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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Is the Internet Bringing an End to Shared Culture?
Farhad Manjoo in the NYTimes: What’s less discussed is the polarization of culture, and the new echo chambers within which we hear about and experience today’s... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rejected @NLH! Part 0: Some Reflections on Being Turned Down Cold at a Top...
Generally the introduction is the last thing I write in a working paper. That’s because either, 1) I’ve assembled a working paper out of posts that were... Read more
Posted on 10 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Attachment Theory Goes Mainstream(?)
Kate Murphy in the NYTimes SundayReview: We live in a culture that celebrates individualism and self-reliance, and yet we humans are an exquisitely social... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
YIKES! Where Are My Glasses?
It had started snowing and it looked like the first real snow of the season. It had to get some photos. So I suited up – scarf, 35-year old down-filled jacket,... Read more
Posted on 08 January 2017 SOCIETY -
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Trump? – “You Need Some of the Major Institutions...
Mark Schmitt in conversation with Robert Wright, Bloggingheads.tv, January 5, 2016. Late in the conversation Wright asks: “Are you concerned about the... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The Color, Longwood Gardens, December 25, 2016
Last week I posted photos of white flowers at Longwood Gardens. This week I'm going for the color. Read more
Posted on 06 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The 70s, When Literary Criticism Moved Toward a World Unto Itself (w/ Notes on...
In the course of mulling over my rejection at NLH I continue to think about the 1970s as a critical period in academic literary criticism. Crudely put story... Read more
Posted on 06 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"The Nation-state is a Failing Institution"
That line is from a long post that Tim Burke has recently written, The Anatomy of Anti-Trumpism: Ten Thoughts and Reconsiderations. That's in the 9th of his... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Talk About Instant Academic Gratification, Publication Within Two Days! OMG!
The following is typical of emails I get on a regular basis, conference solicitations too. Does this smell like The Fake Academy? But I'd work on that acronym.... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Visual Experiment [electric lights:Longwood Gardens]
How did I get from this to this and why? The first would appear to be a photograph. Well, of course I know it's a photograph, because I took it, and I know... Read more
Posted on 05 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Education for Digital Humanities
It started on Twitter – doesn’t it always? Ted Underwood tweeted: Highly recommend this, especially the ¶ around "DH should be wary of promises of ease."... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More on Segmented Sleep
My friend Barry Solow just alerted me to this, Letter of Recommendation: Segmented Sleep, in the NYTimes: Back when segmented sleep was common, this period... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Patrick Columbia on Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
David Patrick Columbia is the founder and proprietor of New York Social Diary, one of my regular stops on the web. The title tells you his beat, more or less,... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Chinese Room – I Got It! I See Where It’s Going, Or Coming From. (I Think)
John Searle’s Chinese room argument is one of the best-known thought experiments in the contemporary philosophy of mind and has spawned endless commentary. Read more
Posted on 03 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Will the True Intellectual Stand Up, Please!
Jack Miles, Three Differences between an Academic and an Intellectual: For the monks who preserved and redefined the liberal arts in the Middle Ages, secular... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Profession of Literary Criticism as I Have Observed It Over That Last 50...
In the course of thinking about my recent rejection at New Literary History I found myself, once again, rethinking the evolution of the profession as I’ve seen... Read more
Posted on 02 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why is Literary Criticism Done Almost Exclusively in Discursive Prose?
This is a question I’ve been pondering for awhile[1]. It’s not as though there is a formal rule stated in those terms, or even an informal understanding. Read more
Posted on 02 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Polythetic Entitation & Cultural Couplers
Timothy Taylor has an interesting entry in this year’s “Edqe Question” idea-fest. It has the ungainly title, Polythetic Entitation. Read more
Posted on 01 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Mind Over the Long Haul: My Posting Patterns
In October of 2015 I had a post at 3 Quarks Daily entitled, Have the Internets Rotted My Brain and Wrecked My Mind? I included the following figure: Each... Read more
Posted on 01 January 2017 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Fake Academy: Scholarly Open Access
Like many scholars I get a fair number of solicitations from dodgy-sounding journals and conferences. The New York Times has an article about the phenomenon, A... Read more
Posted on 31 December 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
