Ferment 1983-2004
Complete Catalogue
Volumes I-XVII

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Roy Lisker
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E-Mail: rlisker@yahoo.com

VOLUME I: Berkeley, CA.

#1 September 14 , 1983 :
(A) Landscape descriptions: Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California
(B) Report on the conference of the International Congress of Math-Physicists , Boulder, Co., August, 1983, Part 1
#2 September 28: ICMP Report, Part 2: Human Rights and Social Responsibility at the ICMP.
Dossier on Russian "Refusenik" Scientists.
#3 October 10: "Amplitude of the Cosmos". A freewheeling legend around the Marlboro Music Festival, 1980
#4 October 24: "Is It Possible for Everybody to be a Two Cultures Person?" Satiric mayhem at the expense of C.P. Snow , Part 1
#5 November 9: "Two Cultures" , Part 2
#6 December 1: American Nuclear Society. San Francisco, October 1983
#7 December 15: "A Child Is Born" Ferment's first annual cynical Xmas story
#8 January 10 , 1984 : Bay Area Sketches: Coasting through seedy flophouses and hotels in San Francisco and Berkeley
#9 January 26: 24 hours in Marin County. A Vagabond in the plastic world.
#10 February 15: Alienation at Stanford. Lectures and seminars by exiled Chilean writers. Other radical encounters.
#11 March 1 : Research as lifestyle: Impudence confronts UC Berkeley.
#12 March 15 : Is the Violin Really a Musical Instrument?
#13 April 5 : Chomsky/Schenker: Is Language a Language Language?
A discreditable investigation into hermeneutic systems seeking to uncover 'deep structures' in our means of expression.

VOLUME II:

#1 June 30 : The Arts Olympics , Part I: Ferment receives press credentials for covering the Olympics Arts Festival in Los Angeles.
#2 September 9 : Review of "Bluebeard's Castle" : Pina Bausch's Wuppertaler Tanztheatre interprets Bartok.
#3 September 22 : Ferment loses its credentials, returns to Berkeley in disgrace, though not without getting its own back.
#4 October 10 : Disorder and the Law: A schizophrenic woman's passage through California's jails , Part 1
#5 October 22 : Disorder and the Law: Part 2
#6 November 10 : Disorder and the Law : Part 3
#7 December 1 : The Structural Linguists take up the cudgels: Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle reply to Ferment .
#8 December 1 : Joy to the World: 2nd Annual Cynical Xmas Story
#9 February 1 , 1985 : More on Noam Chomsky, Structural Linguistics, and MIT. Metonymy and Syntax in the transactional exchange patterns of toilers in the vineyards of the city of scholars.
#10 February 14 (A) Valentine's Day issue. Chants, Poems, drawings of lubricious tendency.
(B) "Valentine's Day, 1975" : The author, in the context of a psychotic crisis hitch-hikes across Pennsylvania in winter, Part 1
#11 March 11: "Valentine's Day, 1975": Part 2
#12 March 25 : Special Bach Tri-Centennial Issue: The role of J. S. Bach in the integration of European music following the age of religious intolerance.
#13 April 17: Collage of the contents of the NY Times, issue of March 24th, 1985

VOLUME III:


#1 September 7: Travel and Discomfort: A definitely unorthodox view of St. Louis.
#2 October 5 : Travel and Discomfort , continued: more predictably odd views of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
#3 October 16: Travel and Discomfort, concluded: Phoenix , Santa Fe, New York.
#4 November 10 : On the use of animals in scientific experiments. Editorial
#5 December 10: Twilight to dawn in downtown San Francisco.
#6 December 25:
Sam the Messiah Man : 3rd annual Cynical Xmas Story.
#7 January 15, 1986: Barbarians in the Salon : 3 Minor Arts Movements of the 20th Century
I : Disintegrationism
#8 January 22: Art Movements II : Alienism
#9 February 10 : Art Movements III : Cashism, Part 1
#10 March 8: Art Movements IV : Cashism , Part 2
#11 March 28:
Anthology of representative works of the arts movements.
#12 April 15: The Schwartz Proposal: A Berkeley physicist opposes the Arms Race.
#13 September 10: Report on the 11th General Relativity and Gravitation Conference, Stockholm, Sweden , July 1986
#14 October 9: A 13th century troubadour wanders the roads of modern France.
#15 November 17: Conversations with René Thom, June, 1986
#16 December 10: Reprint of Hudson Valley Summer
From "New Universe Weekly", December 2, 1981.

