Book Description
From the author of Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces, an exhilarating and provocative investigation of the tangle of American identity
“America is a place and a story, made up of exuberance and suspicion, crime and liberation, lynch mobs and escapes; its greatest testaments are made of portents and warnings, biblical allusions that lose all certainty in the American air.” It is this story of self-invention and nationhood that Greil Marcus rediscovers, beginning with John Winthrop’s invocation of America as a “city on the hill,” Lincoln’s second inaugural address, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech about his American dream. Listening to these prophetic founding statements, Marcus explores America’s promise as a New Jerusalem and the nature of its covenant: first with God, and then with its own citizens. In the nineteenth century, this vision of the nation’s story was told in public as part of common discourse, to be fought over in plain speech and flights of gorgeous rhetoric. Since then, Marcus argues, it has become cryptic, a story told more in art than in politics. He traces it across the continent and through time, hearing the tale in the disparate voices of writers, filmmakers, performers, and actors: Philip Roth, David Lynch, David Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, Sheryl Lee, and Bill Pullman. In The Shape of Things to Come, the future and the past merge in extraordinary and uncanny ways, and Marcus proves once again that he is our most imaginative and original cultural critic.
Customer Reviews:
Archive of American vernacular prophecy... in this our time of need...........2007-07-07
In his splendid reading of Philip Roth's trilogy on Nathan Zuckerman as belated American Jeremiah, mapping the hollowing out of its prophetic codes and citizens, Greil Marcus makes an unexpected yet utterly shattering connection to a latter-day Dylan album kindred to "American Pastoral"'s subjects of brokenness. "Only Bob Dylan, in 1997 [when American Pastoral was published], with Time Out of Mind, a state-by-state, city-by-city guided tour of an America that has used itself up and a portrait of an American who has used up his country, comes close to occupying the same territory; and Roth stayed longer" (The Shape of Things to Come, 43). Dylan's conversion into "the indigenous American berserk" would never stand stable, as such, would be subject to reversal and transformation into fits or stanzas of prophetic blessing on it all. Marcus gets at all this instability, and more in this innovative archive outlining the American vernacular prophecy coming back in this our time of worldly need.
A Lot of Predictions Ignored.......2007-04-08
In reading this book I was reminded of the old saying that predicting the future is easy, it's being right that is hard.
I find Mr. Marcus's book to be very interesting reading, but in places confusing. He seem to be saying that he doesn't see the politicians making as much sense as do the artists of our time. Politics, it could be argued, is an art form. In the early days of the republic there were relatively few voters, land owning men. As the enfranchisement has expanded, so has the level of political communications. You can't say what you think, you can only say what you think will get you elected. The politician is an actor being fed a script.
His comments on the predictions of from the music of rock bands is simply not understandable to me. Their bag, like the politician is to say something that their listeners want to hear.
I don't see in his writings anything from writers I see making serious predictions: Al Gore, 'Inconvenient Truth;' 'Hubbard's Peak;' 'The Limits to Growth;' Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations.'
Our children will face interesting times.
Too Subjective, a chore to read........2007-03-14
I bought this book on a whim while stocking up on "current events" titles. I couldn't get past page 30. If you like sentences, meaning sentences like this one where the writer interjects a second thought before finishing the first thought of the sentence, where there are lots of commas and you have to study the sentence to get the point, then I think you'll like this book. For me it is an utter chore and a bore to read. The book is full of subjective reasoning with little bother to support anything. It's the type of book where I have to read each paragraph 10 times because my mind is wandering after the first couple statements. Oh, what, I didn't understand that. Hmmmph... it must be true. Too bad I just didn't peruse the first couple of pages before buying it because I never would have bought it then. A great book to read and tell yourself how smart you are for reading it. And just to give you an idea about myself, I'm an eight year college grad. So I am capable of understanding the book. However I will not be understanding it because I refuse to read anymore.
I resent doing this.......2007-01-28
I got this as a gift, so I don't know anything about it except what my son has said.
So so..........2007-01-04
What this book did was make me want to research his references and see if I came to the same conclusion. I suddenly really want to read David Lynch movies and read Philip Roth, both of which I had previously been avoiding on a false suspicion they were just bizarro with no thread of relevance to the world around but to mirror a surreal version.
