Copyright notice
All text and original images in this blog © 1990-2010 by William P. Coleman. Some rights reserved. You may reuse only as specified in the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License or by written permission.About me
If you'd like to know more about me, please see the About page. My qualifications for the scientific entries are in my CV.
I see no reason to segregate scientific and technical posts from humanistic ones. In my life, scientific concerns mix with ethical ones, and they shade into a philosophical interest in the nature of cognition and the nature of people. Doing science is as creative as writing fiction, and I get inspiration for both from the same gods.
You will find little here on current politics. I'm an activist, but not in symptoms. Experience in martial arts shows me that the sure way to lose is reactivity; but if you stay cool and remember your training and what you're there for then you achieve goals and, when conflict is unavoidable, you fight and win. The idea of the liberal arts I was brought up in is that broad understanding of cultures and ideas gives you deeper, better goals -- making success more likely and more satisfying. Negatively, the hysteria since 9/11 shows how a country frightened and reactive can destroy itself more than an enemy can. I'm trying to contribute by changing the terms of discourse. . . . As Allen Ginsberg wrote, "America, I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel."
One fact shouldn't require special mention, but it sometimes does: namely that I'm gay. This blog is not primarily about being gay, but the topic sometimes comes up. I'm proud of being gay and do not hide. Muse
Category Archives: Screenwriting
Vertigo: 3-act structure
This post is part of the Background to the series Learning from Alfred Hitchcock — for writers, movie makers, and viewers I think that Vertigo exemplifies all three of the kinds of structures I’ll eventually be discussing in this … Continue reading
3-act Structure — Star Wars (original)
This post is part of the Background to the series Learning from Alfred Hitchcock — for writers, movie makers, and viewers Don’t blame me. The screenwriting books ruined everything. It’s almost impossible now to sell your script to Hollywood without … Continue reading
Introduction to Longitudinal Structure
This post is part of the Background to the series Learning from Alfred Hitchcock – for writers, movie makers, and viewers Alfred Hitchcock directing Kim Novak in Vertigo Movies can have several different kinds of structures at once. This may … Continue reading
Degas, Rembrandt, and Sargent
This post continues my Story Structure series. Self-Portrait (1850s) by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas A Woman Seated Beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?) (1865) by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas
John Ruskin, Giotto, and William Henry Fox Talbot
This post continues my Story Structure series. Scenes from the Life of Christ: 10. Entry into Jerusalem (1304-6) by Giotto (Click pictures to enlarge) For those readers who are puzzled why I’ve posted so many entries about old art but … Continue reading
Jan van Eyck — The Arnolfini Wedding
This post continues my Story Structure series. The Arnolfini Wedding (1434) by Jan van Eyck The Arnolfini Wedding (Detail) (1434) by Jan van Eyck The Arnolfini Wedding (Detail) (1434) by Jan van Eyck The Dead Christ (c. 1490) by Andrea … Continue reading
Sassetta (approximately)
This post continues my Story Structure series. What does it mean to tell a story? I think one of the valid reasons that people often stress 3-act structure in screenplays is that it’s one way of making sure that we … Continue reading
Jane Austen: Free indirect discourse
A post in the ongoing series Poetry in the Arts. Jane Austen In an earlier entry, on Emily Dickinson, I tried to focus on the way poetry arises by metaphor: the author introduces a beginning that demands an certain ending, … Continue reading
de Hooch and Matisse
This post continues my Story Structure series. Three interrelated paintings (the comparison between the first two is suggested in Modern Art by Sam Hunter and John M. Jacobus). A Dutch Courtyard (1658-1660) by Pieter de Hooch The Piano Lesson (1916) … Continue reading
Star Wars (the original: is there any other?)
This post continues my Story Structure series. In an earlier post Two Frescoes, by Giotto and by Taddeo Gaddi, I questioned how many famous movies really are most usefully analyzed as having “3-act structure” — despite the claims of the … Continue reading
