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Lounge / Five scientists and five artists who take inspiration from one another
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 31, 2023, 10:27:19 AM »
In her article “Talk About the Passion” for the online website Nautilus, its associate editor Kristen French interviewed five scientists and five artists who don’t see a rift between their fields but instead take inspiration from one another. Their responses gave her the distinct impression that today’s scientists and artists are players in a new cultural Renaissance, or at least a throwback to the old one, when scientists were artists and artists were scientists.

“Their answers, in their own words, [were] personal, idiosyncratic, and driven by deep curiosity, just like science and art themselves.” Kristen French observed.


The respondents to her interviews were these five scientists—the astrobiologist Caleb Scharf, cognitive scientist Anil Seth, physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll, and linguist Julie Sedivy—and as many artists—poet Camille Dungy, photographer Ian Ven Coller,  multimedia artist Lynn Hershman Leeson, writer Jonathan Weiner, and musician Vijay Iyer.   

Take astrobiologist Caleb Scharf’s candid reply: “If I’m really honest, and being unpretentious, the creative force that has most influenced me as a scientist is science fiction. As a very young kid, I watched a fair amount of Star Trek on TV, which was very influential because it triggered the idea that there could be things beyond normal perception, beyond my everyday experience of the world.”

Read “Talk About the Passion” in full in the online website Nautilus now! FOR A TECHNICAL PROBLEM THIS LINK IS NOT CONNECTED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
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Time Out From English Grammar / The Journalist and the Billionaire: Doing Elon Musk’s Biography
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 31, 2023, 10:16:36 AM »
In the New York Magazine “Intelligencer” website, features writer Shawn McCreesh shares in his recent article “The Journalist and the Billionaire” insights into what veteran old-Establishment journalist Walter Isaacson personally learned when he embarked on a two-year enterprise gathering material for an authorized biography of Elon Musk, the American business magnate and SpaceX/Tesla chief executive officer.
 

Walter Isaacson, former Time Magazine editor and subsequently CNN chairman and chief executive officer, had previously written biographies for such historical notables as Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Kissinger, and Steve Jobs as well as for the notable female biochemist Jennifer Doudna. His biography of Elon Musk was published by Simon & Schuster last September 12.


McCreesh describes Isaacson’s biography of Musk as having been written in Time Magazine style—restrained, middlebrow, and without an obvious agenda: “Its author is just there to give you, the reader, the facts of Musk’s life as he was able to observe and report them. Isaacson spent more than two years hanging around with the guy in his factories and at his rocket-launch sites, interviewing 128 people in his orbit and fielding many surreal late-night phone calls and text messages.”

In an interview with Isaacson in a restaurant in New Orleans (the biographer's hometown), McCreesh recalls how Isaacson had looked forward to the challenge of doing the Musk biography: “The question for a biographer is to show how the demons of a person are totally connected to the drive that gets their rockets to orbit. People who are driven by demons get shit done.”

Read in full Shawn McCreesh’s article on writing Elon Musk’s biography in New York Magazine’s “Intelligencer” website now!
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Site Announcements / Updated Playlist (December 23 - 29, 2023) for the Forum Gateway on Facebook
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 27, 2023, 11:46:49 AM »
UPDATED PLAYLIST UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 23 - 29, 2023 OF JOSE CARILLO ENGLISH FORUM’S FACEBOOK GATEWAY

Simply click the web links to the 15 featured English grammar refreshers and general interest stories this week along with selected postings published in the Forum in previous years:

1. Getting To Know English Better: “The historical, literary, and ‘eternal’ present tense”




2. You Asked Me This Question: “The perfect progressive tense takes its time’”




3. Badly Written, Badly Spoken: “Should that sentence require the present tense or the past tense?”


IMAGE CREDIT: DRINKMANILA.COM

4. Use and Misuse Retrospective: “About that tough subject-verb agreement question”

   


5. Students’ Sounding Board: “Tough questions about sentence structure and pronoun usage”




6. My Media English Watch Retrospective: “A very serious case of a dangling subordinate clause”




7. Notable Works by Our Very Own (A Retrospective): “Full-color, 176-page hardbound collector’s anthology on Jose Rizal launched”




