Harbin Hot Springs' Manuscript to Publisher, entitled "Naked Harbin":
15. PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR BOOK BRIEFLY (200-300 WORDS AT THE MOST) FOR INTENDING READERS:
AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE 1960S-70S FORWARD, COUNTERCULTURE, VIRTUAL WORLDS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
AFTER YOU CHECK IN AT THE GATE AT HARBIN, ONE RESIDENT WHO HAS WORKED THERE FOR YEARS OFTEN SAYS, "GO PLAY." THIS ETHNOGRAPHY OF HARBIN HOT SPRINGS IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA EXPLICITLY AND THEORETICALLY BRINGS TOGETHER APPROACHES TO THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BOTH THE ACTUAL AND VIRTUAL, BY DEVELOPING NEW METHODOLOGIES IN STUDYING HARBIN - AS A KIND OF HIPPY HAVEN FROM MODERNITY. THROUGH THIS ANTHROPOLOGICAL BOOK AND CONCEIVING OF VIRTUAL HARBIN, YOU CAN BEGIN NOT ONLY TO "BE THERE" - TO VISIT HARBIN VIRTUALLY IN THE TEXT, AS IT WERE - BUT ALSO TO REVISIT THE 1960S AND ITS RELATED FREEDOM-SEEKING MOVEMENTS. MOREOVER, HARBIN HOT SPRINGS' CLOTHING-OPTIONALITY, SPIRITUALITY AND ALTERNATIVE CULTURE ARE ATTRACTIVE IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS. IN THE WAY THAT MARGARET MEAD'S WORK WAS THEORETICAL AND GAINED WIDESPREAD ATTENTION AT THE SAME TIME, THIS BOOK WILL APPEAL DUE TO THE BROAD INTEREST IN EMERGING INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL WORLDS AND 1960'S INFORMED ALTERNATIVE HARBIN'S EXOTIC, YET FAMILIAR, ATTRACTIVENESS, NOW MEDIATED DIGITALLY. AS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND WONDROUS DEVELOPMENTS LIKE VIRTUAL WORLDS CONTINUE TO DEVELOP RAPIDLY, I HOPE TO ENGAGE YOU, THE READER, FURTHER IN THE CONVERSATION ABOUT THE CREATIVITY OF COUNTERCULTURAL THINKING, OF VIRTUAL WORLDS AND COMPARATIVE ETHNOGRAPHY, AND IN THE EXPERIENCES OF INTERACTING IN THIS ONE, EVEN AS VISITORS TO ACTUAL HARBIN ENJOY VISITING THIS HOT SPRINGS' RETREAT CENTER.
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16. PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR BOOK IN A SHORT PARAGRAPH OF 50-100 WORDS FOR LIBRARIANS AND BOOKSELLERS:
The book's target audiences are undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, information technology social scientists, academics interested in the "virtual," and people with a fondness for the 1960s. My book comes into conversation with Tom Boellstorff's "Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human" (Princeton 2008), and could be read in academic courses in direct conversation with "Coming of Age in SL." For my next Harbin book, I plan to build a virtual Harbin ideally in a movie realistic interactive 3D virtual earth, Google-made, and do actual virtual comparative fieldwork, what I'm calling ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy - as an innovative methodology in Anthropology. I'd like for readers to be able to visit virtual Harbin and have a Harbin experience, in their bathtubs for the releasing action of the warm waters, - and write ethnographically about this.
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17. COMPETING OR SIMILAR TITLES (IF ANY) (AUTHOR, TITLE, PUB. DATE, PRICE):
Anthropology - Related titles:
Boellstorff, Tom. 2008. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. $24.95.
Boellstorff, Tom . 2012. (Author), Bonnie Nardi (Author), Celia Pearce (Author), and T. L. Taylor (Author), George E. Marcus (Foreword). 2012. Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method Paperback. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. $14.46.
Niman, Michael I. 2011 (1997). People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia. (2nd edition). Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. $22.22.
Harbin Hot Springs - Related titles:
Dull, Harold, with the Water Family. 2008 (2004, 1997, 1993). Watsu: Freeing the Body in Water and with Tantsu on Land. 4th edition. Middletown, CA: Watsu Publishing. $27.50.
Ishvara. 2002. Oneness in Living: Kundalini Yoga, the Spiritual Path, and the Intentional Community. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. $24.95
Klages, Ellen. 1993 (1991). Harbin Hot Springs: Healing Waters, Sacred Land. Middletown, CA: Harbin Springs Publishing. $29.47.
Wyne, Sajjad. 1997. The Big Bang and the Harbin Experience. Middletown, CA: Harbin Springs Publishing. $62.88.
Rainbow Gathering - Related titles:
Butterfly Bill. 2010. Rainbow Gatherings. Bliss Fire Press. $15.00.
Butterfly Bill. 2013. Rainbow Gatherings, Volume Two: 2000 - 2012 (Volume 2). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. $16.20.
Niman, Michael I. 2011 (1997). People of the Rainbow: A Nomadic Utopia. (2nd edition). Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. $22.22.
Tom Thumb. 2013. Somewhere Under the Rainbow: A personal journey into the Rainbow Gatherings. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. $14.39.
Kerouac, Jack. 1958. The Dharma Bums. New York, NY: The Viking Press.
Snyder, Gary. 1969. Earth House Hold. New York, NY: A New Directions Book.
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See, too, this UC Berkeley video abstract for -
"Naked Harbin: Hippies, Warm Pools, Counterculture & Clothing-Optional, Virtual Harbin."
"Abstract for UC Berkeley talk "Naked, Virtual Harbin" today, 2 Nov 2012"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8gur9SMPlw
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