VOLUME IV: New Paltz , New York

#1 September 21, 1987 : Blues for Christian Hermann : Account of the Beatnik Poetry Festival
Lawrence Kansas, September 13th, 1987. Part 1
#2 September 29 : Blues for Christian Hermann , Part 2 .
#3 October 22 : Scratches on the Ether:
A disingenuous account of how the Know-Nothings in the UC Berkeley Physics Department took away my office;
#4 November 20 : Suhm Impresh'inz Uhv Theh Filedel'phee-ya Yart' Myoozy' -yuhm
#5 December 1 : Too Much, Too Little : Reflections on the American Economy
#6 December 15 : The Gift of Tongues : 4th Annual Cynical Xmas Story.
#7 January 1, 1988 : Benoit Mandelbrot's 5-Ring Fractal Circus :
Report on a conference at the University of Cincinnati.
#8 January 28 : The Curdled Land : A venture into surrealism, with serious consequences for Third World stability.
#9 February 15 : Pax Atomicana : the "peace program" of Dinosaurist Luis Alvarez .
#10 March 31: A roving reporter in Boston, Part 1
#11 February 15 : News from Boston. Part 2

VOLUME V: Paris , France

#1 April 15 : The Eiffel Tower Gang : First installment of a detective novel:
#1 April 29 : Eiffel Tower Gang , Part 2:
#3 May 12: Encounters with famous French intellectuals.
#4 June 5: Encounters, continued: Ferment's editor visits the "fashionable" cafes, when he can find them. He strikes up a friendship with the editor of Bernhard-Henri Levy and Phillipe Sollers.
#5 June 25: The Quest for Alexandre Grothendieck , Part 1:
Ferment's editor learns of the rejection of the Crafoord Prize by the greatest living mathematician. He heads to the south of France to interview him.
#6 October 1: Grothendieck, 2 : Adventures on the Riviera
#7 October 25: Grothendieck, 3 : Searching in Montpellier, he is given Grothendieck's secret address by a pair of former students.
#8 November 27 : Grothendieck , 4: He surprises the great genius in his den. The reception is more cordial than expected .
#9 January 1,1990 : Grothendieck , 5 : Visits with Alexander's friends in the Vaucluse. An unofficial biography of Dr. Grothendieck
#10 February 10: Eiffel Tower Gang , Part 3: Inspecteur Migraine tracks his quarry.
#11 March 8 : Eiffel Tower Gang , Part 4: Luncheons at La Jambe Cassée
#12 July 31 : The editor blows off steam: Lawrence Wechsler and the New Yorker, the World of Poetry contest, and other rancorous subjects
#14 September 10: The Cripple Factor: Oil, Arms and the Balance of Payments in the Middle East. Prelude to the Gulf Massacre.
#15 September 28: Letters

VOLUME VI:

Only a few issues were produced in Volume VI. The transitional period of 1990/ 91 was marked by disputes, eviction, life in a shack on the slopes of Mohunk mountain in Ulster County, NY, travels to Europe, Cambridge, Berkeley, Boulder, etc. These issues include : the remaining installments of Eiffel Tower Gang ; a muck-raking article about the UC Berkeley math department, and essays since reprinted in later issues of Ferment.

VOLUME VII Boulder, CO.


#1 June 28,1992: Credo : An explosive obscurantist diatribe against modern science, drawing on analogies with the dogmas of the medieval church.
#2 July 10: Wien , Wien Du Allein : The first installment of a serialized novel/ documentary about Vienna , 1750-1780.
Friendship between the families of W.A. Mozart and Franz Anton Mesmer .
#3 August 2: Hysteria and Enlightenment : The illnesses of Fraulein Franzl Oesterline.
Mesmer's Newtonian theories of the magnetic fluid.
#4 September 4: The Oesterline cure : 3 centuries of 'hysteria' in Europe. Medical practices of the 18th century.
#5 September 29: Marie-Therese von Paradis : The child prodigy in the Age of Enlightenment. Parental and psychiatric child abuse, then and now.
#6 October 24: The Viennese medical fraternity. Herr von Paradis and his talented daughter. Antonio Salieri's opera Delmito e Deliso . Mesmer begins a therapy regime on Marie-Therese in his private clinic.
#7 November 10: Marie-Therese slowly recovers sight, but not vision. Wandering like Alice through a Hall of Mirrors, she becomes lost in Enlightenment Wonderland.
#8 January 4, 1993:
(A.) Several outstanding personalities of the Viennese world of music convene for a concert at Mesmer's estate
(B.) Mesmer and Marie-Therese receive a visit from astronomer Maximillian Hell , S.J.
#9 January 25: Digression: A Philadelphia Story An encounters with the Monaco police force, June 21, 1986.
#10 March 28: Mesmer takes his patient on a stroll through his fabulous garden. Its flora and fauna are steeped in Animal Magnetism and the Enlightenment Zeitgeist.
#11 April 29: Marie-Therese's therapy terminates in an abrupt and unfortunate manner. Summing-up : psychotherapy, past and present.

VOLUME VIII Cambridge , MA.


