Brian Collins

Peter Warlock is one of the several pseudonyms adopted by the critic, researcher, editor and composer, Phillip Heseltine (1894-1930). Previous studies of Warlock have almost all been exclusively biographical, using the pseudonyms as evidence of a split personality and applying this and the other controversial aspects of his life-style to an evaluation of his music.

The Composer

Peter Warlock

The Other Rāma presents a systematic analysis of the myth cycle of Paraśurāma ("Rāma with the Axe"), an avatára of Viṣṇu best known for decapitating his own mother and annihilating twenty-one generations of the Kṣatriya warrior caste in an extermination campaign frequently referred to as "genocide" by modern scholars. Compared to Rāma and Kṛṣṇa, the other human forms of Viṣṇu, Paraśurāma has a much darker reputation, with few temples devoted to him and scant worshippers. He has also attracted far less scholarly attention. But dozens of important castes and clans across the subcontinent claim Paraśurāma as the originator of their bloodline, and his mother, Reṇukā, is worshipped in the form of a severed head throughout South India. Using the tools of comparative mythology and psychoanalysis, Brian Collins identifies three major motifs in the mythology of Paraśurāma: his hybrid status as a Brahmin warrior, his act of matricide, and his bloody one-man war to cleanse the earth of Kṣatriyas. Collins considers a wide variety of representations of the myth, from its origins in the Mahābhārata to contemporary debates online. He also examines Paraśurāma alongside the Wandering Jew of European legend and Psycho's matricidal serial killer Norman Bates. He examines why mythmakers once elevated this transgressive and antisocial figure to the level of an avatāra and why he still holds such fascination for a world that continues to grapple with mass killings and violence against women.

Matricide and Genocide in the Mythology of Paraśurāma

The Other Rāma

Xiaodong Chen

Yuan Yao

Masood Ur Rehman

Clive G. Parini

This book addresses the fundamentals and practical implementations of antennas for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) In this book, the authors discuss the various aspects of GNSS antennas, including fundamentals of GNSS, design approaches for the GNSS terminal and satellite antennas, performance enhancement techniques and effects of user’s presence and surrounding environment on these antennas. In addition, the book will provide the reader with an insight into the most important aspects of the GNSS antenna technology and lay the foundations for future advancements. It also includes a number of real case studies describing the ways in which antenna design can be adapted to conform to the design constraints of practical user devices, and also the management of potential adverse interactions between the antenna and its platform. Key Features: Covers the fundamentals and practical implementations of antennas for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Describes technological advancements for GPS, Glonass, Galileo and Compass Aims to address future issues such as multipath interference, in building operation, RF interference in mobile Includes a number of real case studies to illustrate practical implementation of GNSS This book will be an invaluable guide for antenna designers, system engineers, researchers for GNSS systems and postgraduate students (antennas, satellite communication technology). R&D engineers in mobile handset manufacturers, spectrum engineers will also find this book of interest.

Antennas for Global Navigation Satellite Systems

In the beginning, says the ancient Hindu text the Rg Veda, was man. And from man’s sacrifice and dismemberment came the entire world, including the hierarchical ordering of human society. The Head Beneath the Altar is the first book to present a wide-ranging study of Hindu texts read through the lens of René Girard’s mimetic theory of the sacrificial origin of religion and culture. For those interested in Girard and comparative religion, the book also performs a careful reading of Girard’s work, drawing connections between his thought and the work of theorists like Georges Dumézil and Giorgio Agamben. Brian Collins examines the idea of sacrifice from the earliest recorded rituals through the flowering of classical mythology and the ancient Indian institutions of the duel, the oath, and the secret warrior society. He also uncovers implicit and explicit critiques in the tradition, confirming Girard’s intuition that Hinduism offers an alternative anti-sacrificial worldview to the one contained in the gospels.

Hindu Mythology and the Critique of Sacrifice

The Head Beneath the Altar

Mark Twain

Representative works are interpreted in light of the two great political movements of the nineteenth century: the abolition of slavery and the women's rights movement. By reexamining Emerson, Poe, Melville, Douglass, Walt Whitman, Chopin, and Faulkner and others, Rowe assesses the degree to which major writers' attitudes toward race, class, and gender contribute to specific political reforms in nineteenth and twentieth-century American culture.

And Other Quotations from Mark Twain

When in Doubt, Tell the Truth

Ellen Goldberg

Aditi Sen

Bollywood Horrors is a wide-ranging collection that examines the religious aspects of horror imagery, representations of real-life horror in the movies, and the ways in which Hindi films have projected cinematic fears onto the screen. Part one, “Material Cultures and Prehistories of Horror in South Asia” looks at horror movie posters and song booklets and the surprising role of religion in the importation of Gothic tropes into Indian films, told through the little-known story of Sir Devendra Prasad Varma. Part two, “Cinematic Horror, Iconography and Aesthetics” examines the stereotype of the tantric magician found in Indian literature beginning in the medieval period, cinematic representations of the myth of the fearsome goddess Durga's slaying of the Buffalo Demon, and the influence of epic mythology and Hollywood thrillers on the 2002 film Raaz. The final part, “Cultural Horror,” analyzes elements of horror in Indian cinema's depiction of human trafficking, shifting gender roles, the rape-revenge cycle, and communal violence.

Religion, Violence and Cinematic Fears in India

Bollywood Horrors

For over six years, Brian Collins watched and reviewed a different horror movie every single day. Most of them stunk. With over 2500 reviews on the Horror Movie A Day website, finding the worthwhile ones can be a chore, so Collins has curated a selection of choice films - 365 of them in fact, one for every day of the year. Each month has a different theme and offers a variety of films within that theme for your viewing enjoyment. And they're not the ones you've seen already - most of the book's selections are obscure, indie, or foreign titles that a casual horror fan hasn't seen yet. Every movie is someone's favorite movie - perhaps this book will introduce you to yours.

Brian Collins

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