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 ( 7623 )
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Where Have All the MOOCs Gone?
I assume that they're still around, but you don't hear much about them anymore. Have they simply disappeared into the woodwork? Are they not so successful as th... Read more
Posted on 09 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Anthony Bourdain Has Dinner with Obama, Picks up the $6 Check
The New Yorker has a portrait of Anthony Bourdain, the peripatetic foodie. Here he is having dinner with Obama in Hanoi: As a White House advance team planned... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Parables at 3QD
Stuck in Traffic: The Story of Civilization That’s my current piece at 3 Quarks Daily, Monday, February 7. It starts with me getting stuck in traffic trying to... Read more
Posted on 07 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rejected @NLH! Part 5: What’s up Doc? The Romantic Hayride is Over
The Romantic hayride I have in mind is an opposition to scientific thought dating back to the Romantics and that played a role in the way the New Critics... Read more
Posted on 06 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Mark Changizi on Why We're Not Going to Build an Artificial Human Brain Anytime...
This is from an article Changizi published in Discover in 2011. After making the point that digital computers are easily delineated into parts and whole on... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Happens in a World Governed by a Liar?
Maria Konnikova in Politico: Scarier still for those who have never supported Trump is that he just might colonize their brains, too. Read more
Posted on 05 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fake News on the Left
Fake news to left of them Fake news to right of them Fake news all over the damn place Volly'd and thunder'd... Writing in The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer argues... Read more
Posted on 04 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Can Evolution Tell Us About Morality?
An online symposium: Has the story of human evolution moved beyond “survival of the fittest?” What if instead of seeing humans as ultra-competitors, we saw... Read more
Posted on 04 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Quick Note on Form: Forget the Invisible, Trust Your Eyes
While it’s not all I think about these days, I do think about it a lot. By “it” I mean literary form, and why, despite how important the concept of “form” is... Read more
Posted on 04 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Poetry at Buffalo, and Other Things
As regular readers of New Savanna know, I got my PhD at SUNY Buffalo in the 1970s. Here and there I've written about what the place was like (and here, the... Read more
Posted on 03 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Harry Bellefonte, I Had No Idea.... An American Icon
The New York Times has an article about Harry Bellefonte, who will turn 90 this coming March 1. I first knew of him as the singer behind "Banana boat Song (Day... Read more
Posted on 03 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Toy Trains, Longwood Gardens, December 25, 2017
Trains are magical mythical beings. During the 19th century they crisscrossed the globe, binding regions into continents. Here is what Henry David Thoreau said... Read more
Posted on 03 February 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Quick Note on Description: It’s Not Just Words
I’ve been thinking explicitly about description for at least a decade – my manifesto, as it were, Literary Morphology, talks of description and it was... Read more
Posted on 31 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The New Critics: Beyond Understanding Brooks and Warren
It goes without saying that the New Critics have had a strong influence on the practice of literary criticism in the American academy. Obviously thought it is,... Read more
Posted on 30 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scienceandtechnology, Or, Engineers Rule!
I'm thinking about method these days, and whatever method I've got is more like engineering than science, so I'm bumping this to the top of the queue. There... Read more
Posted on 29 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: In Search of Beauty on September 12, 2011, at Sunrise
On September 12, 2011 I got up early in the morning, as I usually do, got my camera, and went out to photograph the sunrise. That's not so usual, but it's not... Read more
Posted on 27 January 2017 PHILOSOPHY -
Traffic's up at New Savanna
Lately I've been noticing an increase in traffic at New Savanna. Most days I get over 1000 hits and some days its 3000 or 4000. Here's traffic for the last seek... Read more
Posted on 27 January 2017 SOCIETY -
Protest Marches Aren't What They Used to Be: What Does Size Mean?
Zeynep Tufekci in the NYTimes: A protest does not have power just because many people get together in one place. Rather, a protest has power insofar as it... Read more
Posted on 27 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Useful Metaphor: 1000 Lights on a String, and a Handful Are Busted
Many years ago, probably back in my graduate school days, I came up with a rather awkward metaphor/analogy for thinking about intellectual progress in things... Read more
Posted on 26 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Insular is Literary Criticism?
One reason I became a literary critic is that the discipline seemed like a good arena for intellectual synthesis. Moreover, I had the example of Richard... Read more
Posted on 25 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
