In this TCRecord piece, Daniel T. WIllingham uses what we know about cognitive psychology to explain Why students don't like school. He suggests that although most people believe that humans are good at thinking, it is actually the weakest of our mental faculties......
Posts related to: Fiction
Responding to my reading…
I had written a response to Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist a while ago (read it here). Yesterday, I received a note from Irfan critiquing my take on the novel. This is what he wrote: Punya, I read the novel and it does not seem to me, as you interpret,...
On messing with your mind
A fascinating series of illusions to reveal just how complicated a phenomenon perception is. I was particularly impressed by the "rubber hand" illusion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQtbcgBWobA
Harold Pinter, RIP
One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness — Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008).
Brevity is the soul
I had posted earlier (see Twittering a tale) about short, short fiction that is suddenly the rage. Matt Koehler just introduced me to another example of this new emerging genre: Six Word Memoirs. Check it out.
The reluctant fundamentalist
I just finished reading "The reluctant fundamentalist" a novel by Mohsin Hamid over the break. (I had mentioned this novel in another context here). It is a tight, powerful novel, structured as a monologue, (reminiscent of Camus' The Fall, a fact that few reviewers...
Of games, mood and age
I love reading. I love watching movies. I love over-analyzing books and movies, seeking to find pattern and structure, motifs and motives. I love to break them down in my mind and put them back together again. I read reviews of books and movies by the ton, sometimes...
Twittering a tale
My favorite short short story is by Hemmingway. It is all of six words long - but boy, does it pack a punch. It goes, "For sale, baby shoes, never used." Wow! It turns out that such short stories are not merely a novelty. The advent of Twitter and microblogging, with...