French cultural theorist and urbanist Paul Virilio is best known for his writings on media, technology, and architecture. Gathered here in "A Winter s Journey "are four remarkable conversations in which Virilio and architectural writer Marianne Brausch look at a twentieth century characterized by enormous technological acceleration and by technocultural accidents of barbarism and horror.

The dialogues in "A Winter" "s Journey "structured loosely around the dates 1940, 1950, 1960, and 1980 chart Virilio s intimate intellectual biography, from his childhood lived against the unstable...

The "fascinus," or phallus, was at the heart of classical Roman art and life. No god was more represented in ancient Rome than the phallic deity Priapus, and the "fescennine" verses, one of the earliest forms of Roman poetry, accompanied the celebrations of Priapus, the harvest, and fertility. But with this emphasis on virility also came an emphasis on power and ideas of possession and protection.

In "Sex and Terror," Pascal Quignard looks closely at this delicate interplay of celebration and terror. In startling and original readings of myths, satires, memoirs, and works of ancient...

There are few if any voices more distinct in contemporary French literature than that of Pascal Quignard, a prolific writer of rare erudition and elegance. Essayist, critic, translator, novelist and musician, Quignard attempts here an ambitious amalgam of his many artistic styles in a fragmentary work that defies the idea of genre. And his daring was rewarded in 2002 when...