#1 May 25 : The editor ruminates upon his year in Boulder and Denver, Colorado.
#2 September 1: Biography, Russian logician/dissident Alexandr Yesenin-Volpin
#3 October 1 : A. Y. Volpin, his mathematical research
#4 November 20 : Report on the Harvard University Symposium on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 12-14 , 1993, Part 1
#5 December 10 : J.F.K. Symposium, Part 2
#6 January 18, 1994 : Volpin, his political activism in the Soviet Union
#7 February 22 :
(A.) Boston/Cambridge Reporter at Large.
(B.) Dr. Dwight McNair Scott, a friend of many years ( now deceased) , recounts grisly tales of life as a medical student at the Boston City Hospital in the 30's .
#8 April 12: The Drugstore : Motivic short story utilizing Cubist and New Novel techniques, set in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square.
#9 April 22 : Carnival in the Classroom : A muck-raking expose of mathematical mis-education at Hostos Community College. Reprint and revision of an article written in December, 1982.
#10 May 10: Goodbye Columbia : The Hospital Workers Union in Hyannis, Cape Cod forces the Columbia Corporation off the Cape and out of Massachusetts.
#11 July 23:
(A.)Announcement of a project to return to France to uncover the new hiding place of Alexandre Grothendieck.
(B) Inauguration of the Pianowandeljahre, a year long ramble through America finding pianos to practice on.

VOLUME IX Middletown, CT.


#1 March 13 1995 :
(A) Letters. News from Daniel Lee Anders, now serving 40 years in Arizona's penitentiaries.
(B) Employer's Applications. Forms with embarrassing yet highly pertinent questions to give to prospective employers when searching for jobs one doesn't really want.
(C) Movement Against Discrimination by Education (M.A.D.E.) . A Manifesto
#2 April 15 :
(A) More letters
(B) The Quest for Alexandre Grothendieck ( Sequel, Part 1 )
#3 May 1 : The Cambridge Crank Tournament: Transformational Grammars ride out to joust with Statistical Control. Comparative review of Noam Chomsky's 'Rethinking Camelot' and Robert McNamara's Memoir, 'In Retrospect'
#4 June 22: Quest for Grothendieck, Sequel, Part 2 .
#5 August 12: Grothendieck Sequel, Part 3 .
#6 October 5:
(A)Grothendieck Found! : Reports from France, Leila Schneps , Jean Magloire and others.
(B) Creeping fascism halted: depredations on education in Connecticut and a rare success fighting the System.
(C) Observations on moving to Connecticut.
#7 November 20 : The University and the Ghetto Mind : Prejudice, Politics and the Enclave
#8 December 12: Scrooge Incorporated : 'Welfare Reform' in Connecticut
#9 January 5 :
(A) Book Review : Erwin Schrodinger, The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics . Dublin Seminars(1949-1955) : OxBow Press
(B) Measuring Time Derivatives in Quantum Theory
#10 January 18, 1996:
(A) "Welfare Reform", continued
(B) Letter from Dan Lee Anders
(C) Ferment's editor asks all his distinguished friends to write him letters in support of his right to entitle himself "Doctor" Lisker. He receives many flattering encomia, which are published. He now maintains that his Ph.D. has been bestowed via the authentic community of scholars.
#11 February 17, 1996: Letters
#12 March 1: Confused In All Our Abdications : Historical Background and political analysis of civil wars raging in the Balkan peninsula, Part 1

VOLUME X


#1 May 6: Balkan civil wars, Part 2
#2 June 1: De-Kunst-ructionism: The Syphilization of Civilization
#3 July 10 : Parisian Sketches , 1968-70
#4 July 24: "Disorder and the Law": A schizophrenic woman confronts California's jails . Reprint of Ferment, Vol. II, #4 and #5
#5 August 20 : "Lincoln Center in July". Short story about a A street violinist in New York
#6 September 24 : Philadelphia Sketches, 1961-63
#7 October 25: Getting That Meal Ticket : Chapter from a satiric novel published by Editions René Julliard in 1972
#8 December 1: Sam the Messiah Man : Revision of Cynical Xmas Story # 3, Vol. III # 6
#9 January 6, 1997 : Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964-65. Portraits
#10 February 6 : Report on a Symposium in commemoration of astrophysicist Subramanyam Chandrasekhar, U Chicago, December 1996
#11 March 1: S. Chandrasekhar, Part 2

