Spring 2011 from SDSU Press and Hyperbole Books! Spencer Dew on KATHY ACKER! Mark Wheeler et al on CHARLES DARWIN

2011-02-16T14:41:00.000-08:00

pacREV 2010 has LAUNCHED

2010-12-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Beyond the Graying of America: Who Cares? | E. Percil Stanford

2010-12-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Want to live forever? Tough! It's impossible (unless you have some mad scientist friends, of course). If you're really worried about it, take a peek at SDSU Press' Beyond the Graying of America: Who Cares? This publication is a chronicle of SDSU's Albert W. Johnson University Research Lecture Series in which Dr. Stanford presents and explains two major ideas that have changed the study of gerontology is America: the cultural equity and ethics of aging in the population and the significant role aging Americans have in our society.

Stanford elaborates on how growing old is, indeed, a “serious social, economic, and sometimes political issue,” for he estimates that by 2030, that the 85+ age bracket will represent one in every eleven older persons (26). This, of course, is diversified b the many ethnic groups that make up the United States. Within these diverse groups, however, are four similar concerns: “1. the lack of adequate income; 2. health; 3. high energy costs; 4. housing, 5. transportation; and 6. social support systems” (27). Stanford continues by stating that with these worries are predominantly popular within immigrant populations, and that these immigrants will create a change within the profile of San Diego’s aged population and the overall population of the city. He believes that the Baby Boomers are also contributing to this; “as the median age of the population increases, life expectancies, falling fertility rates, substantial in-migration of employment in aging persons, and a large number of retirement-related migrants add to the reasons the median age is apt to rise beyond the age of 30” (28). Life styles and government programs must change to meet these social changes – consequences of the aged population will not wait.

In the second half of the lecture, Stanford describes the aged population’s significant role in American society, that the aged are not and should not be seen as a burden, for

“the future, as we know it, will have its foundation laid by the elderly. Their wisdom, insights, and dedication to preserving our society will have been the foundation on which our future lies. We would be extremely uninformed to assume that the elderly would not be an essential element in framing our future. It is the elderly moreso than anyone who can begin to anticipate the nature of things to come.”

The “era of the aged” is upon us – graying is a sign of maturity, not of decay (45). See? Nothing to worry about. Aging is something to expect and rejoice about. When you are 85 years old, you will provide the future with everything they need to know about how to succeed. How could that bring you down???

Since E. Percil Stanford’s lecture, “he has served as the Regional Director for the West Region for AARP since 2002 and as the interim director of the National AARP State Affairs Department working on state advocacy issues. Dr. Stanford was given the title of Chief Diversity Officer for AARP in December 2005.” He has been a pioneer for gerontology and of the aged population. Bravo!

pac REV's Call for Submissions flyers are DONE, and they are fabulous!

2010-11-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

San Diego State University's annual literary journal has finally released its call for submissions flyer collection. Look at those beauts!

click to enlarge

more info

Special thanks to Svante Morgan Nilson for creating these masterpieces.

New Books Coming Fall 2010 from San Diego State University Press! SDSU Press

2010-11-02T21:33:00.001-07:00

We've got a great new anthology available this December, 2010 from SDSU Press--the volume is in final proofs and will be available here and @ our amazon.com storefront soon! Hit the image on your left to see the new coverspread.

Jane Goodall on 60 Minutes | In the Shadow of Man | SDSU PRESS

2010-10-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

One of the best moments in the history of SDSU Press came that day in 1988 when we published Jane Goodall's In the Shadow of Man (Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture, 4th). Goodall is still doing amazing work as you can see in the October 2010 episode of 60 Minutes that features this singular anthropological sojourner--an original thinker and writer who revealed the world of chimpanzees in ways that taught us about higher primates, to be sure, but about ourselves as well.

Screen the piece on Goodall below and don't be shy about scooping up a copy of Goodall's book, in hardcover, from SDSU Press for only $7.95.

Get your competitive vibes goin' and submit to the 30 Below Contest!

2010-10-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Narrative magazine, a nifty non-profit org. that promotes the art of storytelling (also nifty), wants your submissions (I sure hope they're nifty too)! Their annual competition, 30 Below, is upon us, and the deadline is coming up.

Here are the specs:

"The N30B Contest is a once-a-year event for all young writers, visual artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers between eighteen and thirty years old.

We're looking for short stories, short shorts, essays, memoirs, photo essays, audio and video stories, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction,and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. The editors of Narrative have discovered and published the works of many writers who have gone on to become household names, and we continue to look for and to encourage the best new talent to be found. Don't miss this chance."

Deadline: October 29th. Midnight. PST.

$1,500 First Prize (WHOAH!)

$750 Second Prize

$300 Third Prize

Ten finalists receive $100 each

The prize winners and finalists will be announced in Narrative. All N30B entries will be considered for publication. All are eligible for the $5,000 Narrative Prize for 2011 and for acceptance as a Story of the Week.

If you're curious about past winners and their work, click here.

Reading Street Art

2010-08-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

In the early chapters of An ABC of Contemporary Reading, Richard Kostelantz reflects upon the ideas of originality and the avant-garde, especially in terms of literary greats of the experimental form (e.g. Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound). However, Kostelantz’s opinions of modern art, including modern writing, prove exceptionally interesting; he claims, “The aim of art in our time is the creation not of ‘beauty’ but of rare experience; the effect of innovative art is not ‘pleasure’ but unusual perception” (45).

Based on Kostelanetz’s opinion of modern art, the fashionable, even trendy, popularity of street art falls into the realm of “unusual perception.” Few traditionalists would classify street graffiti as beautiful, definitely not high art; however, if we follow Kostelanetz’s philosophy, modern art thrives on the extraordinary experience of the viewer and his/her ability to perceive a work outside the accepted setting (gallery, museum, etc) and outside the common response to works of art classified as “beautiful.”

Even in our own humble city, a street art experiment exploded in what appeared to be a lurking reminder to look around and perceive the world, and art, a little differently. MCASD’s exhibit entitled Viva La Revolucion: A Dialogue with The Urban Landscape literally brought modern art to the streets and captured its dialectical relationship to the traditional art setting. Massive murals bombarded city streets while taglines (OBEY) and artists’ infamous logos (See Space Invader above) splattered against the sides of buildings.

Kostelanetz continues, “In our time, experiments with insufficiency are more interesting, more sympathetic, and ultimately more heroic than the exploitation of virtuosity” (43). Does this trend force us to actually “experience” modern art? Does this presence of street art alter our perceptions regarding the traditional way we view and consider beauty? See: Banksy.

Devouring Institutions: The Life Work of Kathy Acker | SDSU PRESS/HYPERBOLE BOOKS

2010-08-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Just in time for fall semester 2010!

Come and get the most provocative and original (?) book around devoted solely to the scholarly examination and expounding of Kathy Acker's brilliantly transgressive magnum corpus. Click here for a ultra speedy link and purchase it!

Devouring Institutions: The Life Work of Kathy Acker underwent strenuous pseudo-scientific tests before being confirmed to boost the LitCriterati level of anyone who purchases it by orders of magnitude. So no matter what your current intellectual status is, this book is undoubtedly a must-have, even if it only sits on the shelf behind your desk. (The SDSU Press does not advocate the impressive-shelf-of-unread-books strategy, but it might help us sell more books.)

Still don't think you need this book? Keep reading!

Editor and Scholar extraordinaire Michael Hardin put this lovely book together, and you know he's as edgy as they come. Look at what he's up to now. Here's some more stuff that he's done.

Hardin definitely had the right idea with Devouring Institutions. Not only does it include essays from some of the best scholars out there, like radical feminist Carol Siegel, Idaho State Ackerian Terry Engebretsen, "genre-disrupting" poet Carla Harryman, and Brandeis heavyweight Caren Irr, it provides the perfect entry point to the "theoretical and political motivations behind her work".

What more could literary laymen ask for when trying to familiarize themselves with one of the most "innovative, controversial, and difficult of American writers"?

For more info on Acker, look at the tons of interviews and articles online. Here's one from Larry McCaffery.

Oh, and here's an amazing Acker interview with William S. Burroughs:

And stay tuned because we will be unleashing a new Acker volume in the not-too-distant future!

The Ghost (?) of Tom Joad: Rage Against the Machine, John Steinbeck and More...

2010-07-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

In the discussion recounted in Homer from Salinas: John Steinbeck’s Enduring Voice for California, William Deverell tracks the influence of art during John Steinbeck’s era and comments on its incredible impact on American politics of the 1930s. Artistic legends like Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, and Dorothea Lange were called to the front lines of the political arena, acting as surveyors and documentarians of the economic realities of the Great Depression.

