[Psychologist Silvan Tomkins] was a legendary talker. At the end of a cocktail party, a crowd of people would sit rapt at Tomkins's feet. Someone would say "One more question!" and everyone would stay for another hour and a half as Tomkins held forth on, say, comic books, a television sitcom, the biology of emotion, his problem with Kant, and his enthusiasm for the latest fad diets -- all enfolded into one extended riff. (p. 198)
Monday, January 17, 2005
wince
Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Blink, is about the two-second intuitive judgments that people make and how there is often a considerable amount of wisdom in such judgments. My own sequel, Wince, will be about the two-second intuitive judgments that I make when I'm reading where I think, "Now we've passed from nonfiction into obvious (if entertaining) apocrapha or even into just outright fiction." An example from Blink that caused me to wince:
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3 comments:
it is interesting how many of the folks we consider "public intellectuals," are writers who spin out secondary accounts of already-published research.
p.s. to above: gladwell is a very good, and entertaining, author. it just seems that the pundits these days are too often folks like gladwell who are smart, well-read, and good writers, but who are not the thinkers making the really important discoveries or breakthroughs. perhaps the latter don't write in a style that has broad appeal (or in some cases is even accessible?).
Mine life with anxiety is not fraught
I make'th snap decisions on the spot
will it be donuts cold or hot?
regardless of yesterday's sack I bought
-this but a parting thought
my future in cholesterol is wrought
Woe! the calories I would'st have fought
had'eth I but a spoon of tofu in the pot
a hefty paunch is all I've got
'tis donuts I've only ever sought - LDM
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