29 DEC 2016 by ideonexus
How Science Fiction Got Its Start with Frakenstein
It’s not completely fanciful to say that science fiction began with three things: a dead frog, a volcano, and a teenage bride.
The dead frog was one that an Italian physician named Luigi Galvani was experimenting with in the 1780s, when he found that a mild electric shock could cause the frog’s leg to twitch. It was just an induced muscle reflex, but it suggested that there might be a connection between electricity and life.
The volcano was Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which exploded in ... 1 
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notes28 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Beginnings of Speciation in Romantic Paintings
She wandered on her own, looking at the portraits. The big crowd scenes were too much for her, like epic movies all jammed into a single frame. The subjects of the portraits, on the other hand, looked at her with expressions she recognized immediately. “I am always me, I am always new, I am always me”—for eight centuries they had been saying it. Nothing but women and men. One woman had her left nipple exposed, just under the curve of a necklace; in most periods that would have been tran... 1 notes
notesCharacter walking around an art museum.
05 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Negative Capability
I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, upon various subjects; several things dove-tailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason - Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caugh...
1 According to wikipedia: "...the capacity of human beings to transcend and revise their contexts." Here is the first use of the term by John Keats, where it sounds more like the ability to remain calm and rational in the face of uncertainty and not jump to conclusions without evidence.
09 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Types of Romanticism VS Enlightenment
Compare to:
Mother Nature, Father Science: Romanticism is aligned with Nature, Enlightenment with Science. Related to this, as the trope suggests Nature is inherently 'feminine' and Science inherently 'masculine'. Depending on how the work treats these dynamics, Closer to Earth may make an appearance.
Elves Versus Dwarves: Elves are Romantic, Dwarves are Enlightened.
Emotions vs. Stoicism: Romanticism accepts emotions as the only true way to understand the world, Enlightenment may believe...Folksonomies: enlightenment romanticism
Folksonomies: enlightenment romanticism
1 notes
notesThis conflict shows up in entertainment as Elves VS Dwarves, Nature VS Science, Harmony VS Discipline, etc, etc.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Byron Charged With Atheism
Over the next decade Herschel’s work began to be widely known by the younger generation of Romantic writers. Byron visited him at Slough in 1811, and viewed the stars through his telescope, which gave him an alarmingly religious experience: ‘The Night is also a religious concern; and even more so, when I viewed the Moon and Stars through Herschel’s telescope, and saw that they were worlds.’124 Later Byron defended himself against accusations of atheism. ‘I did not expect that, becau... 1 notes
notesFor extrapolating on the insights about the Universe brought on by looking through Herschel's telescope.
