L. Weiskrantz
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198521921
- eISBN:
- 9780191706226
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198521921.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
A follow-up to the early testing was carried out using projected vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines, with results confirming the original successful discrimination. However, because different ...
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A follow-up to the early testing was carried out using projected vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines, with results confirming the original successful discrimination. However, because different linear stimuli occupy different positions in the field, an improved arrangement was used with the orientation of a grating within a circular aperture. The situation was deliberately arranged to avoid the distracting effect of ‘waves’ produced in some parts of the visual field by some stimuli by reducing the level of ambient illumination until the field was quite ‘dead’ along the 45° meridian. His threshold at an eccentricity was roughly 10° of difference in orientation (similar to that of the monkey without striate cortex as reported by the Pasiks). Under some conditions, his acuity improved with increasing eccentricity. With salient stimuli he reported an impression of something projecting from the screen, but in the deadened situation he consistently reported ‘nothing at all’ even when performing above 90% accuracy.Less
A follow-up to the early testing was carried out using projected vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines, with results confirming the original successful discrimination. However, because different linear stimuli occupy different positions in the field, an improved arrangement was used with the orientation of a grating within a circular aperture. The situation was deliberately arranged to avoid the distracting effect of ‘waves’ produced in some parts of the visual field by some stimuli by reducing the level of ambient illumination until the field was quite ‘dead’ along the 45° meridian. His threshold at an eccentricity was roughly 10° of difference in orientation (similar to that of the monkey without striate cortex as reported by the Pasiks). Under some conditions, his acuity improved with increasing eccentricity. With salient stimuli he reported an impression of something projecting from the screen, but in the deadened situation he consistently reported ‘nothing at all’ even when performing above 90% accuracy.
L. Weiskrantz
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198521921
- eISBN:
- 9780191706226
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198521921.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
D. B. was asked to discriminate between the presence or absence of a visual stimulus projected briefly onto the perimeter screen or by a stimulus displayed on a screen by a tachistoscopic projector. ...
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D. B. was asked to discriminate between the presence or absence of a visual stimulus projected briefly onto the perimeter screen or by a stimulus displayed on a screen by a tachistoscopic projector. A range of contrasts sizes meridia and eccentricities were studied and compared with his intact hemifield. Sensitivity decreased markedly with increased eccentricity in the blind field for some meridia whereas for some meridia the opposite gradient was found, probably reflecting the density of the visual deficit. With high contrast stimuli, D. B. remarked that he felt that something was ‘coming out from the screen’, but over a large range of conditions in which he performed excellently he said he had no experience and was ‘just guessing’.Less
D. B. was asked to discriminate between the presence or absence of a visual stimulus projected briefly onto the perimeter screen or by a stimulus displayed on a screen by a tachistoscopic projector. A range of contrasts sizes meridia and eccentricities were studied and compared with his intact hemifield. Sensitivity decreased markedly with increased eccentricity in the blind field for some meridia whereas for some meridia the opposite gradient was found, probably reflecting the density of the visual deficit. With high contrast stimuli, D. B. remarked that he felt that something was ‘coming out from the screen’, but over a large range of conditions in which he performed excellently he said he had no experience and was ‘just guessing’.
L. Weiskrantz
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198521921
- eISBN:
- 9780191706226
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198521921.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
Two types of movement were generated and the subject was asked to discriminate movement from non-movement. In the first, a spot on an ocilloscope was oscillated sinisoidally up and down (‘shimmer’) ...