But Marcus does do a nice job of connecting things and interpreting them in the way he sees they fit into the American cultural and historical landscape. And his supposition that these works of art are the manifestation of the failure of America to live up to its lofty potential and promises upon founding sit well with me.
Average customer rating:
- Highly Recommended!
- Interesting Guide to Shfting Paradigms
- And What Comes After the Information Age?
- Food for thought for global strategists.
- Good coverage of shifting technology for marketing experts
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The Shape of Things to Come: 7 Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business
Richard W. Oliver
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0070482632 |
Book Description
A bold and prescriptive look at the future of business and the strategies needed to evolve along with it. The Industrial Age conquered space; the Information Age conquered time; now the Bio-Materials Age is conquering matter and revolutionizing commerce as we know it. Richard Oliver, noted consultant and award-winning professor, looks at what these changes mean and how your organization can align itself now. Covers seven tactics for success, profiles of seven 21st century companies, and seven products/technologies to leverage. A BusinessWeek Book.
Download Description
The Shape of Things to Come is a rallying cry for companies to rethink and revaluate previous business assumptions.
Customer Reviews:
Highly Recommended!.......2001-06-02
Author Richard W. Oliver argues that speed and customer responsiveness are keys to the new world of business. To stay alive, companies must flatten their corporate structures, do away with old roles, and embrace the technology that allows data mining and Internet-based purchasing. The author predicts that in the new century companies will sell directly to consumers, job descriptions will become more fluid, and smart cards and knowbots will become ubiquitous devices. This compelling, thoughtful book examines the trends shaping the global economy. While the book isn't always organized clearly, it illustrates its points through examples of real companies which have changed their practices. We [...] recommend this book to any owners, executives, and managers who are involved in planning long-term strategies.
Interesting Guide to Shfting Paradigms.......1999-11-27
Easy read, good overview of shifting global environment.
very interesting 'Post-Information Society' theory.
First 100 pages tidy but overly simplistic recap of what we all know (Part I and II). Part III very good reading, thought provoking, unique and vision altering concepts introduced (especially chapter 8 - The Post-Information Society).
And What Comes After the Information Age?.......1998-12-22
Richard Oliver held executive positions at Nortel and DuPont.
He is currently a professor of marketing at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and sits on the boards of six U.S. companies.
Daniel Bell's THE POST INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY heralded the end of the industrial era and outlined the structure of the information age. THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME heralds the end of the information age and outlines the structure of what Oliver calls the Bio-Materials Age.
Can it really be that the information age is just about to end? Oliver makes a convincing argument that it is already over.
The author structures the outlines of what needs to be done in the Bio-Materials Age and provides concrete examples of companies currently doing it: Southwestern Airlines, Oticon, W. I Gore & Associates, Chaparral Steel, Granite Rock Company, Bank of Montreal, and the U.S. Military. We love the range of the companies he selected!
As we on Boards of Directors help steer our companies out of the industrial era into the information age, it is vital to keep in mind that the information age itself will be a relatively short transition. "Keep Your Eyes on the Ball" is necessary but insufficient. We need to make sure that management is keeping its eyes on the direction of the ball.
You don't have to agree with every detail in his book. But you will probably acknowledge that the general direction of Richard Oliver's argument is both logical and unavoidable.
MARYANNE PEABODY & LAURENCE J. STYBEL are co-founders of Boston-based STYBEL PEABODY ASSOCIATES.
Food for thought for global strategists........1998-11-07
I put this book in my briefcase for reading on a recent overseas flight. I found it to be very interesting, especially where Professor Oliver describes how successful companies must operate in the 21st century. I am a strong advocate of quality customer service. I like his concept that huge national markets may disappear and be replaced by billions of individual customers whose needs must be fulfilled for a company to be successful. John R. Jagoe, Director, Export Institute.
