In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye of Hell’s ‘enforcers’, the lower echelons of demon soldiers impose post-mortal punishments on the souls of the recently deceased for moral transgressions committed during their prior incarnations. Voices from the Underworld offers an ethnography of contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions, where night-time cemetery rituals assist the souls of the dead, exorcised spirits are imprisoned in Guinness bottles, and malicious foetus ghosts are enlisted to strengthen a temple’s spirit army. Understanding the religious divergences between Singapore and Malaysia through an analysis of socio-political and historical events, Fabian Graham challenges common assumptions on the nature and scope of Chinese vernacular religious beliefs and practices. Graham’s innovative approach to alterity allows the reader to listen to first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities. Through its alternative methodological and narrative stance, the book intervenes in debates on the interrelation between sociocultural and spiritual worlds, and promotes the de-stigmatisation of spirit possession and discarnate phenomena in the future study of mystical and religious traditions.

The collected memoirs of a 1913 San Francisco sex worker, their effect on society at the time, and where they fit in today’s world. In 1913 the San Francisco Bulletin published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by Alice Smith. “A Voice from the Underworld” detailed Alice's humble Midwestern upbringing and her struggle to find aboveboard work, and candidly related the harrowing events she endured after entering “the life.” While prostitute narratives had been published before, never had they been as frank in their discussion of the underworld, including topics such as abortion, police corruption, and the unwritten laws of the brothel. Throughout the series, Alice strongly criticized the society that failed her and so many other women, but, just as acutely, she longed to be welcomed back from the margins. The response to Alice's story was unprecedented: four thousand letters poured into the Bulletin, many of which were written by other prostitutes ready to share their own stories; and it inspired what may have been the first sex worker rights protest in modern history. An introduction contextualizes “A Voice from the Underworld” amid Progressive Era sensationalistic journalism and shifting ideas of gender roles, and reveals themes in Alice's story that extend to issues facing sex workers today. Winner of the California Historical Society Book Award “Essential reading for anyone interested in the rich history of sexual commerce in the United States.”—Gretchen Soderlund, author of Sex Trafficking, Scandal, and the Transformation of Journalism, 1885-1917 “Not only for Bay Area history buffs, Alice will enlighten all readers to early shifts in gender roles and societal correlations today.”—Cassie Duggan, Literary Hub

Publisher Description

Jimmie Dale was a wealthy playboy by day, but at night put on a costume and became The Grey Seal, who enters businesses or homes and cracks safes, always leaving a grey seal behind to mark his conquest, but never taking anything.

Beyond revolutionizing rock and roll, Bob Dylan became a preacher on stage in the late 1970s, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, opened a series of exhibits of his paintings, wrote three books, worked as a film director, and performed as an actor. Despite his decades in the public eye and vast range of artistic achievements, he remains an enigmatic figure. This book contains original interviews with 13 leading Dylanologists about why Dylan has remained such a compelling and important artist to the present day. Topics discussed are diverse, including his music, his time in cinema and his comparisons to Stanley Kubrick, his spiritual wisdom, and his award-winning poetry.

"The Adventures of Jimmie Dale" – Jimmie Dale is a wealthy playboy by day, but at night he puts on a costume and becomes The Gray Seal, who enters businesses or homes and cracks safes, always leaving a diamond shaped, gray paper "seal" behind to mark his conquest, but never taking anything and just doing it for "the sheer deviltry of it". But he gets caught by a mysterious woman he calls The Tocsin, and she blackmails him to help her in the war with certain crime organizations. "The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale" – Jimmie Dale wanted to settle with the love of his life, but when she disappears, he is pulled back into the New York's underworld of crooks and crime. "Jimmie Dale and the Phantom Clue" – Jimmie Dale is back in the underworld of New York, and he is destined to find the criminal known as the Phantom, in order to save the woman he loves. "Jimmie Dale and Blue Envelope Murder" – Jimmie Dale tries to protect his friend who received a threat in the form of a mysterious blue envelope, but when the friend is found dead, Jimmie is accused of the murder. To clear himself, Jimmie must resolve the envelope's mystery and find out who stands behind the murder, and he must do it while avoiding the police and his old enemies from the underworld. Frank Lucius Packard (1877-1942) was a Canadian novelist best known for his Jimmie Dale mystery series. The character Jimmie Dale is a wealthy playboy by day and a fearless crime fighter by night. Jimmie Dale novels brought the idea of a costume and mask for hero's secret identity, and also established the concept of a hero's secret hideout or lair.