Art as political protest? What a concept. Let’s fast-forward 70 years to “The Ghost of Tom Joad” resurrected by Rage Against The Machine. {a live video performance appears below}

Republican National Convention 2008: Artists Silenced by Police. The news media, however, failed to use the word “artist” to describe the enraged rioters prepared to rock the RNC. After police cut the electricity to prevent RATM from taking the stage, lead singer Zack de la Rocha proclaimed, “the reality is, we are just four musicians from Los Angeles who have used our voices, and our talent, and our musicianship, and our words to stand up against these unjust policies and why the f*** are these cops so afraid of us?!” What do you do when the cops cut your PA system? You sing a cappella, of course!

Although RATM represents an extreme example of subversive artistry, this street exhibition reflects the political system’s indifference to modern creators and their unwillingness to acknowledge to notable artistic figures. De la Rocha asks, “why are they afraid of us?” and rightly so. In Deverell’s panel discussion, he argues, “In the 1930s, as people were trying to figure it out and legislatively address economic strife through the New Deal, artists were often brought in as experts, documentary experts on what’s happening and part of the political debate” (39).

Akin to today’s economic struggles, legislators attempt to uncover the root of the country’s problems, but discount the ideas presented by mainstream musicians. Artists today are certainly not considered cultural, social and political “experts” of yesteryear. Here, the “ghost” of Tom Joad is less about the façade of the “promised land” (as presented in Bruce Springsteen’s original) and more about the ignorance of modern art in today’s political game.

As Deverell claims, art of today is not considered a part of the “political base” (40) because it truly does not matter to those in power. Is it the overwhelming amount of new artists? Has the political value of art diminished?

SDSU Press is Remodeling--Check out our new promo logo poster... by Michael Buchmiller @ Handcarved Graphics

2010-06-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

New SDSU Press Update! SurTEXT Pages--Theory and Culture of the American Southwest and Latin America

2010-06-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Public Access Interview on SDSU PRESS

2010-06-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

The video is in two parts--the SDSU Press section begins a little after halfway thru video one. Both parts appear here:

Part ONE: The Writer's Loft: Inside the Mind of the Author | Episode 7, Scholar Publishing from Tex[t] Mex on Vimeo.

Part TWO: The Writer's Loft: Inside the Mind of the Author | Episode 7, Scholar Publishing from Tex[t] Mex on Vimeo.

SDSU PRESS and Hyperbole Books Cover Designer with Show Opening in England!

2010-05-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

War Books by Jean Norton Cru | Or, Why I Should Open a Book Before Judging It

2010-05-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

I have a confession.

Sometimes, I do judge a book by its cover.

That's what happened with Jean Norton Cru's War Books. Don't get me wrong, the cover looks great. But it's a cover with a WWI soldier and the title is War Books. I'm not really a WWI buff, so I assumed it wasn't my cup of tea.

I passed this book on our shelves a thousand times, glanced at it, and then ignored it.

Shame on me.

This book is now one of my favorites from the entire SDSU Press lineup. It's not a list of books about war, or obscure facts and statistics, or a dry historical textbook. For no reason at all, I assumed it was.

It's actually a pretty darn awesome collection of non-fiction combat literature. And let me tell you something. There are some insanely good soldier-authors in this book.

The first section is called "The War Witnesses" and it has some great philosophical writings on man and war from men who've lived through it.

The second, larger section is called "Sketch of the War According to a Few Good Witnesses." For me, that's where things really heated up. I can open to any page in this section and be sucked in. I'll prove it. Here's an excerpt from a random page (132, to be exact):

July 2, 1916.--The newspapers today confirmed the news of yesterday [beginning of the battle of the Somme]. It's started then, this new orgy of death. A new charnel house takes its place in an illustrious line. How many more blond, clean-shaven Tommies and rough peasants from our fields will render up their bodies to the earth and their souls to God! And for what chimera! Do they know why they are fighting, those knotty-legged Scotchmen, those blue-eyed Bretons? For Alsace-Lorraine? What does the far-away highlander care about the valley of the Ill? What does the man from Brest, born to the sea, care about Mertz? And then who still believes that Europe is on fire for that gob of land? Are they fighting for the fatherland? They do not know what the fatherland is.

That was written by French soldier Louis Maret in 1916. He died in 1917. He had spent twenty months at the front before he was killed.

Don't make my mistake. Recognize the value of this book! You can find it here.

Don't Pass Up This Chance to Feel Superior! Buy The Border: The Future of Postmodernity

2010-05-13T15:22:00.001-07:00

Can't you just see it?

You're walking down the street and there he is. That arrogant, pseudo-anarchistic, over-compensating, Urban Outfitter's-wearing, Deleuze-worshipping, hair-always-just-a-little-too-messy, brings-his-own-coffee-mug-to-the-coffee-cart guy.

"Oh. Hey." He'll say to you.

"Hey." You'll say back, bracing yourself for his latest attempt at intellectual superiority.

"Have you ever read Chomsky's Modular Approaches to the Study of the Mind?" He'll ask you. "My friend and I just got into a debate over his comparison of Newton's postulation of action at a distance to Descartes' postulation of a creative principle. She's such a fascist."

You, as a frequenter of this blog and a lover of SDSU Press books, will reply, "Why yes, I have. Actually, something I just read in Segio Gómez Montero's The Border: The Future of Postmodernity reminded me of that. Of course, you've read Montero?" You'll query.

"Um, no. I haven't." He'll reply, looking surprised and a little flushed.

And smugly, victoriously, you'll answer, "Really? Odd. I guess some people can't recognize the value of Latin American intellectual thought."

Looking down your nose, you'll deliver the death blow. "Well, maybe you'll get around to reading it someday. When you aren't too busy shopping at Walmart or drinking Starbucks or whatever."

That's what we're offering you. Right here. Only $5.95.

Gómez Montero is considered one of the most important thinkers in northern Mexico. Director of the National University of Education in Mexicali, he's known for his work in linguistics, cultural anthropology, political economy and cultural criticism.

The Border: The Future of Postmodernity is one of his best books. It contrasts regional and national culture, explores the relationship of indigenous sources to the cultural politics of a centrist state, and critiques the tradition of the literary essay.

We have the only English translation available, the third book in our popular Baja California Literature in Translation series. We don't have many copies left, so order yours now!

Speak kitschy to me, baby | Modernism Since Postmodernism: Essays on Intermedia

2010-04-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

Don't deny it. We all use "kitschspeak" at some point, whether we are talking to a colleague or a friend. We're academics! Kitsch it what we thrive on! Modernism Since Postmodernism: Essays on Intermedia is the perfect companion for any kitsch convo. Dick Higgins, an incredibly influential Fluxus artist and author, finalizes his astounding analysis of all things "arty" he started in A Dialectic of Centuries: Notes Towards a Theory of the New Arts and continued with Horizons: The Poetric Theory of Intermedia. In the first part of the book, he tackles the history of art and how perceptions of theories have led to how art is approached today, as well as provides an appropriate definition of intermedial art. In the second part, he discusses intermedial music, particularly focusing on John Cage's monumental compositions. With no suprise, Higgins focuses on Fluxus in the third and final section of the book, defining, explaining and predicting the next step for this accidental art concept.

In the following video, Higgins discusses Fluxus.

Some of Higgins' art.
"Invocation of Canyons and Boulders"
Groovy.

From Alyagrov to | Zaum: The transrational poetry of Russian futurism (Paperback) by Gerald Janecek | San Diego State University Press

2010-04-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Hit the image to be instantly transported to our Amazon portal where you can order yourself a copy of Gerald Janecek's definitive study of Dada's cousin, "Zaum."

Zaum (ZA-oom) is more than just a fun word to say. It's a Russian Futurist neologism describing a hard-to-pin-down art movement with an equally hard-to-pin-down translation: "trans-mental," "transrational," "trans-sense," "metalogical" and our favorite, "beyonsense."

The root "um" translates to mind, wit, and intellect. "Za" means "beyond the bounds," "trans" and "on the other side." The two combined describe an innovative school of poetry meant, as author Gerald Janeck puts it, to go "beyond the limits of a locale... like rational, intelligible discourse."

Zaum influenced later groups and movements, such as Pop Art, Nouveau réalisme, and Fluxus.

Finding your interest piqued and your curiosity bubbling? Then check out our book, Zaum: The Transrational Poetry of Russian Futurism, one of the defining works on the movement!

