If you tell a joke and nobody laughs, was it still a joke? How sure are you that your answer to that question is right? What is the definition of “joke”? That question broadens out. Does humor necessarily make you laugh? If you laugh, does that mean the object of your laughter is humorous? It doesn’t take long to start thinking of examples of things we call humorous that do not actually induce laughter. Dark humor, for example, may not make you laugh out loud. That doesn’t bother us, we … [Read more...] about Laughing at the World Around You
Life Advice
Third-Rate Heroes
Imagine a useless Superhero, that hero who shows up at the moment of crisis and you think, “Uh, not what I had in mind.” Yep, you just imagined Aquaman. The guy who can breathe under water and...talk to fish. Quick, try to think of the crisis when you want Aquaman to come to the rescues. You fell off a boat into shark-infested waters? That is so low grade a crises, any superhero can get you out of that. Aquaman has a reputation problem. He is, oddly enough, one of the Giants in the DC … [Read more...] about Third-Rate Heroes
Escaping The Pit of Despair
Sometimes a story just haunts you and won’t let go. This is not always surprising. If you really enjoyed a story, it makes sense that you will often remember it fondly. I know many people whose life seems to be one long pleasant reminiscence of Jane Austen novels. But it isn’t these pleasant reminiscences I am discussing here. There is another category of story which stays in the mind not because it aroused any particular strong emotion. The story lingers because it presented a puzzle, and … [Read more...] about Escaping The Pit of Despair
Living with Aphantasia
Close your eyes and picture a house. What color is the house? Now picture a dog? What kind of dog is it? Now picture a member of your family, a scene from your favorite novel, and the last meal you ate. When you closed your eyes, could you picture those things? If so, congratulations. You have just done what everyone can do. Well, not everyone can do that. I can’t. When I close my eyes, it’s all just black. No pictures. No mental images. I can’t picture a house or a dog or anything else. I … [Read more...] about Living with Aphantasia
The Power of Conversation
Cormac McCarthy is my answer to the question, “Which living novelist is most likely to be considered Great in 100 years?” He has a number of novels which are widely and justly celebrated. This isn’t about any of those novels. He also has one work which I rarely see mentioned anywhere, but is truly an amazing bit of art. The Sunset Limited. The subtitle itself is curious. A Novel in Dramatic Form. If you glance at any page, it sure looks like a play, but calling it a play would almost … [Read more...] about The Power of Conversation
Writing With Style
The first sentence I ever wrote has never been reproduced in a book demonstrating the highest points to which the English Language can attain when deployed by a Master of the Pen. The second sentence I ever wrote suffered the same fate. Total oblivion. Even I don’t remember these sentences. Presumably they were not very good. Presumably not even my kind teacher was inspired by them. Learning to put words on paper is a remarkable achievement. Let us not minimize how extraordinary it is that … [Read more...] about Writing With Style