http://favit.com//stream/brainpickings/Eclectic%20Interestingness%20 Brain Pickings is about curating interestingness — picking culture’s collective brain for tidbits of stuff that inspires, revolutionizes, or simply makes us think. It’s about innovation and authenticity and all those other things that have become fluff phrases but don’t have to be. Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:02:26 +0200 Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:02:26 +0200 Favit.com http://favit.com/d/0/the-unfeathered-bird-an-illustrated-history-of-avian by Maria Popova Evolutionary eccentricities, ornithological oddities, and the engineering mysteries of flight. Birds are an incessant source of scientific fascination, from why they sing to how their wings work. The Unfeathered Bird (public library; UK) by Katrina van Grouw isn’t about the anatomy of birds — it’s about “how their appearance, posture, and behavior influence, and are influenced by, their internal structure.” Though originally intended as a tool for artists, the book is also... http://favit.com/d/0/the-unfeathered-bird-an-illustrated-history-of-avian Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:02:26 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/pictures-from-italy-a-whimsical-early-travelogue-by by Maria Popova A beautiful modern resurrection of the author’s lesser-known early work. In the 1840s, young Charles Dickens — born on this day in 1812 — traveled to Italy and France with his family, recording the experience in a lesser-known early work that was part travelogue, part imaginative fairy tale. Now, Indian independent publisher Tara Books — whose exquisite handmade gems and whimsical children’s picture-books you might recall — has brought Pictures from Italy (public library; UK)... http://favit.com/d/0/pictures-from-italy-a-whimsical-early-travelogue-by Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:56:58 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/7-obscure-childrens-books-by-authors-of-adult-literature by Maria Popova What a moral cat has to do with a lost boy, a happy prince and the rules for little girls. We’ve previously explored some beloved children’s classics with timeless philosophy for grown-ups, plus some quirky coloring books for the eternal kid, and today’s we’re looking at the flipside — little-known children’s books by beloved authors of literature for grown-ups. JAMES JOYCE James Joyce may be best known as a poet, playwright, short story writer and novelist. But in an August 10,... http://favit.com/d/0/7-obscure-childrens-books-by-authors-of-adult-literature Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:56:54 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/an-addict-of-experience-sylvia-plaths-sexual-repression by Maria Popova A journey into “what compelled Plath to peek over the edge and stare into the abyss of the human psyche.” Half a century ago this month, Sylvia Plath — celebrated poet, little-known artist, lover of the world — took her own life, leaving behind her husband Ted Hughes and their two children. In the highly anticipated new biography Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted (public library; UK) — titled after the exquisite Plath poem — Andrew Wilson explores the poorly... http://favit.com/d/0/an-addict-of-experience-sylvia-plaths-sexual-repression Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:56:48 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/a-timeless-letter-of-advice-from-charles-dickens-to-his by Maria Popova “Never take a mean advantage of anyone in any transaction, and never be hard upon people who are in your power.” History has given us its fair share of deeply moving letters of fatherly advice, chief among them gems by Sherwood Anderson, Ted Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, and Jackson Pollock’s dad. But count on the great Charles Dickens — born 201 years ago today — to raise the bar with unparalleled tenderness and wisdom. When his youngest and favorite son, Edward... http://favit.com/d/0/a-timeless-letter-of-advice-from-charles-dickens-to-his Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:56:36 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/throw-over-your-man-virginia-woolfs-1927-love-letter-to by Maria Popova “…and I’ll tell you all the things I have in my head, millions, myriads.” What makes an extraordinary love letter? After Monday’s omnibus of famous correspondence, I revisited a lovely decade-old book titled The 50 Greatest Love Letters of All Time, which features missives from icons like Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Frida Kahlo, Franz Kafka, and Mozart, covering everything from tender love to lust to bitter breakups. Among them is this 1927 letter from Virginia Woolf to... http://favit.com/d/0/throw-over-your-man-virginia-woolfs-1927-love-letter-to Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:55:54 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/virginia-woolf-on-the-language-of-film-and-the-evils-of by Maria Popova “The eye licks it all up instantaneously, and the brain, agreeably titillated, settles down to watch things happening without bestirring itself to think.” “Cinema, to be creative, must do more than record,” Anaïs Nin wrote in 1946 in the forth volume of her diaries. But the question of what this elusive, quintessential