KILLING FOR CULTURE

Book ID/图书代码： 00250515B86342

English Summary/英文概要： Unlike images of sex, which were clandestine and screened only in private, images of death were made public from the onset of cinema. The father of the modern age, Thomas Edison, fed the appetite for this material with staged executions on film. Little over a century later the executions are real and the world is aghast at brutalities freely available online at the click of a button. Some of these films are created by lone individuals using shaky camera phones: Luka Magnotta, for instance, and the teenagers known as the Dnipropetrovsk maniacs. Others are shot on high definition equipment, scripted and professionally edited by organized groups, such as the militant extremists known as Isis.

KILLING FOR CULTURE explores these images of death and violence, and the human obsession with looking — and not looking — at them. Beginning with the mythology of the so-called ‘snuff’ film and its evolution through popular culture, this book traces death and the artifice of death in the ‘mondo’ documentaries that emerged in the 1960s, and later the faux snuff pornography that found an audience through Necrobabes and similar websites. However, it is when videos depicting the murders of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg surfaced in the 2000s that an era of genuine atrocity commenced, one that has irrevocably changed the way in which we function as a society.

KILLING FOR CULTURE is a compelling and thought-provoking book, fully revised and expanded since its publication in the (pre-Internet) nineties to critical and public acclaim.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 和性有关的图片往往是私密的，只在私人空间中流传。但是与死亡有关的影像却可能在电影院中公开放映。摩登时代之父爱迪生就曾经在电影中演绎了执行死刑的场景。一个世纪以后，死刑的执行成为真实的场景，网上甚至可以直接看到如此的暴行。有些是个人行为，用摇晃的镜头记录眼前发生的事情，但有些是高精度摄像机的作品，甚至配有字幕、经过如ISIS等极端组织的专业剪辑。

本书探讨这些记录死亡和暴力的影像以及人类对它们的或是迷恋或是抗拒。从上世纪六十年代流行的猎奇向“伪纪录片”中那些关于死亡的画面入手，但直到二十一世纪Daniel Pearl以及Nick Berg谋杀案的影像流传出来，一个真正的暴行的时代开始了。人类社会的行为被不可逆转地改变了。

本书发人深思，上世纪90年代发行即受到评论以及读者的一致好评，现已全面修订。（LYR）

Awards/获奖情况：“我觉得我什么都感觉不到了。什么都没有了。人类已经没有希望了。我已经没有什么可以追求的了。” 《网友评论》

“I thought I was desensitized. I’m not. No hope for humanity… I feel like my quest is over.” — Comment online in reaction to the video, 3 Guys 1 Hammer

About the Author/作者介绍： 本书作者David McGowan在与肺癌斗争六个月之后辞世。

除了写书，David也是一个父亲、儿子、兄弟以及商人，对很多读者来说这可能是个意外——他从事建筑行业。从出版社角度看，他被认为是个非常有才华的作者。他的作品风格可能被定位为“阴谋文学”，在见解、创意和风格上独树一帜，是一个雄辩、正直、有趣的作者。

Headpress is very sad to report the news that David McGowan, author of Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream, has passed away following a courageous six month battle against lung cancer.

Although his literary work was only one part of David’s life – among other things he was also a father, son, brother and businessman (he worked in construction – which may come as some surprise to readers of his books) – it was of course the part that Headpress knew him for, and we sincerely feel that he was one of the most talented authors we have had the privilege to publish, and that Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon was one of the best books we’ve ever released.

For those that haven’t read David’s work, it could be classified as “conspiracy literature”, certainly, but was head and shoulders above the vast majority of that unfashionable genre in terms of its insight, originality, and style. David was a very eloquent, moral, and droll writer, and Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon – which looks at the counterculture of the 1960s from a conspiratorial perspective – is one of the most original and compelling books in the conspiracy canon. Many of us at Headpress ‘had to’ read and re-read the work for commissioning/editing/proofreading/marketing (etc) purposes and it always but always seemed to read itself, the pages burning the reader’s fingertips as they flew by.

One thing that comes off of David’s work whenever we read it is its glaring humanity. David sincerely hated to see all the violence and injustice in the world, and his indignation powered his books. As a collaborator, David was reliable, dedicated, serious, kind and sometimes tempestuous! We had our clashes, here and there, en route to the book’s publication and beyond. But we always made friends again, and members of the Headpress family exchanged some very moving correspondence with David during his final months. During that time, David was particularly full of praise and gratitude for his family, his doctors, and his readers – the thousands of people that read Weird Scenes and afterwards went on to reach out to David through his website and the book’s Facebook page, expressing their admiration for his work, and, while he was ill, their sadness, advice and moral support.

He is survived by his three daughters (Alissa, Megan, and Shane) and also his parents and two brothers.

RIP to a great and original writer. Below is an interview with David from 2014, around the time of the book’s release.

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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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