The Vital Lie


Book Description

The Vital Lie is the first book to examine the reality-illusion conflict in modern drama from Ibsen to present-day playwrights. The book questions why vital lies, lies necessary for life itself, are such an obsessive concern for playwrights of the last hundred years. Using the work of fifteen playwrights, Abbott seeks to discover if modern playwrights treat illusions as helpful or necessary to life, or as signals of sicknesses from which human beings need to be cured. What happens to characters when they are forced to face the truth about themselves and their worlds without the protection of their illusions? The author develops a three-part historical analysis of the use of the reality-illusion theme, from its origins as a metaphysical search to its current elaborations as a theatrical game.




Abbott's Illusions


Book Description

Workshop plans to over 80 magic illusions including Aga Levitation, Alien Intruder, Arabian Tent, Artists Dream, Asrah Levitation, Asrah Thurston Version, Barrel Escape, Basket Girl, Boy to Rabbit Illusion, Broom Levitation, burned Alive, Buzz Saw, Cage Illusion, Caliphs Cutter, Canvas Case Illusion, Casadega Cabinet, Chest of Enchantment, Chest of Mystery, Chinese Chopper, Chinese Idol, Choplevi, Costume Trunk, Cutting a Girl into Sixths, Cyclops, Dancing Slippers Illusion, Devil Illusion Dagger Chest, Divided Lady Illusion, Dog Vanish, Doll House Illusion, Doll House Miniature, Dramatique, Drum Illusion, Electric Chair, Electric Light Bulbs Through Girl, Enchanted Tent, Farmer and the Witch, Farmers Daughter, Fireplace Illusion, Frame of Life and Death, Gallows Illusion, Ghost Walks, Girl in Fishbowl, Girl Vanish, Girl Without a Middle, Guillotine, Haunted House, Head on Sword, Headless Woman, Invulnerable Lady, Knifer Illusion, levitation Deluxe, Living Half Lady, Living Head, Mabel Illusion, Magician Ghost and Girl, Man Without A Head, Mignon Illusion, Missing Body Illusion, Modern Cabinet, Modernistic Amputation, Mummy Cloth of the Nile, Packing Box Escape, Palanquin, Phantasmo Illusion, Rapps Spirit Cabinet, Satans Seat, Sawing a Girl in Half, Seaside Mystery Seeing Through a Girl, Shredder Illusion, Shrunken Head Illusion, Slick Post (Totem Pole), Spider Girl (Spidora), Spike Illusion, Stocks of Zanzibar, Surprise Appearance, Sword Box, Tabouret Illusion, Temple of Benares, Through and Through, Twin Box Illusion, Up and Down Oriental Cabinets, Vanishing Girl, Walking through a steel plate, Wheres that Gal.




Postmodern Journeys


Book Description

Part memoir, part cultural criticism, this fast-paced ride through the postmodern landscape of American popular culture explores how our responses to headline events and popular films help script the ways in which we imagine ourselves and the world around us.




Abbott's Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks for Magicians


Book Description

Legendary encyclopedia for magicians contains over 150 tricks: Loop the Loop, Jamison's Severed Rope, The Tarbell Rope Mystery, The Encore Rope Trick, Eddie Clever’s Triple Cut Routine, Bachelor's Needle and many more. Step-by-step instructions and over 500 illustrations show you how to master these dazzling feats.




Figure of This World


Book Description

What if we've been wrong when reading Agamben? Mathew Abbott argues that Agamben's thought is misunderstood when read in terms of critical theory or traditional political philosophy. Instead, he shows that it engages with political ontology: studying the political stakes of the question of being. Abbot demonstrates the crucial influence of Martin Heidegger on Agamben's work, locating it in the post-Heideggerian tradition of the critique of metaphysics. As he clarifies it, Abbott links Agamben's philosophy with Wittgenstein's picture theory and Heidegger's concept of the world-picture, showing the importance of this for understanding - and potentially overcoming - the forms of alienation characteristic of the society of the spectacle.




The New World


Book Description




The End of Everything


Book Description

From the award-winning author of The Turnout and Dare Me: a "mesmerizing psychological thriller" about a teenage girl who disappears during a 1980s suburban summer (Los Angeles Times). Thirteen-year old Lizzie Hood and her next door neighbor Evie Verver are inseparable. They are best friends who swap bathing suits and field-hockey sticks, and share everything that's happened to them. Together they live in the shadow of Evie's glamorous older sister Dusty, who provides a window on the exotic, intoxicating possibilities of their own teenage horizons. To Lizzie, the Verver household, presided over by Evie's big-hearted father, is the world's most perfect place. And then, one afternoon, Evie disappears. The only clue: a maroon sedan Lizzie spotted driving past the two girls earlier in the day. As a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the Midwestern suburban community, everyone looks to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger? Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth, prowling nights through backyards, peering through windows, pushing herself to the dark center of Evie's world. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power at the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secrets and lies that make her wonder if she knew her best friend at all.







Abbott H. Thayer


Book Description