1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910460222403321

Autore

Tevis Joni

Titolo

The world is on fire : scrap, treasure, and songs of apocalypse / / Joni Tevis ; cover design by Mary Austin

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Minneapolis, [Minnesota] : , : Milkweed Editions, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

1-57131-898-4

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (321 p.)

Disciplina

814/.6

Soggetti

American essays

American literature

English essays

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

CONTENTS; OVERTURE; What Looks Like Mad Disorder: The Sarah Winchester House; ACT ONE; Damn Cold in February: Buddy Holly, View-Master, and the A-Bomb; Beautiful Beyond Belief: Rock City and Other Fairy Talesof the Atomic Age; Ten Years You Own It; Backstage with John the Beloved Disciple; Something Like the Fire; The Measure of My Days (Buddy Holly Reprise); ACT TWO; The Lay of the Land; Warp and Weft; Brain Sweat and Blueprints; Coathook in an Empty Schoolhouse; The Scissorman; We All Drink from that Fiery Spring (Ode to Heavy Industry); Hammer Price (Song of the Auctioneer)

Pacing the Siege FloorINTERMISSION; Girl Power: Ode to the Demolition Derby; ACT THREE; What the Body Knows; The World Is On Fire: Cave of the Apocalypse; Touch the Bones; Somebody to Love; FINALE; Some Memory of Daylight; NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Sommario/riassunto

Grappling with a fear rooted in her by the end-times sermons of her Southern youth, Joni Tevis seeks out apocalypse, destruction, and their aftermath in this heart wrenching, but ultimately triumphant collection. Mining sources as disparate as the bible and nuclear history, Tevis couples seemingly unrelated phenomena to reveal deeper meaning: Reflections on Buddy Holly's last days lead to the Doom Town where



the American government tested the effects of nuclear weapons on suburban populations. Liberace's last days are juxtaposed with the entertainment complex the military built around weapons