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This paper focuses on the issue of the possible Ancient Near Eastern origins of famous Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s demonic characters, such as the vampire Hella (Gella), the cat-human Behemoth, and the demons Azazello and Abadonna from the novel The Master and Margarita. The nature of the members of Woland’s court have been analysed in several works; however, their roots are usually considered to go back to biblical times and context. Our aim is to try to shed some light on their possibly more ancient origins, since it is a well-known fact that Bulgakov was deeply interested in the Ancient Near East and used several of its elements in his novel. Therefore, in order to establish any potential Ancient Near Eastern impact on the essence of those characters, we need to look into Akkadian and Sumerian mythology and Mesopotamian religious texts (e.g., incantations).

In the last sixty years, the video game industry has grown from quite literally nothing to a behemoth larger than the film or television industries. This enormous change in the shape of cultural production has failed to make much of an impact on the study of culture more generally, partly because video games seem so much less culturally important than novels. No one has ever imagined the Great American Video Game. But video games have more in common with novels than you might think, and vice versa. Anyone trying to understand the combination of neoliberal individualism and righteous murderousness that characterizes our world today will do well to pay them some attention.

It is unlikely that Josh Janowicz’s science fiction film Life Like (2019) will be remembered in the annals of film history. A direct-to-video feature from mini-major studio behemoth Lionsgate Films...

Babylon Berlin (henceforth BB) premiered in Germany on the pay channel Sky TV in October 2017 and in the United States on the streaming service Netflix in January 2018. It is based on Volker Kutscher's series of crime novels set in late Weimar Republic and early Nazi-era Berlin. At its center are the lives and investigations of the laconic and tormented police detective Gereon Rath and his charismatic and irrepressible assistant Charlotte (Lotte) Ritter. In anticipation of the series premiere on public television, marathon screenings took place in 150 cinemas across Germany, where audience members dressed up in 1920s fashion and enjoyed a Currywurst break. Its viewership in the Federal Republic was topped only by the global fantasy behemoth Game of Thrones. The series is clearly modeled on American series such as Mad Men (2007–2015) and The Wire (2002–2008) as it unfolds a complex web of characters and subplots with loving attention to the history and fashions of the time. Indeed, this collaboration of seasoned directors Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Henk Handloegten is the most expensive German TV series to date. The fact that BB premiered on pay TV while having been largely produced with public funds drew some ire. German reviewers questioned both the circumstances of its production and its creative ambition. While Der Spiegel called it “a masterpiece,” one much debated blog review went so far as to call it “pure crap,” which neither reflected historical truth nor carried artistic merit. Many critics faulted the series for trading in postcard clichés and creating a 1920s “Berlin Disneyland.” The weekly Die Zeit complained that there was a little too much cute dialect, such as “icke” and “kiek ma,” which made the critic sometimes feel like wiping the dirt makeup off the proletarian faces. (And indeed, one of the numerous intertexts of this series are Heinrich Zille's unflinching depictions of proletarian misery.)

Taking a close look at Zhao Liang’s 2015 documentary Behemoth, this article argues that the film employs the aesthetic of slow cinema and combines it with Marxist critique in order to generate an ecological awareness that pushes the boundaries of ecocinema. By suturing the slow aesthetic to the environmental destruction of Inner Mongolia’s landscape and the exploitation of China’s migrant workers, Behemoth reorients the viewing gaze from the spectacular and the exotic towards the self-aware and the introspective. The article argues that Zhao’s film, which featured in the main competition for the Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, self-consciously manoeuvres between a critique of China’s environmental devastation and the western audience’s expectation of viewing such a catastrophe as a sign of self-expression and self-critique.

