Bbenzon
Description
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
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New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 7356 )
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Inter-Racial Sex: A Passage to India and Light in August
I'm bumping this to the top of the queue on general principle. It's one of the oldest posts here, having originally been posted on May 6, 2010. Read more
Posted on 24 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Story of Civilization: Stuck in Traffic
Are things too big and out of hand? I'm bumping this one from September 2012 to the top of the queue. One day I waited an hour in traffic to go a quarter of a... Read more
Posted on 22 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hey, Aziz, Read Any Good Romance Novels Lately?
Jennifer Weiner, We Need Bodice-Ripper Sex Ed, NYTimes: “Romance novels teach readers that all partners are equal participants in a sexual relationship,” said... Read more
Posted on 21 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
New York 2140, Some Notes About Form and Structure
The novel’s plot unfolds as an opportunistic linking of contingencies. Characters see opportunities and forge links. At first the contingencies and characters... Read more
Posted on 20 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Sampler
Posted on 19 January 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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New York 2140: What IS Fiction, Anyhow?
I slipped over to Manhattan yesterday for a meeting that was held – wouldn’t you know? at the New York Yacht Club, an honorable establishment with old money... Read more
Posted on 18 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Micro-timing in Conversation
Tanya Stivers, et al. Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation, PNAS June 30, 2009 vol. 106 no. 26 10587-10592Abstract:Informal verbal... Read more
Posted on 18 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ross Douthat on Opus Dei and the Consecrated Life
I remember all the gnashing of teeth, the rending of garments, and the wailing of women, boys, and men when Ross Douthat got the nod as a NYTimes Op-Ed writer. Read more
Posted on 18 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Getting from HERE to THERE: New York 2140
Science fiction isn’t just thinking about the world out there. It’s also thinking about how that world might be—a particularly important exercise for those who... Read more
Posted on 17 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What's up with the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (ESS) in Biology?
Kenneth Laland in Aeon: Despite the excitement of all the new data, it’s unlikely to trigger an evolution revolution for the simple reason that science doesn’t... Read more
Posted on 17 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Barbie, Bratz, IP, and #MeToo
Jill Lepore has a fascinating article in The New Yorker about an IP (intellectual property) squabble over Barbie and Bratz dolls, which do billions of dollars i... Read more
Posted on 16 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Fascinating Visual Illusion
Here's the illusion: pic.twitter.com/thNAPQLZlk — Steven Pinker (@sapinker) January 16, 2018 Look carefully at the coloring on the lines. Read more
Posted on 16 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Language, Computation, and Literary Form
I’ve been making a lot of posts over the past year or so about language, computation, and literary form, with a particular flurry in the last month or two... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Alan Jacobs on Adam Roberts on H. G. Wells
Adam Roberts, a British colleague from The Valve, has been blogging his way through the works of H. G. Wells in preparation for writing a literary biography of... Read more
Posted on 15 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Once More, and Thinking of Ring Composition: Why Aren’t Literary Critics...
I keep coming back to this question. Sometimes I think I’ve got an answer, but then, gradually, it goes away. I’m not quite sure what the question is. Read more
Posted on 14 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fog, Creepy but Not Sinister
Posted on 14 January 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Let's Get Lost....
Posted on 12 January 2018
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Ted Underwood on Cultural Analytics and Liberal Education [#DH]
Ted Underwood was scheduled to speak at the 2017 MLA convention at a session on “Varieties of Digital Humanities”. However, his flight to New York got cancelled... Read more
Posted on 12 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Trump, Oprah and the New American Monarchy?
In the wake of assertions that Oprah, you know, should, um, err, run for president, I’ve been thinking about the United Kingdom (aka Great Britain). It’s a... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pope Oprah of the Universal Church of Holistic Gnostic Wellness
Ross Douthat in the NYTimes: We’ve heard about Oprah the entrepreneur, Oprah the celebrity, Oprah the champion of holistic medicine and the enabler of... Read more
Posted on 10 January 2018 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
