THE CULTURAL JACKDAW

Standing For Something

The most ground-breaking cultural movements of the last 100 years have all stood for something.

Pioneers, misfits and leaders use manifestos to inspire action and explain their vision and worldview.

This amazing book collects the manifestos from the movements that have changed our world; from communism to dadaism. It's an important cultural legacy all bound in the pages of one book.

'The Manifesto is remarkable for its imaginative power . . . it is the first great modernist work of art.'

Marshall Berman

And here is the fascinating manifesto for the Internet called A Declaration of the Independece of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow, written in 1996.

Re-thinking the Book

A fascinating new book by American author Padgett Powell. Every sentence is written as a question.

 

And this app for Stephen Fry's memoirs lets you filter his life by different categories (or tags).

Po Bronson

I read the book What should I do with my life?' by Po Bronson when I was travelling.

It's a book full of real life stories about people who changed direction in their life to follow what they believed in. Bronson writes like a charm and the way he interviews people throughout the book is illuminating and touching.

I found out he was doing a talk at Borders on Oxford Street in London. So myself and Beki popped down to see what he had to say. He talked about how inspiring doing a project like 'What should I do with my life?' was told the audience a load of stories that never made it into the book. It was a huge project in which he interviewed hundreds of people across the US and over this side of the Atlantic.

He came across as really genuine and passionate about his subject matter. He was also charming and lucid, warm and thoughtful.

He explained that whilst talking to all these people he started to gain an understanding of what fears drove people to change their lives. He mentioned that sociologists believe that humans have 4 universal fears. These are:

- The fear that the world is meaningless

- The fear of chosing

- The fear of dying

- The fear of being alone

I recommend reading this book and checking out his new one called 'Why do I love these people?', which is all about families: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0436205335/qid=1144244776/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl/026-2867365-6514044

'What should I do with my life?': http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099437996/qid=1144244776/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-2867365-6514044