{"title":"Ed Simon","description":"\u003cp\u003eEd Simon’s work delves deep into the intersections of philosophy, spirituality, and culture, exploring themes of morality, belief, and human nature. His writings, ranging from reflections on paradise and damnation to lively cultural critique, invite readers to reconsider familiar concepts with fresh insight and intellectual rigor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBridging the realms of philosophy, psychology, and memoir, Simon’s books offer a thoughtful and often provocative journey through the complexities of faith, sin, and virtue. His voice is contemplative yet accessible, making profound ideas engaging for a wide audience.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"elysium-by-ed-simon-9781419767579","title":"Elysium","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIneffable, invisible, inscrutable—angels are enduring creatures across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and human experiences of the divine as mediated by spiritual emissaries are an aspect of almost every religious tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn popular culture, angels are often reduced to the most gauzy, sentimental, and saccharine of images: fat babies with wings and guardians with robes, halos, and harps. By contrast, in scripture whenever one of the heavenly choirs appears before a prophet or patriarch, they first declare “Fear not!” for terror would be the most appropriate initial reaction to these otherworldly beings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAngels are often not what we’d expect, but it’s precisely in that transcendent encounter that something of the strangeness of existence can be conveyed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eElysium: A Visual History of Angelology\u003c\/i\u003e is a follow-up volume to \u003ci\u003ePandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology\u003c\/i\u003e, and like the earlier title, this book offers an account of the angelic hierarchies as they’ve been understood across centuries and cultures and of the individual personages, such as the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel, who have marked the mythology of the West.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46832855318764,"sku":"9781419767579","price":80.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13443323482693.jpg?v=1758415049"},{"product_id":"heaven-hell-and-paradise-lost-bookmarked-by-ed-simon-9781632461520","title":"Heaven, Hell and Paradise Lost: Bookmarked","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA poet who crafted the greatest character in literary history with his engaging anti-hero of Satan, John Milton connected personal experience with the breadth of cosmic epic. His \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e is a touchstone of English literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the latest entry in Ig's celebrated Bookmarked series, author Ed Simon considers \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e within the scope of his own alcoholism and recovery, the collapse of higher education, the imbecility of the canon wars, the piquant joys of labyrinthine sentences, and the exquisite attractions of Lucifer. Milton is easy to respect and easier to fear, but with the guidance of Simon, Milton becomes easiest of all to love. \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e may have generated thousands of works of criticism over the centuries, but none of them are like this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46843906228460,"sku":"9781632461520","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/5862693482769.jpg?v=1758819356"},{"product_id":"pandemonium-by-ed-simon-9781419756382","title":"Pandemonium","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePandemonium: An Illustrated History of Demonology\u003c\/i\u003e presents for the first time Satan's family tree, providing a history and analysis of his fellow fallen angels from Asmodeus to Ziminiar. Throughout, there are short entries on individual demons, but \u003ci\u003ePandemonium\u003c\/i\u003e is more than just a visual encyclopedia. It also focuses on the influence of figures like Beelzebub, Azazel, Lilith, and Moloch on Western religion, literature, and art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRanging from the earliest scriptural references to demons in the New Testament through the Enlightenment and Romantic eras, when our devils took on a subtler form, \u003ci\u003ePandemonium\u003c\/i\u003e functions as a compendium of Lucifer's subjects from Dante's \u003ci\u003eThe Divine Comedy\u003c\/i\u003e to John Milton's \u003ci\u003eParadise Lost\u003c\/i\u003e, and all points in between.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eContaining rarely seen illustrations of very old treatises on demonology as well as more well-known works by the great masters of Western painting, this book celebrates the art of hell like never before!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47341009010924,"sku":"9781419756382","price":90.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/13331353482693.jpg?v=1772180247"},{"product_id":"relic-by-ed-simon-9798765102282","title":"Relic","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eObject Lessons\u003c\/em\u003e is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEvery 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eObject Lessons\u003c\/em\u003e is published in partnership with an essay series in \u003cem\u003eThe Atlantic.