This inclusive, transcendence-inducing capacity of narrativity would seem to render narrative somehow qualitatively different, unique — somehow superior in relation to other forms of discourse.
Not quite mathematical in that more than logic and tautological reflex thinking is involved, algorithms can be studied as narratives where the analogs of plot, setting, character, and point of view are instrumental in bringing about the end.
Ara 13. CovingtonMoore, Inc. 2007, Paperback, 228 pages, $4.00
Book Description: Beginning as a modern military civil affairs action, Drawers & Booths spirals into a metafictional journey, testing the boundaries of reader and author, narrative voice, and characterization–the wrapping for Ara 13’s satirical analysis of morality in light of evolutionary psychology.
From the Publisher: An “Outstanding Book of the Year” Bronze Medal “Storyteller of the Year” About the Award: Drawers & Booths won an IPPY—the world’s largest international book awards competition, independent or otherwise. Ara 13 competed against releases from production houses such as, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Yale, and other university presses, as well as Pulitzer finalist Dave Eggers’ production house, McSweeney’s, and Barnes & Nobles’ alliance press, iUniverse. Ara 13’s novel was selected from 3,175 entrants representing 16 countries: Trinidad to Thailand, Croatia to Czech Republic, and France to Finland. Drawers & Booths was one of 32 books to receive the moniker, “Outstanding Book of the Year,” and Ara won a Bronze Medal as “Storyteller of the Year.” According to 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Ara 13 exhibits “the courage and creativity to take chances, break new ground, and bring about change, not only to the world of publishing, but to our society.”
From the Author: About Metafiction: Metafiction is the literary term describing fictional writing that self-consciously draws attention to its status as an artifact by challenging the relationship between fiction and reality. Metafiction reminds the reader that he or she is reading a fictional work. Often, when the boundary between reader and book is blurred, a metafictional device is employed. This can be mild, as with a first-person narrator acknowledging the reader; or it can be extreme and challenge the boundaries of reader and author, as with Drawers & Booths. This reading experience, though not spatially congruent is chronologically linear, which avoids reader disorientation. In short, the metafictional elements are meant to entertain, not confuse.
Arthur L. Kopit, End of the World With Symposium to Follow
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy
Ira Levin, Deathtrap
Dimitris Lyacos, Nyctivoe
Steve Martin, Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Peter Weiss, Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of The Marquis de Sade)
Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife
Federico García Lorca, Play Without a Title / Untitled Play (1935)
In his recent Scientific American article, Michael Shermer brings out some facts that may explain why and how untested stories—theories in search of an hypothesis, if you will—can trump scientific reasoning. I think that some of the facts about brain functioning that Shermer discusses also provide an insight into possible reasons for why the conflict between science and religion and other mythic types of thinking has persisted for so many centuries and appears set to persist for many centuries into the future.
Here is a quote from the article; you can read more via the link that follows;
We have evolved brains that pay attention to anecdotes because false positives (believing there is a connection between A and B when there is not) are usually harmless, whereas false negatives (believing there is no connection between A and B when there is) may take you out of the gene pool. Our brains are belief engines that employ association learning to seek and find patterns. Superstition and belief in magic are millions of years old, whereas science, with its methods of controlling for intervening variables to circumvent false positives, is only a few hundred years old. So it is that any medical huckster promising that A will cure B has only to advertise a handful of successful anecdotes in the form of testimonials.
The July 11, 2008 Point of Inquiry interview with Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age involves the question of how does the glut of information and ongoing proliferation of information devices that contribute to this glut affect the quality of our thinking and ability to sustain creative attention to that which needs attending?
from the Point of Inquiry introduction:
In this interview with D.J. Grothe, Maggie Jackson discusses her controversial thesis about the downsides of the information age, and how the distractions from modern technologies lead to less critical thinking and less fulfilled lives. She explores the causes and effects of the erosion of attention, including media culture, the internet and personal communication devices . . .
Click here to go to the Point of Inquiry site and listen to the interview.
From the introduction to the June 27, 2008 Point of Inquiry podcast.
P.Z. Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris and the author of Pharyngula, the most heavily-trafficked science blog online.
In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, P.Z. Myers details his expulsion from a screening of Expelled, Ben Stein’s documentary which claims that the scientific community is limiting academic freedom by not allowing Intelligent Design to be taught or discussed in the schools. He explains the background of how he and other scientists were invited to appear in the film under false pretenses, and what his response has been. He addresses “focus groups” and other marketing methods for finding the best way to communicate science to the public. Calling himself part of the “radical fringe,” he elaborates on his view that leading science organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement for Science and the National Academies of Science are “playing a shell game” on the public when it comes to teaching the compatibility of science with religion, arguing instead that there is a direct link between science education and religious skepticism. And he also shares his thoughts about the future of the atheist and rationalist movement in the United States.
What is marvelous, amazing, about nature is that it was here before us and will be here long after we are gone. In the meanwhile we sit around the campfire and entertain ourselves with stories.
The following selections from a recent popular book on cosmology, Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang by Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, would make for good reading at a campsite under a dark, star-filled desert night sky:
Cosmology, the study of the origin and evolution of the universe, has some unique limitations that call for a high degree of caution. Scientists cannot perform direct experiments on the universe, and they cannot travel back in time. The best they can do is gather indirect information about the history of the universe through painstaking observations of distant objects that emitted their light a long time ago and try to piece together a logical account. But the evidence is uneven, with highly detailed information about some epochs and little or no information about others. Even if one story fits all the available evidence well, there is always the possibility that another story might fit just as well, or better (7-8).
