Behaving Decently

Download or read book Behaving Decently written by Wayne Laufert and published by Humanist Press. This book was released on 2022-06-21 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kurt Vonnegut and humanism go hand in hand. In Behaving Decently: Kurt Vonnegut’s Humanism, Wayne Laufert examines how Vonnegut revealed his moral philosophy through the themes and characters in his work and through his public comments. Topic by topic, Vonnegut’s written and spoken views are explored, from his first novel, Player Piano (1952), through his antiwar masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), to the collections of his fiction and nonfiction that appear up till today, long after his death in 2007. His speeches, essays, interviews, and journalism, which support and expand upon the sentiments in his novels, receive proper consideration in this conversational overview of Vonnegut’s life and career. Religion, war, politics, science, art—these subjects and more are seen through Vonnegut’s perspective and are placed within a larger humanistic outlook. His most famous creation, the old science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, gets his own chapter too. Vonnegut called himself a “Christ-worshiping agnostic,” a term that Behaving Decently analyzes in the context of his upbringing as a freethinker, his wartime experience, his time in the corporate world, and other factors that formed his values. Those values are perhaps best expressed by his character Eliot Rosewater, the damaged, super-rich philanthropist: “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” Vonnegut’s real and imagined selves were incorporated into Kurt Vonnegut the author, the public speaker, the interview subject, and even the character that appears in some of his books. After all, he wrote, “I myself am a work of fiction.” That funny, wise, sometimes depressed persona was humanistic. Behaving Decently shows the reader how Kurt Vonnegut reminded us to take small steps along hopeful paths to kindness and community and dignity and art—and farting around.

Download or read book The Tricky Art Of Co-Existing written by Sandi Toksvig and published by The Experiment. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “sensible and extremely amusing” guide to etiquette from the comedian and former cohost of The Great British Bake Off (Library Journal, starred review). No one learns “etiquette” anymore (except by embarrassing trial and error). But manners are more than a dusty tradition: Done right, they make life easier for everyone. That’s why Sandi Toksvig, cohost of The Great British Bake Off, highlights decency rather than convention in this entertaining guide, with: Spot-On Advice: “Remember—you don’t have to answer the phone, so don’t do it if you don’t have time to be polite.” Fascinating Trivia: “It is very rude to clear the plate of someone who hasn’t finished. In fact, the Romans believed doing so would bring about the diner’s sudden death.” And Her Characteristic Wit: “Focusing on the people you share a meal with is both a pleasure and a necessity. Get to know your family members; you might even like them.” Be the most decently behaved person in the room, and the most interesting: Master The Tricky Art of Co-Existing! “Instead of some prissy, preachy list of rules, [the author] backs up her suggestions on etiquette with occasionally obscure and often hilarious facts.” —Bust

Download or read book A Man Without a Country written by Kurt Vonnegut and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “For all those who have lived with Vonnegut in their imaginations . . . this is what he is like in person.”–USA Today In a volume that is penetrating, introspective, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny, one of the great men of letters of this age–or any age–holds forth on life, art, sex, politics, and the state of America’s soul. From his coming of age in America, to his formative war experiences, to his life as an artist, this is Vonnegut doing what he does best: Being himself. Whimsically illustrated by the author, A Man Without a Country is intimate, tender, and brimming with the scope of Kurt Vonnegut’s passions. Praise for A Man Without a Country “[This] may be as close as Vonnegut ever comes to a memoir.”–Los Angeles Times “Like [that of] his literary ancestor Mark Twain, [Kurt Vonnegut’s] crankiness is good-humored and sharp-witted. . . . [Reading A Man Without a Country is] like sitting down on the couch for a long chat with an old friend.”–The New York Times Book Review “Filled with [Vonnegut’s] usual contradictory mix of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, humor and gravity.”–Chicago Tribune “Fans will linger on every word . . . as once again [Vonnegut] captures the complexity of the human condition with stunning calligraphic simplicity.”–The Australian “Thank God, Kurt Vonnegut has broken his promise that he will never write another book. In this wondrous assemblage of mini-memoirs, we discover his family’s legacy and his obstinate, unfashionable humanism.”–Studs Terkel

Download or read book Scarecrows of Chivalry written by Praseeda Gopinath and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the fate of the ideal of the English gentleman once the empire he was meant to embody declined, Praseeda Gopinath argues that the stylization of English masculinity became the central theme, focus, and conceit for many literary texts that represented the "condition of Britain" in the 1930s and the immediate postwar era. From the early writings of George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh to works by poets and novelists such as Philip Larkin, Ian Fleming, Barbara Pym, and A. S. Byatt, the author shows how Englishmen trafficking in the images of self-restraint, governance, decency, and detachment in the absence of a structuring imperial ethos became what the poet Larkin called "scarecrows of chivalry." Gopinath's study of this masculine ideal under duress reveals the ways in which issues of race, class, and sexuality constructed a gendered narrative of the nation.

Download or read book Communism in Hollywood written by Alan Casty and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much has been written about the history of Communism in America, including the Party's appeal to many in the Hollywood community of the 1930s and 40s. While several books have offered standard accounts of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings and the blacklist in the entertainment industry, Alan Casty provides a fresh and provocative perspective. In Communism in Hollywood: The Moral Paradoxes of Testimony, Silence, and Betrayal, Casty challenges the absolute dualisms of the period: cowardly informers and heroic martyrs. Drawing on newly available material, Casty illustrates the control by the international Communist movement and the role of the Hollywood Communists themselves in fomenting the intense hostilities of the period. Casty juxtaposes the actions and statements of those who testified and 'named names' before HUAC with Communists who refused to testify and remained silent about the atrocities of the Soviet Union. By providing a scrupulous account of the full scope of the Communist Party in Hollywood, this book presents a more accurate picture of the moral quandaries faced during this dark period in American history.

Download or read book The Truth about Trust in Business written by Vanessa Hall and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trust gets a lot of lip service in the business world, particularly in the current economic climate. But according to author Vanessa Hall, few of us really understand what trust in, how to build it, and how to determine if others view us and our organizations as trustworthy. And issues of trust exact high costs for us - ethically and financially. Hall delivers a three-pronged approach to building trust based on assessment of expectations, needs, and promises. With a practical model, compelling insights, real case studies, and easy-to-implement tips, Hall offers readers: knowledge of how to ensure that trust, once established, is not broken; guidance on how to become more trustworthy brands and businesses; and assessment tools for determining how trustworthy you are in each area of business. Delving into each area of business- sales, management, branding and marketing, customer services, leadership - the guidebook gives companies and leaders the tools they need to earn trust, reap the rewards, and stand apart from the competition.

Download or read book A Study of George Orwell written by Christopher Hollis and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author Christopher Hollis knew George Orwell personally during his schooldays at Eton, afterwards in Burma, and at the end of his life. His study of Orwell’s books is therefore illuminated by some anecdotes of reminiscence. However, it is important to note that this book is primarily a study rather than a biography. Hollis examines Orwell’s books in order and traces through them the development of this unmatched literary giant’s thought process. From the experiences described in Down and Out in Paris and London to the points in his life that began driving him toward socialism, A Study of George Orwell is a comprehensive overview of Orwell’s work as it related to his personal life. Hollis guides the reader all the way through Orwell’s oeuvre, including his two most famous books—Animal Farm and 1984—which are, arguably, the greatest literary protests of political power and tyranny ever penned. Portraying Orwell as a fearless champion of the common man and a follower in the footsteps of Jonathan Swift, Hollis offers a compelling review and analysis of Orwell’s work as well as a perspective not found by the average, distant biographer