From Homer to Hollywood, the western storytelling tradition has canonised a distinctive set of narrative values characterised by tight economy and closure. This book traces the formation of that classical paradigm in the development of ancient storytelling from Homer to Heliodorus. To tell this story, the book sets out to rehabilitate the idea of 'plot', notoriously disconnected from any recognised system of terminology in literary theory. The first part of the book draws on developments in narratology and cognitive science to propose a way of formally describing the way stories are structured and understood. This model is then used to write a history of the emergence of the classical plot type in the four ancient genres that shaped it - Homeric epic, fifth-century tragedy, New Comedy, and the Greek novel - with insights into the fundamental narrative poetics of each.
Since the golden era of silent movies, stars have been described as screen gods, goddesses and idols. This is the story of how Olympus moved to Hollywood to divinise stars as Apollos and Venuses for t
Author of Falling for Hamlet, inspiration for The Royals on E!, Michelle Ray has reimagined Shakespeare’s Macbeth and set it in Hollywood. The story follows Beth DeAngelo and her boyfriend Garrett Mac
In Rewrite Man, Alison Macor tells an engrossing story about the challenges faced by a top screenwriter at the crossroads of mixed and conflicting agendas in Hollywood. Whether writing love scenes for
One of the most versatile of Hollywood filmmmakers, Robert Wise had a number of renowned films under his directorial belt, including The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sound of Music
Told from the point of view of an ancient shaman, this is the dark and mystical story of Mexico's greatest revolutionary general, Pancho Villa. Shedding the Hollywood mantle of the drunken, womanizing
Tells the painful story of Susan Bluestein Davis's life with her longtime partner, husband, Hollywood star, and AIDS victim Brad Davis, from his role in Midnight Express, to his struggle against alcoh
Who would have thought that an Asian American who majored in economics at Harvard would become the NBA’s most talked about star? While the story seems more like Hollywood fantasy, it has really happen
West of Eden is the definitive story of Hollywood, told, in their own words, by the people on the inside: Lauren Bacall, Arthur Miller, Dennis Hopper, Frank Gehry, Ring Lardner, Joan Didion, Stephen S
West of Eden is the definitive story of Hollywood, told, in their own words, by the people on the inside: Lauren Bacall, Arthur Miller, Dennis Hopper, Frank Gehry, Ring Lardner, Joan Didion, Stephen S
From legendary Hollywood director Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) and bestselling author Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story) com
Acclaimed independent filmmaker Ed Burns shares the story of his remarkable career and offers a candid, instructive account of the ins-and-outs of making great movies without the backing of Hollywood.
A gripping behind-the-scenes history of video games in the twenty-first centuryIf there is one thing that defines the video game industry, it is survival of the fittest. It's a business where no one can confidently say what people will be buying and playing even a year from now. And as gaming has grown to a $160 billion market, the cost of that uncertainty has never been higher. Steven L. Kent has been playing video games since Pong and writing about the industry since the Nintendo Entertainment System. In his last book, he used his encyclopedic knowledge and unparalleled access to game designers and executives to tell the story of the industry's first thirty years. Now he chronicles gaming's second century, as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft wage a life-or-death battle to capture the global market. The home console boom of the 90s turned hobby companies like Nintendo and Sega into Hollywood-studio-sized business titans. But by the end of the decade, the machines that had made thei
The ultimate Hollywood story revealed: the sizzling relationship between Joseph Kennedy, patriarch of America’s most influential political family, and Gloria Swanson, one of the most prominent silent
"For many years, conspiracy theories have been among the most popular story elements in Hollywood films. According to the "conspiracy culture," Government, Big Business, the Church, even aliens are co
New York Times bestselling author Scott Eyman tells the story of the remarkable friendship of two Hollywood legends who, though different in many ways, maintained a close friendship that endured all o
All bets are off in this insider's story of excess, greed and danger that follows the author, who, in the late 2000s, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game in existence until it all came c
This is a story that Jack Valenti has long tried to keep secret. Freedom and Entertainment is the first book to offer a behind-the-scenes account of the motion picture rating system and the Motion Picture Association of America under Valenti's leadership. The book is based on the private papers and oral history of Richard D. Heffner, who headed the Classification and Rating Administration for two decades, from 1974 to 1994, and who was once called 'the least-known most powerful person in Hollywood.' The story chronicles the often tense working relationship between Heffner and Valenti, and the sometimes bruising encounters Heffner had with such Hollywood heavyweights as Clint Eastwood, Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas, George C. Scott, Lew Wasserman, Arthur Krim, Jerry Weintraub, and many others.
GUARDIAN YA BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2023From a Stonewall Honor–winning author comes a sweeping story of three generations of boys in the same Iranian family. Perfect for fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow and If You Still Recognise Me. 2019 – Moud is an out gay teen living in Los Angeles with his distant father, Saeed.When Moud gets the news that his grandfather in Iran is dying, he accompanies his dad to Tehran, where the revelation of family secrets will force Moud into a new understanding of his history, his culture, and himself. 1978 – Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future ahead of him in Tehran. But when his parents discover his involvement in the country’s burgeoning revolution, they send him to safety in America, a country Saeed despises.And even worse – he’s forced to live with the American grandmother he never knew existed. 1939 – Bobby, the son of a calculating Hollywood stage mother, lands a coveted
A bold new paperback edition of the EisnerAward-winning graphic novel—now finally collecting the entire story in asingle edition! An epic graphic novel of Hollywood inthe early days of the Black