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Two types of movement were generated and the subject was asked to discriminate movement from non-movement. In the first, a spot on an ocilloscope was oscillated sinisoidally up and down (‘shimmer’) at a frequency of 7 Hz and the distance the spot travelled was adjusted by a potentiometer. The eccentricity was varied along the horizontal meridian between 10° and 90° in steps of 10°. He could either adjust the potentiometer until he reported detecting something, or he was asked to discriminate movement from non-movement in a forced-choice manner. In the second arrangement, a mirror attached to a galvanometer reflected a beam from a projector onto a screen allowing movement to be generated for any stimulus that was on a projector slide, in particular a vertical line or a disc. With both arrangements, his thresholds were markedly elevated compared to the good field. With the shimmer stimulus as a function of eccentricity, the blind field showed a slope opposite to that of the good field, i.e., his performance improved with increasing eccentricity in the blind field. His verbal responses for the forced-choice shimmer, even at 95% accuracy, were that he was not aware of anything and was merely guessing. With the projected stimuli, he sometimes reported ‘pulsating waves’.Less
Two types of movement were generated and the subject was asked to discriminate movement from non-movement. In the first, a spot on an ocilloscope was oscillated sinisoidally up and down (‘shimmer’) at a frequency of 7 Hz and the distance the spot travelled was adjusted by a potentiometer. The eccentricity was varied along the horizontal meridian between 10° and 90° in steps of 10°. He could either adjust the potentiometer until he reported detecting something, or he was asked to discriminate movement from non-movement in a forced-choice manner. In the second arrangement, a mirror attached to a galvanometer reflected a beam from a projector onto a screen allowing movement to be generated for any stimulus that was on a projector slide, in particular a vertical line or a disc. With both arrangements, his thresholds were markedly elevated compared to the good field. With the shimmer stimulus as a function of eccentricity, the blind field showed a slope opposite to that of the good field, i.e., his performance improved with increasing eccentricity in the blind field. His verbal responses for the forced-choice shimmer, even at 95% accuracy, were that he was not aware of anything and was merely guessing. With the projected stimuli, he sometimes reported ‘pulsating waves’.
Roger Nichols
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320169
- eISBN:
- 9780199852086
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320169.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Throughout history, opinions about art, and especially about the art of music, have been subject to strange aberrations, to wild eccentricities. Fifty years ago, one did not dare express a doubt as ...
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Throughout history, opinions about art, and especially about the art of music, have been subject to strange aberrations, to wild eccentricities. Fifty years ago, one did not dare express a doubt as to the quality of famous operas which nowadays are regarded as deficient in melody, harmony, and instrumentation. Victims of these include Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. This chapter concludes with the words: “Essentially, art does not change. It is men who change their opinions over its means and limits. Once they have finally come to the conclusion that these limits are entirely arbitrary and that everything has a right to life in the city of the beautiful, then they will more easily grasp the fecundity of art, which is inexhaustible”.Less
Throughout history, opinions about art, and especially about the art of music, have been subject to strange aberrations, to wild eccentricities. Fifty years ago, one did not dare express a doubt as to the quality of famous operas which nowadays are regarded as deficient in melody, harmony, and instrumentation. Victims of these include Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. This chapter concludes with the words: “Essentially, art does not change. It is men who change their opinions over its means and limits. Once they have finally come to the conclusion that these limits are entirely arbitrary and that everything has a right to life in the city of the beautiful, then they will more easily grasp the fecundity of art, which is inexhaustible”.
Michael McCloskey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195168693
- eISBN:
- 9780199871513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195168693.003.0007
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter presents evidence showing that AH's visual location and orientation perception are dramatically affected by several visual variables: motion, exposure duration, flicker, contrast, and ...
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This chapter presents evidence showing that AH's visual location and orientation perception are dramatically affected by several visual variables: motion, exposure duration, flicker, contrast, and eccentricity. In addition to buttressing the conclusion that AH's deficit has a visual-system locus, the results have implications for understanding the organization of the normal visual system.Less
This chapter presents evidence showing that AH's visual location and orientation perception are dramatically affected by several visual variables: motion, exposure duration, flicker, contrast, and eccentricity. In addition to buttressing the conclusion that AH's deficit has a visual-system locus, the results have implications for understanding the organization of the normal visual system.
Michael McCloskey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195168693
- eISBN:
- 9780199871513
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195168693.003.0011
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter discusses other reported deficits in processing visual location and orientation information. It highlights a recently reported case, involving a patient named PR, that bears a striking ...
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This chapter discusses other reported deficits in processing visual location and orientation information. It highlights a recently reported case, involving a patient named PR, that bears a striking resemblance to that of AH. Both AH and PR were impaired in location and orientation perception, both made systematic left-right reflection errors, and both showed the same dramatic effects of exposure duration, motion, flicker, and eccentricity. The commonalities between the two cases strongly suggest that the underlying deficits are very similar and provide a basis for increased confidence in conclusions about the normal visual system drawn from AH's (or PR's) performance.Less
This chapter discusses other reported deficits in processing visual location and orientation information. It highlights a recently reported case, involving a patient named PR, that bears a striking resemblance to that of AH. Both AH and PR were impaired in location and orientation perception, both made systematic left-right reflection errors, and both showed the same dramatic effects of exposure duration, motion, flicker, and eccentricity. The commonalities between the two cases strongly suggest that the underlying deficits are very similar and provide a basis for increased confidence in conclusions about the normal visual system drawn from AH's (or PR's) performance.
Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter traces how women travellers from 1850–1950 negotiate reader reception, skirting the issue of intelligibility and recognition in both home and host countries. The first section of this ...
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This chapter traces how women travellers from 1850–1950 negotiate reader reception, skirting the issue of intelligibility and recognition in both home and host countries. The first section of this chapter identifies the strategies used to generate instant reader recognition and cultural belonging, ranging from appeals to national pride, as in Olympe Audouard’s depiction of France’s mission civilisatrice, to the systematic denigration of the foreign Other in Isabella Bird’s descriptions of the Japanese people. It then examines how the identity of the traveller is established through the effacement of male competition. Writers from Jane Dieulafoy to Alexandra David-Néel use their insouciant, incompetent and even injured male counterparts as foils to their own perfect performance as travellers. The final section studies the moment of recognition between traveller and Oriental subject. Focusing on Isabelle Eberhardt’s depictions of Algerian vagabondes from maraboutes to madwomen, it questions whether it is possible to represent the culturally unintelligible without appropriating it.Less
This chapter traces how women travellers from 1850–1950 negotiate reader reception, skirting the issue of intelligibility and recognition in both home and host countries. The first section of this chapter identifies the strategies used to generate instant reader recognition and cultural belonging, ranging from appeals to national pride, as in Olympe Audouard’s depiction of France’s mission civilisatrice, to the systematic denigration of the foreign Other in Isabella Bird’s descriptions of the Japanese people. It then examines how the identity of the traveller is established through the effacement of male competition. Writers from Jane Dieulafoy to Alexandra David-Néel use their insouciant, incompetent and even injured male counterparts as foils to their own perfect performance as travellers. The final section studies the moment of recognition between traveller and Oriental subject. Focusing on Isabelle Eberhardt’s depictions of Algerian vagabondes from maraboutes to madwomen, it questions whether it is possible to represent the culturally unintelligible without appropriating it.
Paul Turner
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122395
- eISBN:
- 9780191671401
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122395.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Victorian poets are often interesting, either because of their own eccentricity, or else because they were so popular with contemporary readers. John Keble’s motto, ‘Don’t be original’ kept him well ...
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Victorian poets are often interesting, either because of their own eccentricity, or else because they were so popular with contemporary readers. John Keble’s motto, ‘Don’t be original’ kept him well out of the former class, but he certainly comes into the latter. Unlike Keble, who had been an Oxford student before he became a don there, Sir Henry Taylor was largely self-educated. He made his name as a poet with a historical drama, Philip van Artevelde. Another self-educated poet was William Barnes, a Dorsetshire farmer’s son who became a polymath, with special interests in languages and grammar. A more accessible poet was Richard Henry Horne, who was educated for the army. His best-known poem is Orion. None of the other poets born in the first decade of the century deserves much attention here. Robert Stephen Hawker, the Vicar of Morwenstow, was a fascinating character who wrote rather dull poems.Less
Victorian poets are often interesting, either because of their own eccentricity, or else because they were so popular with contemporary readers. John Keble’s motto, ‘Don’t be original’ kept him well out of the former class, but he certainly comes into the latter. Unlike Keble, who had been an Oxford student before he became a don there, Sir Henry Taylor was largely self-educated. He made his name as a poet with a historical drama, Philip van Artevelde. Another self-educated poet was William Barnes, a Dorsetshire farmer’s son who became a polymath, with special interests in languages and grammar. A more accessible poet was Richard Henry Horne, who was educated for the army. His best-known poem is Orion. None of the other poets born in the first decade of the century deserves much attention here. Robert Stephen Hawker, the Vicar of Morwenstow, was a fascinating character who wrote rather dull poems.
W. Puck Brecher
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824836665
- eISBN:
- 9780824871116
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824836665.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Eccentric artists are “the vagaries of humanity” that inhabit the deviant underside of Japanese society: This was the conclusion drawn by pre-World War II commentators on most early modern Japanese ...
