In a Trance: On Paleo Art / (Record no. 234272)

MARC details
000 -LEADER
fixed length control field 05032cam a22004214a 4500
001 - CONTROL NUMBER
control field musev2_76475
003 - CONTROL NUMBER IDENTIFIER
control field MdBmJHUP
005 - DATE AND TIME OF LATEST TRANSACTION
control field 20240815120832.0
006 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--ADDITIONAL MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS
fixed length control field m o d
007 - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION FIXED FIELD--GENERAL INFORMATION
fixed length control field cr||||||||nn|n
008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION
fixed length control field 200724s2014 nyu o 00 0 eng d
020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 9780692321287
035 ## - SYSTEM CONTROL NUMBER
System control number (OCoLC)1178720987
040 ## - CATALOGING SOURCE
Original cataloging agency MdBmJHUP
Transcribing agency MdBmJHUP
050 #4 - LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CALL NUMBER
Classification number N5310
Item number .S565 2020
082 0# - DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION NUMBER
Classification number 759/.011/3
Edition number 23
100 1# - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME
Personal name Skoblow, Jeffrey,
Relator term author.
245 10 - TITLE STATEMENT
Title In a Trance: On Paleo Art /
Statement of responsibility, etc. Jeffrey Skoblow.
264 #1 - PRODUCTION, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, MANUFACTURE, AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Place of production, publication, distribution, manufacture Baltimore, Maryland :
Name of producer, publisher, distributor, manufacturer Project Muse,
Date of production, publication, distribution, manufacture, or copyright notice 2020
264 #3 - PRODUCTION, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, MANUFACTURE, AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Place of production, publication, distribution, manufacture Baltimore, Md. :
Name of producer, publisher, distributor, manufacturer Project MUSE,
Date of production, publication, distribution, manufacture, or copyright notice 2020
264 #4 - PRODUCTION, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, MANUFACTURE, AND COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Date of production, publication, distribution, manufacture, or copyright notice ©2020
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Extent 1 online resource (156 pages).
336 ## - CONTENT TYPE
Content type term text
Content type code txt
Source rdacontent
337 ## - MEDIA TYPE
Media type term computer
Media type code c
Source rdamedia
338 ## - CARRIER TYPE
Carrier type term online resource
Carrier type code cr
Source rdacarrier
500 ## - GENERAL NOTE
General note Issued as part of book collections on Project MUSE.
506 0# - RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS NOTE
Terms governing access Open Access
Standardized terminology for access restriction Unrestricted online access
Source of term star
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC.
Summary, etc. In a Trance is just the sort of genre-defying work we at Peanut and punctum and, as it happens, Jeffrey Skoblow, revel in. It is a book-length essay by a fiction writer. It is a fictional essay by a literary scholar. It is a gallant assay by a smart man who thinks while he walks, and he walks a lot.The book is a meta-meditation on Paleolithic cave drawings and the humans who ponder them. It is fact-based and entrancing just as the cave drawings are actual (existing in time -- loosely -- and space -- more definitively) and mesmerizing. Skoblow is devising stories as "we" (humans) have always devised stories though in a less familiar mode, along a less travelled path.The essay draws on (!) the careful/thoughtful/whimsical notebooks kept by Skoblow over a dozen years. The notebooks record/illuminate/complicate his visits to twelve Paleolithic art sites as well as his deep, eccentric reading of texts concerned in some way with the subject of cave drawings by an array of scientists, anthropologists, archeologists, art historians, and other sundry enthusiasts and experts, so-called and otherwise.I saw the caves and didn't know what to do with them. So I started writing in Spring '01 to try to figure it out. The first words I wrote were "The caves themselves." A few pages later: "The caves, no doubt, blah blah blah. To find a way to talk about them: impossible." It wasn't going well.These are one man's marks made about making marks. Skoblow's meticulous descriptions attempt the impossible: to provide the "information" that will allow us to see what is visible, invisible, restricted, unseen, hidden, and lost (in the sense of not yet found, or destroyed, or degraded by human presence) beneath the ground at El Castillo and Niaux (for instance). Lines, dots, dashes, body parts, animals, and "hum-animal" figures -- things/creatures we have given name to (bison? rhino? vulva? phallus?) in our helplessly homo-sapien-centric attempts to understand (and/or to master our non-understanding).The Great Being would appear to be an androgynous figure, or rather, an ungendered figure almost mistakable for a skull, all the matter of a few deft lines: a slightly crumpled egg-shaped braincase with no representation of hair or other individualizing features, an overlarge eye and a blunt nose, a mouth curving in a long slow grin, maybe, of stupefaction or benediction, benign and spooky all at once.Here is a leaping mind.We follow Skoblow as he steps onto an electric train in the caves at Rouffignac and steps out in Southern Illinois, where he cautiously crosses a snake-ridden (maybe) meadow. This is where he meanders further -- literally and figuratively: further from the actual caves, furtherest from certainty. These furtherings are exactly what we might expect from a book that from its opening pages declares as one if its themes the difficulties inherent in considering Paleolithic art.It is problematic ... for reasons having to do with the nature of representation and, no doubt, the mysteries of sentient experience. There is also the problem of expectations and intent: to whom does one speak about the caves, and for what purpose?The pleasures of this book are found in Skoblow's intense, vigilant exploration of these problems and questions, which are in themselves irresistible. Who are we? In what ways, specifically, and to what degree do we resemble these ancient humans who spray- and brush-painted, smudged, carved, and stenciled images into and onto cave walls and floors and ceilings?Signs emptied of meaning, a kind of dream, a salve and a reassurance, possibly terrifying, too. A plunge into signs.
588 ## - SOURCE OF DESCRIPTION NOTE
Source of description note Description based on print version record.
650 #0 - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name entry element Prehistoric art
650 #0 - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name entry element Cave paintings.
655 #7 - INDEX TERM--GENRE/FORM
Genre/form data or focus term Electronic books.
Source of term local
710 2# - ADDED ENTRY--CORPORATE NAME
Corporate name or jurisdiction name as entry element Project Muse,
Relator term distributor.
776 18 - ADDITIONAL PHYSICAL FORM ENTRY
Relationship information Print version:
International Standard Book Number 9780692321287
710 2# - ADDED ENTRY--CORPORATE NAME
Corporate name or jurisdiction name as entry element Project Muse.
Relator term distributor
830 #0 - SERIES ADDED ENTRY--UNIFORM TITLE
Uniform title Book collections on Project MUSE.
856 40 - ELECTRONIC LOCATION AND ACCESS
Public note Full text available:
Uniform Resource Identifier <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/76475/">https://muse.jhu.edu/book/76475/</a>

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