creative duty of cinema might be long predates Nin’s observation. In the spring of 1926, when film was still young and silent, Virginia Woolf found herself at... http://favit.com/d/0/virginia-woolf-on-the-language-of-film-and-the-evils-of Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:50:35 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/dan-dennett-on-memes-luck-consciousness-and-existence by Maria Popova “Every living thing is, from the cosmic perspective, incredibly lucky simply to be alive.” Philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett is one of our era’s most important and influential thinkers on philosophy of mind. His insights on purpose and consciousness get to the heart of what it means to be human. To celebrate, here a few quotes from his writings that have stayed with me over the years: A reminder of how fortunate we are, you and I, from Freedom Evolves: Every... http://favit.com/d/0/dan-dennett-on-memes-luck-consciousness-and-existence Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:46:02 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/waving-to-virginia-patti-smith-reads-woolf-brain-pickings by Maria Popova “One man will single me out and will tell me what he has told no other person.” What could be more soul-quenching than two grand dames of creative culture — Virginia Woolf and Patti Smith — coming together? In this short footage recorded at the opening of a 2008 Paris exhibition of four decades’ worth of Smith’s art and photography, she celebrates Woolf’s 1931 novel The Waves (public library; public domain) with a mesmerizing dramatic performance. In fact, Smith’s choice of... http://favit.com/d/0/waving-to-virginia-patti-smith-reads-woolf-brain-pickings Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:45:20 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/virginia-woolf-on-how-to-read-a-book-brain-pickings by Maria Popova “Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice.” “The mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine, is, or should be, the only instrument used upon a book,” Vladimir Nabokov wrote in his treatise on what makes a good reader. “Part of a reader’s job is to find out why certain writers endure,” advised Francine Prose in her guide to reading like a writer. “My encounters with books I regard very much as my encounters with other phenomena of... http://favit.com/d/0/virginia-woolf-on-how-to-read-a-book-brain-pickings Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:43:05 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/9-rules-for-success-by-british-novelist-amelia-e-barr by Maria Popova “Genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.” The secret of success — like its very definition — remains amorphous and forever elusive. For Thoreau, it was a matter of greeting each day with joy; for Jad Abumrad, it comes after some necessary “gut churn”; for Jackson Pollock’s dad, it was about being fully awake to the world; for entrepreneur Paul Graham, it’s about purpose rather than prestige; for designer Paula Scher, it means beginning every day... http://favit.com/d/0/9-rules-for-success-by-british-novelist-amelia-e-barr Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:38:35 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-genius-of-dogs-and-a-dimensional-definition-of-human by Maria Popova “Genius means that someone can be gifted with one type of cognition while being average or below average in another.” For much of modern history, dogs have inspired a wealth of art and literature, profound philosophical meditations, scientific curiosity, deeply personal letters, photographic admiration, and even some cutting-edge data visualization. But what is it that makes dogs so special in and of themselves, and so dear to us? Despite the mind-numbing title, The Genius of... http://favit.com/d/0/the-genius-of-dogs-and-a-dimensional-definition-of-human Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:37:51 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-cat-haters-handbook-a-subversive-vintage-gem by Maria Popova An ailurophobe’s delight circa 1982. “If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work,” Muriel Spark advised, “you should acquire a cat.” But while felines may have found their way into Joyce’s children’s books, Indian folk art, and Hemingway’s heart, their cultural status is quite different from that of dogs, which are in turn celebrated as literary muses, scientific heroes, philosophical stimuli, cartographic data points,... http://favit.com/d/0/the-cat-haters-handbook-a-subversive-vintage-gem Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:36:37 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/richard-feynman-on-the-universal-responsibility-of by Maria Popova On harvesting the fruit of freedom of thought. “Writers do not merely reflect and interpret life, they inform and shape life,” E. B. White wrote of the role and responsibility of the writer. In The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman (public library) — the anthology that gave us The Great Explainer’s insights on the role of scientific culture in modern society, titled after the famous film of the same name — Richard Feynman adds to... http://favit.com/d/0/richard-feynman-on-the-universal-responsibility-of Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:33:16 