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 ( 7626 )
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Automating Image Culture [#DH]
Lev Manovich, Automating Aesthetics: Artificial Intelligence and Image Culture:... Read more
Posted on 14 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Limitations of an Academic Literary Criticism Centered on Meaning, Or, What...
I have written extensively about the limitations of the current discipline of literary criticism [1]. The discipline is focused on interpreting the meaning(s) o... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Like Getting Hit in the Gut with a Falling Apple
So when Newton said this thing about playing on the seashore, was he being metaphorical? Or was he being [*clears throat*] littoral? pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 13 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Virtual Reading: The Prospero Project Redux [#DH]
I've uploaded another working paper. Title above, abstract, table of contents, and introduction below. Note that it's a long way through the introduction, but... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why I’m Just Now Seeing a Quickening in The Force (in Lit Crit, #DH)
A short time ago I posted the following tweet: But you know, I've been observing the scene for a LONG TIME, and I sense a disturbance in the Force, a Quickening. Read more
Posted on 11 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Experienced Observation (& Another Brief for Description as the Way Forward in...
My friend and colleague, John Wilkins, philosopher of biology extraordinaire, has just run-up a wonderful post, 50 words for snow, or conceptual confusion – and... Read more
Posted on 11 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bleg: Beyond/Beneath the Nation-State
This stuff is much on my mind these days. If anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on. Back in September, 2012, I put up a post in which I asserted, by... Read more
Posted on 10 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Leo P. WAILS on the Baritone Sax, Dances Too
I came across this clip by accident. Well, not really I suppose. YouTube probably served it up to me because its AI informed it that it's my cup o' tea. Which i... Read more
Posted on 10 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Honor to Serve, A Short Note About NCIS
Episode 13 in the first season of NCIS is called “One Shot, One Kill”. It opens in a video game arcade where some teen-aged boys are blown away by the skill of... Read more
Posted on 09 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Five Recent Flix of Various Subjects
Posted on 08 September 2017
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Culture is a Driving Force in History
I'm thinking about this a lot these days. May write a book about it. So I'm bumping this post from April 2011 to the top of the queue. Read more
Posted on 08 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Wealthy Are (sometimes) Ambivalent About Their Wealth (pssst...they're Only...
Rachel Sherman in the NYTimes: We often imagine that the wealthy are unconflicted about their advantages and in fact eager to display them. Read more
Posted on 08 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Perpetual Election?
For some time now the American presidential election has run on for a year or more, staring in the year prior to the actual election with trial balloons and... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jakobson’s Poetic Function and Literary Form
Two years ago Sandra MacPherson wrote [1] that she's looking for “for a genuinely formalist critical practice, a little formalism that would turn one away from... Read more
Posted on 07 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
1981: My Summer with NASA
Something I painted when I was, oh, nine or ten. See that meteor streaking at the upper right? My teacher, Glenn Brought painted that. How do I know? The brush... Read more
Posted on 07 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cities Are Breaking Free ... on Climate Change (I Hope)
From the Stanley Foundation: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” President Donald Trump declared at the White House in... Read more
Posted on 07 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wild Dogs Sneeze to Arrive at a Group Decision About Hunting
From The New York Times: When they want to move as a group, meerkats call to each other. Capuchin monkeys trill. Gorillas grunt. Honeybees make what is called... Read more
Posted on 06 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
After the Thrill is gone...A Cognitive/computational Understanding of the Text,...
In a previous post in this series I criticized the vague spatial metaphors literary critics use to understand the text and nature of critical inquiry. Read more
Posted on 06 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Once More, with Feeling: Computation, Criticism, and the Way Forward
And I mean computation, not as a tool to crunch data or process words, but as a way of thinking about literary structure and process. Read more
Posted on 04 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The General, the President, and NCIS
I have already noted that NCIS is popular among Trump supporters. Trump is strong on authority, his in particular, and NCIS, after all, centers around the... Read more
Posted on 02 September 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