8. Essay by Jose Carillo: “The Tree of Life”




9. Language Humor At Its Finest: “Memorable quotes from famous celebrities of yesteryears”




10. Getting To Know English Better: “‘Now that’ can be used as a conjunction to mean ‘in view of the fact that’”




11. Reading in Language Retrospective: “A recovered ancient manuscript changes the course of human thought”




12. Forum Lounge Retrospective: “Oodles of reasons to love (or hate) the Philippines!”




13. Time Out From English Grammar:“Even before the Enlightenment, Shakespeare already embraced science in his plays”




14. Education and Teaching Retrospective: “The language of literature and science”




15. Readings in Language Retrospective: “Tagalog among top 5 most widely spoken non-English languages in the U.S. today”





SPECIAL BONUS YEAREND FEATURE:
Added December 31, 2023

Time Out From English Grammar: “The journalist  and the billionaire: Doing Elon Musk’s biography”





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Getting to Know English / The historical, literary, and eternal present tense
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 27, 2023, 08:33:59 AM »
We deal with the here and now by using the simple present tense: “I work as a translator for a publishing house.” “She sees something sinister in this.” And when we want to express an action that’s happening right now, we use the present progressive tense: “Can’t you see? I am working as hard as I can.” “She is seeing something moving at the ceiling.” Of course, we can also use the simple present to express an often-repeated action or permanent condition: “She takes a break at precisely 10:00 a.m.” “He is totally deaf in the right ear.”

The present tense is obviously the most basic the tenses can get, but we must be aware that in English, this tense takes three more special forms not necessarily dealing with the immediate present. They are the historical present, the literary present, and the “eternal present” of scientific principles and general truths.


The historical present. This form recounts past events in the present tense to make them more vivid and immediate. Often used in third-person and first-person narratives as well as in dialogue, the historical present is a story-telling technique designed to make audiences or readers imagine they are right at the scene of the unfolding action. Feel the immediacy of this passage from Alphonse Daudet’s short story, “A Game of Billiards”:

“The game is fascinating. The balls roll, graze, pass; they rebound. Every moment the play grows more interesting. A flash of light is seen in the sky, and the report of a cannon is heard. A heavy rumbling sound shakes the windows. Everyone starts and casts an uneasy glance about. The Marshal alone remains unmoved.”

We all know, of course, that the historical present is common fare in magazine journalism. Take this lead passage from a 2004 Time magazine feature on the U.S. presidential campaign:

“In the bleak midwinter, Bill Clinton sits in the two-story garage out back, kneading memory into history. He scribbles his memoirs in longhand on legal pads, poring over notes and transcripts of his White House years. For the moment, the deadline is more pressing than raising money for India’s earthquake victims or promoting peace in Northern Ireland or touring Miami nightclubs with Julio Iglesias.”

The historical present is also the stuff of dialogue: “And so what does he say about your proposal?” “Well, he says it’s great and needs only a little fine-tuning. He’s particularly delighted by the high potential savings in production costs.” “So what does he tell you about implementation?” “He says it’s a ‘go’ for the second quarter.” “Amazing! That sounds like your idea really knocked him over! He usually first shoots proposals like that to the Corplan guys to see if they can tear it apart.”

The literary present. As a rule, the English language uses the simple present when discussing literature. This follows the academic concept that fiction exists in a timeless world that is best described in the present tense, particularly in discussions of theme, plot, or author’s intent. Take this passage about Filipino novelist N.V.M. Gonzalez’s novel, The Bamboo Dancers:

“In the first chapter, the first-person narrator begins his story by recounting that early summer he was in New York. He has a room all to himself in a place called Fairfield House. He is through with what he calls his ‘American year,’ having just completed work at the Harrington School of Fine Arts...”

Then this blurb for the British novelist John Fowles’ novel, The Collector:

“The setting is a lonely cottage in the English countryside. The characters are a brutal, tormented man and the beautiful, aristocratic young woman whom he has taken captive. The story is the struggle of two wills, two ways of being, two paths of desire…”

The “eternal truth” present. This is the English-language convention for stating scientific principles and general truths in the present tense: “Newton’s First Law of Motion holds that a body continues in its state of motion unless compelled by a force to act otherwise.” “The meter is the base unit of length that is equal to the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458th of a second, or about 39.37 inches.” “The sum of the angles of a triangle is always equal to 180 degrees.” “The distance from Earth to Mars is at least 56 million kilometers.”

On the other hand, principles that have been proven false must be stated in the past tense: “The phlogiston theory held that an elementary principle, called phlogiston by its proponent, G. H. Stahl, was lost from substances when they burned.” (This theory has been displaced by Antoine Lavoisier’s oxygen theory.)  “The ancients believed that Earth was flat, and that one who stepped beyond its edge would fall into a bottomless abyss.” (We know now that Earth is spherical or, more accurately, spheroid due to the flattening at its poles.)