An integral responsibility of nation-states is to provide protection and the means for attaining a fulfilling life to those it governs. Given the fact that most current global powers were not founded with the needs of racialized peoples in mind, one is infuriated but not surprised, at the cyclical pattern of disregard and exploitation that people of colour in the Americas experience. Indigenous and Black communities in the Americas are not just disregarded by the state, but are actively targeted for exploitation and undermining. Analyzing Haiti’s post-colonial history and Canada’s domestic and international mining operations, I argue that nations in the Caribbean and Latin America have been extensively exploited economically by imperial powers, and their survival undermined by colonial legacies. Numerous countries in the region, to varying degrees, continue to experience the wrath of state-sponsored white supremacy and crippling debt that prevent authentic development. I advance the position that coerced debt and resource extraction have been weaponized against already ostracized communities by behemoth states that employ the myth of being a post-racial democracy. This paper also highlights a complex set of global relationships by linking extraction, state-corporate relations, and North-South divides, with a focus on Canadian mining in Latin America.

Writers in the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) apparently experienced writing in weaving terms. Such animaginaireof writing as weaving was probably fully manifested in the first or second century BCE and crystallized in the coining of literary terminologies such as classics (jing), weft-writings (weishu), and literature/texts (wen). Situating theHuainanziand its intertextual writing practice within thisimaginaireenables us to reassess both theHuainanzi's widespread dismissal as a miscellaneous, encyclopedic behemoth in the first half of the twentieth century and its reappreciation over the last few decades. According to theHuainanzi's self-depictions, Liu An and his erudite courtiers apparently created the scripture in such an intertextual way in order to textually mimic the process of weaving. Since theHuainanzicommonly associates weaving with the Way's connective powers, the text's extraordinary design might be the result of a literary attempt to create an efficacious, textual artifact that embodies the Way by incorporating the act of weaving in its textual design.

Resumen en el presente artículo nos proponemos explicitar cuáles son las principales características que Franz Neumann -autor del círculo “externo” de la primera Teoría Crítica- le atribuye a la dominación socio-política. Para abordar esta cuestión es necesario reseñar algunas de las principales tesis de su clásico libro sobre el nacional-socialismo titulado Behemoth, prestando especial atención asu análisis relativo a la destrucción de la racionalidad jurídica. Nos interesa, puntualmente, responder a la siguiente pregunta: ¿hay en su propuesta una concepción de dominación que presuponga, además de coerción, consentimiento y participación de los grupos dominados? Para poder dar cuenta de las distintas aristas que detenta este interrogante, consideramos necesario retomar los aportes que hace Axel Honneth -uno de los tantos teóricos contemporáneos que instan a recuperar los estudios de Neumann- en su libro Crítica del poder, donde hace mención a la existencia de “relaciones bilaterales de dominio”. Aquí veremos que Neumann ofrece precisiones para responder al problema de la “dominación bilateral” -así lo llamaremos-, pero con limitaciones nada desdeñables. Limitaciones que, y ésta es una sugerencia que haremos al final del artículo, podrían sortearse a partir de un diálogo más abarcador que involucre a otros miembros del círculo “externo”. Abstract in this paper we will try to make explicit what are the main features that Franz Neumann -a member of the “outer” circle of the first Critical Theory- attributed to the socio-political domination. To approach this issue, it is necessary to review some of the central theses of his classic book on national-socialism entitled Behemoth, payingspecial attention to his analysis on the destruction of legal rationality. We are particularly interested in answering the following question: in his proposal, is there a conception of domination that refers not only to coercion, but also to the consent and participation of dominated groups? In order to explain the different aspects of this question, we consider it necessary to recover the contributions made by Axel Honneth -one of the many contemporary theorists who seek to revalue Neumann’s work- in his book The Critique of Power. In that book Honneth mentions the existence of “bilateral relations of domination”. Here we will see that Neumann offers precisions to answer the problem of the so-called “bilateral domination”, but with important constraints. Constraints that could be overcome through a more comprehensive dialogue involving other members of the “outer” circle. This is a suggestion that we will make at the end of the article.

After Hurricanes Irma and Maria barreled down on Puerto Rico in 2017, communities in the shadow of a behemoth coal-burning power plant on the island’s southern coast spent months without electricit...