The history of the universe can be compared to a play in which the actors–matter and radiation, stars and galaxies–dance across the cosmic stage according to a script set by the laws of physics. The challenge for the cosmologist is to figure out the story line after arriving at the show 14 billion years too late, long past the crucial opening scenes (18).
For some time now, a year, two years? the word “narrative” is more or less being continuously used by almost every journalist, reporter, commentator, politician, and critic with access to a microphone or pen.
And now another word is being similarly co-opted for its figurative punch: “brand.” So far I only hear it used by politicos; we’ll see how far it penetrates.
“The Republican brand. The Democratic brand. Obama’s brand. McCain’s brand.
It has been 4,209 years, 6 months, and 2 days since the writing down of what may be the earliest known recorded narrative, the Sumerian "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta." A series of accounts describing the conflicts between Enmerkar, king of Unug-Kulaba (Uruk), and the unnamed king of Aratta (probably somewhere in modern Iran or Armenia). It is notable for its strong parallels to the Tower of Babel narrative of Genesis. [Wikipedia]
Readers who know Tanya Huff from her Blood, Smoke, and The Keeper’s Chronicles books (or even the Blood Ties show on Lifetime) will find this stand-alone modern urban fantasy right in line with what they’ve come to expect from her. For those of us not so familiar with Huff’s work, a warning: This is not your usual fantasy fare. Not in the least.
One wades through an awful lot of pretentious chatter published when a new production of a work like “Waiting for Godot” is mounted. But what work is ever like Samuel Beckett’s excruciating 2-Act masterpiece? An English friend of mine, a literary scholar and sharp theater critic who has passed most of his life in Cambridge, detests that writer’s work […]
Not quite a century ago, on August 29, 1911, thousands of people began flocking to the Louvre (among them, Franz Kafka and his friend Max Brod) to gaze at a blank space on a wall. The 49-acre Louvre – still the largest museum in the world today – had been closed for most of the preceding week for the investigation of a singular occurrence: the most famou […]
Twitterers take on Ulysses [1]: Forget about Ashton Kutcher. James Joyce's Ulysses, one of the most difficult novels in English, is on Twitter. Two devotees of Ulysses have adapted its 10th chapter to Twitter, which limits users to 140 characters per post. Called Wandering Rocks, the chapter is especially well-suited to Twitter because it follows 19 Dub […]
Top Ten Literary Tear Jerkers [1] [Independent] Preparing to Sell E-Books, Google Takes on Amazon [2]: In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Goog […]
Book Of A Lifetime: Mindblast, by Dambudzo Marechera [1]: Mindblast (1984), the last book printed during his life, is unforgivably neglected. It is a literary scandal that it has never been published outside Zimbabwe. [Independent] George Orwell: a life in quotes [2]: "Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books involves constantly inventing reactions […]
This week: The Times's Neil MacFarquhar on his experiences in the Middle East; Caitlin Macy on Jill Ciment's new novel, "Heroic Measures"; Motoko Rich with notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
Everett McCourt James Hannaham James Hannaham is the author of a novel, "God Says No." What are you working on? I dread this question. I'm at the beginning of several projects and trying not to worry about which one will be "the next one" - though I'm only going on faith that there will be "a next one" [...]
I didn't want to be that guy who made a playlist full of songs no one has ever heard, but maybe I did. I don't know what people listen to. In any case, these are what I've been listening to recently, and I think you should too.
From the Gallery
Kurt Gödel
Quotable
But why did I do it? I confess that I’m an unabashed Old Leftist who never quite understood how deconstruction was supposed to help the working class. And I’m a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them. — Alan Sokal
Does failing to learn from history mean we are doomed to repeat it? Not necessarily, but it?s up to Washington to ensure that 1937 doesn?t happen all over again.
President Obama has eloquently explained the case for health care reform, but will he compromise so much to get a plan through Congress that it won?t do the job?
Introducing President Obama at yesterday's online town hall discussion, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett encouraged viewers to go to the White House's official site on Facebook.com, telling them: "As health-care reform moves through Congress, it's very important to President Obama that we take the time to engage the American people."
"Star Trek" is back in theaters, and, as Mr. Spock might say, it's logical that the religious right would want to jump into the popular movie's transporter beam.
As the justices read out their opinions yesterday on the final day of the Supreme Court session, the robed ones went about their usual routines: Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito sipped from their coffee cups, John Roberts caught up on his reading, Antonin Scalia rubbed his eyes and Clarence Thomas rocked in his chair and massaged his forehead.
The Lost Lincoln: Who He Really Was, And Why We Need To Rediscover Him.Thursday, 2 July 2009, 10:00 pm Lincoln President-Elect: Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861 By Harold Holzer (Simon and Schuster, 623 pp., $30) Abraham Lincoln: A Life By Michael Burlingame (Johns Hopkins Unive. […]
Michael Shermer - Science, Skepticism and LibertarianismFriday, 22 May 2009, 8:17 pm Michael Shermer is one of the most well-known skeptics in America, working for decades to advance the scientific outlook in society. He is a contributing editor and monthly columnist for Scientific Am. […]
Dale McGowan - Raising FreethinkersThursday, 14 May 2009, 10:21 pm Dale McGowan has edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents. He writes the secular parenting blog The Meming of. […]
