Julie Brown, Nicholas Cook, and Stephen Cottrell (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780197266175
- eISBN:
- 9780191865220
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266175.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
The radio programme Desert Island Discs has run almost continuously since 1942, and represents a unique record of the changing place of music in British society. In 2011, recognising its iconic ...
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The radio programme Desert Island Discs has run almost continuously since 1942, and represents a unique record of the changing place of music in British society. In 2011, recognising its iconic status, the BBC created an online archive that includes podcasts of all programmes from 1976 on, and many from earlier years. Based on this and extensive documentary evidence, Defining the Discographic Self: ‘Desert Island Discs’ in Context for the first time brings together musicologists, sociologists, and media scholars to reflect on the programme’s significance, its position within the BBC and Britain’s continually evolving media, and its relationship to other comparable programmes. Of particular interest are the meanings attributed to music in the programme by both castaways and interviewers, the ways in which music is invoked in the public presentation of self, the incorporation of music within personal narratives, and changes in musical tastes during the seven decades spanned by the programme. Scholarly chapters are complemented by former castaways’ accounts of their appearances, which give fascinating insiders’ views into how the programme is made and how its guests prepare for their involvement.Less
The radio programme Desert Island Discs has run almost continuously since 1942, and represents a unique record of the changing place of music in British society. In 2011, recognising its iconic status, the BBC created an online archive that includes podcasts of all programmes from 1976 on, and many from earlier years. Based on this and extensive documentary evidence, Defining the Discographic Self: ‘Desert Island Discs’ in Context for the first time brings together musicologists, sociologists, and media scholars to reflect on the programme’s significance, its position within the BBC and Britain’s continually evolving media, and its relationship to other comparable programmes. Of particular interest are the meanings attributed to music in the programme by both castaways and interviewers, the ways in which music is invoked in the public presentation of self, the incorporation of music within personal narratives, and changes in musical tastes during the seven decades spanned by the programme. Scholarly chapters are complemented by former castaways’ accounts of their appearances, which give fascinating insiders’ views into how the programme is made and how its guests prepare for their involvement.
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035406
- eISBN:
- 9780813038377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035406.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter describes the admirable case of a sailor from Venice who was marooned on an island for two years, and of another Genoese marooned for eight years. It indicates how these two and other ...
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This chapter describes the admirable case of a sailor from Venice who was marooned on an island for two years, and of another Genoese marooned for eight years. It indicates how these two and other castaways came together on an island; and how finally only the Venetian and the Genoese remained; and how later God brought them out of that tribulation.Less
This chapter describes the admirable case of a sailor from Venice who was marooned on an island for two years, and of another Genoese marooned for eight years. It indicates how these two and other castaways came together on an island; and how finally only the Venetian and the Genoese remained; and how later God brought them out of that tribulation.
Julie Brown, Nicholas Cook, and Stephen Cottrell
Julie Brown, Nicholas Cook, and Stephen Cottrell (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780197266175
- eISBN:
- 9780191865220
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266175.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter provides an overview of the long-standing and highly popular British radio programme Desert Island Discs (DID). It sets out the historical contexts in which the programme was established ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the long-standing and highly popular British radio programme Desert Island Discs (DID). It sets out the historical contexts in which the programme was established and developed, and interrogates both its changing format and the meanings and values that have been associated with DID over time. Developments in the production process are also assessed, including the impact of various presenters and the selection of castaways, as well as the programme’s place in broader media culture and its relationship to particular national identities. Finally, it considers the potential value of DID to the world of scholarship, particularly following the establishment in 2011 of the programme’s online archive, and the contribution of chapter authors to the realisation of that potential.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the long-standing and highly popular British radio programme Desert Island Discs (DID). It sets out the historical contexts in which the programme was established and developed, and interrogates both its changing format and the meanings and values that have been associated with DID over time. Developments in the production process are also assessed, including the impact of various presenters and the selection of castaways, as well as the programme’s place in broader media culture and its relationship to particular national identities. Finally, it considers the potential value of DID to the world of scholarship, particularly following the establishment in 2011 of the programme’s online archive, and the contribution of chapter authors to the realisation of that potential.
James Zeigler
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496802385
- eISBN:
- 9781496802439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496802385.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines Marxist C.L.R. James’s writings on Melville with a focus on the book he composed while detained on Ellis Island under the McCarran-Walter Act’s classification of alien ...