To Anthropologists And Explorers of Culture (that means you, Indiana Jones)--The World of the Tipai available through our Tipai Ethnographic Notes

2010-03-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

Jerry Moore, Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Dominguez Hills calls Tipai Ethnographic Notes: A Baja California Indian Community at Mid-Century a "salvaged treasure."

American Indian Studies Professor at San Diego State, Richard L. Carrico, praises the book for bringing "new life" to the work of anthropologist William D. Hohenthal.

And Ken Hedges, Curator at the San Diego Museum of Man describes the work as "a vivid account of a living culture making its way in the 20th century while holding onto ancient traditions," adding, "Tipai Ethnographic Notes deserves an honored place on the bookshelf of every California and Baja California anthropologist."

The endorsements are strong, but buy this important historical account and make your own decision.

The book contains incredible ethnographic details about family life, society, religion, government, healing, ethnomedicine and much, much more. Because cultures are constantly evolving, this work provides a snapshot of a way of life that no longer exists.

It's perfect for anyone interested in other cultures, indigenous groups, anthropology, changing societies, religion or the fieldwork of the 1940s--not far off from the time of Indiana Jones, might I add.

Each copy includes a separate, large and detailed map of Baja California during the 1940s, copied from Hohenthal's hand sketches of the area. You'll be hard pressed to find the like anywhere else.

So, buy a copy today (in hardcover or paperback) and let your own anthropological adventure begin.

In Memoriam to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop | Also, an Etiquette Question to be Answered by You, Gentle Reader

2010-03-08T13:35:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's true. Postmodernism, or "pomo" to its friends, passed away. Avant-pop killed it, ravaged its corpse, devoured its innards, slurped up its philosophy and tossed it on a funeral pyre. Sadness.

My question is this: just what sort of condolences does one send to a deceased school of thought? A card? A muffin basket? Is it crass to just send cash?

Emily Post has no answer, nor do Mark America and Lance Olsen in their compelling book, In Memorian to Postmodernism: Essays on the Avant-Pop.

Still, don't let its appalling lack of a "Guide to Manners" section deter you from checking out this slick book. It's, honest to [insert your deity here], one of the most fascinating essay collections I've ever come across.

Not sure what Avant-Pop is? Don't worry, our own Larry McCaffrey (Professor Emeritus of San Diego State's Department of English and Comparative Literature) will help you out with his essay, "13 Introductory Ways of Looking at a Post-Post-Modernist Aesthetic Phenomenon Called 'Avant-Pop.'"

Other gems in this book include: a fantastic essay by Harry Polkinhorn (Director of this very press) entitled "Avant-Pop at the Border," Steven Shaviro's "Strategies of Disappearance: or Why I Love Dean Martin," and from the incomparable Raymond Federman, "AVANT-POP: YOU'RE KIDDING! or THE REAL BEGINS WHERE THE SPECTACLE ENDS [a manifesto of sorts]." This book rocks. So buy it here!

Shaviro recently invaded the Reality Hackers seminars at Trinity University--more info here.

A Description of Distant Roads Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770 by Juan Crespí

2010-03-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

A Description of Distant Roads
Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770 by Juan Crespí
Edited and Translated by Alan K. Brown.
San Diego State University Press,
2001. ISBN 1-879691-64-
890 pages || deluxe hard cover edition || $60.00
ONLINE SPECIAL! $39.95

This volume includes the complete journals of Juan Crespí in Spanish and English. Este tomo incluye los diarios completos de Juan Crespí en español y ingles.

This work makes available for the first time the complete journals of Juan Crespí, the Franciscan friar who accompanied the first expeditions that established Spanish presence in Alta California. Beginning at the northern edge of the mission frontier of Baja California, the 1769 expedition trekked overland some three hundred miles to establish San Diego. From there, Crespí and the contingent of military personnel and Indian auxiliaries traveled northward on to Monterey and back again. Crespí journals provide the first detailed observations about the new land of Alta California and its peoples. This book is an essential source for the history of Spanish occupation of Alta California and the native Americans inhabiting the land. Here's what the critics are saying:

"Thanks to the erudition and detective work of Alan K. Brown and the high scholarly standards of SDSU Press, we no longer have to depend on a flawed version of this essential account of the founding of Spanish California. This is the definitive edition, in English AND Spanish.

David J. Weber, Dedman Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, and author of The Spanish Frontier in North America (1992) and many other books on the Spanish-Mexican borderlands.

"This work will be an integral part of any collection of basic California historical materials. Researchers in related fields such as anthropology, historical geography, and ethnobotany, along with history buffs and mission aficionados will seize upon it as a Îmust read itemâ and it becomes an instant Îmust possessâ title for any California library reference collection. Alan K. Brown deserves immense credit for his monumental research, editing, and analytical effort that produced this volume.

Harry W. Crosby, author of Antigua California, Mission Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, (1994).

"Alan K. Brown has provided historians, scholars, and researchers with a tremendous gift. His monumental and authoritative translation of Crespí's complete journals will quickly become an indispensable work for all who study the history of California. The introduction to Brown's work is, in and of itself, a masterful piece of research and writing. The extensive and thorough footnotes attest to Brown's careful attention to detail and desire to include the latest scholarship in his work. Brown's translations from the original Spanish texts are superbly done. They remain faithful to the Spanish but are "reader-friendly." Having the Spanish version of the original journals available in the text for comparison purposes greatly increases the value of Brown's contribution to researchers.

Rose Marie Beebe, President, California Mission Studies Association and Professor of Spanish, Santa Clara University

Perversions on Parade: Brazilian Literature of Transgression and Postmodern Anti-Aesthetics in Glauco Mattoso by Steven F. Butterman

2010-03-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

Perversions on Parade
Brazilian Literature of Transgression and Postmodern Anti-Aesthetics in Glauco Mattoso
by Steven F. Butterman
Trade Paperback $25.00
AVAILABLE DIRECT ONLINE! $18.95 plus shipping via AMAZON.COM

This is the first book-length scholarly treatment in English of the Brazilian poet Glauco Mattoso's work, some of which was written during Brazil's most recent dictatorship (1964-85). The author highlights Mattoso's themes of homosexuality, fetishism, and symbolic sadomasochism within a context of a comparative examination of transgressive literature in the Western canon (for example, the French poete maudit, such as Rimbaud, Baudelaire, and Verlaine) with particular emphasis on Luso-Brazilian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Steven F. Butterman's PERVERSIONS ON PARADE, a respected 2005 issue from Hyperbole Books, an imprint of San Diego State University Press, has recently been featured in the University of Miami newspaper, The Hurricane; click her e for the original story.

Perversions on Parade is a 2005 Hyperbole Books Volume. Christened in 2004 as an imprint of San Diego State University Press, Hyperbole Books is dedicated to publishing cutting-edge, over-the-top experiments in critical theory, literary criticism and graphic narrative. Imagine some odd, bastard child of SEMIOTEXT[e], Taschen, and Fantagraphics Books raised in the dumpster behind Powells, and you begin to wide the wave of Hyperbole Books. Remember, "Buy the Hype."

"Conjunction junction, what's your function?" | Conjunctions: Verbal-Visual Relations, edited by Laurie Edson

2010-03-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

Well, we think your function is to read this enticing collection of original scholarly essays, Conjunctions: Verbal-visual Relations, edited by Laurie Edson.

Through an assortment of theoretical and critical approaches, the book examines how scholars and intellectuals from many diverse areas of focus, including visual art, philosophy, poetry and book illustration, have tackled the difficult relationship between the verbal and the visual. Contributors include Michel Deguy, Judd D. Hubert, Claude Gandelman,Laurie Edson, Marjorie Perloff, Roger Shattuck, Georges Roque, Sydney Lévy, Anne-Marie Christin, Richard Vernier, Breon Mitchell, Steven Winspur, Roger Cardinal, Robert W. Greene, Eric T. Haskell, Harriett Watts, Willard Bohn, and Virginia A. La Charité

Come on, who wouldn't want to check this out?

Do You Love Dickens' HARD TIMES? You Have to Read...

2010-03-04T11:28:00.001-08:00

Men Underground: Working Conditions of British Coal Miners Since Nationalization
(Social Science Monograph Series, Vol. 1 - Number 4)

That Notorious Scallywag Conan O'Brien...

2010-03-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

...has a twitter, and so do we! hit the logo below or click here to follow our adventures online.

New SDSU Press GEAR now available...

2010-02-28T16:15:00.001-08:00

Oliver Mayer's HURT BUSINESS--Special Sale on Amazon.com

2010-02-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

Click the image or hit this link to see the special hype.sdsu.edu HURT BUSINESS page.

The Next Twilight Movie, Eclipse...

2010-02-26T13:37:00.000-08:00

...isn't out yet. But you know what is?