This essay explores the digital challenge, how to humanize technology, and the need to rethink the digital-human divide. This is imperative in view of superintelligent Al, which may escape human control. The information age poses quandaries regarding the uses and abuses of technology. A major critique concerns the commercial design of digital technologies that engenders compulsive behavior. All technologies affect humans in a reciprocal way. The new digital technologies-from smartphones to the Internet—where humans are tethered to machines, can impair our autonomy, hijack attention, rewire the brain, and diminish concentration, empathy, knowledge, and wisdom. The remedy is to restore deep reading, human interactions, personal conversations, real friendships, and respect for autonomy and privacy, building a nurturing culture of tolerance, coupled with transcendent norms and ideals worthy of a creature created in the image and likeness of God. This aspiration should be at the center of a new interdisciplinary field of inquiry—a phenomenology of communications.

For much of the nineteenth century, the majority of respected stratigraphers were serial creationists who read the rocks as recording successive extinctions followed by new creations, a process that generated progress in vertebrate structure. Beginning after World War I, Leviathan and Behemoth were cited by Young Earth Creationists—a minority among anti-Darwinians—as Mesozoic species observed by humans. This view spread rapidly after World War II. However, the anatomy and behavior of these beings, as portrayed in Ugaritic and Hebrew literature, leads to a firmer identification. The Leviathan of Job has powerful jaws armed with great teeth; skull armor renders hooks impotent; body armor of scales set so close together that they repel spears; water is thrashed into foam by twisting death rolls; this is altogether an accurate rendition of the Nile Crocodile. The Behemoth is a young, adult male African Elephant distinguished by grass-eating habits and an enormous, uncontrolled male organ: “tail like a cedar tree.”

Amidst the plethora of finely-crafted, specialized studies published every year it is sometimes a relief to encounter a book which dares to present a sweeping analysis across the centuries. Such bo...

Michael Roberto’s book offers a riposte to mainstream liberals and so-called #NeverTrump conservatives such as William A. Galston, David Frum, and Yascha Mounk, who have lately taken to fretting ab...

The launch of Libra, a corporate-controlled supranational currency is a bold attempt by a bigtech behemoth to leverage its monopoly over digital data and platform networks in order to draw low-inco...

The United States is the epicenter of the Disney parksmDisneyland in Anaheim, California, is the original and the heartbeat, while Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is a behemoth that attracts tens of millions of visitors a year. Walt may have spent his formative years in the American Midwest, but his imagination spread to all corners of the world. In addition to the U.S.-based destinations, Hong Kong, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo also host a variety of parks that showcase classic attractions as well as park exclusives. These resorts capture the Disney aesthetic, but each presents unique challenges and cultural sensitivities.

This article is based on the novel “The Kindly Ones”, by Jonathan Littell, and its main objective is to explore the experiences of its main character, Maximilien Aue, a Nazi officer, an SS member, a jurist, and a juris doctor, who on several occasions assumed the condition of executioner in one of the Einsatzgruppen that acted in the rear of the German front during the War against the Soviet Union. This study seeks to explore the relationship of this character with a political regime marked by authoritarianism and the erosion of the legal forms that characterize a Rechtsstaat – metaphorized in the figure of the Behemoth, in the interpretation given by Franz Neumann. The methodological structure is guided by strategies of approximation between law and literature, in order to allow, from the construction of a common hermeneutic situation, different ways of relating to the truth established in these two fields of knowledge to access new interpretations in order to analyze the intricate relationship between law and authoritarianism. The outcome, starting from Max Aue’s tragic experience, illuminated the fate reserved for those who, as people or individuals, had awakened the Erinyes from their benevolent sleep.