VOLUME XI


#1 April 10 : Cambridge Portraits, 1965 , Part 2
#2 May 1: The Bus Paradox: How to Board a Bus using Knot Theory
#3 June 12: The Hotel Paradox: using differential equations to jump rent at an expensive hotel.
#4 July 8: Topics in Quantum Theory: Complementarity, Non-Locality, Schrodinger's Cat, etc.
#5 August 12 :
(1) Three Weddings: 3 ventures in surrealism
(2) Poetry from Middletown, Connecticut
#6 October 15: The Revelation of Dr. Snew. Jibes at the "Two Cultures" guru. An expanded revision of Ferment Vol. I, #4
#7 December 15: The Gift of Tongues. Revision of the 4th cynical Xmas story, Vol. IV, # 6
#8 : January 20, 1998 " Malicious Malpractice": The Flowering of Psychiatric Abuse in the last quarter of the 20th century. Part 1
#9 March 1 : Letters
#10 March 22 : Malicious Malpractice, Part 2 : The Theater of Absurd Cruelty

VOLUME XII


#1 April 20 : Logan Airport : A Cubist adventure in non-linear travel.
#2 June 30 : Persephone : The Greek legend retold.
#3 July 30 : Malicious Malpractice 3: Psychoneuropharmcology
#4 September 9 : A Beautiful Behind : Review of Sylvia Nasar's biography of mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. Part 1
#5 September 24 : Nasar/Forbes review , Part 2
#6 November 12: Summer, 1986 , Two Sketches
(A) " Philadelphia Story" violin playing in Monaco, revision of Ferment, VII #9 (B) Report on the GRG11 Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, revision of Ferment III #13
#7 December 12 : Letters
#8,9, 10 January to February , 1999: " Life and Life Energy". The Origins of the Unconscious Mind in the Psychic Process. 3 issues.
#11 March 1 : (A) "On the Contemporary Malaysian in Muzak" Boston Musica Viva (B) Reprints of arts reviews, Cambridge, Mass, 1980

VOLIUME XIII


#1 March 18: "The Governments of Chelm" , Part I . Political Science in the Shtedl
#2 April 18: " The Governments of Chelm", Part II
#3 May 20: Commentary on NATO's action in Yugoslavia. Announcement of a trip to Hungary.
#4 September 20: Hungary , July 7th - 21st Part I, New York, Budapest, Nyerigyhaza
#5 October 18: Hungary, continued Debrecen, Hortobagy
#6 November 18: " The Corpse In The Bedroom" Essay on Shakespeare's 'Hamlet', Part I
#7 December 1: Hamlet, Part II
#8 January 4th, 2000: " Cats and Crazy Razors", a legend of cats, doctors and lovers
#9 February 9th: "Quest of the Absolute" : An American modern dancer in the footsteps of Icarus.
#10 March 1: Report on the Annual Conference of the American Mathematical Society Washington, DC, Jan, 14-23
#11 March 27: AMS Report, Part II

VOLIUME XIV


#1 April 26 :
1. Preamble
2. " Why NOW Gun Control?" by Donald Silberger
3. Analysis and Rebuttal
4. Ode to Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
5. Letter from Michael Barr
6. Editor's Reply
#2 May 8:
Letters
Transience; Expatriate Flower Children in Paris in the 60's (Part 1)
#3 May 28:
Transience (Concluded)
The Consecutive Integer Game , by David Clark
#4 June 12: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Integration of European Music (reprint of Ferment II#12 , March, 1985)
#6 October: (No #5 through misnumbering): Call for papers and announcement of vacation.
#7 April 1, 2001:
1. Report on the "Call for Papers" on the topic of education.
2. Report of the Council of Autonomous Scholarly Support ( CASS): Kathleen Forsythe , doctoral candidate
3. Commonweal Magazine article
#8 April 15 : Report on trip to Paris and Grothendieck Circle
Articles received on education.
#10,May 11: Revolution at Pierrefonds. Reprint of article in Les Temps Modernes Jan, 1969

VOLUME XV


#1 September 15: Announcement of creation of the website, Ferment Magazine.Org
Reprint of "Cripple Factor"
#2 October 15: Sea Urchins
#3 November 20: Review of Bertrand Russell Bio, Ray Monk
#4 January 23, 2002 : Dispatches from the fringes
#5 March 15: Essays on John Milton
#6 May 15 Ferment Press, Scientific Catalogue
#7 July 10: Cripple Factor, updated reprint of article written during the 1st Gulf War

VOLUME XVI


September 2002 - July 2003 : Volume XVI is the publication, in serial form, of the novel "Getting That Meal Ticket"

VOLUME XVII


#1 December : 3 Novels Book Review: "Artemisia"; "Girl with Pearl Earring" ; "The Seven Ages"
#2 , Jan 25: Shock and Awe: War Crimes as Policy
#3 March 1: "Blues for Christian Hermann" :reprint of FIV#1 Sept 28,87
#4 April 2: The Gilded Age of Biodefense
#5 May 10: Editorials, Ferment Magazine.Org
#6 June,July : Vive la Difference! Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire and Newton
#7 September 8: Report on the Democratic National Convention

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