This incredible SDSU Press book!

Alright. Maybe that was kinda sneaky, making you think that this post had something to do with Kristen Stewart and her vampire beaux, but don't hold that against Daniele Chatelain's work, Perceiving and Telling: A Study of Iterative Discourse.

To Chatelain, a narratologist, narrative does not equal story. Story includes chronology, narrative includes structuration. The book explains how these rival yet linked dimensions exist on a "spacetime continuum" within the fictional world.

For those with a passion for the literary discourse, an interest in critical theory, or a love of narratology, this work belongs on your shelf!

Two-way street: The Paulista Avenue, flux and counter-flux of modernity | Hey, you! Smartypants! Think you got brains?

2010-02-21T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today we have a book for people who have minds and like to use them. Does that sound like you?

Fantastic.

Ever stopped to admire some local architecture? Ever been captivated by the lines of buildings as you walked down the street? Ever gazed at the glass, steel, refracted and reflected light of a chain of high rises and pondered its semiotic value in understanding the flux and counter-flux of modern society within an unpredictable urban fabric?

You will after this book.

Two-Way Street, by Marta Vieira Bogéa, critically examines São Paulo's Paulista Avenue as a coded form communication, a network in which metropolitan space becomes message and discourse.

Followers of architecture, contemporary Brazilian theory or Latin American research in semiotics may already be aware of Bogéa and Dr. Samira Chalub of Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo, who wrote the forward. If you're not, get hip with this book! You won't regret it.

Below is an excerpt from Dr. Chalub's introduction in Two-Way Street:

She [Bogéa] captures the sense of design of the visible space as an architect while also exposing the invisibility of ambiguous spaces: the sensorial-synthetic, the brilliance, the opacity, the paralyzed, the dynamism of nervous-muscular movement, entropic sounds, the whole spectrum of colors, tonalities, antiquities, modernities... an imaginary de-architectonics of the city's architecture. Poetic flaws in the symbolism of modern design.

A labyrinth of almost indescribable surprises imposes itself upon the rectangular and rectilinear surfaces projected by modern intentions between the use and the passage of "Baudelairean" man in the multitudes.

And that's just the forward!

The list price says $20, but buy it direct from SDSU Press and we'll send it to your for $6.95!

SDSU PRESS GEAR! Can You Say San Diego State University Press Branded Boxers? I Knew You Could!

2010-02-20T12:19:00.001-08:00

Hit the image above to visit our exclusive SDSU PRESS boutique!

Read this Modern Odyssey | Soldier to Ambassador: From the D-Day Normandy Landing to the Persian Gulf War by Charles W. Hostler--SDSU Press

2010-02-15T11:21:00.000-08:00

Like some fusion of James Bond and The Man from UNCLE, this fascinating memoir, Soldier to Ambassador: From the D-Day Normandy Landing to the Persian Gulf War, marks the preeminent points of Charles W. Hostler's life. This remarkable man began his life as a newsboy during the Great Depression, developed himself while he was a soldier in U.S. military and, finally, was appointed as the U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain. Hostler describes his 20 year residence in the Middle East, as well as his extensive world travels and dedicated public services, in such as way that Homer can take a back seat! Click on the image to order now! You won't regret it. Promise.

And now, for you TV nostalgia buffs, the opening credits from the Man from U.N.C.L.E.

SDSU Press Amazon.com Customers are Pretty Happy!

2010-02-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

Arguably the Best, Most Affordable Paperback Study of German Expressionism is Back in Print...

2010-02-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Hit the image here to your left for more info and a special offer from SDSU Press via Amazon.com

Attention Italophiles and Poetry Fanatics: the Brain-Popping Genius of Italian Experimental Poetry Now Available for Discovery

2010-02-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

When Renato Barilli published his Voyage to the End of the Word in Italy in 1981, it was a huge success.

Now, this brilliant collection of poetry and criticism has been published in English, and is available only from the SDSU Press.

There's more to the book than the mini-anthology of fantastic work by poetic experimenters (though that's pretty awesome). In Voyage, Barilli places Italian experimental poetry in a new context. His criticism combines the linguistic theories of Ferdinand Saussure with the Freudian notions of pre-oedipal bliss. The essays delve deep, revealing the puns, visuality, neologisms and full range of devices that experimental poets utilized to expand the capabilities of expressive language.

Also, it's a steal. Just sayin'.

If you understand Italian, you can check out Barilli below. I have no idea what he's saying, but you might enjoy it!

Autographed Copies of Federman A to X-X-X-X: A Recyclopedic Narrative—Only 14 Left!

2010-02-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

Main Entry: Raymond Federman
Pronunciation: /RAY-mund feh-DER-man/
Function: noun
Earliest Usage: 1928
: a French-American wearer of reversible jackets
Synonyms: novelist, poet, academic, critic, translator, deconstructed brilliance

Raymond Federman didn’t buy into “the rules” of writing. Instead, he shredded them (something we’ve all wanted to do to our copies of The Little Brown Handbook and Strunk and White).

Born in Montague, France, this Columbia and UCLA graduate became the foremost expert on Samuel Beckett, founded a publishing company for the avant-garde, wrote criticism, translated, and of course, created incredible work. He eventually moved to San Diego, and many of our University faculty personally knew him. When he passed last October, it was a blow to all.

Federman’s novels and poems defy definition. He deconstructs them, rearranges them, hammers them into the page in the strangest of orders. His poetry, especially, is graphic—not just descriptive, but deliberately placed on the page to form images and patterns, giving the entire piece an added layer of meaning. His wrote about everything, from the impossibility of putting the human debacle down on paper to a potato (it turns into a tomato).

Federman A to X-X-X-X: A Recyclopedic Narrative, covers everything about Federman—and it does so in the same freely chaotic spirit. A joint project of Larry McCaffrey, Thomas Hartl and Douge Rice, this must-have is currently available in a special, autographed, hardcover edition.

One of the few remaining copies can be yours for $34.95 (postage and handling included). Interested? Of course you are, but unlike the paperback version, these collector editions are not available online. To order, make out a check to SDSU Press (for $34.95) and send it to:

Harry Polkinhorn
Director, SDSU PRESS
SDSU mailcode: 8141
San Diego, California 92182.8141

Marco Antonio Samaniego’s Award Winning Novel Available in English Translation

2010-01-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

Marco Antonio Samaniego’s Donde las voces se guardan, winner of the 1992 Augustín Yañez award, is now available in English translation from SDSU Press as The Whispering Voices of Atabalpa. Hit the image above to order it right away via Amazon.com (our online distribution lackey!)

The fifth novel in the SDSU Press series “Baja California Literature in Translation," the book centers on La Chueca, the crooked and deformed female. Condemned from birth for her appearance and her inability to cry as a newborn girl ought, La Chueca grows into a woman who flees her small, unforgiving town to experience life, desire and death.

Following is an excerpt from the novel described by famed Mexican journalist and author Elena Poniatowska as a “great literary effort.”

From the moment she spied the little clump of flesh, she knew it was deformed, but she said nothing; she kept quiet, not wanting to be accused of having the evil eye. "It’s a girl, it’s a girl!" She ran outside shouting, where the crowd had gathered, gossiping about the slut Vicenta who had gotten involved with the Silerios and stolen the husband of La Manuela, the daughter of the town’s religious zealot. The women crowded in to see her. Her eyes were red and squinty. Her mouth twitched and her skin was the color of the evening sun, The child had hardly cried at all. That’s why the tongues began to wag; she was born during the sofoque: "The child that doesn’t cry is the child that brings evil; the sign of Satan, of the devil, of evil itself."

The Utopian Vision: Seven Essays on the Quincentennial of Sir Thomas More

2010-01-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

From the heavenly garden of ancient Sumeria, to the plans of nineteenth-century Latin American positivists, to feminist science fiction—concepts of utopia continue to transfix and inspire the human imagination.

Originally published as a celebration of the quincentennial of the birth of Sir Thomas More, The Utopian Vision consists of seven essays on the “enduring symbol of mankind’s hopes.”

Enhancing this SDSU Press original is a fully annotated bibliography of 500 utopian works and works about utopian thought, one for each year between the birth of Saint Thomas More, advisor to Henry VIII and author of Utopia, and the essays within the book.

And now, in the interest of maintaining our allegiance to the conventions of 21st century blogging, a clip--of Sir Thomas More, of course:

Re-released with a Reduced Price! Everett Gee Jackson’s Four Trips to Antiquity: Adventures of an Artist in Maya Ruined Cities

2010-01-28T14:43:00.000-08:00

Everett Gee Jackson, dubbed “San Diego’s most important Modern artist” by the San Diego Museum of Art, creates a travelogue, sketchbook and entirely fascinating work in Four Trips to Antiquity.

