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 ( 7846 )
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Everyday Life in Germany During WWII
Nikolaus Wachsmann reviews The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-45 (2015) by Nicholas Stargardt in The Guardian. Most Germans did not want war in 1939. Read more
Posted on 12 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is America Obsessed with Fame? And Does That Play a Causal Role in Mass...
Stephanie Pappas at Live Science: Gun ownership can't be the entire story, though, given that overall violent crime is decreasing. There seems to be something... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Tulips for Art
My first publication in an academic journal (and so-called "little magazine") was an autobiographical piece, "Touchstones", that Art Efron published in his... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Art Efron: An Ethical Critic
I suppose it would have been some time in 1998 that I was contacted to contribute to a Festschrift for Art Efron, one of my teachers in the English Department o... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My Take on Neuroscience and Literature
If someone interested in neuroscience and literature was to take a look at my work, what would they find? Quite a bit, but it’s scattered across a lot of... Read more
Posted on 10 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Philosophical Transactions B: Understanding Self and Other: from Origins to...
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Theme issue ‘Understanding self and other: from origins to disorders’ compiled and edited by Caroline Catmur,... Read more
Posted on 09 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Computation & Literature: 6 EZ Pieces
Another working paper is up. Title above; introduction, etc. below. * * * * * Download at Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 08 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jerry Coyne on the Irony of Natural Selection
Mutations, though necessary for evolution, are general harmful. Jerry Coyne points out that there's an irony here: The irony to which I refer in the title is... Read more
Posted on 08 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Pastel Fog on the Hudson River
My mind seems to be on hiatus for the moment, so writing is temporarily on hold. But I can still post photos. Here's another RGB (red-green-blue) series. It's... Read more
Posted on 07 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Miyazaki: “Film-making Only Brings Suffering”
He says that about an hour and 47 minutes into a documentary, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, which has made about Studio Ghibli in 2012 or so. Read more
Posted on 06 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In 16 Books Dickens Used 37,504 Words
but just what that means is subject to various qualifications. For example: I downcased everything, split hyphenated words, and counted only all-alphabetic... Read more
Posted on 06 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Weekly Ramble 2: What’s Miyazaki Constructing? More Lit Crit
Almost a month ago I put up something I called “weekly ramble”, thinking that I might do more such columns, possibly weekly. The idea was to ramble over things... Read more
Posted on 05 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Humans and Animals
Kerri MacDonald has a moving article in the NYTimes about humans and animals She's discussing the photographs Jayanti Seiler has taken of animals and of... Read more
Posted on 04 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Nature and Culture
Posted on 04 December 2015
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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English Literature in the World at Large
From a column by Geoff Pullum, English and Its Undeserved Good Luck: Some of the biggest influences on the success of English came from literature, film, and... Read more
Posted on 04 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Digital Criticism Comes of Age
There's a new working paper, title above. Links etc. below. Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/19414113/Digital_Criticism_Comes_of_Age Social Science... Read more
Posted on 03 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Railroads to the Internet, Same Land
Ingrid Burrington in The Atlantic: Google didn’t come to Council Bluffs because of historical resonance. They came for the fiber, which runs parallel to Iowa’s... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Literary Criticism and Spiritual Crisis (?)
One of the things I keep thinking about is the sense of professional narcissism that had academic literary critics writing as though their activity were... Read more
Posted on 02 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Wind Rises: Marriage in the Shadow of the State
01:45:17 The marriage between Naoko Satomi and Jiro Horikoshi is notable on several counts. In the first place, marriage is a major life event and a large numbe... Read more
Posted on 01 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
John Collins to Judge 6TH Annual 3QD Philosophy Prize
We are very honored and pleased to announce that John Collins has agreed to be the final judge for our 6th annual prize for the best blog and online-only writin... Read more
Posted on 30 November 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