The article presents a complementary semantic-semiotic analysis of an artistic image in the framework of a literary text. The analysis is followed by post-translation descriptions. Being generated and functioning within a literary text an artistic image is considered to be an extended metaphoric formation primarily destined to fulfill the aesthetic function. Particular attention is paid to the cultural information and memory embodied in a unique cultural code presented in an artistic image and closely connected with its metaphoric characteristics. The present research was conducted on the material of the “strong” text of the Russian culture – “The Master and Margarita” by M. Bulgakov. The artistic image of Bulgakov’s tom-cat Behemoth is a heterogeneous metaphoric formation combining the cultural memory of a Biblical monster Behemoth, zoo-metaphorical characteristics of a hippopotamus (as a real fauna representative) and various connotations of a black tom-cat in its real and mythological hypostases. The research methodology assumes integrated analysis combining mythopoetic, hermeneutic and comparative methods. In the situation of literary translation, a literary image can be considered as a regular unit of translation, the reconstruction of which in “other” languages and cultures requires special translator’s decisions and application of effective translation techniques and strategies.

The election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency has led to significant changes in environmental governance, unleashing an authoritarian, nationalistic, and business-deregulating juggernaut aime...

This behemoth chronicle brings up important questions about how to write histories of world-historical events. Should the author approach them in a strictly chronological, chronicle-like manner? This has the advantage of showcasing the bewildering complexity of simultaneity—events occurring in different parts of the former empire overwhelming first the Provisional Government and then the Bolsheviks as they struggle to retain power. The thematic approach to history loses the immediacy of the chronicle but offers in-depth analysis of trends and contexts. Unfortunately, Engelstein artificially reorganizes her meticulous chronicle into

‘Personally, I rather look forward to a computer programme winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility’, said Richard Dawkins, author and biologist, whose witty ripostes delivered with a signature smirk, typically directed at the religious, captivated my rational mind. These were the late 1990s. We were in our medical college hostel’s chit-chat corner where some of us with wide interests in science gathered every evening. Under the medical college men’s hostel banyan tree, our discussions typically focused on the latest sample of writing that dismantled foolish arguments of naive (religious) believers. Dawkins’s books and writing provided plenty of such material. Here was an intellectual behemoth often pitted against hobnailed ignorami bringing cheer to us young professionals, looking up to him, as if one from our own team had scored a winning goal. Today, as a doctor and a public health researcher, I look back at this chit-chat among the then doctors in the making. The higher knowledge that accrued to people like me, doctors, scientists and academia, gave us access to pedestals from which we could now be the new saints : rational and legitimate preachers unlike the ones we aim to displace, the ones we would like to call out for their boorish, irrational and unscientific foundations. In fact, I realised it was our meritorious ascent that is foundational to our pedestal. But how strong and deserved are our own foundations, I wondered. Should we not, before calling others out, examine our own backyards? So emerges the tale of two merits: science itself as an act of merit and the scientist professional’s aspirational society where people rise to the top based on well-deserved fruits of their labour through merit and nothing else. Could a well-designed meritocracy then help us overcome centuries of social baggage in …

