Books by "Francis J. Keefe"
7 books found
Stories in Swarm of Five stand in complimentary contrast to one another, united by an arc of succulent imagery and memorable characters. From the wild, chaotic, wry and politically apocalyptic overtones of "Beat Me Sweetly, Heavy Jesus" to the subtle complexities of retelling the life of an unknown hero in "Legacy of a Teacher," DiPietro strives to capture a diverse sampling from the borderlands of storytelling. The pseudo-autobiographical parody of "Groveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Remarried Life" presents the most engaging glimpse yet into the mind of this longtime author and veteran of the final age of pulp magazines, with DiPietro escaping to a park in Texas for six days while his new wife, half his age, goes to a resort spa to pamper herself at his expense. Insecurities and bawdy reminiscences abound as DiPietro, aging and rueful of his diminishing sexual prowess, travels the lonely spaces of America in deep thought and strange mood. Shorter works of "The Dojo Demon" and "When Pickpockets Collide" are experimental and wide-ranging psychological fantasies which explore the oft-dirty and unenviable depths of human machination. Swarm of Five accomplishes the difficult task of offering engaging tales in a spectrum of tastes and textures.
The Japanese Diet and the U.S. Congress have in common many of the characteristics of democratic institutions, similarities that can be seen in the way the two legislative bodies are constituted, in what they do, and in how they do it. At the same time, there are disparities that stem from each nation's unique cultural background and political experiences. Both the similarities and the differences are treated in this unique study. The authors, well-known japanese and U.S. scholars, illuminate significant factors that not only underlie the differing roles of the Diet and the Congress in the two governments and the style of each government, but also help shape the nature of the interaction between japan and the U.S.
Much of the evolutionary biology that has grabbed headlines in recent years has sprung from the efforts of sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists to explain sexual features and behavior--even differences between how men and women think--as evolutionary adaptations. They have looked to the forces of natural selection to explain everything from the mimicry of male mockingbirds to female orgasms among humans. In this controversial book, Richard Francis argues that the utility of this approach is greatly exaggerated. He proposes instead a powerful alternative rooted in the latest findings in evolutionary biology as well as research on the workings of our brains, genes, and hormones. Exploring various sexual phenomena, Francis exposes fundamental defects in sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, which he traces to their misguided emphasis on "why" questions at the expense of "how" questions. Francis contends that this preoccupation with "why" questions (such as, "Why won't men ask for directions"?) results in a paranoiac mindset and distorted evolutionary explanations. His alternative framework entails a broader conception of what constitutes an evolutionary explanation, one in which both evolutionary history, as embodied in the tree of life, and developmental processes are brought to the foreground. This alternative framework is also better grounded in basic biology. Deeply learned, consistently persuasive, and always engaging, this book is a welcome antidote to simplistic sociobiological exegeses of animal and human behavior.