Category Archives: Uncategorized

Language Wars: Is English bound to remain the dominant global tongue? Stephen Henighan This summer, in Russia, I saw something different: crowds of Chinese tourists entering shops and restaurants, typing their orders into their iPhones in Mandarin, then pressing a … Continue reading →

This passage takes on an added dimension when we note that the reader is none too sure what voice belongs to the pronouncements. This is not a university: it is a sanatorium. […] Here we are, and my father is … Continue reading →

This is a question: It looks like a set of words in a column: manuscript, oratory, scholar[l]y ap[aratus]. Position is important. The question: how does the practice of oratory reflect upon manuscript culture to produce the scholarly or critical apparatus? … Continue reading →

His first tip for aspiring novelists: One: work every day. Get into the habit of it. Work, when you don’t feel like it, when you’ve just broken up with your girlfriend or boyfriend, when you’re feeling ill, when you’ve got … Continue reading →

A question and answer that arose in contemplating Doležel‘s work on possible worlds and fiction. Q. What is between the universe and the world? A. Agents But how does an “agent” arise? A fold in the fabric of the universe … Continue reading →

Mario Livio recounts this episode in the life of Évariste Galois. It strikes me as possible only at a time when paper was expensive and the making of copies labour-intensive. In June 1829, the Academy of Sciences announced the establishment … Continue reading →

Charles Bernstein What seems to be discouraged in American politics is any active participation in the designation and description of public policy issues — a ceding of authority that politicians, journalists, and the public are forced to accept if they … Continue reading →

Ian Gold and Suparna Choudhury “Losing Our Heads” Literary Review of Canada Contemporary neuroscience is what the brain looks like through a keyhole. It is the science of the brain in isolation. The brain, however, is not isolated; it is … Continue reading →