Includes bibliographical references. Number of sources in the bibliography: 84. Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Cyprus, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Department of Education, 2021. The University of Cyprus Library holds the printed form of the thesis. Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή καταπιάνεται με την έννοια της περιέργειας όπως αυτή ανευρίσκεται στην πολιτική φιλοσοφία του Χομπς. Μέσα από τη διερεύνηση της περιέργειας επιχειρείται η ανάδειξη των αντιφάσεων που καθορίζουν σε μεγάλο βαθμό την θέαση της νομιμότητας και κυριαρχίας από τον Βρετανό φιλόσοφο. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, και ενώ ο Χομπς μέσα από τα γραπτά του φαίνεται να εκτιμά και να επικροτεί την περιέργεια ως το κατεξοχήν ποιοτικό χαρακτηριστικό του ανθρώπου (πάθος όπως το ονομάζει ή αλλιώς «λαγνεία του μυαλού»), εντούτοις, αυτή του η θέση φαίνεται να παρουσιάζει αμφισημίες και περιπλοκές, ειδικά όταν ο Hobbes συζητάει το ζήτημα της κοινωνικής ανυπακοής και τις πολιτικές προεκτάσεις που αυτό συνεπάγεται. Αυτή ακριβώς η αντίφαση, βαθιά εγχαραγμένη στην φιλοσοφία του Χομπς, διαφεύγει της προσοχής πολλών μελετητών του, πλείστοι εκ των οποίων παραβλέπουν την πολιτικοποίηση της έννοιας της περιέργειας όπως αυτή επιχειρείται στις σελίδες του γνωστού του έργου Λεβιάθαν και του σχεδόν ανεξερεύνητου έργου του Μπεχέμωθ. Μέσα από συγκεκριμένα εκπαιδευτικά μέτρα, ο Χόμπς επιδιώκει την εκ βάθρων αναθεώρηση και εναρμόνιση του Αγγλοσαξονικού εκπαιδευτικού συστήματος με τις αξιώσεις της κυρίαρχης εξουσίας για άσκηση απόλυτου ελέγχου στον εγχώριο πληθυσμό. Παραδείγματος χάριν, θεωρεί ότι τα πολιτικά κείμενα των Αρχαίων Ελλήνων και Ρωμαίων φιλοσόφων ικανοποιούν μια πολιτικά ανεπιθύμητη περιέργεια και είναι επικίνδυνα αφού προπαγανδίζουν δημοκρατικά ιδεώδη, ωθώντας έτσι τον κόσμο να ξεσηκωθεί εναντίον του κυρίαρχου μονάρχη. Η υιοθέτηση αυστηρών προτύπων πολιτικής εκπαίδευσης από τον κυρίαρχο φαντάζει για τον Χομπς μονόδρομος ως προς την πλήρη αποκατάσταση της τάξης και της νομιμότητας. Υπό αυτήν, λοιπόν, την έννοια η παρούσα διατριβή συνιστά μια κριτική προσέγγιση της Χομπσιανής φιλοσοφίας ως φιλοσοφίας της εκπαίδευσης η οποία έχει ως κύριο μέλημα την διαμόρφωση του νομοταγούς πολίτη, ικανού να μην παρασυρθεί από αυτό που καλεί ο Χομπς «ξενικές και αλλότριες πολιτικές επιρροές». Ζητήματα όπως η προώθηση της γνωστικής περιέργειας χωρίς θεωρητική ενάργεια ως προς τους πολιτικούς ρόλους που αυτή ενίοτε επιτελεί, η εξασφάλιση κοινωνικού ελέγχου και κοινωνικής συνοχής υπό συνθήκες ανασφάλειας και ατέρμονου ανταγωνισμού, αλλά και το θέμα της ενσωμάτωσης διαδικασιών πολιτικής εκπαίδευσης ως προϋπόθεσης συνειδησιακής ωρίμανσης μιας κοινωνίας, αποτελούν, όπως θα αναδείξει η διατριβή, κομβικά σημεία για την Φιλοσοφία της Εκπαίδευσης. This dissertation examines Hobbes’ notion of curiosity and argues for its indisputable relevance to his political and educational thought. Hobbes’ metaphor of curiosity as “the lust of the mind” and his claim that curiosity is the profound desire of people to broaden the scope of their knowledge, is critically re-evaluated in view of his proposed educational recommendations for empowering the state of the sovereign - recommendations which reflect Hobbes’ deep-down ambivalent position on curiosity. Following this approach, we can thus trace and analyze some of curiosity’s politicizations in Hobbes which helps us grasp complexities and ambiguities of his epistemology when this is made answerable to his political-theoretical intentions. Most important among these ambiguities is certainly Hobbes’ expressed suspicion of how curiosity operated when it attracted readers to ancient Greek and Roman philosophies whose influential role he considered tremendously dangerous in ever driving people to resist their sovereign. This, along with his insistence to provide the right sense of political education to his colonial learner for handling English provinces in Scotland and Ireland more efficiently (in his book Behemoth), are two of the issues that this dissertation seeks to explore further. Thus, the politicization of curiosity in Hobbes allows fresh readings of Hobbes’ notion of curiosity and illuminates aspects of his educational thought and of their deeper, broader implications. This makes the whole enterprise especially significant from a current philosophical educational perspective and, beyond it, from political-scientific and political-philosophical perspectives.