The importance of metaphor and narrative to our habits of mind
"Fiction - with its redolent details, imaginative metaphors and attentive descriptions of people and their actions - offers an especially rich replica. Indeed, in one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the opportunity to enter fully into other people's thoughts and feelings.
The novel, of course, is an unequaled medium for the exploration of human social and emotional life. And there is evidence that just as the brain responds to depictions of smells and textures and movements as if they were the real thing, so it treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social encounters."
(Annie Murphy Paul, 17 March 2012, NYTimes.com)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Extreme frustration: in reality and the Meisner technique
"The Meisner acting technique is a many layered approach that relies heavily on a practice known as emotional preparation. Named after Sanford Meisner, the Meisner technique began as a systematic study of the art of acting for theatre. Based on work done by Russian actor Constantine Stanislovski, Meisner created a hybrid technique that he felt was better suited to the American actor and American theatre. ...
Actors using the Meisner acting technique have the ability to immerse themselves in an emotional 'state' of the character before going onstage. Rather than pretending extreme frustration they must ARE extremely frustrated as they enter the scene. Furthermore, Meisner believed that any actor looking to exploit the Meisner acting technique does their homework by creating and developing a complete set of circumstances and a complete emotional landscape that is in tune with the deeper cravings, needs and emotions that have caused the character to be frustrated."
(Maggie Flanigan Studio)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Simpsons: telling stories without endings
"We can't bust heads like we used to. But we have our ways. One trick is to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."
(The Internet Movie Database)
Fig.1 'The Simpsons - Last Exit to Springfield' (1993), season 4, episode 17.
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Truth in Advertising: how it really is...
"Written by David Chiavegato and its director, Tim Hamilton, Truth In Advertising is a genuinely funny comedy that was, somewhat bizarrely, also nominated for a Palm d'Or in 2001. Colin Mochrie, best known as a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the US and UK, is the boss in an advertising agency where everybody tells the embarrassing truth about all the crap they talk and bollocks they make and peddle..."
(Ed Wiles, FILMSshort.com)
Tim Hamilton (2001). 'Truth in Advertising' (Canada). 12mins [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283648/].
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
