National Poetry Month Wrap-Up

Welcome back readers! We've had an exciting few weeks, what with our Facebook contest and our Bard's Birthday Giveaway. Winding down National Poetry Month, we're proud to announce that our very own Margaret Chapman, author of Poetry For Beginners, will be judging our poetry contest! Don't worry - there's still time to send us your entries. Enter today, and you could win books and the chance to show off your work! Hurry and submit soon - the contest ends April 30th. If you somehow missed us on Facebook, here are the contest details again:

Your poetry can be any form, meter, genre, or style. The contest ends April 30th at 11:59pm, and is online only. Prizes are as follows:

1st prize: 1 copy of Poetry For Beginners, and 1 For Beginners book of your choice!
2 runners up: 1 copy of Poetry For Beginners.

To enter, submit your work to info@forbeginnersbooks.com. Winners will be announced in May.

First Words

Welcome back readers! We'd like to take a minute today to highlight a controversial development in linguistics that could change much of our understanding of language. It has provocative implications for everything from Chomsky's language theory to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel.

As the biblical story goes, there was once a single mother, or "proto" language, that all people spoke, before they were scattered and the languages confused. Many modern linguists dismissed this idea, arguing that the first expressions of language most likely occurred in different places in different times. Linguists pointed out that, among the languages we could best trace, there were still several different language families. Well, a recent study published in the New York Times may have let researches reach back in time, and the results suggest language emerged only once - that there really was a single mother tongue.

Dr. Dunn, of the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, who worked with Dr. Atkinson on the study, used what's called the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to go back in time. In layman's terms, this means he told a computer the language rules he knew, then made a random language history. Then, he created a second random history, and the program chose the one that fit the rules better. Repeated until no new history proved better, this method created an informed guess about the earliest language - and it showed only one.

Linguists are going back and forth on the issue now. We only recently learned that languages have fewer possible sounds the farther speakers traveled from their original lands. What many are disagreeing about, however, is the categorizing of those sounds, and if a Khoisan click takes the same phoneme (language sound) place as, say, an English "th." The answer could alter the study. We're sure to visit this again some time in the future, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you haven't pried your phonemes from your phonetics, and could use a hand separating your syntax from your semantics, pick up a copy of Linguistics For Beginners, the easy-to-use layman's introduction to language, and follow along with us! If you're feeling ambitious, grab Chomsky For Beginners too - it makes a great companion, laying plain many accomplishments of that leader of modern language study, Noam Chomsky.

Shakespeare's Birthday and Giveaway

This month we are celebrating renowned poet and playwright William Shakespeare by giving away three copies of our book, Shakespeare For Beginners, on his birthday! Fans can head over to Goodreads.com to enter for their chance to win.

In addition to reading our accessible guide to Shakespeare, there are several ways to enjoy and learn more about the Bard and his work.  Fans in the UK can attend one of these events:

Stratford-upon-Avon, UK: Visit the annual celebration in Shakespeare’s home town. There will be sonnets on the ferry, theater in the streets, and a carnival procession throughout the town. Visit the official site for more information.

London, UK: Fans can tour Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre to watch performances and visit the Bard’s own museum.  Check out the Globe Theatre’s home page for details.

American fans can look forward to:

Washington, USA: This year, the Folger Shakespeare Library will be celebrating Shakespeare's birthday early with jugglers, jesters, music and theater performances, and cake!  Go to the Folger’s space online to learn more.

For Beginners in Action

Postmodernism For Beginners showcases the effectiveness of the For Beginners series as a learning aid, as well as an easier route for readers to take to understanding big ideas.

Derek D. Miller’s "Postmodernism in Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle" uses Postmodernism For Beginners as a stepping stone to discuss the postmodernism movement and its themes in Vonnegut’s work. Miller explains the limitations of truth, the satire in Cat’s Cradle, and the inherent humor in many of the book’s events. 

Miller writes:

One of the most significant examples of Vonnegut’s postmodern attitude in Cat’s Cradle is the entire symbol his novel is based on and titled after. The symbol of a “Cat’s Cradle” (which is a design that can be made by threading string between one’s hands) plays an extremely important role in the novel. Vonnegut uses this to symbolize how all of mankind’s ideas and “truths” are really based upon lies, or narratives. Everything we accept as truth is either a myth legitimized by the necessity for its own creation, or science, which is a narrative that cannot even legitimize itself.

There's more food for thought, including a discussion of many of the book’s most important quotes, in the larger article.

Also, our congratulations go out to the staff behind Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, which enjoyed a limited release but saw about the same success on a per-theater basis as Scream 4.

Two Days to Atlas Shrugged

Only two days left until Atlas Shrugged is released in theaters - for you CT folks, it's playing at Fairfield Cinemas and AMC Loews Plainville. Outside CT? Find your state here, look up your favorite theater and check showtimes!

Did you know? Much of Ayn Rand's wirting was influenced by the birth of the Soviet Union. She witnessed the interim Kerensky government after the fall of the last Czar, and then the fall of the Kerensky government during the Bolshevik, or Communist, Revolution. She saw in America the country closest to her ideal.

Speaking of which, America has its own event to celebrate today - Thomas Jefferson's birthday! Most of us know the name, but did you also know Jefferson, our third President, was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence? While some believe "separation of church and state" is a phrase taken from the Constitution, it was actually popularized from a private letter written by Jefferson. Wish him a happy birthday with us, and learn more with Democracy For Beginners!

Quantum Physics On the Radio?

Dr. Steven Manly has recently completed another book, Visions of the Multiverse, which he will be discussing April 14^th at 9:00pm EST on APE-X radio (you can click the banner near the top of the page here to tune in!).

Explained in accessible terminology by Dr. Manly, multiple universes, cosmology, string theory, and many abstract ideas of quantum physics are at your fingertips – which is no surprize, as you may remember Dr. Manly’s work from Relativity and Quantum Physics For Beginners. We also posted on a recent development you can find here. If you’re interested in this exciting new field, now’s a great time to start reading, and the good doctor’s radio spot is a great opportunity to get a glimpse of his work.

Three Days to Atlas Shrugged!

Atlas Shrugged: Part I, the movie adaptation of Ayn Rand’s famous novel, is coming out this April 15^th! Follow Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling), VP of Taggart Transcontinental, in the first in a series of films based on the book by Ayn Rand. Taggart, a railroad executive trying to fix a country plagued by social and economic decay, is threatened by the collapse of business around her and a mysterious exodus of entrepreneurs. See the trailer here. New to Ayn Rand? Check out Ayn Rand For Beginners.

Did you know? Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron and Maggie Gyllenhaal were among the actresses considered to play Dagny Taggart, with Brad Pitt in consideration as John Galt.