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In Praise of Prejudice
Feb. 22nd, 2014 06:28 pmIn Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Notions by Theodore Dalrymple
In which the doctor takes up our prejudices against prejudice -- including the observation that although "racial" seems to be the normal prefix, it is only a small portion of the prejudices afloat.
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In which the doctor takes up our prejudices against prejudice -- including the observation that although "racial" seems to be the normal prefix, it is only a small portion of the prejudices afloat.
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The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us by Bee Wilson
A history of what we have thought about the honeybee.
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A history of what we have thought about the honeybee.
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Reading back in time to rip off research history for use in fiction often means you happen on stuff that is not immediately intuitively obvious why they do it that way.
The fun part is that there are two reasons why it might be so.
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The fun part is that there are two reasons why it might be so.
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The Greeks and the Irrational
Sep. 16th, 2012 02:22 pmThe Greeks and the Irrational by E. R. Dodds
A book on a somewhat loose and heterogeneous collection of concepts. Then, it was to combat the pop culture image of the Greeks as the perfect culture of rationality that the Enlightenment is so blameworthy for coming up with. (The middle ages get the equally and oppositely ridiculous image of the world of irrationality; for that I recommend C. S. Lewis's The Discarded Image.) To be sure, it uses the loose-goosey, pop culture notion of what's rationality and irrationality, but then, so does the image.
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A book on a somewhat loose and heterogeneous collection of concepts. Then, it was to combat the pop culture image of the Greeks as the perfect culture of rationality that the Enlightenment is so blameworthy for coming up with. (The middle ages get the equally and oppositely ridiculous image of the world of irrationality; for that I recommend C. S. Lewis's The Discarded Image.) To be sure, it uses the loose-goosey, pop culture notion of what's rationality and irrationality, but then, so does the image.
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Some of the hardest things to convey to a reader is a mindset different from his in a way where he never thought they might. Like, say, aesthetic theory.
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of worlds and words
Apr. 4th, 2012 08:50 pmAh, there's a difference in taste in the butter, and she's thinking about how it was back --
On the planet? In the kingdom?
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On the planet? In the kingdom?
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In the matter of reforming things
May. 26th, 2011 09:10 pmIn the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."
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The Captive Mind
Mar. 17th, 2011 02:20 pmThe Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz
The Mind of Man Under Communism. . . That it was written prior to the fall of Communism is visible on internal evidence alone.
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The Mind of Man Under Communism. . . That it was written prior to the fall of Communism is visible on internal evidence alone.
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Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens
Nov. 4th, 2010 05:04 pmBlue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their World by Patricia Lynn Duffy
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on the importance of stories
Sep. 29th, 2009 09:20 pmIn an article that isn't actually about stories, per se:
children acting out a dramatic scene can control their impulses much better than they can in nonplay situations. In one experiment, 4-year-old children were first asked to stand still for as long as they could. They typically did not make it past a minute. But when the kids played a make-believe game in which they were guards at a factory, they were able to stand at attention for more than four minutes. In another experiment, prekindergarten-age children were asked to memorize a list of unrelated words. Then they played “grocery store” and were asked to memorize a similar list of words — this time, though, as a shopping list. In the play situation, on average, the children were able to remember twice as many words.
Full article here.
When putting a character on stage and declaring this person is a sage -- there are some considerations that ought to be taken into effect.
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career advantages to reading SF
Feb. 3rd, 2009 06:00 pm"I was an effective intelligence officer. Why? In junior high, I matured past the French Existentialists and started reading science fiction. The prose was often ragged, but the speculative frameworks offered a useful approach to analysis."
Full article here.
Studies In Words
Dec. 26th, 2008 05:10 pmStudies In Words by C.S. Lewis
Lewis takes several words with significant histories -- and chases them through all their meanings until they reach their modern sense. Which can be quite a permutation. Did you know that "sad" originally meant "full"? As in, I hope you were all sad after Christmas dinner.
Nature, free, world, life can all mean all sorts of things in old documents. And it's fascinating to watch the words undergo the exact same semantic drift in several different languages.
This is a very useful book for writers. When we bang around words, we change them. This brings it out and lets us see what we are doing.
Lewis takes several words with significant histories -- and chases them through all their meanings until they reach their modern sense. Which can be quite a permutation. Did you know that "sad" originally meant "full"? As in, I hope you were all sad after Christmas dinner.
Nature, free, world, life can all mean all sorts of things in old documents. And it's fascinating to watch the words undergo the exact same semantic drift in several different languages.
This is a very useful book for writers. When we bang around words, we change them. This brings it out and lets us see what we are doing.
The Midnight Disease
Oct. 6th, 2008 06:51 pmThe Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.
A neurologist's take on writing.
I don't know what a non-writer would think of it, but I found it fascinating.
She starts out with a discussion of hypergraphia which is the compulsive need to write. It's associated with temporal lobe epilepsy and with maniac-depression and it's probably not what drove you to write so much at some point. Doctors discovered that they had a simple test for epileptic patients as to whether they were hypergraphic: ask them to write a letter describing their health. Non-hypergraphics wrote under a hundred. Hypergraphics wrote thousands.
It's so compulsive that -- well, she tells the story of a Chinese woman who had hypergraphia. She wrote, compulsively, and then she burned it all because it was criticism of the Chinese regime at the worst possible time to be caught. (And then she would bring the ashes to a relative's house because it had a flush toilet and she could flush the ashes.)
( Read more... )
A neurologist's take on writing.
I don't know what a non-writer would think of it, but I found it fascinating.
She starts out with a discussion of hypergraphia which is the compulsive need to write. It's associated with temporal lobe epilepsy and with maniac-depression and it's probably not what drove you to write so much at some point. Doctors discovered that they had a simple test for epileptic patients as to whether they were hypergraphic: ask them to write a letter describing their health. Non-hypergraphics wrote under a hundred. Hypergraphics wrote thousands.
It's so compulsive that -- well, she tells the story of a Chinese woman who had hypergraphia. She wrote, compulsively, and then she burned it all because it was criticism of the Chinese regime at the worst possible time to be caught. (And then she would bring the ashes to a relative's house because it had a flush toilet and she could flush the ashes.)
( Read more... )
The Geography of Thought
Sep. 13th, 2008 09:51 pmThe Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett
Did you know that American and European children learn nouns a lot faster than verbs, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean children learn verbs about as fast as nouns?
That Americans are better at picking out foreground objects and recognizing them in different situations, while Japanese are better at taking in the whole picture?
That native speakers of English are likely to correlate object by category, and native speakers of Chinese, by relationship? But if you teach native speakers of Chinese English in their teens or so, which language you use will influence which way they are more likely to use. And if you teach native speakers of Chinese English very young, correlations will even out between category and relationship, but be independent of language.
( Read more... )
Did you know that American and European children learn nouns a lot faster than verbs, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean children learn verbs about as fast as nouns?
That Americans are better at picking out foreground objects and recognizing them in different situations, while Japanese are better at taking in the whole picture?
That native speakers of English are likely to correlate object by category, and native speakers of Chinese, by relationship? But if you teach native speakers of Chinese English in their teens or so, which language you use will influence which way they are more likely to use. And if you teach native speakers of Chinese English very young, correlations will even out between category and relationship, but be independent of language.
( Read more... )
