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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Jamie’s Investigations, Part 1: Emergence
Example 1: Overall This is the first in a series of posts about the art of Jamie Bérubé, who has Down syndrome. He is the son of Michael Bérubé, who has just... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japanese Innovation on Steroids: Robot Babies
In The Guardian: A baby robot designed to “invoke an emotional connection” has been unveiled in Japan, where plummeting birth rates have left many couples... Read more
Posted on 05 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Notes on the Unreality of Fictional Characters
Another working paper is online. Title above, downloads, abstract, contents, and introduction below. Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 05 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Space, Our Destination, to Boldly Go...
Freeman Dyson reviews three books about space travel: The Green Universe: A Vision (NY Rev of books). He opens with a story about what he'll come to call... Read more
Posted on 04 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Consult the Text, the Varieties of Criticism: Remarks from a Dialogue Between...
Zhang Jiang and J. Hillis Miller, Exchange of Letters About Literary Theory Between Zhang Jiang and J. Hillis Miller, Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 53,... Read more
Posted on 04 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Deconstruction, as American as Apple Pie
Gregory Jones-Katz in The Boston Review: If one had to pinpoint ground zero for the eruption of deconstruction onto the American stage, it would have to be Yale... Read more
Posted on 04 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Shedding Light on Those MacArthur "Genius" Grants
Writing in 3:AM Magazine, Steve Light has much the same view on the MacArthur Foundations "Big Mac" awards that I do: of macarthur grants, regimes of... Read more
Posted on 03 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Theory of Literature and Theory of Criticism, Now Distinctly Different?
One of the things that happened during the 1970s and 1980s is that the distinction between the theory of criticism and the theory of literature collapsed and... Read more
Posted on 03 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jonathan Culler on Literary Criticism at Harvard in the 1960s and Other Things
One of my interests here at New Savanna is the emergence of interpretation as the centerpiece of academic literary criticism. To that end I’ve quoted J. Read more
Posted on 03 October 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hunting the Wild Myth, Cultural Phylogeny
Julien d'Huy, Scientists Trace Society’s Myths to Primordial Origins, Scientific American, 29 September 2016; here's the opening: The Greek version of a familia... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Naked Tree, Down by the River
Posted on 30 September 2016
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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“Pardon These Anti-humanistic Intrusions, Madam”
Mark Rose’s slender volume, Shakespearean Design, has been on my mind recently, as I’ve been considering doing a book on ring-composition. Rose devotes a chapte... Read more
Posted on 30 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Describing Literary Form, a Quick Note
It seems there’s growing interest in (mere) description among literary critics. I, of course, am interested in description as well. Have been for a long time.... Read more
Posted on 29 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has the Nation-state Become Obsolete?
Nation states cause some of our biggest problems, from civil war to climate inaction. Science suggests there are better ways to run a planet So argues Debora... Read more
Posted on 29 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sharing Experience: Computation, Form, and Meaning in the Work of Literature
I’ve uploaded another document: Sharing Experience: Computation, Form, and Meaning in the Work of Literature. You can download it from Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 28 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My Early Jazz Education 6: Dave Dysert
I started taking trumpet lessons in the fourth grade. These were group lessons, taught at school. As I recall, I was grouped with two clarinetists; I even... Read more
Posted on 27 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Obama’s Affective Trajectory in His Eulogy for Clementa Pinckney
This occurred to me while I was completing the draft to “Sharing Experience: Computation, Form, and Meaning in the Work of Literature,” originally entitled... Read more
Posted on 26 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hierarchy and Equality: The Essential Tension in Human Nature
I'd originally published a longer version of this essay on The Valve in 2010, where it accumulated various comments and addenda. I first republshed it here... Read more
Posted on 25 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Conceptual Metaphor Wiki Online
Available HERE as of August 2016. * * * * * MetaNet Metaphor Wiki Overview The ongoing objective of the MetaNet Project is to systematize metaphor analysis in... Read more
Posted on 25 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The End of Cinema, NOT!
David Bordwell has a column about that film journalism favorite, the article proclaiming the end of cinema. He observes, quite rightly, that it's become a clich... Read more
Posted on 24 September 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