Good coverage of shifting technology for marketing experts.......1998-10-29
The title of this book refers to the last 100 or so pages-- for the first hundred pages, the author describes his approach to describing technology and marketing up to the present. Then he gets into his "seven"-- seven strategic imperatives, seven 21st century companies, seven 21st century products and technologies. The text provides brief, big-picture coverage of how marketing and change management converge. Could be a big help to marketing-oriented global strategists,since the author has rich corporate and academic experience in his vita.
Book Description
Isabelle, a woman in her thirties without any of the trappings of a grown-up life, has just been fired from her job at a San Francisco phone company. Returning to the midwestern suburb of her childhood, Standardsville, Illinois, she contends with her dating single mother, a neighbor who once appeared on The Honeymooners, and an ex-boyfriend. She also becomes a mystery shopper for a temp agency, posing as a variety of potential tenants for newly built suburban communities to access their exclusive services.
Enchanted by the possiblities of disguise, Isabelle spins a web of lies that keeps the world at a distance until she unearths long-kept secrets that force her to rethink everything she thought she knew.
Customer Reviews:
Not funny.......2003-04-16
This book was chosen by our book club for our most recent meeting. I knew I was in trouble after reading the first chapter. The writing was amateurish, annoying (she must have used the phrase, "my mother's drug store perfume" about 7 or 8 times) and trite. The words, "darkly funny" were used to descibe this novel and it is neither. .... She seemed to be trying so very hard to be clever, but it just didn't work. We were planning to hear her speak at our local library and unanimously agreed to cancel the evening.
"all the lonely people, where do they come from?".......2002-09-15
While reading Maud Casey's provocative, maddening and satiric debut novel, "The Shape of Things to Come," readers may well find themselves realizing that the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby is reborn in literature. Thirty-ish Isabelle, whose shambles of a life catapults her back to her frighteningly lifeless hometown, symbolizes the terrible hollowness and futility of modern suburban life. Everythng Casey describes about Standardsville, Illinois, is designed to both mock and shock. Casey knows how to blend morbid humor and genuine pathos; the very quality of Isabelle's existence is irritatingly pathetic. Simultaneously, the protagonist repels and attracts as she struggles to find some kind of meaning to a life that is desperately hollow.
Even Isabelle's employment is pretense; she acts as a mystery shopper whose duty is to discover hidden facts about movie theatres or trendy apartment complexes. Donning disguises under the breathless encouragement of her temp-job supervisor, Isabelle has no more clue as to her ultimate destination as she does the personalities she half-heartedly adopts in her undercover "work." Presumably, work in America should be fulfilling, purposeful and productive. In Standardsville, Isabelle's employment is sterile, duplicitous and pointless. It is small wonder that she wanders through the novel as if stunned.
Her attempts at relationships fare no better. Isabelle's mother Adeline is a modern-day dating machine. Methodically working her way through every single man in the city, Adeline's existential hunger is never satisfied by male companionship. So desperate is she for companionship that Adeline never stops to consider what human connection or intimacy is. Rare mother-daughter conversations invariably return to the central theme of their lives: an inexorable shabby loneliness.
The two men in Isabelle's life are a ying-yang of frustration, isolation and failure. A renewed relationship with her former boyfriend, Duncan, bounces between attraction, rejection and misperception. A lifelong sufferer of Standardsville, Duncan fights against his attraction to Isabelle, ultimately succumbing to his need to reignite the miniscule passion which existed between the two some twenty years previous. Isabelle's bizarre neighbor, Raymond, deserves his own chapter in a college textbook on abnormal psychology. His involvement with both Isabelle and Adeline provide insight into the quiet, disintegrative aspects of suburban living.
Despite its satiric insights and vivid characterizations, Maud Casey's "The Shape of Things to Come" never gains traction. It is as if the author could not make up her own mind as to the ultimate objective of her own work. Biting criticism of suburbia cannot permit much sympathy for a protagonist whose adult life reeks of aimlessness. Yet Casey wants the reader to feel for and with Isabelle. Any author who creates Mexican restaurants with names such as "En Queso Emergency" should not dabble in maudlin sentimentality. That grating deficiency weakens an otherwise absorbing, energetic novel.
