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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The Physicality of Computing
Intuitions are very important; they are the foundations of our thinking. But explaining or even merely “grasping” our intuitions is difficult. This is a story... Read more
Posted on 02 March 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rejected! @ New Literary History, with Observations About the Discipline
I've now taken my posts on being turned down at NLH and uploaded them as a working paper: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 28 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will the Real Rachel Dolezal Stand Up?
Do you remember Rachel Dolezal, the white woman and black activist who was outed two years ago for passing as black? The Guardian has a fascinating article abou... Read more
Posted on 27 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Numerosity Areas in the Brain
A network of topographic numerosity maps in human association cortex, Ben M. Harvey Serge O. Dumoulin Nature Human Behaviour 1, Article number: 0036 (2017)... Read more
Posted on 25 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Networks and Cumulative Culture Among Hunter-gatherers
Characterization of hunter-gatherer networks and implications for cumulative culture, A. B. Migliano, A. E. Page, J. Gómez-Gardeñes, G. D. Salali, S.... Read more
Posted on 25 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why Did Interpretive Criticism Take Hold?
The question doesn’t exist for most academic literary critics because that’s just what we do. Some may know that it’s relatively recent, but that history is... Read more
Posted on 24 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bourdain Talks at Google, New York
Looks like I've got a Jones for Anthony Bourdain. I've been watching mostly Parts Unknown, but also A Cook's Tour, and I've even gone scouting for stuff about... Read more
Posted on 23 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Who's Who in Lit Crit Over the Last Half Century, the View from Google Ngram
I decided to do some Ngram searches on the names of important literary critics. Let's start with Northrup Frye: He published The Anatomy of Criticism in 1957 an... Read more
Posted on 22 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Ezra Klein Interviews Elizabeth Drew About Trump
This is a superb interview. Well worth listening two, all 73 minutes of it. Elizabeth Drew is the author of Washington Journal, one of my favorite books about... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Shakespeare and His Collaborators?
From The New Yorker: In 1989, a young professor named Gary Taylor published “Reinventing Shakespeare,” in which he argued that Shakespeare’s unrivalled... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
An Open Letter to Dan Everett About Literary Criticism
If you’ve heard of Dan Everett at all, most likely you’ve heard about his work among the Pirahã and his battle with Noam Chomsky and the generative... Read more
Posted on 20 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Greatest Man in Siam
by jazztoon This is one of my favorite cartoons. I've blogged about it quite a bit, and have packaged those posts into a working paper. Read more
Posted on 18 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Rise of Interpretive Literary Criticism
In various posts I've pointed out that interpretation didn't become central to academic literary study until after World War II. Read more
Posted on 18 February 2017 PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Donald Trump: Pop Star as President
If Elvis Presley had been elected President of the United States, what kind of president would he have been? We now know: Trumpian. Read more
Posted on 17 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fathers and Sons
This is a fascinating little video. It's an interview with Paul Cohen, who played lead trumpet for Count Basie for years and years. The two men were very... Read more
Posted on 15 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Preview: Meaning in Conrad's Heart of Darkness
Here's another draft fragment from my open-letter in progress. This fragment centers on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. * * * * * Now I want to look at a... Read more
Posted on 14 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Another Shout-out to Anthony Bourdain
I've enjoyed both the episode on Tokyo, and that on Detroit, episodes 7 and 8 in season two of Parts Unknown. Tokyo: Like a lot of non-Japanese, obsessed with... Read more
Posted on 13 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Preview: Will the Real Shakespeare Stand Up
I’m currently working on another open letter. I thought I’d publish some draft text while continuing to work on the full letter. It’s going to be a long one. Read more
Posted on 13 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Cost Disease, E.g. Education and Health Care Cost More, but Teachers,...
Scott Alexander, in a long post: So, to summarize: in the past fifty years, education costs have doubled, college costs have dectupled [10 times], health... Read more
Posted on 11 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Anthony Bourdain on TV (Congo)
A couple of days ago I posted a couple of passages from a New Yorker profile of Anthony Bourdain. I became intrigued, so I've been watching two of his shows tha... Read more
Posted on 10 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
