“The research suggests fantasy stories—or at least those good enough to hold our interest—produce neural reactions that are above and beyond those created by other narratives—even ones that are just as exciting, involving, or humorous.”
Tag: 02.13.14
Has The News We Follow Displaced Literature?
“Following the endless turbulent commentary on Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen, and the commentary on the commentary, you could be forgiven for feeling that literary art, as Trilling defined it, has been largely displaced by life—or, at least, by the pictures of life ceaselessly produced by the all-powerful media—as the realm in which we lose ourselves in a moral problem.”
The Man Who Runs Arts Council England Has Some Ideas About “Subsidy”
Just compare us to Paris, Rome or even New York. The arts are cheap – 14 pence a week per taxpayer goes to the arts, a third of what the French spend. It’s a tiny sum of money.” But the subsidy is shrinking. “I don’t use the word ‘subsidy’. It’s a wet, tedious word. I use ‘investment’. ‘Subsidy’ sounds so passive.”
Danger: The Comcast/Time-Warner Merger Would Change Things Far Beyond TV
“The deal could impact satellite TV, television programmers like ESPN and Fox, online video providers like Netflix and YouTube, and the massive networks at the very heart of the internet.”
The Academies Time Forgot – Where Traditional Academic Figurative Art Rules
These national academies in Eastern Europe maintain the academic figurative art traditions. They’re clearly out of step with the contemporary world. And yet, do they preserve traditions we might rediscover and value again?
Maybe Not A Surprise: Design-Driven Companies Wildly Outperform Competitors
A new analysis by the Design Management Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on design management, puts numbers to what design junkies suspected all along: in the past 10 years, design-driven companies outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500–a stock market index of 500 large publicly traded companies–by 228%.
Study: Dress A Bit Oddly If You Want People To Think You’re Powerful
They argue that dressing in an unconventional way “signals that one has the autonomy needed to act according to one’s own inclinations.”
Former FCC Chairman: I’m Sorry We Killed Independent Media
“Gone are hundreds of once-independent broadcast outlets. In their stead is a truncated list of nationwide, homogenized, and de-journalized empires that respond more to quarterly reports than to the information needs of citizens.”
A New NEA Chief Is Great. But There’s A Bigger Problem…
Philip Kennicott on arts in the Obama Administration: “Why has it neglected one of the fundamental tools it has for shaping attitudes to American culture? Why did President George W. Bush manage to use the NEA so effectively while Obama has manifested only indifference? Is this the sad reality of the technocratic mindset, that culture is secondary or tertiary, and not worth the bother?”
Pharmaceuticals for the Lovesick
“As we discover more about love’s neural basis, we are getting closer to a pill to diminish heartbreak.”