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: The arts
John Ruskin: “the Great Spirit of nature is as deep and unapproachable in the lowest as in the noblest objects”
John Ruskin The chapter “Of the Foreground” in the first volume of John Ruskin’s Modern Painters ends: One lesson, however, we are invariably taught by all, however approached or viewed, that the work of the Great Spirit of nature is … Continue reading
John Ruskin: “You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him”
Self Portrait by John Ruskin John Ruskin had some typically heterodox thoughts on perfection that go well beyond the usual — and often excellent — thought that “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” . . . no good … 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
Perugino and Raphael
This post continues my Story Structure series. Here are three similar paintings: Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter by Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci (1445?-1523), called Perugino
Pieter Brueghel and W.H. Auden
This post begins a new series, Story Structure. Pieter Brueghel, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus You know what “they,” the screenwriting gurus and the Hollywood suits, tell us: “Icarus is your main character. Keep focus on him. Make sure … Continue reading
. . . every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite
A post in the ongoing series Poetry in the Arts. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, William Blake wrote about the “doors of perception.” The ancient tradition that the world will be consumed in fire at the end of … Continue reading
William P. Coleman 