Paradise Lust

Paradise Lust
Author: Brook Wilensky-Lanford
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2011-08-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0802195636

A “certainly weird . . . strangely wonderful . . . [and] often irresistible” search to find the real Garden of Eden (The New York Times Book Review). Where, precisely, was God’s Paradise? St. Augustine had a theory. So did medieval monks, John Calvin and Christopher Columbus. But when Darwin’s theory of evolution changed our understanding of human origins, shouldn’t the desire to put a literal Eden on the map have faded away? Not so fast. This “gloriously researched, pluckily written historical and anecdotal assay of humankind’s age-old quixotic quest for the exact location of the Biblical garden” (Elle) explores an obsession that has consumed scientists and theologians alike for centuries. To this day, the search continues, taken up by amateur explorers, clergymen, scholars, engineers and educators—romantic seekers all who started with the same simple-sounding Bible verses, only to end up at a different spot on the globe: Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, the North Pole, Mesopotamia, China, Iraq—and Ohio. Inspired by an Eden seeker in her own family, “Wilensky-Lanford approaches her subjects with respect, enthusiasm and conscientious research” (San Francisco Chronicle) as she traverses a century-spanning history provoking surprising insights into where we came from, what we did wrong, and where we go from here. And it all makes for “a lively journey” (Kirkus Reviews).

Book of Shadows

Book of Shadows
Author: Nero O'Reilly
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-01-29
Genre:
ISBN: 9780998451244

A luxurious art book of queer demon erotica from over 40 talented creators.

Paradise Lust

Paradise Lust
Author: Kit McCann
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2011-12-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1448131103

Everywhere you look, for heaven's sake, there are ladies. Never mind for heaven's sake, this is heaven. It is the Garden of Eden, where you are allowed to eat all the apples you want. The air itself is sexy. Never mind meanderings on hill tribes and Buddhist temple architecture, or burble about meditation and mantras, and dire warnings about 'prostitutes' and 'the sex industry'. Because that is why you have come here. You are a man with ample leisure time and money in your pocket, and you are here for the ladies. Because they do it. Welcome to Thailand, where hundreds of thousands of male tourists are lured every year by thoughts of luscious silk-skinned maidens whose smiles promise ecstasy. And despite the exotic sights, gorgeous beaches and mouth-watering food, for many the magic of the east means sex. In the raucous seaside resorts like Patang and Pattaya, armies of sultry young temptresses ensare the hearts and bankrolls of besotted foreigners. Totally frank, Kit McCann charts his own uninhibited rake's progress through the moonscape of lust and its pitfalls. A vast comedy of corruption, deceit, drugs, murder, despair, suicide, and above all, greed. He should know, he saw it all.

Paradise Rot

Paradise Rot
Author: Jenny Hval
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 178663385X

Jo is in a strange new country for university and having a more peculiar time than most. In a house with no walls, shared with a woman who has no boundaries, she finds her strange home coming to life in unimaginable ways. Jo's sensitivity and all her senses become increasingly heightened and fraught, as the lines between bodies and plants, dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh. This debut novel from critically acclaimed artist and musician Jenny Hval presents a heady and hyper-sensual portrayal of sexual awakening and queer desire.

Los Angeles Magazine

Los Angeles Magazine
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1999-11
Genre:
ISBN:

Los Angeles magazine is a regional magazine of national stature. Our combination of award-winning feature writing, investigative reporting, service journalism, and design covers the people, lifestyle, culture, entertainment, fashion, art and architecture, and news that define Southern California. Started in the spring of 1961, Los Angeles magazine has been addressing the needs and interests of our region for 48 years. The magazine continues to be the definitive resource for an affluent population that is intensely interested in a lifestyle that is uniquely Southern Californian.

Utopia's Doom

Utopia's Doom
Author: P. VandenBroeck
Publisher: Art & Religion
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9789042934689

The so-called Garden of Delights by Jheronimus Bosch (c. 1450-1516), now located in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, was painted over half a millennium ago yet remains an absolutely iconic work in European art history. The highly complex and enigmatic image has frequently been interpreted as a paradisaical utopia, in which people indulge playfully in erotic pleasure in harmony with nature. It is a visual utopia framed before Thomas More had actually coined the word in a book whose entirely unfrivolous blueprint for society could hardly differ more from Bosch's phantasm. More traditional art historians have identified Bosch's masterpiece as a painted warning against the sins of the body, more specifically that of 'lust', citing the image of Hell in the right wing in support. Paul Vandenbroeck argues that these two interpretations need not preclude one another: Bosch painted a phantasmagorical false paradise that leads inexorably to ruin. He drew his inspiration from folk ideas about a semi-earthly, semi-supernatural erotic paradise or Grail, in which those who entered could live in a dream-world of unbridled pleasure. But only until Judgement Day, upon which they would all wind up in Hell. As far as 'right-thinking' town-dwellers were concerned from their vantage point within a 'bourgeois civilizing offensive', belief in such an existence was dangerous, if not diabolical nonsense - tantamount to the 'Cult of Adam' and the indiscriminate sexual promiscuity of the late-medieval Sect of the Free Spirit. In large swathes of countryside throughout Europe, however, people were familiar with 'ecstatics', those 'born with the caul', who were able to access this other world. Bosch's magisterial work is simultaneously a reflection on the first and last times, on passions and moral norms, human beings and Nature. A Nature which, although also part of God's creation, was permeated with malevolent and highly dangerous sexual urges, which human beings were required to keep in check. For whom did Bosch paint this enormous triptych? Since the discoveries of Prof. J.K. Steppe of Leuven University, art historians have tended to identify the patron as Henry III of Nassau or, more recently, his uncle, Engelbert II. This book presents an unexpected alternative hypothesis.

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost
Author: John Milton
Publisher:
Total Pages: 464
Release: 1711
Genre: Bible
ISBN:

The Paradise Trilogy

The Paradise Trilogy
Author: Ted Dekker
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 1105
Release: 2012-05-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1401686990

Welcome to Paradise. Showdown A man cloaked in black arrives in the sleepy town of Paradise, Colorado. He knows too much about the town’s many unspoken secrets, and he himself holds the greatest secret of them all. Bearing the power to grant any unfulfilled dream, he is irresistible. As dark clouds and sandstorms envelop the town, it becomes apparent that Paradise is being isolated for a reason. But why? Saint He belongs to the X Group. They call him Saint. Invasive techniques have stripped him of his identity and made him someone new . . . but who is he really? From the deep woods of Hungary to the streets of New York, one man’s search for truth leads him into a world of government cover-ups, political intrigue, and ultimate betrayal. Sinner This is the story of Marsuvees Black, a force of raw evil who speaks with wicked persuasion that is far more destructive than swords or guns. It’s also the story of two unsuspecting survivors of a research project gone bad—who may be the most powerful people on earth. And finally, it’s the story of one who comes out of the desert to lead those willing to stand for truth. The epic conclusion to what began in a small town called Paradise.

Paradise Tales

Paradise Tales
Author: Geoff Ryman
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2011
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 193152064X

A collection that ranges from present-day Cambodia to the far future: this is science fiction and fantasy with a heart.