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Eccentric artists are “the vagaries of humanity” that inhabit the deviant underside of Japanese society: This was the conclusion drawn by pre-World War II commentators on most early modern Japanese artists. Postwar scholarship, as it searched for evidence of Japan's modern roots, concluded the opposite: The eccentric, mad, and strange are moral exemplars, paragons of virtue, and shining hallmarks of modern consciousness. In recent years, the pendulum has swung again, this time in favor of viewing these oddballs as failures and dropouts without lasting cultural significance. This book corrects the disciplinary (and exclusionary) nature of such interpretations by reconsidering the sudden and dramatic emergence of aesthetic eccentricity during the Edo period (1600–1868). It explains how, throughout the period, eccentricity (ki) and madness (kyō) developed and proliferated as subcultural aesthetics, and it demonstrates that individualism and strangeness carried considerable moral and cultural value. The book concludes that a confluence of intellectual, aesthetic, and social conditions enabled multiple concurrent heterodoxies to crystallize around strangeness as a prominent cultural force in Japanese society. Its coverage of the entire Edo period and engagement with both Chinese and native Japanese traditions reinterprets Edo-period tastes and perceptions of normalcy.Less
Eccentric artists are “the vagaries of humanity” that inhabit the deviant underside of Japanese society: This was the conclusion drawn by pre-World War II commentators on most early modern Japanese artists. Postwar scholarship, as it searched for evidence of Japan's modern roots, concluded the opposite: The eccentric, mad, and strange are moral exemplars, paragons of virtue, and shining hallmarks of modern consciousness. In recent years, the pendulum has swung again, this time in favor of viewing these oddballs as failures and dropouts without lasting cultural significance. This book corrects the disciplinary (and exclusionary) nature of such interpretations by reconsidering the sudden and dramatic emergence of aesthetic eccentricity during the Edo period (1600–1868). It explains how, throughout the period, eccentricity (ki) and madness (kyō) developed and proliferated as subcultural aesthetics, and it demonstrates that individualism and strangeness carried considerable moral and cultural value. The book concludes that a confluence of intellectual, aesthetic, and social conditions enabled multiple concurrent heterodoxies to crystallize around strangeness as a prominent cultural force in Japanese society. Its coverage of the entire Edo period and engagement with both Chinese and native Japanese traditions reinterprets Edo-period tastes and perceptions of normalcy.
Laura Scuriatti
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813056302
- eISBN:
- 9780813058085
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056302.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The conclusion presents an overview of the book’s argument and shows how each chapter contributes to the thesis that Loy’s corpus creates a “critical modernism” and various eccentric positions which ...
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The conclusion presents an overview of the book’s argument and shows how each chapter contributes to the thesis that Loy’s corpus creates a “critical modernism” and various eccentric positions which enable this constantly self-reflexive and critical stance with respect to modernist aesthetics, culture and, partially, politics. By adopting “eccentricity” as a critical concept and instrument, this study suggests that rather than relegating Loy to a marginal corner of modernist scholarship, reserved for those eccentric authors (mostly women), who did not fit the criteria of high modernism, her work should be recognized as writing the possibility of critical gaze into the very heart of the avant-garde and modernist canon.Less
The conclusion presents an overview of the book’s argument and shows how each chapter contributes to the thesis that Loy’s corpus creates a “critical modernism” and various eccentric positions which enable this constantly self-reflexive and critical stance with respect to modernist aesthetics, culture and, partially, politics. By adopting “eccentricity” as a critical concept and instrument, this study suggests that rather than relegating Loy to a marginal corner of modernist scholarship, reserved for those eccentric authors (mostly women), who did not fit the criteria of high modernism, her work should be recognized as writing the possibility of critical gaze into the very heart of the avant-garde and modernist canon.
Paul Langford
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199246403
- eISBN:
- 9780191697586
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246403.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter considers some of the odd behaviours of the English people with regard to socializing with others and their freedom as citizens of their country. Although their constitution (at that ...
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This chapter considers some of the odd behaviours of the English people with regard to socializing with others and their freedom as citizens of their country. Although their constitution (at that time) supported liberty for the people, it was hardly felt by the English people, for there was still oligarchical control over them. They also had a very strong sense of individualism, however this tradition was soon to be forgotten because of the influences of the aristocratic life which led to travel.Less
This chapter considers some of the odd behaviours of the English people with regard to socializing with others and their freedom as citizens of their country. Although their constitution (at that time) supported liberty for the people, it was hardly felt by the English people, for there was still oligarchical control over them. They also had a very strong sense of individualism, however this tradition was soon to be forgotten because of the influences of the aristocratic life which led to travel.
