Main entry:

Williams, R. John.

Title & Author:

The Buddha in the machine : art, technology, and the meeting of East and West / R. John Williams.

Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2014]

Description:

xii, 322 pages : illustrations (some color), 32 unnumbered pages ; 26 cm.

Series:

Yale studies in English

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-310) and index.
Asia-as-Technê -- The teahouse of the American book : Boston bindings and Asia-as-Technê, 1890 -- 1920 -- Mastering the machine : Technology and the racial logic of Jack London's Asia -- Machine/art : Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, and the Chinese written character -- The technê whim : Lin Yutang and the invention of the Chinese typewriter -- The Chinese parrot : Technê-pop culture and the oriental detective genre -- Technê-zen and the spiritual quality of global capitalism -- The meeting of East and West.

Summary:

The famous 1893 Chicago World's Fair celebrated the dawn of corporate capitalism and a new Machine Age with an exhibit of the world's largest engine. Yet the noise was so great, visitors ran out of the Machinery Hall to retreat to the peace and quiet of the Japanese pavilion's Buddhist temples and lotus ponds. Thus began over a century of the West's turn toward an Asian aesthetic as an antidote to modern technology. From the turn-of-the-century Columbian Exhibition to the latest Zen-inspired designs of Apple, Inc., R. John Williams charts the history of our embrace of Eastern ideals of beauty to counter our fear of the rise of modern technological systems. In a dazzling work of synthesis, Williams examines Asian influences on book design and department store marketing, the commercial fiction of Jack London, the poetic technique of Ezra Pound, the popularity of Charlie Chan movies, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the design of the latest high-tech gadgets. Williams demonstrates how, rather than retreating from modernity, writers, artists, and inventors turned to traditional Eastern technê as a therapeutic means of living with-but never abandoning-Western technology.-- Provided by Publisher.

ISBN:

9780300194470 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0300194471 (cloth ; alk. paper)

Subject:

East and West.
Arts and society.
Aesthetics, Oriental.
Technology Psychological aspects.
Technology Social aspects Western countries.
Arts et société.
Esthétique orientale.
Technologie Aspect psychologique.
11.93 Buddhism.
Technology Social aspects
Orient
Kunst
Gesellschaft
Westen
Technologie
Konst och samhälle.
Estetik.
Teknik psykologiska aspekter.
Europa.
Västerlandet.
Asien.
Western countries

Added entries:

Yale studies in English.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 286666
Call No.: BIB 227093
Status: Available