Things to come are very promising.......2001-06-02
As a resident of a town much like Standardville, Illinois, I began Maud Casey's book with a mixture of interest and apprehension. Would this novel be the product of an uninformed writer, imagining what the Midwest was like? Or would it capture critical, but sympathetic, impressions of living in a part of the country that is far from glamorous yet fully human? I'm happy to say that I found the latter. The Shape of Things to Come is an often humorous, always thoughtful, coming-of-age (and reflective of coming-of-age) novel about a woman who, despite her efforts to the contrary, finds that she can get beyond destructive self-absorption and might even become a person with whom she can be content.
Casey's prose is a delight, and the book is easy to read in the very best sense of that quality. She doesn't strive to impress you with the profundity and depth of every sentence, nor seem to want you to struggle, as if you have to earn the right to finish the book. Yet her command of language and dialogue is clear, and she does want you to care about every character, no matter how quirky. I did.
I had the good fortune to hear a reading by Casey when she came to a nearby bookstore. Her affect and unassuming charm were as impressive as her literary talent. I look forward to her next novel, whatever it may be.
Things to Come Are Likely to Be Very Good.......2001-05-31
As a resident of a town very similar to Standardsville, Illinois, I began Maud Casey's "The Shape of Things to Come"--set in a town with that fictional but evocative name--with both interest and trepidation. Would I find myself the object of an East Coast writer's caustic, but ignorant, jokes about the Midwest? Or would I find that someone had captured my critical but still sympathetic observations about myself and my surroundings much more articulately than I could manage? I'm happy to say that I found the latter--a gently humorous, sometimes sad, and often wise account of coming-of-age, and coming to terms with coming-of-age, in a part of America that is far from glamorous.
Maud Casey's writing is a joy to encounter. For a serious reader, the book is "easy" in the best sense of that word; you can move through the novel quickly without struggling to understand--or feel that Casey wants to impress you with--every sentence. But you can still feel satisfied that she's a writer who has considered her words carefully, thought deeply about others (as reflected in the characters she's created) and is smart and clever throughout. And she is as kind as she is shrewd, never taking anyone for granted nor giving anyone less or more than they are due.
The narrative is absorbing, although it will be up to each reader to decide whether the ending is happy or sad. Casey's intelligence and ability to capture the complexity of life--yes, even in Standarsville or its ilk--bodes well for the rest of her career and for anyone who looks forward, as do I, to her next book.
Good first Novel!.......2001-04-26
I really enjoyed the book. I thought the main characters antics were funny especially when she goes out on her mystery shopping assignments. The supporting characters were interesting. Twist to the ending. Very good first novel, with a trace of Elizabeth Berg style of writing. I hope she writes another book soon!
Book Description
The Shape of Things to Come tells of an intellectual who dies and leaves behind a “dream book” inspired by visions that are remarkably prescient.
Customer Reviews:
Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
This book by H. G. Wells is only a sort of novel. He uses the device of
a man having, basically, prophetic visions of the future, to discuss
society at length.
The discussion is about the future, and the direction that mankind
is taking. Written towards the end of the Depression, this of course
influences the writing, as does the likelihood of further world war,
also a prediction in the book.
He continues on, as the book is divided into multiple parts, each looking at a different stage.
The Shape of Things to Come is not really a novel.......2005-01-16
From Google Groups Jordan179:
The book was published in September 1933, which means that it was presumably written up to a year earlier. This is interesting in terms of _when_ its "present" was (the early years of the Great Depression, and right when Hitler had taken power in Germany). It is also interesting to note that this was around the same time as _Last and First Men_, and that Stapledon and Wells, as two British socialist literary science fiction writers, almost certainly would have known one another in person. I wonder if there was some sort of informal challenge in their circle to try to "write about the future," or something of that sort?
_The Shape of Things to Come_, of course, is a far less ambitious work than _Last and First Men_, in terms of scope. While LaFM covers two billion years of the history of not only our own species but its successors as dominant sapient races of the Solar System, TSoTtC covers only about a century (to the 2040's) in any sort of detail, and gives some vague hints of what happens out to 2100. This is roughly 110 to 166 years past the point of publication, corresponding to the very earliest parts of Stapledon's book in terms of timescale.