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/a-message-for-mankind-charlie-chaplins-iconic-speech From the same remix artist who brought us yesterday’s Alan Watts meditation on the meaningful life comes “A Message for Mankind” — a stirring mashup of Charlie Chaplin’s famous speech from The Great Dictator and scenes of humanity’s most tragic and most hopeful moments in recent history, spanning everything from space exploration to the Occupy protests, with an appropriately epic score by Hans Zimmer.I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or... http://favit.com/d/0/a-message-for-mankind-charlie-chaplins-iconic-speech Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:30:55 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/eleanor-roosevelts-controversial-love-letters-to-lorena by Maria Popova “You have grown so much to be a part of my life that it is empty without you.” Eleanor Roosevelt, born 128 years ago today, endures not only as the longest-serving American First Lady (1933-1945), but also as one of history’s most politically impactful, a fierce champion of working women and underprivileged youth. But her personal life has been the subject of lasting controversy. In the summer of 1928, Roosevelt met journalist Lorena Hickok, whom she would come to refer to as... http://favit.com/d/0/eleanor-roosevelts-controversial-love-letters-to-lorena Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:18:48 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-science-of-lucid-dreaming-and-how-to-learn-to-control by Maria Popova Trekking the continuum of sleep and wakefulness in a journey into metaconsciousness. As if the science of sleep and the emotional function of dreaming weren’t fascinating enough in and of themselves, things get even more bewildering when it comes to lucid dreaming — a dream state in which you’re able to manipulate the plot of the dream and your experience in it. But how, exactly, does that work and can you train yourself to do it? Count on AsapSCIENCE — who have previously... http://favit.com/d/0/the-science-of-lucid-dreaming-and-how-to-learn-to-control Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:17:56 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-best-science-books-of-2012-brain-pickings by Maria Popova From cosmology to cosmic love, or what your biological clock has to do with diagraming evolution. It’s that time of year again, the time for those highly subjective, grossly non-exhaustive, yet inevitable and invariably fun best-of reading lists. To kick off the season, here are, in no particular order, my ten favorite science books of 2012. (Catch up on last year’s reading list here.) INTERNAL TIME “Six hours’ sleep for a man, seven for a woman, and eight for a fool,” Napoleon... http://favit.com/d/0/the-best-science-books-of-2012-brain-pickings Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:17:36 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-art-of-observation-and-how-to-master-the-crucial Why genius lies in the selection of what is worth observing. “In the field of observation,” legendary disease prevention pioneer Louis Pasteur famously proclaimed in 1854, “chance favors only the prepared mind.” “Knowledge comes form noticing resemblances and recurrences in the events that happen around us,” neuroscience godfather Wilfred Trotter asserted. That keen observation is what transmutes information into knowledge is indisputable — look no further than Sherlock Holmes and his exquisite... http://favit.com/d/0/the-art-of-observation-and-how-to-master-the-crucial Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:00:33 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/missives-from-muggings-and-asses-letters-of-audacious “This is the worst piece of cheek of all.” Earlier this week, a new book gave us a glimpse of the heart-warming fan mail Mark Twain received over the course of his career. But for every person who showered Twain with genuine and unconditional gratitude, there seemed to be a dozen demanding a range of outrageous things — the curse that comes with the blessing of inhabiting the public eye as a national celebrity. And while the art of asking without shame remains essential and commendable, some of... http://favit.com/d/0/missives-from-muggings-and-asses-letters-of-audacious Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:45:27 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/things-nabokov-hates Why you should never, ever use the phrase “the moment of truth” in your writing. Vladimir Nabokov — celebrated author, butterfly-lover, no-bullshit lecturer — was never afraid to have strong opinions. In this short and delightfully curmudgeonly excerpt from a vintage French documentary, Nabokov pulls a Jonathan Franzen and shares some of the things he detests, including: italicized passages in a novel, which are meant to represent the protagonist’s cloudburst of thought background music,... http://favit.com/d/0/things-nabokov-hates Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:30:50 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/afterwords-moving-letters-of-condolence-on-virginia T.S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell, E.M. Foster, Elizabeth Bowen, H.G. Wells, and others grapple with the ineffable. On March 28, 1941, shortly after the gruesome onset of WWII, Virginia