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47362964521196,"sku":"9798765102282","price":21.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8951313488869.jpg?v=1772907822"},{"product_id":"the-seven-deadly-sins-and-seven-heavenly-virtues-by-ed-simon-9781419774102","title":"The Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA captivating artistic and philosophic exploration of humankind’s complex moral codes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA companion piece to \u003cem\u003ePandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eElysium: A Visual History of Angelology\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues\u003c\/em\u003e will complete this moral trilogy and finally consider God’s most enigmatic of creations: none of the conundrums of metaphysics are as baroque as the motivations of the human soul. Unlike the devils condemned to perdition and the angels compelled to paradise, humans are divine creatures that house within them warring impulses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues\u003c\/em\u003e will examine the literary, philosophical, theological, and most of all, artistic expressions of both the seven deadly sins and their respective seven cardinal virtues, drawing upon millennia of history to gather a compendium of humanity at its best and its worst. As a volume, the book will explore the Manichean nature of the human animal in all of its grandeur and canker, motivated by the faith that tales of damnation and salvation are the only stories that are ultimately worth telling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428319903980,"sku":"9781419774102","price":79.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781419774102.jpg?v=1774477650"},{"product_id":"devils-contract-by-ed-simon-9781685892074","title":"Devil's Contract","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLively . . . excoriating, eloquent . . . We are all Faustians now.\u003c\/em\u003e - James Wood, The New Yorker\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA devilishly fascinating tour of the Faustian bargain through the ages, from brimstone to blues and beyond, now in paperback...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom ancient times to the modern world, the idea of the Faustian bargain—the exchange of one's soul in return for untold riches and power—has exerted a magnetic pull upon our collective imaginations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eScholar Ed Simon takes us on a historical tour of the Faustian bargain, from the Bible to blues, and illustrates how the impulse to sacrifice our principles in exchange for power is present in all kinds of social ills, from colonialism to nuclear warfare, from social media to climate change to AI, and beyond. In doing so, Simon conveys just how much the Faustian bargain shows us about power and evil... and ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47455544738028,"sku":"9781685892074","price":53.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/81PxEDmcqWL._SL1500.jpg?v=1774781694"},{"product_id":"writing-during-the-apocalypse-by-ed-simon-9798765123218","title":"Writing During the Apocalypse","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll of American literature is a tragedy. What we’re living through now isn’t a tragedy, however – it’s a horror novel. Why bother writing when the world’s on fire?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRising authoritarianism. Covid. Inflation. Wealth disparity. War. Climate change. While every time period is marked by apocalyptic fears, it certainly seems like our current anxieties aren’t ill placed. And yet, art and literature persist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn captivating and culturally savvy prose, Ed Simon grapples with the notion that writers and their work ought to distract readers from the dire situation we face in these fetid days of the Anthropocene. He also addresses the wider question of what it's like to write during what could be the last decades of human civilization, arguing that to craft imaginative spaces through the magic of words isn’t superfluous. Instead, it exists at the core of human experience – as it always has and always will.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExamining creativity as it has manifested in similarly dire circumstances in human history – in a broad range of authors and texts, such as the \u003cem\u003eBible\u003c\/em\u003e, Boccaccio’s \u003cem\u003eDecameron\u003c\/em\u003e, Voltaire, Octavia Butler’s \u003cem\u003eParable of the Sower\u003c\/em\u003e, and Stephen King’s \u003cem\u003eThe Stand\u003c\/em\u003e – \u003cem\u003eWriting During the Apocalypse\u003c\/em\u003e eschews the easy defeatism of nihilism. Instead, it offers a hopeful perspective on the various ways that literary expression can endow a meaningless world with meaning and generate a spark in the darkness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith the infamous four horsemen as its guide, \u003cem\u003eWriting During the Apocalypse\u003c\/em\u003e honours the literary life even during the end of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47455889424620,"sku":"9798765123218","price":40.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9798765123218.jpg?v=1774863053"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/ed-simon.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}