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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Friday Fotos: The Hudson River at Rhinecliff, NY [#AutumnExpress]
Posted on 20 October 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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It's a Small World (network) After All, and It Arises Through Adaptive Rewiring
Nicholas Jarman, Erik Steur, Chris Trengove, Ivan Y. Tyukin Cees van Leeuwen, Self-organisation of small-world networks by adaptive rewiring in response to... Read more
Posted on 20 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What WAS I Thinking When I Snapped This Photo? Not the Beatles and Not Abbey Road
If you are of a certain age and a certain inclination you can’t help by think of the album cover for Abbey Road, released by the Beatles in 1969. That’s... Read more
Posted on 18 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Can You Learn Anything Worthwhile About a Text If You Treat It, Not as a TEXT,...
The Chronicle of Higher Education just published a drive-by take-down of the digital humanities. It was by one Timothy Brennan, who didn’t know what he was... Read more
Posted on 18 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Out of the Ground with Your Hands, My Summer in Coal @3QD
I’ve done a little editing to a recent post and reposted it at 3 Quarks Daily under the title, slightly changed from the original, My summer job working in... Read more
Posted on 17 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Another (strenuous) Take on What Went Wrong with Literary Criticism, John...
Yeah, I know. But it’s important to get this right. Once again I’m going to review that Geoffrey Hartman statement I find so characteristic of the mid-1970s... Read more
Posted on 16 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Latour on the Second Science "war"
Jop de Vrieze interviews Bruno Latour in Science; an excerpt: Q: How do you look back at the “science wars”? A: Nothing that happened during the ’90s deserves... Read more
Posted on 15 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This is Your Brain on Stories
Decoding the Neural Representation of Story Meanings across Languages Morteza Dehghani, Reihane Boghrati, Kingson Man, Joseph Hoover, Sarah Gimbel, Ashish... Read more
Posted on 14 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: On the Beach
Posted on 13 October 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Why the Computational Form of Literary Texts is Mere Form in the Kantian Sense
Actually, it’s not me that’s taking the look at Kant. To be sure, I read some Kant years ago, and I do mean years, more like decades. Read more
Posted on 13 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jerry Seinfeld: It's 98% in How You Deliver the Joke
Here's Jerry Seinfeld talking with George Stephanopoulos (who, you may recall, had been White House Communications Director under Bill Clinton) about comedy. Read more
Posted on 13 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why the New Intellectuals Don't Cut It
Back in the mid-1990s I met one Cuda Brown (not his real name) online. We hit it off and went on to establish one of the first black zones on the internet. Read more
Posted on 12 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lit Crit: A Short Take on What Went Wrong
It became besotted with meaning subordinated everything to it. Literary meaning was special. What made it special? Literary form. Read more
Posted on 12 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Pennies from Heaven, Once Again, the MacArthur Foundation Waffles in Its...
It’s that time of year, folks. The MacArthur Foundation has announced its latest round of so-called genius grants – a term they coyly back away from – and the... Read more
Posted on 11 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Two Questions About Language: Why is It Computationally Privileged? Why is...
What does that first question even mean? In what sense is language computationally privileged? They may well be an abstract answer to that question, but I... Read more
Posted on 10 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How I Discovered the Structure of “Kubla Khan” & Came to Realize the Importance...
I say discover because I regard the poem’s structure as something existing objectively in the world, prior to and independent of my work, or anyone else’s for... Read more
Posted on 09 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
WWI and the American Security State
Geoffrey Wheatcroft reviews War Against War: The American fight for Peace 1914-1918. Here's one paragraph: Amid an ugly mood of coarse jingoism, nativism, and... Read more
Posted on 07 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Interesting, on the State
Writing in The Nation, Samuel Moyne has a long review of James Scott's, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States: Scott makes his case by... Read more
Posted on 07 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Computation, Games, Humor, and Common Sense
Mark Liberman has an interesting post today, Cartoonist walks into a language lab… He poses a task for machine learning: New Yorker cartoons are usually... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: More Festival Flix (Hoboken Arts & Music Fall 2017)
Posted on 06 October 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
