Bøger af Mark T. Conard

One night, helping out a friend, Jake Micallef does a little breaking-and-entering and stumbles upon a plot to assassinate his estranged brother, who just happens to be the Mayor of New York City. As Jake wrestles with that bombshell, another one walks straight into his life: Marcie Yates. Marcie eerily resembles Jake's old girlfriend, the woman who helped his brother tear his world apart. Jake desperately latches onto Marcie, hoping she can fix his shattered life, and allow him to let go of all that hate and forgive his brother. But when thugs kidnap Marcie to keep Jake from interfering in the assassination plot, he has no choice but to track down the conspirators, only to discover he's fallen right into their trap. In the end, Jake must risk everything to save Marcie and stop the bullet headed for his brother.

Henry Blackwell assists the Philadelphia police with psychological profiles of dangerous criminals, but Blackwell's own wife was brutally murdered, and the crime went unsolved. Since her death, Blackwell has gone on a bender and suffers periodic blackouts. Detectives Jimmy Slomann and Dave Busch investigate the deaths of several young women whose killings resemble that of Blackwell's wife. Blackwell had been acquainted with all the victims and is convinced that the killer has struck again. Up-and-coming reporter Michele Stone investigates the tragic story of Blackwell and his wife's unsolved murder. The reporter shows a personal interest in Blackwell, and he wonders if she's just using him to get the scoop. Slomann and Busch note the correspondence between Blackwell's drinking binges and the murders and wonder if he's involved. Convinced that the killer is taking revenge on him from some reason, Blackwell's drinking worsens, and he starts to come unhinged. Blackwell, the detectives, the reporter, and a mysterious stranger who's been following Blackwell, are all on a collision course in this noir tale of murder and retribution.

In 2008 No Country for Old Men won the Academy Award for Best Picture, adding to the reputation of filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, who were already known for pushing the boundaries of genre. They had already made films that redefined the gangster movie, the screwball comedy, the fable, and the film noir, among others. No Country is just one of many Coen brothers films to center on the struggles of complex characters to understand themselves and their places in the strange worlds they inhabit. To borrow a phrase from Barton Fink, all Coen films explore "e;the life of the mind"e; and show that the human condition can often be simultaneously comic and tragic, profound and absurd. In The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers, editor Mark T. Conard and other noted scholars explore the challenging moral and philosophical terrain of the Coen repertoire. Several authors connect the Coens' most widely known plots and characters to the shadowy, violent, and morally ambiguous world of classic film noir and its modern counterpart, neo-noir. As these essays reveal, Coen films often share noir's essential philosophical assumptions: power corrupts, evil is real, and human control of fate is an illusion. In Fargo, not even Minnesota's blankets of snow can hide Jerry Lundegaard's crimes or brighten his long, dark night of the soul. Coen films that stylistically depart from film noir still bear the influence of the genre's prevailing philosophical systems. The tale of love, marriage, betrayal, and divorce in Intolerable Cruelty transcends the plight of the characters to illuminate competing theories of justice. Even in lighter fare, such as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, the comedy emerges from characters' journeys to the brink of an amoral abyss. However, the Coens often knowingly and gleefully subvert conventions and occasionally offer symbolic rebirths and other hopeful outcomes. At the end of The Big Lebowski, the Dude abides, his laziness has become a virtue, and the human comedy is perpetuating itself with the promised arrival of a newborn Lebowski. The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers sheds new light on these cinematic visionaries and their films' stirring philosophical insights. From Blood Simple to No Country for Old Men, the Coens' films feature characters who hunger for meaning in shared human experience -- they are looking for answers. A select few of their protagonists find affirmation and redemption, but for many others, the quest for answers leads, at best, only to more questions.

Here is the story of the long interaction between humans, land, and climate in the American South. Originally published in 1983 and needed now more than ever, This Land, This South was the first book to explore the cumulative impact of humans on the southern landscape and its effect on them.

Fifteen philosophers representing different schools of thought answer the questions 'what is Woody Allen trying to say in his films? And why should anyone care?' The essays explore the philosophical undertones and remind us that just because the universe is meaningless and life is pointless is no reason to commit suicide.