Cracking Up

Download or read book Cracking Up written by Paul Lewis and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2006-10-02 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do Jon Stewart, Freddy Krueger, Patch Adams, and George W. Bush have in common? As Paul Lewis shows in Cracking Up, they are all among the ranks of joke tellers who aim to do much more than simply amuse. Exploring topics that range from the sadistic mockery of Abu Ghraib prison guards to New Age platitudes about the healing power of laughter, from jokes used to ridicule the possibility of global climate change to the heartwarming performances of hospital clowns, Lewis demonstrates that over the past thirty years American humor has become increasingly purposeful and embattled. Navigating this contentious world of controversial, manipulative, and disturbing laughter, Cracking Up argues that the good news about American humor in our time—that it is delightful, relaxing, and distracting—is also the bad news. In a culture that both enjoys and quarrels about jokes, humor expresses our most nurturing and hurtful impulses, informs and misinforms us, and exposes as well as covers up the shortcomings of our leaders. Wondering what’s so funny about a culture determined to laugh at problems it prefers not to face, Lewis reveals connections between such seemingly unrelated jokers as Norman Cousins, Hannibal Lecter, Rush Limbaugh, Garry Trudeau, Jay Leno, Ronald Reagan, Beavis and Butt-Head, and Bill Clinton. The result is a surprising, alarming, and at times hilarious argument that will appeal to anyone interested in the ways humor is changing our cultural and political landscapes.

Download or read book Cracking Up written by Maria Flaherty and published by BalboaPress. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cracking Up will provide the OCD sufferer with alternative methods of living with this disorder. Discover a way to have and enjoy a fulfilling life without all the suffering and hardships of OCD. In addition to using meditation to help connect with your angels and with God, you will also learn how to use Reiki, color therapy, chakra cleansing, diet and exercise, and even past life regression to figure out what best works for you. Each chapter describes personal experiences of author Maria Flaherty, as well as plenty of information to help you along your own journey of self-healing. It also reminds us that a little laughter and gratitude can go a long way. This lovingly written book will be a handy guide for those who want a different way to live with OCD.

Download or read book Cracking Up written by Jennifer Manlowe and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-03-28 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Cracking Up" is a girrrlbook written in the form of a letter by that growling girrrl in me who cannot tell a lie. Oh yes, that "girrrl" is really a fully grown woman who will now recollect almost all the peculiar advice she has received regarding: "What makes a young girl a successful woman?" The medium for this recollection is that oh-so-antiquated vehicle called "the Letter." Sometimes, within this letter, you'll find a furtive missive, a pithy quote, or a direct note of warning. Other times, the reader will be invited to use her imagination to invent an alternative future-as if her own life depended on disentangling herself from some dastardly spell. But, remember, each story told is absolutely true. Each bit of counsel was actually uttered under the benign auspices of wanting to direct me toward true fulfillment as a female. So, please readers, and especially my nieces, pay close attention or bear the consequences!

Download or read book Cracking Up written by Christopher Bollas and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1995 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this book, psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas extends his exploration of the inner world of human experience. In his last book, he argued that Freud's vision of the dream process is a model for all unconscious mental experience. Now he suggests that the rhythm of that experience - marked by everyday moments of psychic intensity, to which we respond first by breaking up the various factors that go into them (remembered, bodily, instinctual) and then by recombining them in a new understanding of ourselves - that this unconscious rhythm, fully engaged in, is vital to individual creativity and freedom. It develops what Bollas calls a separate sense, with which we assess the immeasurable, complex meanings of our own experience and become sympathetically attuned to the lives of other people." "Bollas examines how people educate one another in the idioms of their unconscious lives, and he considers the nature and consequences of the traumas that inhibit the freedom to do this. He studies what we mean by the past - is it ominously unchangeable, or can history be a creative, open understanding of experience? We come to know who we are by giving form and meaning to our past, yet what do we mean when we speak of ourselves?"--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Download or read book Cracking Up written by Joan Komlosy and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2008 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Lily Francis, coming to terms with a broken marriage, children going their separate ways and the dole queue beckoning is hard enough. But when the landlords want the flat you've been renting for 25 years - the only stable thing in your life - the term 'midlife crisis' takes on a whole new meaning. Now a reluctant 'born-again singleton' Lily, an impoverished antiques dealer, and struggling freelance journalist, begins to rebuild her life and attempts to start again. If only her once successful husband hadn't dragged out the divorce she would have been self-supportive and the family silver might not have ended up on Bermondsey market! "Cracking up" is humorous, touching and entertaining and will appeal to anyone, male or female, who has had to start again from the bottom - older, alone and flat broke - there are many out there!

Download or read book Laugh up and Crack up Jokes written by Joshua Gunter and published by LifeRich Publishing. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just a joke book. A book to bring joy and happiness to others, with what has been going on for so long now.

Download or read book Break up, Don't Crack up written by Rachel Fehily and published by Orpen Press. This book was released on 2012-03-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ending a relationship is one of the most difficult journeys in life and it can be a bewildering and confusing time. It can also be very expensive. There are so many different aspects to consider. Other books only address one or two aspects of this process but Break Up, Don’t Crack Up takes a holistic approach, believing all angles are interrelated, and addresses all aspects: legal, practical, financial, emotional and parenting. Break Up, Don’t Crack Up explains alternative routes such as alternative dispute resolution and mediation and helps readers to negotiate the Irish legal system with regard to divorce and separation. It also addresses difficult issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, parental child abduction and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. The book helps readers to develop a strategic plan on how to approach their separation, saving them time, money and heartache. It is a practical, solutions-focused approach to all aspects of separation and is an invaluable aid for all those going through this life-altering journey.