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Gerd Stern, Beat Era Poet and Multimedia Artist, Dies at 96

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Gerd Stern, Beat Era Poet and Multimedia Artist, Dies at 96

Mr. Stern’s life was as colorful, confusing and sometimes chaotic as his art. He was born Gerd Jacob Stern in Oct. 12, 1928, to a Jewish family in the Saar, a German-speaking region administered by France and Britain under a mandate from the League of Nations. After the Saar was incorporated into Nazi Germany in 1935, Mr. Stern’s father, Otto, a cheese importer, moved his family to New York City, where he re-established his business.

Mr. Stern attended the Bronx High School of Science and the City College of New York with the intention of studying zoology, but he left after a few weeks. His subsequent stay at Black Mountain College, the experimental interdisciplinary school in North Carolina, where he planned to study poetry, was even briefer. Its rector, the painter Josef Albers, was, Mr. Stern recalled, “out of the same mold as my father: the Germanic disciplinarian.”

“I couldn’t take it,” he said, “so I split.”

He was, however, strongly influenced by other Black Mountain instructors, including Buckminster Fuller and John Cage.

It was through Cage that Mr. Stern was introduced to Marshall McLuhan’s theories, reading the manuscript of what would be published in 1964 as “Understanding Media,” McLuhan’s oracular treatise on the impact television and other modes of communication had on human consciousness.

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At this point, Mr. Stern recalled, his poems turned nonlinear, “running off the paper into collage and lights and sounds.” He turned words into slide shows, pasted words around three-dimensional objects and, with the installation “Contact Is the Only Love,” constructed a device to blitz viewers with assorted word images.

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Try This Quiz on Thrilling Books That Became Popular Movies

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Try This Quiz on Thrilling Books That Became Popular Movies

Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights thrillers first published as novels (or graphic novels) that were adapted into popular films. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the books and their screen versions.

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Test Your Knowledge of the Authors and Events That Helped Shape the United States

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Test Your Knowledge of the Authors and Events That Helped Shape the United States

Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s regular quiz about books, authors and literary culture. In honor of Gen. George Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22, this week’s super-size challenge is focused on the literature and history related to the American Revolution. In the 10 multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to exhibits, books and other materials related to this intense chapter in the country’s story, including an award-winning biography of the general and first U.S. president.

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Video: How Much Do You Know About Romance Books?

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Video: How Much Do You Know About Romance Books?

Let’s play romance roulette. No genre has dominated the books world in the last few years. Like romance, it accounts for the biggest percentage of book sales, their avid fan bases. Everyone has been talking about romance as a Book Review editor and as a fan of the genre myself, I put together a to z glossary of 101 terms that you should know if you want to understand the world of romance are cinnamon roll. You may think a cinnamon roll is a delicious breakfast treat, but in a romance novel, this refers to a typically male character who is so sweet and tender and precious that you just want to protect him and his beautiful heart from the world. Ooh, a rake. This is basically the Playboy of historical romance. He defies societal rules. He drinks, he gambles. He’s out on the town all night and is a very prolific lover with a bit of a reputation as a ladies’ man. FEI these are super strong, super sexy, super powerful, immortal, fairy like creatures. One of my favorite discoveries in terms that I learned was stern brunch daddy. A lot of daddy’s usually a male love interest who seems very intimidating and alpha, but then turns out to be a total softie who just wants to make his love interest brunch. I think there’s a misconception that because these books can follow these typical patterns, that they can be predictable and boring. But I think what makes a really great romance novel is the way that these writers use the tropes in interesting ways, or subvert them. If you can think of it, there’s probably a romance novel about it. Oops, there’s only one bed. This is one of my personal favorite tropes is a twist on forced proximity. Characters find themselves in very close quarters, where inevitably sparks start to fly. Why choose is the porkulus dose of the romance world. Sometimes the best way to resolve a love triangle is by turning it into a circle, where everyone is invited to play. Oops, we lost one spice level. There’s a really wide spectrum. You can range from really low heat or no spice, what might also be called kisses. Only then you start to get into what we call closed door or fade to Black. These books go right up to the moment of intimacy, and then you get into what we call open door, which is more explicit. And sometimes these can get very high heat or spicy and even start verging into kink. There’s one thing that almost every romance novel has in common. It’s that no matter what the characters get up to in the end, it ends with a happily ever after. I say almost every romance novel. Sometimes you’re just happy for now.

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