In an uncategorizable mix of image and text, Science of Things Familiar scavenges from 50's pulp comics, 19th century scientific diagrams, film noir shooting scripts, and more.

Publisher Marketing: "Johnny Damm's Science of Things Familiar diagrams the ways we move toward and away from one another, exploring relationship through the failures and disjuncts that reveal it. In annotated illustrations taken out of their original context, in comics stripped of their narrative content, and in cinematic essays whose parts are sutured where they've been spliced, these pieces take apart the familiar to see what makes it tick. Troubling our assumptions about the workings of nonfiction, they reveal themselves as highly constructed, interweaving the personal and historical just as the book's "rat-a-tat" refrain rings out both drumbeat and gunfire. If we catch ourselves dancing, we've missed the point. Witty and serious, critical and compassionate, Damm invents a new visual poetics in which what we see and hear do not sync up. This is his way of waking us up with a "BLAM!" and "WHOOSH!" to the history of appropriation and conquest underlying America's popular forms. Nothing here is familiar, even as we recognize parts of the whole." - Amaranth Borsuk "Johnny Damm's 'Science of Things Familiar' mashes up Classics Illustrated, vintage diagrams, and film director bios to create an unlikely fusion that is a oblique yet often poignant autobiography as well as an essay on the way that we transform culture as much as it transforms us." - Matt Madden, author of 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style "'Science of Things Familiar' captures "freeze-frames" from the history of comic books, crime films, and blues music, all from the middle of the darkest century. Johnny Damm accents the pulpish poetics in both the visual poetry and the phonic milieu, experienced by the masses in each cheap genre made on the fly for everyone. " -Christian Bök Table of Contents : Five Diagrams 5 1. Books: The Old Man's Illustrated Library 11 issue # 10 robinson crusoe 12 issue # 5 11 moby dick & don quixote 15 issue # 57 the song of hiawatha 20 issue # 162 robur the conqueror 26 issue # 36 typee 33 issue # 57 the song of hiawatha 39 issue # 16 gulliver's travels 41 issue # 162 robur the conqueror 49 issue # 162 robur the conqueror 51 issue # 11 don quixote 54 issue # 36 5 typee & moby dick 59 issue # 16 gulliver's travels 65 issue # 162 robur the conqueror 67 Four Diagrams 74 2. Film: Encyclopedia of Failed Filmmakers 79 i. Filmography 80 anthony mann (1939-1968) 81 douglas sirk (1934-1979) 85 nicholas ray (1949-1980) 91 ida lupino (1949-1953) 99 ii. Twenty-One Essays on Alberto Cavalcanti 104 iii. Here's Johnny 122 samuel fuller, shock corridor (1963) 123 nicholas ray, johnny guitar (1954) 125 douglas sirk, imitation of life (1959)) 128 iv. Suzie Speaks 129 v. Filmographies Redux 131 nicholas ray (1949-1980) 132 samuel fuller (1949-1989) 137 douglas sirk (1934-1979) 140 ida lupino (1949-1953) 142 leni riefenstahl (1932-2003) 144 Five Diagrams 145 3. Music: Your Favorite Song (Battle Stories) 150 your favorite song (battle stories #7) 151 the invention of difference (our army at war #22) 155 crazy blues (battle stories #3 ) 165 the door (our army at war #22) 179 blue yodel no. 9 (our army at war #22) (battle stories #7) 190 Two Diagrams 198 Notes 201 Acknowledgements 202 Brief Description : "Carefully revised, and adapted for use in families and schools in the United States." Publisher Marketing :

Format: Paperback | Pages: 210 | Publication Date: 2017-02-14