Tag Archives: Small World

Mueller Demythologized

Thursday I’ve written a lot about people’s hopes in Robert Mueller, which helps explain the palpable disappointment in his performance yesterday before two Congressional committees. From one perspective, there’s no reason to feel let down. After all, his report exposed one of the great scandals in American history: our president welcomed and encouraged Russian election […]

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Interpreting Lit by Computer

A new study purports to “reveal what exactly it is about popular stories that makes us love them most.” Your own explanations about why you love the characters you do are for more revealing. I include David Lodge’s mockery of such computer studies in his novel “Small World.”

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Neuro-Lit Riding to the Rescue?

I wrote last Thursday about neuro-lit, which an article in the New York Times has trumpeted as English’s “best new thing.”  Certain practitioners are analyzing the way readers become absorbed in stories—fictional identification—by scanning their brains as they read.  Practitioners of this new approach are contending that fictional identification has played a key role in the […]

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