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 ( 7808 )
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Negotiating Meaning in Conversation
Some years ago reading William Croft (Explaining Language Change) convinced me that we negotiate meaning in ordinary conversation. Read more
Posted on 17 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
David Graeber on Super Heroes
In The New Inquiry: The plot is almost always some approximation of the following: a bad guy, maybe a crime boss, more often a powerful supervillain, embarks... Read more
Posted on 17 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Meaning, Theory, and the Disciplines of Criticism
In the fifth post, It’s Time to Leave the Sandbox, in my series on the poverty of cognitive criticism I managed to rough out a sketch of academic literary... Read more
Posted on 16 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Breakthrough in Machine Chess
Keeping in mind that my technical knowledge of computer chess is thin, this is impressive stuff (reported in MIT Tech Review): While Deep Blue was searching som... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wuthering Heights, Vampires, Handbooks, and Citizen Science
Heathcliff as vampire wannabe? Why didn't I think of that? Fortunately others have. Over at The Literature Network, kev67 asked (in Nov 2012): I was just... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
There's a Parable Here
You figure it out. Or it it just cause and effect? Read more
Posted on 15 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Graffiti Aesthetics • Some Notes
Another working paper, title above, link, abstract, and introduction below. This image asks a question (notice where the arrow points): I answer it at the very... Read more
Posted on 14 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lectures Vs. Active Learning
From today's NYTimes: poor and minority students are disproportionately likely to have attended low-performing schools and to have missed out on the rich... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Technology Readiness Scale
The NYTimes has an interesting article about private industry buying high-tech expertise en masse from universities. Thus Uber recently decided to invest in... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Anxiety and Nationalism in Russia
There's a lot of anxiety sloshing around in Russian these days, and much of it is directed against America, reports Sabrina Tavernise in The NYTimes: "[…]... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Critical Method: the Four-Fold Way, from Then to Now
While I’m in the business of thinking about the profession, here’s a short post about and old heuristic device, Richard Macksey’s graphic expression of an idea... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Writing is a Way to Gather Your Mind
Ron Capps was in the military and in the State Department. He served in Rwanda, Darfur, Eastern Congo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. What he saw, what he was unable... Read more
Posted on 10 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Some Notes on Ethical Criticism, with Commentary on J. Hillis Miller and...
Most of my work in literary studies, whether focused on the analysis of texts or on theory and method, has been concerned with achieving objective knowledge. Read more
Posted on 10 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dr. Tezuka’s Ontology Laboratory and the Discovery of Japan
I've put another publication online (title above). Download at: Academia.edu:... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has the Literary Academy Destroyed Poetry?
From Dana Gioia, Poetry as Enchantment, in The Dark Horse: The success of the New Critics, all of whom were poet-professors, inspired the next three... Read more
Posted on 08 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Jameson on Time Travel, Science Fiction, Hyperspace, and the Camera, for Realz
Fredric Jameson reviews Time Travel: The Popular Philosophy of Narrative by David Wittenberg (Fordham 2013) in the London Review of Books. Read more
Posted on 07 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Style Matters: Intellectual Style
This is another repost from The Valve (check out the discussion), lightly revised. The difference between Continental and Anglo-American philosophy is, in... Read more
Posted on 06 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sandy Bay, Massachusetts
by Sally Benzon Sandy Bay, Massachusetts The Ending Is Undone The homing nuclear calamity anchors sun-splitting sound netted by all the world, its unmaking... Read more
Posted on 05 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Poverty of Cognitive Criticism and the Importance of Computation and Form
I've gathered my posts on poverty of cognitive criticism into a single working paper (title above). Download here: Academia.edu: https://www.academia. Read more
Posted on 04 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Maybe Life's Not a Narrative
Galen Strawson in Aeon: Nevertheless, it does seem that there are some deeply Narrative types among us, where to be Narrative with a capital ‘N’ is (here I offe... Read more
Posted on 04 September 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
