"This magnum opus confirms David Trinidad's place in the poetic firmament: he is simply the best we have. A worthy successor to James Schuyler, Trinidad writes soulfully and sometimes photorealistically about the melancholy threshold where dolls and stars become inner objects—dirty, glamorous, destructible. Jacqueline Susann meets Sei Shonagon? Trinidad manages to combine neo-formalist abstraction with dripping gorgeous figuration: Bonnard's wet dream."—Wayne Koestenbaum «This is a volume celebratory in tone, panoramic in scope, funny, and genuinely moving. Trinidad is at the center of what's relevant in his art. And this collection is more vital and more enjoyable than any single performance he has given thus far.»—D.A. Powell «Trinidad attends to the present to see into the past with such needle point precision it's like encountering a perfectly appointed movie set where personal memory crosses intimately with cultural memory. Poetic form in Trinidad's hands is a metaphor for staking a claim on the material world even as it slips away in a shimmery Hollywood dissolve—a desperate, doomed reclamation of all that can never be held long enough.»—Robyn Schiff «Utterly deadpan and astonishingly fine» is how Publishers Weekly described the poems of David Trinidad. And here is the collection all David Trinidad fans have been waiting for—the first book to have works from all his previous books along with forty new poems: Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems.
How Taiwan can overcome internal stresses and the threat from China Taiwan was a poster child for the “third wave” of global democratization in the 1980s. It was the first Chinese society to make the transition to democracy, and it did so gradually and peacefully. But Taiwan today faces a host of internal issues, starting with the aging of society and the resulting intergenerational conflicts over spending priorities. China’s long-term threat to incorporate the island on terms similar to those used for Hong Kong exacerbates the island’s home-grown problems. Taiwan remains heavily dependent on the United States for its security, but it must use its own resources to cope with Beijing’s constant intimidation and pressure. How Taiwan responds to the internal and external challenges it faces—and what the United States and other outside powers do to help—will determine whether it is able to stand its ground against China’s ambitions. The book explores the broad range of issues and policy choices Taiwan confronts and offers suggestions both for what Taiwan can do to help itself and what the United States should do to improve Taiwan’s chances of success.
From cooperation to a new cold war: is this the future for today’s two great powers? U.S. policy toward China is at an inflection point. For more than a generation, since the 1970s, a near-consensus view in the United States supported engagement with China, with the aim of integrating China into the U.S.-led international order. By the latter part of the 2010s, that consensus had collapsed as a much more powerful and increasingly assertive China was seen as a strategic rival to the United States. How the two countries tackle issues affecting the most important bilateral relationship in the world will significantly shape overall international relations for years to come. In this timely book, leading scholars of U.S.-China relations and China’s foreign policy address recent changes in American assessments of China’s capabilities and intentions and consider potential risks to international security, the significance of a shifting international distribution of power, problems of misperception, and the risk of conflicts. China’s military modernization, its advancing technology, and its Belt and Road Initiative, as well as regional concerns, such as the South China Sea disputes, relations with Japan, and tensions on the Korean Peninsula, receive special focus.
Fostering a transatlantic renaissance to salvage the Western alliance Is the Western alliance, which brought together the United States and Europe after World War II, in an inevitable state of decline, and if so, can anything be done to repair it? There seems little doubt that fragmentation of the Western alliance was under way even before Donald Trump’s unorthodox policymaking broadened the schism. Opinions differ as to the next step, however, with some taking the current divisions as a given and advocating the creation of a new group of like-minded democracies that would exclude the United States, while others seek to exploit the rift in hopes of furthering their own nationalistic ambitions for a postliberal world. The authors outline a “transatlantic renaissance,” in which U.S. and European leaders would work together to craft a new Atlantic Charter that would restore the liberal objectives that animated the Western alliance for more than seven decades. Modernizing institutional relationships across the Atlantic should help both the United States and Europe address common challenges jointly and improve burdensharing. The world needs a vibrant and energetic West to protect fundamental values from illiberal forces, both internal and external.
hey guys, this is my first book and i want to share my journey. if you don't know me, continue to read on. i'm from the bay area, ca. my life growing up was not pretty– i grew up with inconsistent-no parents having to do life basically alone. when i was 15 i moved out into a whole new city in the east bay, ca. i was broken, lost, and lonely. i've cried a lot, prayed a lot, questioned a lot, seen a lot, felt a lot, been through a lot, written a lot. i have been writing poetry since i was six years old as my outlet. i eventually developed the courage to write about my story on how god used me. this book consists of my words that come from my heart, from 2015 till now. i talk about my testimonies which i hope it heals some wounds, opens some minds, opens some hearts. i hope it speaks to those that are in a similar place i was once in. i am the sunflower who grew from concrete, i was actually rooted underneath it all this whole time. (fun fact: not only did i write from my real p.o.v., but from many other peoples perspectives on different topics to make it as real and diverse as possible.) let this book be your go-to when you need a reminder. you deserve peace, healing, abundance, happiness, love, and everything great that life has to offer you. keep going. i hope my testimonies prove to you that you too can overcome your struggles, and that every sunflower must come from something. all glory to God. put your faith in God. take your dreams serious. execute. exceed. create legacy. impact. repeat. with love, –abby
How societies can preserve democracy with a human-directed social contract The recent rise of populist movements, especially in Western democracies, has prompted considerable thoughtful analysis. This remarkable book, digging deeper than most such efforts, cites the global financial crisis as the proximate cause but finds the ultimate source in the twin failures of modern capitalism and the democratic state to fulfill a meaningful social contract for the vast majority of people. The book’s focus on the financial crisis underscores how the promises of liberal democracy were repeatedly broken by financial and political elites, with a backlash emerging in the form of “us-against-them” populism. By undermining the hopes and livelihoods of millions of people, the crisis created its own narrative, with consequences capable of causing lasting damage to the liberal world order. To restore the values of liberal democracy, the author proposes a “truly human social contract” supported by a narrative of empathy. The basis of such a contract is a new view of civil and social rights as an expression of human dignity, with economic factors understood as moral concerns, not just as a matter of who gets the most.
The Heart Sutra is the most widely read, chanted, and copied text in East Asian Buddhism. Here Frederik L. Schodt explores his lifelong fascination with the sutra: its mesmerizing mantra, its ancient history, the “emptiness theory, and the way it is used around the world as a metaphysical tool to overcome chaos and confusion and reach a new understanding of reality–a perfection of wisdom. Schodt's journey takes him to caves in China, American beats declaiming poetry, speculations into the sutra's true origins, and even a robot Avalokiteśvara at a Kyoto temple.