The framing story is that this is the "dream book" (recording of a series of dreams experienced by) of Dr. Phillip Raven, a progressive-minded statesman, influential in the League of Nations, who died in 1930. As becomes apparent to his friend (presumably H. G. Wells himself), the dreams were accurately prophetic (he foretells the election of FDR among other things), channelling a history book written in 2106, and so Wells decides to write them up into this history of the future.
I say "history of the future" rather than "novel" with precise meaning. Like _Last and First Men_, _The Shape of Things to Come_ is not really a novel: it has very little characterization and indeed few named characters engaging in anything like normal dialogue or plot. It's actually set up as if it really were a history of the last 200 years, writen in 2106 (as it claims to have been). The only places where it's dramatic is where one might expect a well-written, lively sort of history book to be so.
This of course ruins it as a novel, but then that's never what Wells was aiming at. He was aiming at a "future history," and as such this book really has more in common with works such as the _Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology_ than with science fiction _novels_ in general.
It's interesting to note that both TSoTtC, and LaFM, were written several years before the earliest story in Heinlein's famous "future history." I wonder if Heinlein read either book before coming up with _his_ notion of a "future history?" Wells was, of course, quite famous by the late 1930's / early 1940's, both as a fiction writer and a serious futurist.
The work is divided into five "books," each the length of a short history book. The first: "Today and Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration Dawns," is Wells' precis of the history of the world from roughly 1914-1933, as it might be seen from the viewpoint of his fictional 2106. It is, as one might expect, essentially socialist and pessimistic in view: Wells believed that Western Civilization had lost and was continuing to lose tremendous opportunities of education, production, and progress owing to what he saw as the pernicious effects of capitalism and superstition. He also had by this time lost almost all hope that the Soviet Union was going to turn out any better than Western Europe had. This part is somewhat amusing in terms of exposing Wells' own views, but is less than fascinating even viewed as history (and I like to read history). Wells himself would do this sort of thing _far_ better in his famous _Outline of History_.
The second book,"The Days After Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration," is essentially about the wreck of Civilization. Basically, the Great Depression (which he calls "the Slump") gets worse and worse. In 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt calls The London Conference in which all the nations of the world try to come to an agreement to end it: they fail miserably and the Depression continues to deepen.
(this follows logically from Wells' own socialist views: if the Depression was caused by the limitations of capitalism, obviously nothing short of a complete restructuring of the economy towards socialism could cure it).
(in our time line, of course, what happened was that the Depression partially lifted in 1934, and conditions gradually improved throughout the 1930's; finally, World War II caused governments everywhere to demand massive war production that put an end to it once and for all. Wells, embarassingly, was to see his theory proven false _within one year after the publication of the book_, which may be why there isn't any mention of a Depression On Steroids in the movie version).
Anyway, things get worse and worse, socially as well as economically. Production of whole classes of goods ceases (this is logically inconsistent with the structure of a Depression, but Wells isn't a very good economist). Crime and despair spread.
In 1940, the Germano-Polish War starts, by accident, over the Danzig Corridor. A Nazi shoots a Polish man at a train station, and Poland invades Germany and drives a good way into the Eastern part of the country before being stopped by German fortifications.
(this is the same year that "the Second World War" starts in the movie, but in the movie we never learn the cause of the war or even the identity of the foe)
Germany and Poland trade continual air raids while their ground armies are locked in stalemate on massive trench lines, including extensive poison gas and anti-tank obstacles ...
(continued on google groups)
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Beyond 2020 : The Shape of Things to Come audio CD
Glen Hiemstra
Manufacturer: Positive Productivity
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 0929656075 |
Book Description
This is a 60-minute audio-CD in which Futurist Glen Hiemstra summarizes how and why our world will change in the next 25 years. Key trends and driving forces of change are outlined, and surprising social and economic implications are explained. The CD may be played on standard CD players, or on computer CD-ROMS.
Book Description
This is a 60-minute audio-tape in which Futurist Glen Hiemstra summarizes how and why our world will change in the next 25 years. Key trends and driving forces of change are outlined, and surprising social and economic implications are explained.
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