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What if you learned that the AIDS virus was the result of bioweapons research gone bad, and that somebody knew and was hiding the truth? What if there's a cure? Could you trust your source of information? Could you trust your own perceptions? Could you act on such information? And what would you do? This is the situation that San Francisco AIDS counsellor Jonathan Stiers finds himself enmeshed in in this wisdom-tinged thriller novel by gay spiritual writer, student of Joseph Campbell and former editor of White Crane Journal Toby Johnson. Originally published in 1987 when AIDS was still a mystery disease, successful treatments had not been developed and spiritual/attitudinal healing¿of soul, if not of body¿was the only hope, this novel, with its explanations of healing and presentation of wisdom from A Course in Miracles and The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment, was originally titled Plague: A Novel about Healing. Twenty-five years later, the novel's quandary about the nature of evil and its message of hopeful acceptance and love of life are still relevant, perhaps even more so. The story of the "fourth quill" comes from an Indian tale about a previous incarnation of the Buddha who discovers the "treasure of the ages" and it's not what he'd expected; Johnson retells the tale and derives a meaningful and life-affirming attitude that transcends the specific issues of AIDS in the 1980s. The Fourth Quill recasts the story into a parallel universe with a surprising and happy ending where Jon Stiers really can wonder if he has brought about the cure of AIDS. Woven through the hero/adventure plot is a lovely and heartwarming romance¿with an unexpected twist. A little modern, scientific and sensible and a little mystical, The Fourth Quill exemplifies Toby Johnson's style of dramatizing gay spirit through storytelling and speculative fiction. This is a parallel universe readers will likely remember and come back to.
Quill and Cross in the Borderlands examines nearly four hundred years of history, folklore, literature, and art concerning the seventeenth-century Spanish nun and writer Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, identified as the legendary “Lady in Blue” who miraculously appeared to tribes in colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the rudiments of the Catholic faith. Sor María, an author of mystical Marian works, became renowned not only for her alleged spiritual travel from her cloister in Spain to the New World, but also for her writing, studied and implemented by Franciscans on both sides of the ocean. Working from original historical accounts, archival research, and a wealth of literature on the legend and the historical figure alike, Anna M. Nogar meticulously examines how and why the legend and the person became intertwined in Catholic consciousness and social praxis. In addition to the influence of the narrative of the Lady in Blue in colonial Mexico, Nogar addresses Sor María’s importance as an author of spiritual texts that influenced many spheres of New Spanish and Spanish society. Quill and Cross in the Borderlands focuses on the reading and interpretation of her works, especially in New Spain, where they were widely printed and disseminated. Over time, in the developing folklore of the Indo-Hispano populations of the present-day U.S. Southwest and the borderlands, the historical Sor María and her writings virtually disappeared from view, and the Lady in Blue became a prominent folk figure, appearing in folk stories and popular histories. These folk accounts drew the Lady in Blue into the present day, where she appears in artwork, literature, theater, and public ritual. Nogar’s examination of these contemporary renderings leads to a reconsideration of the ambiguities that lie at the heart of the narrative. Quill and Cross in the Borderlands documents the material legacy of a legend that has survived and thrived for hundreds of years, and at the same time rediscovers the historical basis of a hidden writer. This book will interest scholars and researchers of colonial Latin American literature, early modern women writers, folklore and ethnopoetics, and Mexican American cultural studies.
Held prisoner by the Burner forces in Philadelphia, Jess and his friends struggle to stay alive in the face of threats from both sides ... but a stunning escape guarantees worse is coming. The Library now means to stop them by any means necessary, and they'll have to make dangerous allies and difficult choices to stay alive.They have only two choices: face the might of the Great Library head on, or be erased from life, and the history of the world, for ever.Win or die.
Describes and illustrates technique in an attempt to bring about an appreciation of the complexity of the art of porcupine-quill work.
More than a hundred years ago, anthropologists and other researchers collected and studied hundreds of examples of quillwork once created by Arapaho women. Since that time, however, other types of Plains Indian art, such as beadwork and male art forms, have received greater attention. In Arapaho Women’s Quillwork, Jeffrey D. Anderson brings this distinctly female art form out of the darkness and into its rightful spotlight within the realms of both art history and anthropology. Beautifully illustrated with more than 50 color and black-and-white images, this book is the first comprehensive examination of quillwork within Arapaho ritualized traditions. Until the early twentieth century and the disruption of removal, porcupine quillwork was practiced by many indigenous cultures throughout North America. For Arapahos, quillwork played a central role in religious life within their most ancient and sacred traditions. Quillwork was manifest in all life transitions and appeared on paraphernalia for almost all Arapaho ceremonies. Its designs and the meanings they carried were present on many objects used in everyday life, such as cradles, robes, leanback covers, moccasins, pillows, and tipi ornaments, liners, and doors. Anderson demonstrates how, through the action of creating quillwork, Arapaho women became central participants in ritual life, often studied as the exclusive domain of men. He also shows how quillwork challenges predominant Western concepts of art and creativity: adhering to sacred patterns passed down through generations of women, it emphasized not individual creativity, but meticulous repetition and social connectivity—an approach foreign to many outside observers. Drawing on the foundational writings of early-nineteenth-century ethnographers, extensive fieldwork conducted with Northern Arapahos, and careful analysis of museum collections, Arapaho Women’s Quillwork masterfully shows the importance of this unique art form to Arapaho life and honors the devotion of the artists who maintained this tradition for so many generations.
Where Peter Newman's best-selling trilogy captured the essence of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) as a business empire, Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay presents the scientific achievements of the company's early employees, drawing largely on materials in the HBC Winnipeg archives. C. Stuart Houston, Tim Ball, and Mary Houston make amends for two centuries of neglect of these collector-observers, showing that fur traders in isolated trading posts on Hudson Bay were involved in some of the earliest stirrings of science on the continent and that the fur traders and Native people worked together in a remarkable symbiosis, beneficial to both parties.The authors show that meteorologic data and weather information recorded at the HBC trading posts over two centuries provide the largest and longest consecutive series available anywhere in North America, one that can help us understand the mechanisms and amount of climate change. They demonstrate that Hudson Bay is the second largest site of new bird species named by Linnaeus and reproduce some of George Edwards' colour paintings of these new species. Six informative appendices reveal how the invaluable HBC archives were transferred from London, England, to Winnipeg, correct previous misinterpretations of the collaboration and relative contributions of Thomas Hutchins and Andrew Graham, use two centuries of HBC fur returns to demonstrate the ten-year hare and lynx cycles, tell how the swan trade almost extirpated the Trumpeter Swan, explain how the Canada Goose got its name before there was a Canada, and offer an extensive list of eighteenth-century Cree names for birds, mammals, and fish. Informative tables list the eighteenth-century surgeons at York Factory and give names and dates for the annual supply ships.