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
-
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 ( 7808 )
-
The Disciplines of Psychology, the Study of Literature, and an Ecology of...
Psychoanalysis has been the psychological discipline that has had the most influence on literary criticism, along with Jungian depth psychology and perhaps... Read more
Posted on 20 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Green Villain Irregulars Go Exploring
On Saturday the Green Villain irregulars hitched a ride on the Tardis and set out for worlds unknown. Here's some shots. Coming out of the time warp. Their... Read more
Posted on 19 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My Mind and the Machine @3QD
I decided to do something a bit different this time out on 3 Quarks Daily, I decided to indulge myself and write a personal essay – about me! Read more
Posted on 19 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Gods Must Be Crazy in Jersey City 2
From the Wikipedia: The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 South African comedy film written and directed by Jamie Uys. Financed only from local sources, it is the... Read more
Posted on 18 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Thoughts on the Discipline [Literary Criticism]
It appears that I’ll be publishing a working paper on the profession of academic literary criticism sometime in the next week or three, depending on what other... Read more
Posted on 17 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Grassiness
I grew up in suburban Pennsylvania. Thus for me, grass is a green lawn. This lawn isn't in Pennsylvania, it's in New Jersey, and it's not someone's lawn, it's... Read more
Posted on 16 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Description 3: The Primacy of Visualization
I've uploaded another working paper, my third on description. Links: Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/16835585/Description_3_The_Primacy_of_Visualization... Read more
Posted on 15 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Diary of a Man and His Machines, Part 3: The 21st Century
As I’ve previously indicated, I finished out the previous century with a G3 MacIntosh in the tower configuration and having a (relatively small) LCD monitor – n... Read more
Posted on 14 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
James Brown in Paris, 1968
James Brown was one of the great musicians and performers of the previous century. Here’s a video of a live performance from 1968. The show opens with... Read more
Posted on 13 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Alva Noë on Art, Especially Dance, and What It Has to Teach Us About Our Nature
The philosopher Alva Noë recently gave a talk at Google HQ about art and human nature. Here’s Google’s description of the talk: In his new book, Strange Tools:... Read more
Posted on 13 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Frostiness: 3 Passages, 2 from Frost Himself
I’d like to backtrack a bit and pick up the thread on Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”. In my original post at 3 Quarks Daily I’d argued that the poem is a... Read more
Posted on 12 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Diary of a Man and His Machines, Part 2: How’s This Stuff Organized?
As I indicated in the previous post in this series, I’m in the process of transferring my “stuff” to a new computer, my third for this century. Read more
Posted on 11 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Diary of a Man and His Machines, Part 1: The 20th Century
I’ve swiped the title from Dave Hays, my teacher and later friend and colleague, who wrote a weekly column entitled, “The Diary of a Man and His Machine”. Read more
Posted on 10 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Red Cabbage
Posted on 09 October 2015
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
-
Emotion in the Body (and in Poetry?): James-Lange Then and Now
I' originally published this in July 2012, but I'm bumping it to the top of the cue because, well, it's very interesting. It suggests how we can easily be... Read more
Posted on 09 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Posturing Robots and Infants: Contra Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind (aka TOM) has been a big deal in psychology for well over a decade, and it’s crept into literary criticism too. Read more
Posted on 07 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dennett on Memes, Neurons, and Software
Another working paper, links: Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/16514603/Dennett_on_Memes_Neurons_and_Software SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2670107... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Memory Tricks: Om's Groove
A couple of months ago I was working with my friend Wendelin on a spoken word piece. She provided the spoken words while I was one of the musicians... Read more
Posted on 06 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Description as a Mode of Literary Criticism
I’ve got a long-standing interest in the need to describe the formal features of literary texts. When theorizing about description I’ve been most concerned abou... Read more
Posted on 05 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Revised Working Paper on Heart of Darkness
I’ve made two changes from the original version of this working paper, which I originally posted to the web in August of 2011. First, I have revised section HD5... Read more
Posted on 02 October 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