Mari Ruti
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823243143
- eISBN:
- 9780823243181
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823243143.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The Singularity of Being presents a Lacanian vision of what makes each of us an inimitable and irreplaceable creature. It argues that, unlike the “subject” (who comes into existence as a result of ...
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The Singularity of Being presents a Lacanian vision of what makes each of us an inimitable and irreplaceable creature. It argues that, unlike the “subject” (who comes into existence as a result of symbolic prohibition) or the “person” (who is aligned with the narcissistic conceits of the imaginary), the singular self emerges in response to a galvanizing directive arising from the real. This directive carries the force of an obligation that cannot be resisted and that summons the individual to a “character” beyond his or her social investments. Consequently, singularity expresses something about the individual’s non-negotiable distinctiveness, eccentricity, or idiosyncrasy at the same time it prevents both symbolic and imaginary closure. It opens to layers of rebelliousness, indicating that there are components of human life exceeding the realm of normative sociality. Written with an unusual blend of rigor and clarity, The Singularity of Being combines incisive readings of Lacan with the best insights of recent Lacanian theory to reach beyond the dogmas of the field. Moving from what, thanks in part to Slavoj Žižek, has come to be known as the “ethics of the act” to a nuanced interpretation of Lacan’s “ethics of sublimation,” the book offers a sweeping overview of Lacan’s thought while making an original contribution to contemporary theory and ethics. Aimed at specialists and nonspecialists alike, the book manages to educate at the same time as it intervenes in current debates about subjectivity, agency, resistance, creativity, the self–other relationship, and effective political and ethical action. By focusing on the Lacanian real, Ruti honors the uniqueness of subjective experience without losing sight of the social and intersubjective components of human life.Less
The Singularity of Being presents a Lacanian vision of what makes each of us an inimitable and irreplaceable creature. It argues that, unlike the “subject” (who comes into existence as a result of symbolic prohibition) or the “person” (who is aligned with the narcissistic conceits of the imaginary), the singular self emerges in response to a galvanizing directive arising from the real. This directive carries the force of an obligation that cannot be resisted and that summons the individual to a “character” beyond his or her social investments. Consequently, singularity expresses something about the individual’s non-negotiable distinctiveness, eccentricity, or idiosyncrasy at the same time it prevents both symbolic and imaginary closure. It opens to layers of rebelliousness, indicating that there are components of human life exceeding the realm of normative sociality. Written with an unusual blend of rigor and clarity, The Singularity of Being combines incisive readings of Lacan with the best insights of recent Lacanian theory to reach beyond the dogmas of the field. Moving from what, thanks in part to Slavoj Žižek, has come to be known as the “ethics of the act” to a nuanced interpretation of Lacan’s “ethics of sublimation,” the book offers a sweeping overview of Lacan’s thought while making an original contribution to contemporary theory and ethics. Aimed at specialists and nonspecialists alike, the book manages to educate at the same time as it intervenes in current debates about subjectivity, agency, resistance, creativity, the self–other relationship, and effective political and ethical action. By focusing on the Lacanian real, Ruti honors the uniqueness of subjective experience without losing sight of the social and intersubjective components of human life.
George E. Marcus
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520087989
- eISBN:
- 9780520915251
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520087989.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Global
This chapter begins by critiquing the notion of a self “made” other than rhetorically. It calls attention to the position of self-agents and agencies between the eccentric person's sense of self and ...
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This chapter begins by critiquing the notion of a self “made” other than rhetorically. It calls attention to the position of self-agents and agencies between the eccentric person's sense of self and that of the eccentric's public. Eccentricity has indeed been a particularly difficult social psychological category to address systematically and analytically in social science behaviors and biographies of famous eccentrics. This chapter develops some theoretical ideas about eccentricity relevant to a focus on contemporary dynasties in which persons are formed by being both subjects and objects of great power, wealth, and sometimes, celebrity.Less
This chapter begins by critiquing the notion of a self “made” other than rhetorically. It calls attention to the position of self-agents and agencies between the eccentric person's sense of self and that of the eccentric's public. Eccentricity has indeed been a particularly difficult social psychological category to address systematically and analytically in social science behaviors and biographies of famous eccentrics. This chapter develops some theoretical ideas about eccentricity relevant to a focus on contemporary dynasties in which persons are formed by being both subjects and objects of great power, wealth, and sometimes, celebrity.
Bradley J. Birzer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813166186
- eISBN:
- 9780813166643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813166186.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
A brief restatement of Kirk’s ideas about poetry and imagination as powerful counters to the dread of ideologies. In particular, Kirk embraced eccentricity of life and mind against the conformity so ...