With both full-color and black and white illustrations, Jackson’s account of his adventures in Central America remains not only a fine example of the artist’s work--it is filled with a surprising humor and insight.

Available and discounted via the SDSU Press Web Store.

Humor & Eroticism in Advertising by Maria Cristina da Silva Martins Back in Print from SDSU Press

2010-01-26T16:33:00.001-08:00

San Diego State University Press is happy to announce that one of our more dynamic cultural studies titles is again available.

Alle Kunstler: War--Revolution--Weimar : German Expressionist Prints, Posters, and Periodicals from the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation

2010-01-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

Visual Arts on the U.S./Mexican Border edited by Harry Polkinhorn, Rogelio Reyes, Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz

2010-01-23T16:31:00.000-08:00

Visual Arts on the U.S./Mexican Border edited by Harry Polkinhorn, Rogelio Reyes, Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz | ISBN: 0-916304-93-0 Paper / Pages: 170 / $12.50 Illustrated (1991)

Click the image opposite for more details and to order this back-in-print volume via Amazon.com

BORDER LIVES: PERSONAL ESSAYS ON THE U.S./MEXICO BORDER

2010-01-23T16:30:00.001-08:00

surTEXT: San Diego State Univesity Press Titles Focused on Latin America, Mexico, and the American Southwest

2010-01-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

...click here for the link!

2009-12-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

Lou Dobbs recent rantings have SDSU PRESS Intern Whitney Black holding forth on Nuria Vilanova's BORDER TEXTS: WRITING FICTIONS FROM NORTHERN MEXICO

Previous CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has risen up a controversial opinion on that of immigration. Reports from FAIR: Fairness in reporting and accuracy, " Dobbs' tone on immigration is consistently alarmist; he warns his viewers (3/31/06) of Mexican immigrants who see themselves as an "army of invaders" intent upon reannexing parts of the Southwestern U.S. to Mexico, announces (11/19/03) that "illegal alien smugglers and drug traffickers are on the verge of ruining some of our national treasures," and declares (4/14/05) that "the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans" through "deadly imports" of diseases like leprosy and malaria. And Dobbs makes no effort to provide a nuanced or balanced picture of the issue; as he told CNN Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz (4/2/06): "I'm not interested—are you interested in six or seven views, or are you interested in the truth? Because that's what I'm interested in; that's what my viewers are interested in." When did we give one man the power to decide our truth? Personally, I AM interested in six or seven views, I AM interested in formulating my own opinion and definition of the truth and I resent his arrogance in assuming that his opinions are "truth".

Nuria Vilanova presents a more compassionate articulation of the issues concerning our borders through her compilation of essays in Border Texts. Vilanova’s experiences living in Mexico City between 1993 and 1998 shaped her examination in creating this novel, she writes, “I have come to realize that my attraction to borders translated into a certain love of the temporality and excitement of living between cultures, peoples, symbols, and territories”. Using fiction produced in the area of Northern Mexico, Vilanova takes a Mexican Point of View in analyzing the relationship between the Mexico-U.S. border. Her scrutinizing the use of the border’s physical entity in works of art and fiction from a society whose cultural perception is profoundly influenced by their associations with borders; Vilanova is able to illustrate how the idea of the border as a barrier influences the themes and work of artists, intellectuals and writers of the region. It is the application of physicality and emotion to the spatial entity of the border, with connotations of distress and violence, that allow Vilanova to uncover the relationship between the physical territory and symbolic representation in her work, Border Texts.

Noam Chomsky and the Gilmore Girls: As Tight as the JoBro’s Skinny Jeans

2009-10-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

Noam Chomsky: professor, leftist thinker, creator of the Chomsky Hierarchy of Formal Languages, all around rabble rouser and... CW star?

That's right. Everyone's favorite anarchist philosopher was regularly featured on the CW's hit teen drama Gilmore Girls.

Take a look at these snippets:

Rory (refusing to dip fruit in her chocolate fondue): We're fondue purists, Grandma.
Lorelai: Yeah, we dip old school.
Emily: The government says you should have nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Lorelai: Imperialist propaganda.
Rory: Noam Chomsky would agree.
Lorelai: I bet Noam doesn't dip fruit.

Or in a dramatic showdown between Rory Gilmore and the Senior Class President about the school rules on appropriate hemline lengths:

Francie: This is politics. If you've got a problem, tell it to Noam Chomsky.

Yes, folks. Chomsky's in, like Ed Hardy t-shirts or Megan Fox—but sexier. Well, not really, but he’s still this season’s must-have theorist.

Feeling a little worried that you’ll be the only one at your local sock hop without any delectable Noam tidbits to share? Wondering where you can find some Chomsky to chomp on before the next Open Mic Poetry Night at that indie coffee joint?

Look no further, because the SDSU Press has got you covered. With this:

Even saying the title makes you seem smart! And it's only $6.95! For Real!

It’s written by Chomsky himself, my friends. Trust me, be the first kid on your block to score this, and you can turn up your nose at that girl down the street that managed to get tickets to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour and has been lording it over you ever since (not that you wanted to go, anyway).

What are you waiting for? You can order it here! You know you want to.

P.S. Does anyone else think “Noam doesn’t dip fruit” would make a great t-shirt slogan?

In Memoriam: Raymond Federman

2009-10-09T14:33:00.000-07:00

Brilliant novelist, poet and academic Raymond Federman passed away this week. The news left many shocked and saddened, but also disheartening is how few are familiar with his incredible work.

The man could write novels the equal of Beckett's (and I mean the Irish Nobel winner, not Federman's dalmatian). He could write a charged and evocative poem on the impossibility of putting the "human debacle" onto paper, or a half-insane poem about a potato turning into a tomato. A potato. Turning into a tomato. Now tell me that's not someone you must read.

Still not convinced? Just take a look at this excerpt from the definitive encyclopedia of all things Federman:

Have you ever tried to catch a Federman word on your tongue and hold it still? Force it to respond to your theoretical frame? Since such critical desires distort the Federmaniacal word and since so many Federmanesque writers are possessed by parachutal syntax, we tried to create a form that would perform Federman rather than be simply "about" Federman. Since Federman himself as a wearer of reversible jackets (i.e., a writer) is obsessed with lists, with cataloging, with mapping the terrain of intertextual repetitions (echoes blasted from beyond the thunderdome), (parenthetical digressions) outside the domain of quotation marks, we felt that an organization built on the basic premise of encyclopedia and infested with hypertextual hot bottoms would come closest to providing readers with their own Federman experience.

- Doug Rice, "Before Beginning" From Federman A to X-X-X-X: A Recyclopedic Narrative

I mean, come on.

It's quite a blow, losing Federman, and friends and fans around the world are mourning. Let's work to ensure a new generation discovers and falls in love with the work of this one-of-a-kind author.

To visit Federman's personal website, click here, and for his blog, click here.

To take a closer look at Federman, A to X-X-X-X, quoted above, click here.

Nuria Vilanova's BORDER TEXTS: WRITING FICTION FROM NORTHERN MEXICO now available from AMAZON.COM

2009-09-09T11:15:00.001-07:00

New! Available from SDSU PRESS, Homer From Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for California

2009-08-11T02:01:00.000-07:00

NEW! Now Available Via Amazon.com!

From April to May 2007, some of the most noted scholars and artists of American Literature, cultural studies, painting and photography, gathered at San Diego State University for “An Enduring Voice for California: A Celebration of John Steinbeck,” sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters, SDSU. Homer from Salinas: John Steinbeck’s Enduring Voice for California collects these lectures, screenings, debates, discussions, and artifacts into one handy volume that is a cross between old school “conference proceedings” and next-generation, Web 2.0 journalism. The result is a one-volume meditation on Steinbeck and California that leaves readers knowing more about the Nobel Prize-winning author and America’s singular, West Coast state. It includes pieces by Jeffrey Charles, Charles Wollenberg, William Deverell, Francisco X. Alarcón, Hernán Moreno-Hinojosa, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Fred Gardaphé, Arturo J. Aldama, Michael Harper, Joanna Brooks, Arthur Ollman, Louis Hock, Susan Shillingslaw, with an introduction by William Nericcio. Buy it direct from SDSU PRESS via Amazon.com for 14.95 (plus shipping).

One of the key elements of this book is its focus on John Steinbeck, Mexico, and Mexicans; there's a fine example of this interest in a film entitled The Forgotten Village (1941). Here's a clip--the 1st of 7 parts on YouTube:

Sex sells.. Almost as well as laughs do!

