Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 63
February 14, 2011
is consciousness a matter for novelists or neurologists?
It turns out that the EEG indicates that the brain has made the decision some few thousandths of a second before subjects "know" they have decided. So why bother with consciousness at all? Couldn't that fantasy creature, a mindless zombie, do the job just as well?
via guardian.co.uk
For Antonio Damasio, the answer seems to be a convergence: consciousness happens in the brain where the self (or selves I'd add) are mapped, creating a narrative out of experience. Full story at the link above.
Filed under: Interesting, Miscellany Tagged: research on consciousness
shortlist Commonwealth Writers Prize 2011
Room by Emma Donoghue for Canada, see all here http://ow.ly/3W0Z0
Filed under: Literary Tagged: literary prizes 2011
February 13, 2011
military takes control in Egypt, FGM is democratic?
The army's announcement, which included the suspending of the constitution, was a further rebuff to some pro-democracy activists after troops were sent to clear demonstrators from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the centre of the protests that brought down Hosni Mubarak.
via guardian.co.uk
I hope that this isn't a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. The army is ruling by decree for 6 months or more while elections are scheduled. Will the elections (and real ones I mean) take place?
As an ironic aside, I read today that the rate of female genital mutilation in Egypt is 91%. I found that shocking. Democracy should begin with an end to cutting off women's bits.
Filed under: Concerning Tagged: Egypt uprising, female genital mutilation
Egypt's military rejects swift transfer of power and suspends constitution
The army's announcement, which included the suspending of the constitution, was a further rebuff to some pro-democracy activists after troops were sent to clear demonstrators from Cairo's Tahrir Square, the centre of the protests that brought down Hosni Mubarak.
via guardian.co.uk
I hope that this isn't a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. The army is ruling by decree for 6 months or more while elections are scheduled. Will the elections (and real ones I mean) take place?
As an ironic aside, I read today that the rate of female genital mutilation in Egypt is 91%.
Filed under: Concerning Tagged: Egypt uprising, women in Egypt
love in the time of dying
Over a late dinner one evening three months after that day in the doctor's office, I asked her if I might write something, sometime, about her end. An owl had just hooted as we sat at the table on the screened-in porch of my parents' country place in a tiny Massachusetts town.
via theamericanscholar.org
Read this essay. It made me cry for the beauty of it, the truth, and the love.
Filed under: Beautiful Tagged: dying at home
February 12, 2011
best literary sex scenes from the other canon
Writing about sex in literature is a difficult task; there are so many ways authors can go wrong…To counter this terrible scourge on contemporary readers, here is a list of noteworthy sex scenes in modern literature not by a Great Male Novelist(e.g., Mailer, Roth, or Updike) — those supposed masters of the form.
via flavorwire.com
Click on the link above for sex scenes by Joyce Carol Oates, Zora Neale Hurston and others.
Filed under: Literary Tagged: women writers and sex
people power: non-violence succeeds against oppression from 494 BCE to Egypt
Egypt represents an extraordinary vindication of the philosophy of Gene Sharp, a political scientist whose work I described here last July. For decades, Sharp has argued that nonviolence is the best means of overthrowing corrupt, violent, repressive regimes.
via scientificamerican.com
Filed under: Miscellany
February 11, 2011
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