Bbenzon
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 ( 6822 )
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Beyond Reading
The Valve reaches out again, this time from 28 December 2005. I'd pay particular attention to those excerpts from Hartman, as such sentiments are deeply embedde... Read more
Posted on 03 September 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Mere Reading to Intepretive Reading
The point of this post is simple: The interpretation of literary texts is something we must be taught. It is not "natural." Though, by convention, it is often... Read more
Posted on 02 September 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
De Man, Fish, and Simulation
This is the third post from my tryout at The Valve. It appeared there in mid-December of 2005. The two footnotes, however, are new. Read more
Posted on 01 September 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Episode Order in Fantasia: Revealing the Human Mind (Revised)
I originally posted this in November of 2011. I’m reposting a somewhat revised version. I’ve added more discussion of the intermission and some speculation... Read more
Posted on 31 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A New York Times Tour of Street Art in NYC
Here's the link.Over the last decade, the city, like many dense metropolises around the world, has become a paradise of art on the streets, a legacy —... Read more
Posted on 30 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Frye to the Buffisstas, with a Glance at Hermeneutics Along the Way
This is another post from Ye Olde Valve, my second as I recall. I was still in my audition period, strutting my stuff so the Valvists could see whether they'd... Read more
Posted on 30 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Citizen Science: Crowdsourcing Bird Populations in Real Time
The New York Times:Mr. Martinka, a retired state wildlife biologist and an avid bird-watcher, is part of the global ornithological network eBird. Read more
Posted on 30 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Disney's Fantasia as Masterpiece
This is currently the fifth most popular post at New Savanna. I originally published it in The Valve in August, 2006; I then republished it here in November,... Read more
Posted on 29 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Haj Ross is a Treasure
And has the distinction of having studied linguistics with Noam Chomsky and poetics with Roman Jakobson. John Lawler has assembled an online index of Haj's... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What’s a Language? Evidence from the Brain
Yesterday I put up a post (A Note on Memes and Historical Linguistics) in which I argued that, when historical linguists chart relationships between things... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2013 CULTURE, LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY, TRAVEL -
Thomas Pynchon Now Lives on the Upper West Side
An interesting profile by Boris Kachka follows Pynchon from his childhood on Long Island though his sojourn in Mexico on up to his present life on Manhattan's... Read more
Posted on 28 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Liberty State Park, a Photo Essay
If you are familiar with Liberty State Park in Jersey City, then you will probably recognize the scene in the above photograph. It’s the walk way along Audrey... Read more
Posted on 27 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Note on Memes and Historical Linguistics
When I began my most recent series of posts on memes, I did so because I wanted to think specifically about language: Does it make sense to treat words as memes... Read more
Posted on 27 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tissa David and Garbo Talks
Michael Sporn has posted the title sequence he did with Tissa David for Sidney Lumet's Garbo Talks. Sporn opens:The initial rough/cut screening for Garbo Talks... Read more
Posted on 26 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From the Building Blocks of Human Relationships to Starving Artists
As I’ve said in a number of posts, I find the idea of a board game such as chess to be a useful way of thinking about the relationship between our biological... Read more
Posted on 26 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Neural Weather, an Informal Defense of Psychoanalytic Ideas
I’ve been wrestling with a post on unity of being, of all things, in two films, Fantasia and Dumbo, of all films, and I round myself thinking psychoanalytic... Read more
Posted on 25 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Powers on Conflict in Control Systems
One of the most profound books I’ve ever read was written by William Powers: Behavior: The Control of Perception (1973). It received a positive review in... Read more
Posted on 24 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Breathing, Calligraphy, Graffiti
From an essay by Hassan Massoudy, “Two Daughters of the Same Parents” in Arabic Graffiti (p. 31): The Arabic calligraphy I do literally comes directly from the... Read more
Posted on 23 August 2013 CULTURE -
GPS Erodes Our Wayfinding Skills
Animals have had to negotiate their way in the world (wayfinding) for millions upon millions of years. Our navigational circuitry is both old and sophisticated. Read more
Posted on 22 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Urban Kids Afraid of Nature
From a NYTimes interview with Maria Conroy, founder of the "Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden, an eight-acre, $62 million, mostly open-air learning center... Read more
Posted on 22 August 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY