The Brain's Cortex and Emotions

The brain's cortex plays an essential part in emotional processing. This is not surprising, since we first have to have sensory input for the fear-response to take place.

I Got There First

Barbara King could have saved a lot of time in reviewing Michael C. Corballis's The Recursive Mind if she had read my dissertation. Corballis could have saved himself the embarrassment of her review if he had read it. I already discussed in it the presence of recursion in any species that hunts.

Article on E. O. Wilson

Good new article in The Atlantic on E. O. Wilson, who has a new, sure to be controversial, book coming out.

Rhythm and Memory

In my dissertation I argued that the best way for people to learn is for them to have a rhythmic education. It turns out that I was right. In other words, regular rhythmic verse aids in memory. This is important in helping us to understand both the origins of rhythmic poetry, and the reason we continue to be attracted to it (unless one is a postmodernist professor of English, in which case it's not fashionable to like it). If we want students to learn their lessons easily, the textbooks should be in something like blank verse. It doesn't even have to be so obvious -- iambic lines will do.

Proper and Dark Heroes

Some good literary Darwinism dealing with mating strategies.

A Review of Three Literary Darwinist Books

Here is a review of three literary Darwinists -- Brian Boyd, On the Origin of Stories, Jonathan Gottschall, The Rape of Troy, and Clinton Machann, Masculinity in Four Victorian Epics -- and a challenge to the rest of us. The reviewer criticizes Gotschall for, essentially, not doing literary theory in a more traditional way. Well, isn't that Gotschall's point? How he does it and what he does is his unique contribution to the field. I find it interesting that they are all on epics. Also, I have in my possession Frederick Turner's latest and yet to be published work, Epic. Is there a changing paradigm afoot?

Literature and the Psychology Lab

Gregory Currie has an interesting article titled Literature and the Psychology Lab. This is, of course, where the real bridge between the humanities and the sciences is built.