PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

$21.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
22 February 2024
Series: Object Lessons
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Every culture, every religion, every era has enshrined otherwise regular objects with a significance which stretches beyond their literal importance. Whether the bone of a Catholic martyr, the tooth of a Buddhist lama, or the cloak of a Sufi saint, relics are material conduits to the immaterial world. Yet relics aren't just a feature of religion. The exact same sense of the transcendent animates objects of political, historical, and cultural significance.

From Abraham Lincoln's death mask to Vladimir Lenin's embalmed corpse, Emily Dickinson's envelopes to Jimi Hendrix's guitar pick, relics are the objects which the faithful understand as being more than just objects. Material things of sacred importance, relics are indicative of a culture's deepest values.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

By:  
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 165mm,  Width: 121mm, 
ISBN:   9798765102282
Series:   Object Lessons
Pages:   136
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Ed Simon is editor of Belt Magazine and emeritus staff writer at The Millions. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, The Public Domain Review, The Hedgehog Review, JSTOR Daily, McSweeney's, Jacobin, The New Republic, Religion Dispatches, Killing the Buddha, and The Washington Post, among dozens of others. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology.

Reviews for Relic

Ed Simon is one of my favorite writers. Pick up any of his work and you are sure to be moved, astounded, delighted—and always you will learn something new. Relic is a fascinating sustained look at a subject some would prefer to look away from; it is about who we are, what we venerate, and how each of those considerations tends to shape the other. * Peter Manseau, author of The Apparitionists *


See Also