Reconfigure this Book! One of the two Arams that I know has some interesting thoughts on "the culture of configurability."

  ¶ 11:34 AM 0 comments

  Generation SBUX My 2-year old wouldn't nap yesterday, so to get her out of the house, I took her to our neighborhood Starbucks to share a snack and hang out.

She took three bites, put her head down on the table, and fell asleep instantly.

I guess it really is a Great Good Place.
  ¶ 11:30 AM 0 comments

  Funny Lore Alternatives to "Who's Your Daddy?"  ¶ 12:40 AM 0 comments

  Another "Big Idea" As if sociobiology is not a sufficiently reductive and impoverished way to understand the world, the NYT gave platform this weekend to a new group of about 30 gamma-male English professors who are propounding "Literary Darwinism," which apparently claims that the most important element of each text if the reproductive implications of characters' behaviors. Thus:

Through the Literary Darwinist lens, Shakespeare's play becomes the story of a young man's dilemma choosing between his personal self-interest (taking over the kingdom by killing his uncle, his mother's new husband) and his genetic self-interest (if his mother has children with his uncle, he may get new siblings who carry three-eighths of his genes). No wonder the prince of Denmark cannot make up his mind.

This is the most ludicrous thing ever. Just to engage it on its own terms for a second, if Hamlet is roughly 20, isn't Gertrude presumably beyond likely childbearing? Also, wouldn't Hamlet's biological imperative clearly be better served by regicide, assumption of the throne that is clearly his, and spawning a whole bunch of Hamlettlets with Fortinbras' sister?

Frankly, the most telling line in the article is this one, from the ringleader of this particularly sad band:

"Most of my closest friends ended up at the Ivies or their equivalents," Joseph Carroll says, while he is at "a branch campus in a state university system."

How sad for him. No doubt, this limits his access to desirable females. Perhaps becoming the leader of a new troupe of gamma-males is just what he needs. But it seems to me that in this case, Academic Darwinism (no doubt a much more interesting field of study) appears to be working...

  ¶ 7:15 AM 0 comments