2009-07-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

Humor & Eroticism in Advertising, by Maria Cristina da Silva Martins, explores the role of sensual seduction in the workings of an advertising campaign. By closely analysing Brazilian magazine ads published in the 1980's, Martins uncovers the aesthetic, political, and cultural exchanges that take their form in ad space.

The producers of cleaninghunk.com appreciate Martins' research findings. Check out this clip:

SDSU Press Brings Ana Castillo to San Diego State University With a Host of Other Cool Co-Sponsors!

2009-07-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

Ana Castillo Comes to SDSU--SDSU Press helps make it happen

What could be more romantic? One of our authors, Oliver Mayer, tells what inspired him to write a play for the woman he loves.

2009-07-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

Click on this text to be taken to the L.A. Times feature on Oliver Mayer's 'Dias y Flores.'

[in Spanish] Oliver Mayer, the focus our THE HURT BUSINESS, IN THE NEWS

2009-02-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

You can get a copy of The Hurt Business, a work wholly focused on the writing of Oliver Mayer, right here! Or hit the Amazon logo, opposite!

Kathy Acker Critical Study Volume with Hyperbole Books, an imprint of SDSU Press

2008-10-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

DEVOURING INSTITUTIONS

Devouring Institutions: The Life Work of Kathy Acker
Edited by Michael Hardin

ISBN: 1879691701 | 2005 | 272pp paperback*
illustrated: 2bw photos/map*

HYPERBOLE BOOKS, an imprint of
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
ORDER NOW | ONLINE | $14.95 plus shipping
FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL HARDIN...

In April 1996, I organized a conference at which Kathy Acker was the keynote speaker,1 but could not imagine how to introduce such a complex writer and artist, and so I delegated that responsibility; now, however, I do not have such a luxury. I had met Kathy before, but it was while she was at this conference that she received the news that her biopsy had come back positive for breast cancer. Thus, when I heard on Monday, December 1, 1997 that she had died the day before, I felt a great loss. I was shocked-I knew she was a fighter and if anyone could beat cancer, she could-but at the same time, I had not heard from her since August. A few days later, I was informed of the news by the executor of her estate, so I asked how Kathy would have wanted to be remembered, thinking a memorial event in Houston might be nice, but he said, "keep her work alive." That was the germination for this collection, and I can happily state that since then, most of her work has come back into print, Grove released two new collections in fall 2002-The Essential Acker: The Selected Writings of Kathy Acker and Rip-off Red, Girl Detective and The Burning Bombing of America-and NYU sponsored a conference on Kathy Acker in November, 2002. However, there remains a dearth of critical articles and books on her work, and her fiction is not taught as often as one might expect, given its relevance to contemporary literature and theory. To that end, Devouring Institutions is meant to be an introduction to Kathy Acker, with its essays being merely thirteen ways of looking at one of the most innovative, controversial, and difficult of American writers...

Selected praise for Devouring Institutions:

It is essential--particularly in these beige days through which the narratologically bland lead the narratologically bland--to explore and celebrate the brilliantly mad fictive possibility spaces Kathy Acker left behind. The essays in Devouring Institutions accomplish just that: together, they form a rich, important, multifaceted act of reminding about one of the most significant innovative writers of the last century.
-Lance Olsen

Devouring Institutions is a welcome contribution to the study of Kathy Acker's oeuvre and influence. Hers was a subversive intellect that made an indelible mark on American literature of the 20th century.
-Amy Scholder,
editor of Bodies of Work, Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective, and Essential Acker

Devouring Institutions: The Life Work of Kathy Acker is, to my knowledge, the first book-length manuscript that examines thoroughly, profoundly, and scholarly the Work of Kathy Acker. It will go a long way in introducing one of the most provocative, original, intellectual, and profound American writers of the late 20th century to the American reading public and the Academy. It will shatter the simplistic representation of Kathy Acker as a writer who simply wants to use profanity and pornography to shock the reader. Signifying the Western outlaw tradition of Marquis de Sade, Georges Bataille, Henry Miller, and William S. Burroughs; appropriating, plagiarizing, and rewriting the Western, canonical texts and art of Cervantes, Dickens, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Genet, Twain, Artaud, Rimbaud, Freud, and others; engaging, reverberating against, and conversing with the poststructuralist and postmodernist theories of Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Cixous, and Irigaray; and exposing the violence and repression of the patriarchy and of capitalism in the late 20th century; Kathy Acker produces a body of literature that textualizes, undermines, and critiques the major social, political, sexual, and economic issues/forces confronting Western humanity as it enters the 21th century. Many of the essays in Devouring Institutions unearth and make available to the reader the artistry, the complex vision, the humanity, the beauty, and the political convictions of Kathy Acker and her Work. I think Devouring Institutions will not only establish Kathy Acker and her Work as a site of critical domain, but also will make an invaluable contribution to American scholarship.
-Professor W. Lawrence Hogue
The University of Houston

A welcome and necessary addition to the Acker canon.
-Diane Fare
the Literary Encyclopedia

Table of Contents

Kathy Acker: An Introduction
Michael Hardin

Writing between Madness and Paralysis

"The Madness Outside Gender: Travels with Don Quixote and Saint Foucault."
Carol Siegel
Washington State University-Vancouver

"Kathy Acker and Literary Madness: Erecting a Pornographic Shell."
Robert Mazzola

"The Paralyzing Tensions of Radical Art in a Postmodern World: Kathy Acker's Last Novels as Exploratory Fictions."
Svetlana Mintcheva
Arts Advocacy Project, National Coalition Against Censorship

Building the Body of Desires

"Re-Educating the Body: Kathy Acker, Georges Bataille, and the Postmodern Body in My Mother: Demonology."
Terry Engebretsen
Idaho State University

"Too Much Is Never Enough: A Kaleidoscopic Approach to the Work of Kathy Acker."
Gayle Fornataro
Long Beach State University

"The Lay of the Land: Piracy and the Iterant Body in Kathy Acker's Pussy, King of the Pirates."
Sheri Weinstein
SUNY-Buffalo

"Between Theory and Autobiography: Negotiating Desire, Sex, and Love in the Work of Kathy Acker."
Michael Hardin
Bloomsburg University

Attacking Language

"Residues or Revolutions of the Language of Acker and Artaud."
Carla Harryman
Wayne State University

"Words Hurt! Acker's Appropriation of Myth in Don Quixote."
Jan Corbett
Delaware Valley College

"Kathy Acker's Radical Performance Writing in Eurydice in the Underworld and Other Texts."
Catherine Rock
University of Alberta

Post-Plagiarism

"Beyond Appropriation: Pussy, King of the Pirates and a Feminist Critique of Intellectual Property."
Caren Irr
Brandeis University

"Voice, Politics, Copyright."
Nicole Cooley
Queens College

"Scavenging the E-Wreck: Kathy Acker, the Internet, and Artis Electronica."
Trevor Dodge
Idaho State University.

Kathy Acker
A Primary and Secondary Bibliography

Oliver Mayer's THE HURT BUSINESS! A New Spring 2008 Title From Hyperbole Books and SDSU Press

2008-10-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hyperbole books is thrilled to announce the immanent release of The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works [+] PLUS in April 2008. More information on the book is here. For the proof of the new title's wraparound cover click here. Or, better, buy it now off Amazon.com.

On the right, L.A. playwright Oliver Mayer with his wife, the actress Marlene Forte.

The Afterlife of Plays

2008-10-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

by Jonathan Miller
ISBN: 1-879691-12-4
Cloth / Pages: 64 / $12.50 1992

The author's Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture addresses the implications of repeated live performances for establishing a play's definitive text. Physician, author, stage producer, and director, Miller has produced twelve plays in the acclaimed BBC Shakespeare Series, directed six of them, and has directed at least a dozen opera productions for the English National and Frankfurt Opera Companies.

Adapting Activities for Therapeutic Recreation Service: Concepts and Applications

2008-10-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

by Jesse Thomas Dixon
ISBN: 0-916304-48-5
Paper / Pages: 100 / $14.50 1981

This book responds to a growing demand for practical devices which will enable disabled persons to participate in a full range of individual recreational services.

Be directed to amazon by clicking the image below:

An Alle Künstler! War, Revolution, Weimar: German Expressionist Prints, Drawings, Posters, and Periodicals from The Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation

2008-10-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

By Ida Katherine Rigby; foreword Earl A. Powell, III
ISBN: 0-916304-62-0
Paper / Pages: 118 / $18.75
second edition, corrected, 1987; first edition 1983

In a scholarly and sympathetic study enhanced by over 100 illustrations, art historian Ida Rigby analyzes attempts by German Expressionist artists to integrate art into the movement for social reform in the wake of Germany's bitter defeat in World War I and during the ensuing revolution.