Woolf filled the pockets of her overcoat with rocks, treaded into the River Ouse behind the house in East Sussex where she lived with her husband Leonard, and drowned herself. She had succumbed to a relapse of the all-consuming depression she had narrowly escaped in her youth. Once news of her death broke, an outpour of... http://favit.com/d/0/afterwords-moving-letters-of-condolence-on-virginia Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:00:01 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-art-of-cleanup-ursus-wehrli-playfully-deconstructs-and Alphabet soup made alphabetical, and other treats of visual obsessiveness. As a longtime fan of Swiss artist and comedian Ursus Wehrli’s playful crusade to organize the world, I was thrilled for the English release of The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy (public library). From bringing new meaning to ordering the cosmos to arranging alphabet soup in alphabetical order, his obsessive deconstruction and reorganization of life’s necessary small chaoses is at once utterly delightful and... http://favit.com/d/0/the-art-of-cleanup-ursus-wehrli-playfully-deconstructs-and Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:45:14 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-it-doesn-t-matter-suit-sylvia-plath-s-lovely A charming cautionary tale about the perils of self-consciousness. Sylvia Plath — celebrated poet, little-known artist, lover of the world, repressed “addict of experience”, steamy romancer … and children’s book author? Given my soft spot for lesser-known vintage children’s books by famous literary icons, I was delighted to discover The It-Doesn’t-Matter Suit (public library) — a charming children’s story Plath penned shortly before having her first child. Though her journals indicate it was... http://favit.com/d/0/the-it-doesn-t-matter-suit-sylvia-plath-s-lovely Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/history-s-100-geniuses-of-language-and-literature “Genius, in its writings, is our best path for reaching wisdom … the true use of literature for life.” “Genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly,” Victorian novelist Amelia E. Barr reflected in her 9 rules for success. But what, exactly, is genius? In their latest project, Italian visualization wizard Giorgia Lupi and her team at Accurat — who have previously given us a timeline of the future based on famous fiction, a visual history of the Nobel Prize, and a... http://favit.com/d/0/history-s-100-geniuses-of-language-and-literature Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:45:41 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/iconic-designer-henry-dreyfuss-on-beauty-serenity-and “Man achieves his tallest measure of serenity when surrounded by beauty.” The role of the singer, argued Lilli Lehmann in 1902, is to educate people about good music. The role of the writer, argued E. B. White in 1969, is to educate people about good writing. In his 1955 classic Designing for People (public library), legendary industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, mastermind of such cultural staples as the very first answering machine and the once-ubiquitous Hoover vacuum cleaner, considers the... http://favit.com/d/0/iconic-designer-henry-dreyfuss-on-beauty-serenity-and Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:30:01 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/tender-buttons-gertrude-stein-s-vintage-verses-about A book is a book is a book. Or is it? Given my affinity for all things Gertrude Stein and my enduring admiration for the art of my frequent collaborator and talented friend Lisa Congdon, I was instantly enamored with Tender Buttons: Objects (public library) — Stein’s 1914 collection of avant-garde verses celebrating everyday objects in her signature style of semantic somersaults, brought to fresh life with Lisa’s vibrant illustrations of birds, boxes, cups, clocks, umbrellas, and other ordinary... http://favit.com/d/0/tender-buttons-gertrude-stein-s-vintage-verses-about Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:30:44 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/happy-birthday-richard-dawkins-an-atheist-s-animated Knocking on heaven’s door of lamentable ignorance. Yesterday, we explored humanity’s age-old paradox of grappling with mortality. Today, as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins — tireless myth-buster, vocal atheist, and one level-headed dad — celebrates his seventy-second birthday, LA-based filmmaker Kevin R. Breen brings us Richard Dawkins Dies: a delightfully South-Park-esque confrontation between Dawkins and God as the two engage in a smack-down at the heart of the creationism vs.... http://favit.com/d/0/happy-birthday-richard-dawkins-an-atheist-s-animated Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:15:03 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/a-witty-and-wise-1953-letter-from-legendary-childrens-book by Maria Popova On imagination, comfort zones, and how to stand up to mediocre ladies in influential positions. As a lover of children’s books, I adore legendary children’s book editor Ursula Nordstrom (1910-1988), who headed Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973. Credited with such timeless classics as Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon (1947), E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1951), Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are (1963), and Shel Silverstein’s The... http://favit.com/d/0/a-witty-and-wise-1953-letter-from-legendary-childrens-book Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:19:53 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/henri-matisses-rare-1935-etchings-for-james-joyces by Maria Popova A 22-karat creative cross-pollination. Bloomsday may have come and gone — the world’s foremost holiday of talking about books you haven’t read — but a rare gem calls for extending the Joyce-related celebrations a little while longer. In 1935, American publisher George Macey offered the great Henri Matisse $5,000 to create as many etchings as this budget would afford for a special illustrated edition of Ulysses. After Open Culture flagged the book last week, I gathered up my... http://favit.com/d/0/henri-matisses-rare-1935-etchings-for-james-joyces Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:18:27 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/how-alfred-hitchcock-changed-one-boys-life-brain-pickings by Maria Popova “Many times it takes such a spark as this to help a youngster out of his shell and on the road to confidence.” Alfred Hitchcock — legendary director, insightful happiness guru, masterful exploiter of human psychology — was born 113 years ago today. Hitchcock, Piece by Piece (public library) deconstructs what author Laurent Bouzereau calls “the Hitchcock touch,” in large part through never-before-published memorabilia from the Hitchcock family archive — letters, memos,... http://favit.com/d/0/how-alfred-hitchcock-changed-one-boys-life-brain-pickings Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:17:49 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/how-to-avoid-work-a-1949-guide-to-doing-what-you-love by Maria Popova “Life really begins when you have discovered that you can do anything you want.” “There is an ugliness in being paid for work one does not like,” Anaïs Nin wrote in her diary in 1941. Indeed, finding a sense of purpose and doing what makes the heart sing is one of the greatest human aspirations — and yet too many people remain caught in the hamster wheel of unfulfilling work. In 1949, career counselor William J. Reilly penned How To Avoid Work (UK; public library) — a short... http://favit.com/d/0/how-to-avoid-work-a-1949-guide-to-doing-what-you-love Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:06:45 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/7-must-see-whats-my-line-episodes-brain-pickings by Maria Popova TED, Marilyn Monroe, and what girdles have to do with civic activism. In the 1950′s, the popular TV gameshow What’s My Line? cemented America’s relationship with television as an entertainment medium and a voyeuristic window into celebrity culture. The premise of the show was simple: In each episode, a contestant would appear in front of a panel of blindfolded culture pundits — with few exceptions, a regular lineup of columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, actress Arlene Francis, Random... http://favit.com/d/0/7-must-see-whats-my-line-episodes-brain-pickings Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:54:49 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/susan-sontags-radical-vision-for-remixing-education by Maria Popova A new order of knowledge for cultivating lifelong learning. “Our whole theory of education,” Henry Miller famously lamented, “is based on the absurd notion that we must learn to swim on land before tackling the water.” With its factory schooling model, its biologically unsound schedules, and its failure to account for different types of intelligence, the modern education system leaves much to be desired in terms of encouraging creativity, critical thinking, and hands-on... http://favit.com/d/0/susan-sontags-radical-vision-for-remixing-education Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:53:21 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/the-science-of-which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg by Maria Popova What the ancient proto-chicken has to do with how wolves became dogs. Since the dawn of recorded history, philosophers have pondered which came first, the chicken or the egg, as a causality dilemma exploring grander existential inquiries into the origin of life and the universe. But, it turns out, science has an answer that bypasses the metaphysical and dives right into the nitty-gritty of the tangible and concrete. In yet another illuminating animation, AsapSCIENCE enlist... http://favit.com/d/0/the-science-of-which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:51:09 +0200 http://favit.com/d/0/ambiverts-problem-finders-and-the-surprising-secrets-of by Maria Popova “It is in fact the discovery and creation of problems rather than any superior knowledge, technical skill, or craftsmanship that often sets the creative person apart.” Whether it’s “selling” your ideas, your writing, or yourself to a potential mate, the art of the sell is crucial to your fulfillment in life, both personal and professional. So argues Dan Pink in To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others (public library; UK) — a provocative anatomy of the... http://favit.com/d/0/ambiverts-problem-finders-and-the-surprising-secrets-of Sun, 03 Feb 2013 10:50:53 +0200