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This chapter examines Marxist C.L.R. James’s writings on Melville with a focus on the book he composed while detained on Ellis Island under the McCarran-Walter Act’s classification of alien subversives. Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways is James’s unorthodox petition for citizenship: a demonstration of his U.S. cultural literary through an expert rendering of American literature that also conveys his critique of the anticommunist ethos of American nationalism during the Cold War. The chapter addresses the controversy surrounding the conclusion of Mariners, in which James shifts from literary criticism to an autobiography of his detention. New insight into the debate over whether the prison memoir lapses into Red-baiting follows from interpretations of an overlooked letter James wrote to George Padmore in defense of Mariners, the autobiographical conclusion’s unexpectedly positive representation of classic liberalism, and the quite different reading of Moby-Dick in James’s earlier, unfinished manuscript “Notes on American Civilization.”Less
This chapter examines Marxist C.L.R. James’s writings on Melville with a focus on the book he composed while detained on Ellis Island under the McCarran-Walter Act’s classification of alien subversives. Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways is James’s unorthodox petition for citizenship: a demonstration of his U.S. cultural literary through an expert rendering of American literature that also conveys his critique of the anticommunist ethos of American nationalism during the Cold War. The chapter addresses the controversy surrounding the conclusion of Mariners, in which James shifts from literary criticism to an autobiography of his detention. New insight into the debate over whether the prison memoir lapses into Red-baiting follows from interpretations of an overlooked letter James wrote to George Padmore in defense of Mariners, the autobiographical conclusion’s unexpectedly positive representation of classic liberalism, and the quite different reading of Moby-Dick in James’s earlier, unfinished manuscript “Notes on American Civilization.”
Brain Taves
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780813161129
- eISBN:
- 9780813165523
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813161129.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The peak year of the Verne cycle was 1961, when four Hollywood Verne movies were released as well as several imports, along with television originals; never again would so many adaptations be ...
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The peak year of the Verne cycle was 1961, when four Hollywood Verne movies were released as well as several imports, along with television originals; never again would so many adaptations be produced in such rapid order. Verne filmmaking was about to move beyond spectacle and entertainment for the whole family to aim at younger filmgoers drawn by modestly budgeted but no less inventive science fiction; as one producer commented, Verne was as important a name as the biggest stars of the day. Some of these films, most notably Ray Harryhausen’s new version of The Mysterious Island, incorporated monsters reminiscent of those in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), while themes echoed Disney’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. This was apparent not only in the return of Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island but also especially in Master of the World, based on two Verne novels and scripted by science fiction writer Richard Matheson to transform the novels’ vague global threat into a highly topical disquisition on pacifism.Less
The peak year of the Verne cycle was 1961, when four Hollywood Verne movies were released as well as several imports, along with television originals; never again would so many adaptations be produced in such rapid order. Verne filmmaking was about to move beyond spectacle and entertainment for the whole family to aim at younger filmgoers drawn by modestly budgeted but no less inventive science fiction; as one producer commented, Verne was as important a name as the biggest stars of the day. Some of these films, most notably Ray Harryhausen’s new version of The Mysterious Island, incorporated monsters reminiscent of those in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), while themes echoed Disney’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. This was apparent not only in the return of Captain Nemo in Mysterious Island but also especially in Master of the World, based on two Verne novels and scripted by science fiction writer Richard Matheson to transform the novels’ vague global threat into a highly topical disquisition on pacifism.
Yulia Frumer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226516448
- eISBN:
- 9780226524719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226524719.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Chapter 6 demonstrates how ideas about time measurement that originated in astronomical practice and spread in early nineteenth century Japanese society through surveying and navigation manifested in ...
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Chapter 6 demonstrates how ideas about time measurement that originated in astronomical practice and spread in early nineteenth century Japanese society through surveying and navigation manifested in individuals’ perceptions of time. The chapter does so by focusing on the work of one individual—Endō Takanori. Takanori was born into a high-ranking samurai family, in line to become an infrastructure minister of the Kaga domain, which roughly overlaps with present-day Kanazawa. In preparation for his vocation, he studied astronomy and surveying, and indirectly learned from another Kaga-born scholar: Honda Toshiaki. Takanori absorbed the notion of time as rooted in celestial motion and geographic location, and concluded that human measurement of time had to correspond with physical reality. Later in life he became interested in Western drawing methods and developed an aesthetic theory, according to which Western-style depiction offered a superior representation of physical reality because it was based on the same principles as astronomy and surveying. And finally, his interrogation of castaways who brought him a Russian clock led him to contemplate Japan’s place on the global map.Less
Chapter 6 demonstrates how ideas about time measurement that originated in astronomical practice and spread in early nineteenth century Japanese society through surveying and navigation manifested in individuals’ perceptions of time. The chapter does so by focusing on the work of one individual—Endō Takanori. Takanori was born into a high-ranking samurai family, in line to become an infrastructure minister of the Kaga domain, which roughly overlaps with present-day Kanazawa. In preparation for his vocation, he studied astronomy and surveying, and indirectly learned from another Kaga-born scholar: Honda Toshiaki. Takanori absorbed the notion of time as rooted in celestial motion and geographic location, and concluded that human measurement of time had to correspond with physical reality. Later in life he became interested in Western drawing methods and developed an aesthetic theory, according to which Western-style depiction offered a superior representation of physical reality because it was based on the same principles as astronomy and surveying. And finally, his interrogation of castaways who brought him a Russian clock led him to contemplate Japan’s place on the global map.