Read this essay and listen to its voice recording in The Manila Times:
"The historical, literary, and 'eternal' present tense"

Next: "When simple indicative sentences won't do to drive home our point"   (January 4, 2024)

This essay, “The historical, literary, and eternal present tense,” first appeared as one of my earliest English-usage columns in The Manila Times and subsequently as Chapter 51 of my book Give Your English the Winning Edge (Manila Times Publishing Corp., copyright 2009).
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Site Announcements / MOVED: The Historical, Literary, and Eternal Present -Test posting
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 27, 2023, 08:21:09 AM »
This topic has been moved to Site Announcements.
Getting to Know English
https://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=8957.0
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Time Out From English Grammar / The art of elegance: 10 exquisite mixed names in the English language
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 21, 2023, 07:30:29 AM »
Expecting a new baby in the family?

In “The Art of Elegance: 10 Exquisite Mixed Names in the English Language,” the pseudonymous writer Matthew observes in an article in PoliticalInsights.org that there's a growing trend of parents choosing names that combine elements from different languages and cultures.

Matthew explores the origin, meaning, and linguistic appeal of what he considers the 10 most beautiful mixed names in the English language. Among them are the name “Leilani” that's derived from the Hawaiian word “lani” for heaven or sky and the English word “lei” that refers to a garland or wreath; and the name “Amara,” which means “grace” or “kindness” in the West African language of Igbo and also has roots from the Spanish verb “amar” that means “to love” or “to be loved.”


Such mixed names hold a special place in our lives by "acting as both a reflection of our identity and an inherent connection to our family, culture, and traditions,” Matthew points out.

Read Matthew's "10 Exquisite Mixed Names in the English Language" in PoliticaIInsights.org now!
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Site Announcements / Playlist Update (December 16 - 22, 2023) for the Forum Gateway on Facebook
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 20, 2023, 05:41:54 PM »
PLAYLIST UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2023 OF JOSE CARILLO ENGLISH FORUM’S FACEBOOK GATEWAY

Simply click the web links to the 15 featured English grammar refreshers and general interest stories this week along with selected postings published in the Forum in previous years:

1. Essay by Jose A. Carillo: “Our need for thinking national leaders with the gift of language”




2. The Forum Lounge: “Book publishing’s broken blurb system 'a plague on the industry’”




3. Advice and Dissent: "‘Sugrophobia’" is a veritable epidemic and cultural obsession"




4. Essay by Jose A. Carillo Retrospective: “‘Like’ and ‘such as’ are such slippery grammar trippers”

   


5. You Asked Me This Question: "What’s the correct usage for the verbs ‘brought’ and ‘taken’?”




6. Getting to Know English Retrospective: “How many types of adverbial clauses are there in English?”




7. Students’ Sounding Board: “Which is correct and why? ‘I didn’t (see, saw) her’”




8. Time Out from English Grammar: “The art of elegance: 10 exquisite mixed names in the English language”




9. Your Thoughts Exactly: “The Christmas experience: Up close and deeply personal” - Redux 2




10. Language Humor At Its Finest: “A Christmas Q&A for language buffs”




11. Advice and Dissent Retrospective: “A descriptivist’s grand tour of how languages work”




12. Use and Misuse: “A style guide for writing and publishing in English”




13. Advice and Dissent Revisited: “An eye for clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity”




14. Essays by Joe Carillo: “My hunch was right about the usage of ‘between’ and ‘among’”




15. Readings in Language: “The need to equate things solely on comparable attributes”





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Advice and Dissent / "Sugrophobia" is a veritable epidemic and cultural obsession
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 20, 2023, 04:32:18 PM »
Law and psychology professor Tess Wilkinson-Ryan writes in a recent Aeon.co essay, "Don’t let them fool you," that the fear of being duped is ubiquitous, and excessive scepticism makes it harder to trust one another and cooperate. She cites three experimental psychologists who--somewhat tongue-in-cheek--coined the term "sugrophobia" to name the familiar and specific dread that people experience when they get the inkling that they’re ‘being a sucker.’

"Sugrophobia" is a veritable epidemic and cultural obsession

Prof. Wilkinson-Ryan thinks that it seems almost ridiculous for psychologists to study suckers academically, but soon it became clear to her that sugrophobia is not only real but a veritable epidemic--a cultural obsession suggested by such terms as "pawn," "dupe," "chump," "fool," "stooge," "loser," and "mark." And she finds good evidence that the aversion to being suckered contaminates decision-making even when it isn’t doing anything useful, and that this aversion extends from the choices to we make as individuals to the society-wide narratives that sow distrust and discrimination,

Read in full Prof. Wilkinson-Ryan's  essay "Don’t let them fool you" in the June 2, 2023 issue of Aeon.co now!
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Essays by Joe Carillo / Our need for thinking national leaders with the gift of language
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 20, 2023, 01:56:30 PM »
A great disappointment in our country’s politics is that it no longer requires adequate knowledge, experience, and wisdom from those considered worthy of election to public office. For so many years now, we have chosen to lead us not just a few men and women whose only claim to ascendancy over us is popularity not from achievement but from media exposure. The point has been reached, in fact, where we no longer demand that those aspiring for high public office to at least define themselves, tell us their political ideal, mission, or vision, or assure us that they have a clear idea of what they are doing in the first place. Gone indeed are the days when people who sought elective office could at least talk to us convincingly straight from their own minds and hearts, without the benefit of script or idiot board.


