Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments Chapter 2 Foreword by Arthur J. Spring Chapter 3 Preface Chapter 4 Prologue: The Poetry of Night Chapter 5 The Horror and Splendor of "Radiant Appearing:" Notes from the Shadow of Chernobyl Chapter 6 The Descent of John Henry's Hammer Chapter 7 Romancing the Apocalypse, or: Why We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb Chapter 8 Charles is an Angel of Goodness Chapter 9 "The Beauty of Her Vault" Chapter 10 Avatars of the Turtles Chapter 11 Intermission: The Two Infinites Chapter 12 Barbie and Jane vs. the Wooden Nutmegs of Connecticut Chapter 13 Surviving the Fall Chapter 14 Are We Having Fun Yet? Chapter 15 "Paper or Plastic?" "You Decide" Chapter 16 Mythopoesis and the Marketplace Chapter 17 Expecting the Barbarians Chapter 18 Leopards in the Temple Chapter 19 Selected Bibliography Chapter 20 Index

About the Author

Steven Carter is the author of five books of literary and cultural criticism, including Bearing Across: Studies in Literature and Science (University Press of America, 2002). In 1989 he was awarded the Schachterle Prize by the National Society for Literature and Science. In 2001 he became the only two-time winner of Italy's coveted Nuove Lettere International Poetry and Literature Prize. A former Senior Fulbright Fellow at two Polish universities, Professor Carter teaches at California State University, Bakersfield.

Reviews

Fiction prevails over reality, image over object, machine over man. Such is the process of internalizing the Other that Steven Carter presents in this most disquieting, but nevertheless entertaining book.
*Dorota Janowska, Marie Curie-Sklodowska University*

To their credit, Carter’s books make honorable attempts to shore against our ruins a devotion to the powers of erudition, critical analysis, and judgment. In the words of Ezra Pound in Canto LXXXI, ‘Here error is all in the not done, all in the diffidence that faltered. . .’ For Steven Carter, these are words to live by.
*Edwin J. Barton, Bakersfield College*

Carter's book provides a fascinating read and thought-provoking insights.
*Bridges*

Steven Carter has, I believe, made an important contribution to the study of metaphysics in our time. Such a voice ought to be heard.
*From The Foreword*