My essays on the Parisian universal expositions held in the 19th and 20th centuries:
"Fanfare for the New Empire: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1855," World's Fair, spring, 1986 -- an assessment of the architecture, art, and social thought of the first international exhibition held in France
"Empire of Autumn: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867," World's Fair, summer, 1986 -- an assessment of the architecture, art, and social thought of the second international exhibition held in France
"Heroism in Defeat: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878," World's Fair, autumn, 1986 -- an assessment of the architecture, art, and social thought of the third international exhibition held in France
"Revolution: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889," World's Fair, winter, 1986 -- an assessment of the architecture, art, and social thought of the fourth international exhibition held in France
"Culmination: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900," World's Fair, summer, 1987 --an assessment of the architecture, art, and social thought of the fifth international exhibition held in France
"Where Art Deco Was Born: Paris, 1925," World's Fair, winter, 1988 -- a discussion of the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs
"Empire of the Republic: the Exposition Coloniale Internationale de Paris, 1931," World's Fair magazine, Volume VIII, Number 4 and Contemporary French Civilization, Winter/Spring, 1990 -- a discussion of the social, intellectual and artistic aspects of the French colonial exposition
"Confrontation: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1937," World's Fair, winter, 1988 -- an assessment of the architecture, art, and social thought of the sixth and final international exhibition held in France
*** Three essays on the Paris expositions -- 1867, 1878, and 1937 -- appear in Historical Dictionary of World's Fairs and Expositions (Greenwood Press, 1990), edited by John Findling
These essays treat the eleven national industrial expositions held in Paris between 1798 and 1849.
Here is the introductory section, concerning the history of marketplaces, fairs, salons, spectacles, etc. as predecessors of the Paris expositions.
"The First Exposition: L'Exposition Publique des Produits de l'Industrie Française, Paris, 1798," -- an analysis of the first national industrial exposition
"The Napoleonic Expositions: 1801, 1802, 1806" -- includes the first major public appearance of the Jacquard Loom
"Expositions of the Restoration" -- the national expositions of 1819, 1823, and 1827
"The July Monarchy Expositions" -- the national expositions of 1834, 1839, and 1844
"Exposition of the Second Republic" -- the last national exposition, 1849
Backstory to the Paris Expositions Essays
Essays on Various Subjects
"Pictures from Plato's Cave," The New Mexico Humanities Review, fall, 1985 -- a comparison of the intrinsic capabilities of painting and photography
Backstory to “Pictures from Plato’s Cave"
"New Visions of Space-Time," Magazine, fall, 1984 -- a comparison of the languages of contemporary physics, painting, and film.
Backstory to "New Visions of Space-Time"
"The Relative Absolute," California Humanities Association Bulletin, fall, 1976 -- a discussion of the replacment of laws by theories in art and science
Backstory to "The Relative Absolute"
"The Faustian Infinite," Western Humanities Review, autumn, 1975 -- an attempt to find a common vision of the world in Western mathematics, painting, and music; winner of the Fels Award for Non-Fiction in 1976
Backstory to "The Faustian Infinite"
"Comparing Frontiers: A Scout Report," in Magazine, spring, 1988
"The Doré Vase," World's Fair, Volume III, No. 2, 1983 -- the history and aesthetics of Gustave Dore's major work of sculpture, now in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor; reprinted as a monograph for the San Francisco Museums
"Life Juggling," in Juggler's World, Winter 1990-91 Vol. 42, number 4)
"On the Symbolism of Juggling: The Moral and Aesthetic Implications of the Mastery of Falling Objects," in Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 25, Number 3 (Winter, 1991)
Backstory to "On the Symbolism of Juggling"
The Media's Tribute to the Unabomber (1995) -- a personal essay on the response of the American media to the Unabomber's threats
“Science and the Humanities (1972)
Overlinked -- An essay on the perils of putting in links to other sites -- for the much-reduced published version, see the "Idées Fortes" section of Wired, January, 1996.
"The Morality of Computer Gaming" in Humanities, 1991-1992
The Jazz Flute -- A brief essay on the history and nature of the flute in jazz
Backstory to "The Jazz Flute"
The Aesthetics of Customized Cars
Backstory to "The Aesthetics of Customized Cars"
"The Humanities of the City," Humanities Education, summer, 1990 -- a consideration of humanities courses focusing on cities
Review of From Satori to Silicon Valley by Theodore Roszak, in the Whole Earth Review, 1986
Backstory included
"Oswald Spengler and the Morphology of Cultures," Humanities, 1979 -- presentation and analysis of Spengler's most innovative ideas
Backstory at the end of the essay
"Morality Play" -- a story of compassion and deception on the FLUTE list in 1997
Backstory to "Morality Play"
“Knives Out” — a brief discussion of some of the issues presented in Rian Johnson’s film
"Mathematics for the Humanities," California Humanities Association Bulletin, September, 1975 -- a plea for including mathematical concepts in courses of humanistic study
"Therapy for a Dying Craft: A Reconstruction of Literary Criticism," Pequod, summer, 1975 -- a rejection of "New Criticism," and a program for an integrative approach to literature
"The Vision of Hyperspace," Stereo World, Nov.-Dec., 1975 -- a discussion of the perceptual qualities of hyperstereoscopy (a branch of three-dimensional photography)
"The Towers of San Francisco," World's Fair, summer, 1984 -- an assessment of the Bonet Electric Tower (Midwinter Exposition, 1894), the Tower of Jewels (Panama Pacific Exposition, 1915), and the Tower of the Sun (Treasure Island Fair, 1939)
"The Electronic Humanities," Humanities, spring, 1985 -- a discussion of the implication of computers for the theory and practice of the humanities
"The Signature Buildings of San Francisco," San Francisco Bay Architect's Review, spring, 1985 -- a humanist's view of the five skyline-defining buildings in the city's history
"The Fantastic Fair," World's Fair, winter, 1985 -- a humanistic study of San Francisco's first international exhibition (See above for a link to the book version of this essay.)
"Have We Been Here Before? Hippie and Raver Cultures of the 60's and 90s" in Assemblage 1.1 (an electronic journal published on the Internet), November, 1992
The Idea of Progress
Backstory to "The Idea of Progress"
Two Parties
Backstory to "Two Parties"
The Indecisive Moment
Backstory to "The Indecisive Moment"
Having a Ball in Paris, Brussels and San Francisco
Visual Essays about San Francisco
Passages
Successful Treachery in Art and Life
The Bee in the Swimming Pool
The Beginning
Aspects of Yoshitoshi
“Cannot Be Painted”: Samuel Johnson on the Limits of Painting
The Araucaria Presentation
Hundreds of Stars
images and notes on the expansion of my awareness of vastness, beauty, friendship and love