The tragedy of it all is that this is happening at this very time that we need mature, intelligent, and enlightened leadership to turn the nation around. More than ever before, we need men and women not only of action but of words—words to tell us in the most precise terms why this country is not moving forward at all, words to spell out concretely the crucial things to be done or undone to get us out of the hole we are in, and words to inspire us to close ranks and propel this archipelago to the greatness that has eluded it for more than half a millennium now. We need thinking leaders with the priceless gift of language, not necessarily stentorian, but who can define, articulate, and pursue the national agenda intelligently and purposively, with words that ring true whether spoken off the cuff or clothed with the rhetoric that important state occasions demand. For these big tasks, our country can ill afford any more individuals with very scant vocabulary—whether in Pilipino, English, or any other language or dialect—and much less those with no experience whatsoever in governance and public affairs.

How perilous it is that for the sake of political expediency, this country’s electorate is again being prodded to gloss over the importance of intelligence and good grasp of language in the art of leadership! All the more disturbing that our supposedly more intelligent political leaders and opinion-makers could tell us without mincing words that popularity and perceived honesty is a fair trade-off for ineptitude. When are we going to learn that the most powerful determinant of intellect is the breadth and depth of one’s vocabulary, and that the higher one’s responsibility, the wider and deeper the vocabulary needed to be effective on the job? One could not even name things in context—much less frame a decent sentence or meaningfully analyze or conclude about anything—if one didn’t have at least a decent grasp and understanding of the totally new activity or enterprise one ventures into.

In his 1993 essay collection, “The Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt,” the well-regarded American economist and writer clearly captured the importance of vocabulary in good thinking in these words: “A vocabulary increases and sharpens our observation, as sharp observation in turn leads us to increase our vocabulary. The student of nature who is learning to recognize bushes and trees finds his observation increasingly sharpened as he is told how to identify respectively an oak, maple, elm, beech, pine, spruce, or hemlock. The name both fastens down the results of observation and tells him what distinguishing traits to look for. As a result of his knowledge, a countryman very seldom calls a specific tree simply a tree. The professional forester or nurseryman habitually makes even finer distinctions, such as that between red oaks, black oaks, and white oaks, or between Norway maples, Schwedler maples, and sugar maples.”

Perhaps we can avoid the costly political mistakes of our recent past if only our countrymen and our presumptive leaders get more keenly aware of this insight about the importance of good thinking in national leadership.

This essay is a condensation of an 820-word column that I wrote in The Manila Times in December 2003 at the start of the national election campaign period in the Philippines.
 
Read this essay and listen to its voice recording in The Manila Times:
Our need for thinking national leaders with the gift of language
---------------------

(Next: The historical, literary, and eternal present tense)   December 21, 2023                                        

Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and X (Twitter) and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
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Lounge / Book publishing's broken blurb system "a plague on the industry"
« Last post by Joe Carillo on December 20, 2023, 01:05:52 PM »
In her recent Esquire Magazine feature article “'A Plague on the Industry': Book Publishing's Broken Blurb System,” New York City-based social media strategist and freleance journalist Sophie Vershbow says that book blurbs represent so much of what’s broken within the traditional publishing establishment: “[They] expose this ecosystem for what it really is: a nepotism-filled system that everyone endures for a chance of ‘making it' in an impossible industry for most. To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare enthusiast Cher Horowitz, ‘Blurbs are a full-on Monet. From far away, they’re okay, but up close, they’re a big old mess.’”



Sophie Vershbow recalls that many authors she talked with described the process of asking for blurbs as “excruciating,” “anxiety-riddled,” “deeply dreaded,” and “the worst part of the publishing process.” A few of those authors shared with her their fondness about how blurbs helped launch their literary careers, but their praise of blurbs was for the outcome, not the process: “Even those lucky writers who reaped the rewards of a few big name blurbs spoke of how much unpaid effort went into the process of securing them.”

Read Sophie Vershbow's feature article in full in Esquire Magazine's September 7, 2023 issue!
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