Oliver Mayer's THE HURT BUSINESS! A New Spring 2008 Title From Hyperbole Books and SDSU Press

2008-09-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

Hyperbole Books is thrilled to announce the immanent release of The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works [+] PLUS in April 2008. More information on the book is here. For the proof of the new title's wraparound cover click here. Or, better, buy it now off Amazon.com.

On the right, L.A. playwright Oliver Mayer with his wife, the actress Marlene Forte.

From the Back Catalogue!

2008-09-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Adapting Activities for Therapeutic Recreation Service: Concepts and Applications by Jesse Thomas Dixon
ISBN: 0-916304-48-5
Paper / Pages: 100 / $14.50 1981

This book responds to a growing demand for practical devices which will enable disabled persons to participate in a full range of individual recreational services.

The Afterlife of Plays
by Jonathan Miller
ISBN: 1-879691-12-4
Cloth / Pages: 64 / $12.50 1992

The author's Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture addresses the implications of repeated live performances for establishing a play's definitive text. Physician, author, stage producer, and director, Miller has produced twelve plays in the acclaimed BBC Shakespeare Series, directed six of them, and has directed at least a dozen opera productions for the English National and Frankfurt Opera Companies.

Beyond the Graying of America: Who Cares?
by E. Percil Stanford
ISBN: 1-879691-11-6
Cloth / Pages: 64 / $10.00 Illustrated
1992

This title presents the author's University Research Lecture and a colloquium on the subject of social and cultural attitudes towards aging.

British Activities in California and the Pacific Coast of North America to 1860: An Archival Calendar Guide
by Abraham Nasatir and Gary Monell
ISBN: 0-916304-85-X
Cloth / Pages: 1224 / $175.00 (oversize shipping)
1990

This title provides the raw materials to put the story of English activities in California and the west coast of North America in a historical perspective. Letters are calendared in summary, precise, and verbatim form, with major topics highlighted.

Chant the Names of God: Music and Culture in Bhojpuri-Speaking India
by Edward O. Henry
ISBN: 0-916304-79-5
Paper / Pages: 322 / $19.75
1988

In describing the main occasions of which music enhances cultural events such as weddings, births, and mother goddess worship, Chant the Names of God shows how music responds to its social and cultural contexts.

Coroebus Triumphs: The Alliance of Sport and the Arts
edited by Susan Bandy
ISBN: 0-916304-76-0
Paper / Pages: 304 / $18.75
1989

During the summer of 1984, a collection of scholars, athletes, and artists convened in Coroebus's honor to celebrate the alliance of sport and the arts with the formation of the Sport Literature Association.

Four Trips to Antiquity: Adventures of an Artist in Maya Ruined Cities
by Everett Gee Jackson
ISBN: 1-879691-03-5 (limited, signed) (S) / Pages: 186 / $100.00
ISBN: 1-879691-04-3 / Cloth / $22.95 Illustrated
1991

Four Trips to Antiquity narrates an artist's search through Central America for the space form which inheres in ancient Maya sculpture.

Goat Tails and Doodlebugs: A Journey toward Art
by Everett Gee Jackson
ISBN: 1-879691-18-3, cloth ($22.95)
ISBN: 1-879691-19-1 is limited edition, signed) $100.00

In his fourth book, Everett Gee Jackson recounts tales from his earliest memories through his youth and college years which reveal the gentle nudges that life gave him on the journey to his career as an artist and, especially, as a painter of the Mexican and Central American scene. Jackson was one of several distinguished American artists who worked in Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s. He was, for many years, chair of the Art Department at San Diego State University, and he founded the Latin American Committee of the San Diego Museum of Art.

Note: There is a special price for the order of both Jackson books, $38.00--illustrated with Jackson drawings in black and white, plus four color plates of his paintings.

Genetic Chemistry and the Future of Medicine
by Arthur Kornberg
ISBN: 0-916304-80-9
Paper / Paper: 54 / $9.50
1988

This title presents Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg's formal San Diego State University Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture. It is followed by excerpts from a colloquium discussion and by a short bibliography.

In the Shadow of Man
by Jane Goodall
ISBN:0-916304-82-5
Paper / Pages: 72 / $12.50
1988

San Diego State University's Fourth Distinguished Graduate Research Lecture, this title features the author's lecture, transcript of a colloquium, and a Goodall bibliography.

Clash of Identities By Dipak K. Gupta

2008-09-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

I-879691-50-7
1998
hardback, 70 pp.
US $20.00

Clash of Identities presents Dipak K. Gupta's research on issues surrounding prediction in the social sciences, specifically, forecasting outbreaks of political violence. Honored as San Diego State University's eleventh Distinguished Graduate Research Lecturer, Gupta explores ethnic nationalism, globalization, and the dimensions of reason and intuition in the complex processes of political prediction in a variety of contexts. This book features Gupta's public lecture "Clash of Identities," his colloquium "Can We Predict Humanitarian Crises?", the article "An Early Warning about Political Forecasts: Oracle to Academics," and a comprehensive listing of the author's previous publications. Dipak K. Gupta is Professor in San Diego State University's School of Public Administration and Urban Studies, and Co-Director of the University's Institute for International Security and Conflict Resolution.

Perceiving and Telling: A Study of Iterative Discourse By Danièle Chatelain

2008-09-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

ISBN 1-879691-52-3
1998
paper, 202 pp.
US $17.50

Perceiving and Telling: A Study of Iterative Discourse is a comparatist study exploring verbal conventions that create the illusion of time, as well as of theories about how these conventions have operated in the works of various authors. In her introduction, Danièle Chatelain says, "Central to current theories of narratology is a persistent sense of the separation of space and time. In Gerald Prince's A Dictionary of Narratology (1987), the categories of narratology appear to have reached canonical status, and the separation between time and space seems encoded in them. Typically, Prince defines "description," as "the representation of objects, beings, situations, or (nonpurposeful, nonvolitional) happenings in their spatial rather than temporal existence, their topological rather than chronological functioning, their simultaneity rather than succession" (19). "Narration," on the other hand, is "a discourse representing one or more events," that is, temporal phenomena (57). What we have, then, are sets of binary oppositions, which inform everything from structural distinctions, such as narration versus description, down to the fundamental binary histoire (story) and récit (narrative). In terms of story versus narrative, the separation of space and time is in a sense built into the very terms in which that distinction is traditionally formulated. In Prince's Dictionary, "story" is the content of the narrative; it is a succession of events "with an emphasis on chronology" (91). On the other hand, "narrative"is the recounting of this chronology; it is a "structuration," that is, a mental spatialization of this presumed flow of events. Underlying modern theory of narrative, in fact, is both a separation of time and space (story = chronology; narrative = structuration), and a sense of rivalry between these two dimensions. The result, it seems, is a valorization of the latter over the former." In her study, Chatelain seeks to show how these dimensions exist on a "spacetime continuum." The book is provided with a glossary of terms. Danièle Chatelain is Professor of French at the University of Redlands, California.

New SDSU Press Gateway Splash Designed by Dan Witz

2008-06-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our main website gateway and main page now feature photography and art by Dan Witz; you can see more this East Coast artist's work here. Witz's work replaces the old gateway page by Crystal Alatorre:

Before Crystal Alatorre's gateway, SDSUPRESS featured the work of Becky Tillett--her work also graced the cover of pacificREVIEW, edited by Leon Lanzbom, poet and surfer-scribe extra-ordinaire.

22,000th and With a Bullet! Amazon.com and The Hurt Business

2008-04-21T20:35:00.000-07:00

Oliver Mayer's The Hurt Business has jumped to 22,000th on Amazon--not a bad first day for a day-old book! Congratulations, Oliver!

Oliver Mayer's The Hurt Business Collection is Now Available via Amazon.com

2008-04-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

update here.

Perversions on Parade: Brazilian Literature of Transgression and Postmodern Anti-Aesthetics in Glauco Mattoso by Steven F. Butterman

2008-03-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

Perversions on Parade
Brazilian Literature of Transgression and Postmodern Anti-Aesthetics in Glauco Mattoso
by Steven F. Butterman
Trade Paperback $25.00
AVAILABLE DIRECT ONLINE! $18.95 plus shipping via AMAZON.COM

This is the first book-length scholarly treatment in English of the Brazilian poet Glauco Mattoso's work, some of which was written during Brazil's most recent dictatorship (1964-85). The author highlights Mattoso's themes of homosexuality, fetishism, and symbolic sadomasochism within a context of a comparative examination of transgressive literature in the Western canon (for example, the French poete maudit, such as Rimbaud, Baudelaire, and Verlaine) with particular emphasis on Luso-Brazilian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Steven F. Butterman's PERVERSIONS ON PARADE, a respected 2005 issue from Hyperbole Books, an imprint of San Diego State University Press, has recently been featured in the University of Miami newspaper, The Hurricane; click here for the original story.

