{"product_id":"sirens-9781501304996","title":"Sirens","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSirens are sounds that confront us in daily life, from the sounds of police cars and fire engines to, less often, tornado warnings. Ideologies of sirens embody the protective, the seductive and the dangerous elements of siren sounds  from the US Cold War public training exercises in the 1950s and 1960s to the seductive power of the sirens entrenched in popular culture: from Wagner to Dizzee Rascal, from Kafka to Kurt Vonnegut, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney. This book argues, using a wide array of theorists from Adorno to Bloch and Kittler, that we should understand siren sounds' in terms of their myth and materiality, and that sirens represent a sonic confluence of power, gender and destructiveness embedded in core Western ideologies to the present day. Bull poses the question of whether we can rely on sirens, both in their mythic meanings and in their material meanings in contemporary culture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith sirens, both technological and mythical, sound studies pioneer and cultural theorist Michael Bull mashes up genre and periodization, fact and fiction, pop and classical, sound and silence, in this wonderful little book. The siren call, when rendered through the ear of sound studies, leads to the retelling of the part played by sirens in the stories of Homer, Kafka and Vonnegut – and there are even bit parts for Friedrich Kittler, Nancy Sinatra and Stormy Daniels. * Trevor Pinch, Goldwin Smith Professor of Science \u0026amp; Technology Studies, Cornell University, USA, and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies (with Karin Bijsterveld, 2012) *\u003cbr\u003eBetween the pages of this diminutive book is a grand, theoretical meditation on sound - from Homer to the present. Through a series of short, incisive chapters, Michael Bull deftly traces the outline of nothing less than a 'dialectic of ensoniment'. * Brian Kane, Associate Professor of Music, Yale University, USA, and author of Sound Unseen: Acousmatic Sound in Theory and Practice (2014) *\u003cbr\u003eMichael Bull takes us a seductive journey through sound. With sirens, Bull has found the perfect auditory subject to weave a fascinating tale through myth, war, revolution and gender politics which he travels via history, continents and disciplines. In \u003ci\u003eSirens\u003c\/i\u003e, yet again, Bull shows himself as consummate master of the sonic arts. * Julian Henriques, Professor of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and author of Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques and Ways of Knowing (2011) *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSiren Beginnings\u003c\/b\u003e Sounding Out the Sirens \u003cb\u003eSiren Traces\u003c\/b\u003e 1. Prolegomena to the Sirens 2. Eclipsing the Acousmatic: The Story of the Sirens 3. Sonic Sleepwalkers: Sirens Myths from Homer, to Bach, to Nancy  Sinatra 4. Remembering the Forgotten Sounds of Air-Raid Sirens: \u003ci\u003eCharlie Hebdo\u003c\/i\u003e, Dresden and  Beyond 5. Urban Sirens: 9\/11, Dizzee Rascal and Varese 6. Timing the Sirens: Kurt Vonnegut Meets Theodor Adorno 7. Siren Spaces: A Different Colonization? 8. Hearing the Sirens: A Tale of Sonic Exclusivity? 9. Sirens for the  Young: From Fénelon to Disney  10. Kafka’s Sirens and the Story of Silencing 11. Sonic Aftermaths: Sirens and  Stormy  Daniels 12. Sonic Fallibility: Kittler's Sirens \u003cb\u003eAfterword\u003c\/b\u003e: Let's Sing Another Song Boys. This One Has Grown Old and Bitter (Leonard Cohen) \u003ci\u003eNotes\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBibliography\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndex\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing Plc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739779346775,"sku":"9781501304996","price":20.89,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781501304996.jpg?v=1723812264","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/sirens-9781501304996","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}