My essay on cognition and John Donne is available now from The Seventeenth Century: “To knit the knot: embodied mind in John Donne’s ‘The Ecstasy.’” If you’re interested in reading my work, I’ve got a limited number of free eprints I can distribute. Email me and I’ll send you the link (nrhelms@ua.edu). Here’s the abstract:Continue reading “To knit the knot: embodied mind in John Donne’s “The Ecstasy””
Category Archives: Sprockets and Springes
Cry Havoc!
If you get a spare 30 minutes (during a drive or run, perhaps), listen to the most recent Folger Shakespeare Library podcast: http://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/war-stephan-wolfert Stephan Wolfert’s work with veterans and Shakespeare is worth talking about for many reasons, but one stands out as relevant to my own work on Shakespeare and mindreading. Wolfert notes that in decades of work with Shakespeare’s plays, he’sContinue reading “Cry Havoc!”
The Selfless ‘Inside Out’: Not a Problem
I’d like to take a moment to respond to Alva Noë’s piece “The Awkward Synthesis That Is ‘Inside Out’” on NPR’s Cosmos and Culture, which I think misrepresents Pixar’s film. I’m sympathetic to Noë’s reactions…I’m just not sure Noë saw the same film I did. I should start by noting that Noë isn’t reviewing Inside Out, norContinue reading “The Selfless ‘Inside Out’: Not a Problem”
Cognitive Disability as Straw Man
I’d like to point to two articles that have been trending on Facebook in recent weeks to point to a common thread I’ve seen in conversations about ‘mental illness.’ I’m using scare quotes here because the phrase ‘mental illness’ is itself problematic, for it implies that any deviation from statistically normal human cognition (called neurotypicality)Continue reading “Cognitive Disability as Straw Man”
Sprockets and Springes 