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James (novel)
''James'' is a novel by author Percival Everett published by Doubleday in 2024. The novel is a re-imagining of ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' by Mark Twain but told from the perspective of Huckleberry's friend on his travels, Jim, who is an escaped slave. The novel won the 2024 Kirkus Prize, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Story ''James'' is loosely based on Mark Twain's ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', with various scenes recontextualized or ending with different outcomes. The novels diverge by following Jim rather than Huck when the two are separated. Many characters are also reinterpreted. In Hannibal, Missouri, Jim, a slave owned by the elderly Miss Watson, survives day-to-day by following social conventions known to every slave he encounters, including his wife Sadie and daughter Lizzie. While speaking standard English to each other (and privately indulging in irony and gallows humor inspired by the perils of slave life), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percival Everett
Percival Leonard Everett II (born December 22, 1956) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and Distinguished professor, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He has described himself as "pathologically ironic" and has explored numerous genres such as western fiction, mysteries, thrillers, satire and philosophical fiction. His books are often satirical, aimed at exploring race and identity issues in the United States. He is best known for his novels Erasure (novel), ''Erasure'' (2001), ''I Am Not Sidney Poitier'' (2009), and The Trees (Everett novel), ''The Trees'' (2021), which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. His 2024 novel ''James (novel), James'', also a finalist for the 2024 Booker Prize, Booker Prize, won the Kirkus Prize, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. ''Erasure'' was adapted as the film ''American Fiction (film), American Fiction'' (2023), written and directed by Cord Jefferso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's Drainage basin, watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky Mountains, Rocky and Appalachian Mountains, Appalachian mountains. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is , of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the world's List of rivers by discharge, tenth-largest river by discharge flow, and the largest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Capital
Human capital or human assets is a concept used by economists to designate personal attributes considered useful in the production process. It encompasses employee knowledge, skills, know-how, good health, and education. Human capital has a substantial impact on individual earnings. Research indicates that human capital investments have high economic returns throughout childhood and young adulthood. Companies can invest in human capital; for example, through education and training, improving levels of quality and production. History Adam Smith included in his definition of Capital (economics), capital "the acquired and useful abilities of all the inhabitants or members of the society". The first use of the term "human capital" may be by Irving Fisher. An early discussion with the phrase "human capital" was from Arthur Cecil Pigou: But the term only found widespread use in economics after its popularization by economists of the Chicago School of economics, Chicago School, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candide
( , ) is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The Optimist'' (1762); and ''Candide: Optimism'' (1947). A young man, Candide, lives a sheltered life in an Garden of Eden, Edenic paradise, being indoctrinated with Gottfried Leibniz#Theodicy and optimism, Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. This lifestyle is abruptly ended, followed by Candide's slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes ''Candide'' with, if not rejecting Leibnizian optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds". ''Candide'' is characterized by its tone as well as its erratic, fantastical, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cunégonde
Cunégonde is a fictional character in Voltaire's 1759 novel ''Candide''. She is the title character's aristocratic cousin and love interest. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist Candide is chased away from his uncle's home after he is caught kissing and fondling Cunégonde. Shortly afterwards, Cunégonde's family is attacked by a band of marauding soldiers, and she is taken prisoner. However, Cunégonde soon becomes the mistress of two wealthy Portuguese men who decide to share her between them. Candide kills the two men and he, Cunégonde and the Old Woman (Cunégonde's servant) flee to Buenos Aires. There, Cunégonde becomes the mistress of the provincial governor. Since Candide is wanted for the murders of the two Portuguese men, he is forced to leave her in Buenos Aires. However, he vows to find her and marry her. Finally, near the end of the novel, Candide finds Cunégonde in Istanbul, but she has lost her beauty, and is now very irritable and unfortunately very s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence. Internationally, Locke's political-legal principles continue to have a profound influence on the theory and practice of limited representative government and the protection of basic right ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of America, Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by U.S. state, states that had Secession in the United States, seceded from the Union. The Origins of the American Civil War, central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether Slavery in the United States, slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War, Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven Southern slave states responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boiler Explosion
A boiler explosion is a catastrophic failure of a boiler. There are two types of boiler explosions. One type is a failure of the pressure parts of the steam and water sides. There can be many different causes, such as failure of the safety valve, corrosion of critical parts of the boiler, or low water level. Corrosion along the edges of lap joints was a common cause of early boiler explosions. In steam locomotive boilers, as knowledge was gained by trial and error in early days, the explosive situations and consequent damage due to explosions were inevitable. However, improved design and maintenance markedly reduced the number of boiler explosions by the end of the 19th century. Further improvements continued in the 20th century. On land-based boilers, explosions of the pressure systems happened regularly in stationary steam boilers in the Victorian era, but are now very rare because of the various protections provided, and because of regular inspections compelled by governmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensional lumber). The Portable sawmill, "portable" sawmill is simple to operate. The log lies flat on a steel bed, and the motorized saw cuts the log horizontally along the length of the bed, by the operator manually pushing the saw. The most basic kind of sawmill consists of a chainsaw and a customized jig ("Alaskan sawmill"), with similar horizontal operation. Before the invention of the sawmill, boards were made in various manual labour, manual ways, either wood splitting, rived (split) and plane (tool), planed, hewing, hewn, or more often hand sawn by two men with a whipsaw, one above and another in a saw pit below. The earliest known mechanical mill is the Hierapolis sawmill, a Roman water-powered stone mill at Hierapolis, Asia M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passing (racial Identity)
In the United States of America, racial passing occurred when a person who was categorized as Black in regard to their race in the United States of America, sought to be accepted or perceived (" to pass") as a member of another racial group, usually White. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to describe a black person, especially a Mulatto person who assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social conventions of racial segregation and discrimination. In the Antebellum South, passing as White was a temporary disguise used as a means of escaping slavery. United States Passing for white Although anti-miscegenation laws outlawing racial intermarriage existed in the North American Colonies as early as 1664, there were no laws preventing or prosecuting the rape of enslaved girls and women. Rape of slaves was legal and encouraged during slavery to increase the slave population. For generations, enslaved black mothers bore mixed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minstrel Song
The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of theater developed in the early 19th century. The shows were performed by mostly white actors wearing blackface makeup for the purpose of portraying racial stereotypes of African Americans. There were very few African-American performers and black-only minstrel groups that also formed and toured. Minstrel shows stereotyped blacks as dimwitted, lazy, buffoonish, cowardly, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky.The Coon Character , Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University. Retrieved 29 January 2016.John Kenrick , musicals101.com. 1996, revised 2003. Retrieved 9 November 2011. A recurring character was Jim Crow, an exaggerated portray ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bonded Labor
Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, or where the debt is excessively large, the person who holds the debt has thus some control over the laborer, whose freedom depends on the undefined or excessive debt repayment. The services required to repay the debt may be undefined, and the services' duration may be undefined, thus allowing the person supposedly owed the debt to demand services indefinitely. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation. In 2021, the International Labour Organization estimated that, of the 27.6 million people currently participating in forced labour, 20.9%, or about 5.8 million, were in debt bondage. Debt bondage has been described by the United Nations as a form of "modern day slavery", and the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