Perversions on Parade is a 2005 Hyperbole Books Volume. Christened in 2004 as an imprint of San Diego State University Press, Hyperbole Books is dedicated to publishing cutting-edge, over-the-top experiments in critical theory, literary criticism and graphic narrative. Imagine some odd, bastard child of SEMIOTEXT[e], Taschen, and Fantagraphics Books raised in the dumpster behind Powells, and you begin to wide the wave of Hyperbole Books. Remember, "Buy the Hype."

Kathy Acker Critical Study Volume with Hyperbole Books, an imprint of SDSU Press

2008-03-26T20:12:00.000-07:00

It is essential--particularly in these beige days through which the narratologically bland lead the narratologically bland--to explore and celebrate the brilliantly mad fictive possibility spaces Kathy Acker left behind. The essays in Devouring Institutions accomplish just that: together, they form a rich, important, multifaceted act of reminding about one of the most significant innovative writers of the last century.

Lance Olsen

Devouring Institutions is a welcome contribution to the study of Kathy Acker's oeuvre and influence. Hers was a subversive intellect that made an indelible mark on American literature of the 20th century.

Amy Scholder,
editor of Bodies of Work, Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective, and Essential Acker

Devouring Institutions: The Life Work of Kathy Acker is, to my knowledge, the first book-length manuscript that examines thoroughly, profoundly, and scholarly the Work of Kathy Acker. It will go a long way in introducing one of the most provocative, original, intellectual, and profound American writers of the late 20th century to the American reading public and the Academy. It will shatter the simplistic representation of Kathy Acker as a writer who simply wants to use profanity and pornography to shock the reader. Signifying the Western outlaw tradition of Marquis de Sade, Georges Bataille, Henry Miller, and William S. Burroughs; appropriating, plagiarizing, and rewriting the Western, canonical texts and art of Cervantes, Dickens, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Genet, Twain, Artaud, Rimbaud, Freud, and others; engaging, reverberating against, and conversing with the poststructuralist and postmodernist theories of Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Cixous, and Irigaray; and exposing the violence and repression of the patriarchy and of capitalism in the late 20th century; Kathy Acker produces a body of literature that textualizes, undermines, and critiques the major social, political, sexual, and economic issues/forces confronting Western humanity as it enters the 21th century. Many of the essays in Devouring Institutions unearth and make available to the reader the artistry, the complex vision, the humanity, the beauty, and the political convictions of Kathy Acker and her Work. I think Devouring Institutions will not only establish Kathy Acker and her Work as a site of critical domain, but also will make an invaluable contribution to American scholarship.

Professor W. Lawrence Hogue
The University of Housto

A welcome and necessary addition to the Acker canon.

Diane Fare
the Literary Encyclopedia

Table of Contents

Kathy Acker: An Introduction
Michael Hardin

Writing between Madness and Paralysis

"The Madness Outside Gender: Travels with Don Quixote and Saint Foucault."
Carol Siegel
Washington State University-Vancouver

"Kathy Acker and Literary Madness: Erecting a Pornographic Shell."

Robert Mazzola

"The Paralyzing Tensions of Radical Art in a Postmodern World: Kathy Acker's Last Novels as Exploratory Fictions."

Svetlana Mintcheva
Arts Advocacy Project, National Coalition Against Censorship

Building the Body of Desires

"Re-Educating the Body: Kathy Acker, Georges Bataille, and the Postmodern Body in My Mother: Demonology."

Terry Engebretsen
Idaho State University

"Too Much Is Never Enough: A Kaleidoscopic Approach to the Work of Kathy Acker."

Gayle Fornataro
Long Beach State University

"The Lay of the Land: Piracy and the Iterant Body in Kathy Acker's Pussy, King of the Pirates."

Sheri Weinstein
SUNY-Buffalo

"Between Theory and Autobiography: Negotiating Desire, Sex, and Love in the Work of Kathy Acker."

Michael Hardin
Bloomsburg University

Attacking Language

"Residues or Revolutions of the Language of Acker and Artaud."

Carla Harryman
Wayne State University

"Words Hurt! Acker's Appropriation of Myth in Don Quixote."

Jan Corbett
Delaware Valley College

"Kathy Acker's Radical Performance Writing in Eurydice in the Underworld and Other Texts."

Catherine Rock
University of Alberta

Post-Plagiarism

"Beyond Appropriation: Pussy, King of the Pirates and a Feminist Critique of Intellectual Property."

Caren Irr
Brandeis University

"Voice, Politics, Copyright."
Nicole CooleyQueens College

"Scavenging the E-Wreck: Kathy Acker, the Internet, and Artis Electronica."

Trevor Dodge
Idaho State University.

Kathy Acker
A Primary and Secondary Bibliography

A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770 by Juan Crespí

2008-03-19T07:29:00.000-07:00

A Description of Distant Roads: Original Journals of the First Expedition into California, 1769-1770 by Juan Crespí
Edited and Translated by Alan K. Brown.
San Diego State University Press,
2001. ISBN 1-879691-64-
890 pages || deluxe hard cover edition || $60.00

ONLINE SPECIAL via Amazon.com! $44.95

This volume includes the complete journals of Juan Crespí in Spanish and English. Este tomo incluye los diarios completos de Juan Crespí en español y ingles.

Alan K. Brown's opus makes available for the first time the complete journals of Juan Crespí, the Franciscan friar who accompanied the first expeditions that established Spanish presence in Alta California. Beginning at the northern edge of the mission frontier of Baja California, the 1769 expedition trekked overland some three hundred miles to establish San Diego. From there, Crespí and the contingent of military personnel and Indian auxiliaries traveled northward on to Monterey and back again. Crespí journals provide the first detailed observations about the new land of Alta California and its peoples. This book is an essential source for the history of Spanish occupation of Alta California and the native Americans inhabiting the land.

This volume, which is the result of some forty years of research by Alan K. Brown, brings together what Crespí wrote in its entirety. All other printed and manuscript versions were censored, heavily edited, condensed, and excerpted by Serra, Palou, and othersalterations that dropped out critical detail and valuable information. This edition makes all other printed versions of Crespí's journals obsolete. Brown has stitched together the complete journals from different manuscript versions in archives in Europe and the Americas. They are presented by the editor in the original Spanish with detailed annotations and comparisons of alternate versions of sections of the text. As well, Brown provides a new English translation of the full texts.

The work includes an extensive introduction by Alan K. Brown that in itself is a valuable contribution to the history of the period and gives a detailed and realistic vision of the life of Crespí. The volume also contains detailed explanatory notes, an index of sites, a general index, and a list of references.

What the experts are saying:

"Thanks to the erudition and detective work of Alan K. Brown and the high scholarly standards of SDSU Press, we no longer have to depend on a flawed version of this essential account of the founding of Spanish California. This is the definitive edition, in English AND Spanish."

David J. Weber, Dedman Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, and author of The Spanish Frontier in North America (1992) and many other books on the Spanish-Mexican borderlands.

"This work will be an integral part of any collection of basic California historical materials. Researchers in related fields such as anthropology, historical geography, and ethnobotany, along with history buffs and mission aficionados will seize upon it as a Îmust read itemâ and it becomes an instant Îmust possessâ title for any California library reference collection. Alan K. Brown deserves immense credit for his monumental research, editing, and analytical effort that produced this volume."

Harry W. Crosby, author of Antigua California, Mission Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, (1994).

"Alan K. Brown has provided historians, scholars, and researchers with a tremendous gift. His monumental and authoritative translation of Crespí's complete journals will quickly become an indispensable work for all who study the history of California. The introduction to Brown's work is, in and of itself, a masterful piece of research and writing. The extensive and thorough footnotes attest to Brown's careful attention to detail and desire to include the latest scholarship in his work. Brown's translations from the original Spanish texts are superbly done. They remain faithful to the Spanish but are "reader-friendly." Having the Spanish version of the original journals available in the text for comparison purposes greatly increases the value of Brown's contribution to researchers."

Rose Marie Beebe, President, California Mission Studies Association and Professor of Spanish, Santa Clara University

Four Pages from an Interview with Oliver Mayer from Hyperbole Books's THE HURT BUSINESS

2008-03-10T02:20:00.000-07:00