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A brief restatement of Kirk’s ideas about poetry and imagination as powerful counters to the dread of ideologies. In particular, Kirk embraced eccentricity of life and mind against the conformity so present in the worlds of business and politics.Less
A brief restatement of Kirk’s ideas about poetry and imagination as powerful counters to the dread of ideologies. In particular, Kirk embraced eccentricity of life and mind against the conformity so present in the worlds of business and politics.
Marjorie Garber
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823242047
- eISBN:
- 9780823242085
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823242047.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
What is a genius? And why does our culture have such an obsession with the word and with the idea? Genius is fundamentally an eighteenth-century concept, though it has had a good long run through the ...
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What is a genius? And why does our culture have such an obsession with the word and with the idea? Genius is fundamentally an eighteenth-century concept, though it has had a good long run through the centuries since. Joseph Addison's essay “On Genius,” published in The Spectator in 1711, laid out the terrain of genius as we use the term today, to denote exceptional talent or someone who possesses it. The Romantics found genius not only in the supposedly wild and uncultivated William Shakespeare, but also in the poets and personalities of their own period—in the extravagant Lord Byron and the intense and charismatic Percy Bysshe Shelley. The eccentric genius is especially familiar to readers of detective fiction. Eccentricity has become a strong identifying mark of genius that the very notion of a non-eccentric genius seems like a contradiction in terms. With the invention of the intelligence quotient, or IQ, came the idea that genius could be quantified.Less
What is a genius? And why does our culture have such an obsession with the word and with the idea? Genius is fundamentally an eighteenth-century concept, though it has had a good long run through the centuries since. Joseph Addison's essay “On Genius,” published in The Spectator in 1711, laid out the terrain of genius as we use the term today, to denote exceptional talent or someone who possesses it. The Romantics found genius not only in the supposedly wild and uncultivated William Shakespeare, but also in the poets and personalities of their own period—in the extravagant Lord Byron and the intense and charismatic Percy Bysshe Shelley. The eccentric genius is especially familiar to readers of detective fiction. Eccentricity has become a strong identifying mark of genius that the very notion of a non-eccentric genius seems like a contradiction in terms. With the invention of the intelligence quotient, or IQ, came the idea that genius could be quantified.
Wolfgang Becker and Reinhard Jürgens
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195068207
- eISBN:
- 9780199847198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195068207.003.0066
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Sensory and Motor Systems
In this chapter, the authors addressed the question of the degree to which gaze saccades executed under natural conditions are modulated by concomitant head movements by creating a “quasi-natural” ...
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In this chapter, the authors addressed the question of the degree to which gaze saccades executed under natural conditions are modulated by concomitant head movements by creating a “quasi-natural” situation. Head-fixed saccades were compared to head-free saccades. The first experiment in this study cannot prove or disprove the validity of Bizzi's classical summation hypothesis for human gaze saccades confined to the oculomotor range. It rather demonstrates that the presence of a classical VOR is irrelevant for the velocity of such gaze saccades since the concurrent head movement starts too late and is too slow to impart to the saccade a significant gain in velocity in the event of a disconnected VOR. The second experiment confirms that the factor of greater importance for the dynamics of head-free saccades is the orbital eccentricity and direction of the EiH contribution to saccades.Less
In this chapter, the authors addressed the question of the degree to which gaze saccades executed under natural conditions are modulated by concomitant head movements by creating a “quasi-natural” situation. Head-fixed saccades were compared to head-free saccades. The first experiment in this study cannot prove or disprove the validity of Bizzi's classical summation hypothesis for human gaze saccades confined to the oculomotor range. It rather demonstrates that the presence of a classical VOR is irrelevant for the velocity of such gaze saccades since the concurrent head movement starts too late and is too slow to impart to the saccade a significant gain in velocity in the event of a disconnected VOR. The second experiment confirms that the factor of greater importance for the dynamics of head-free saccades is the orbital eccentricity and direction of the EiH contribution to saccades.
George M. Young
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199892945
- eISBN:
- 9780199950577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892945.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The chapter begins with a brief summary of Fedorov’s thought, then focuses on Fedorov’s biography, including information not previously presented in English. Topics include the significance of his ...
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The chapter begins with a brief summary of Fedorov’s thought, then focuses on Fedorov’s biography, including information not previously presented in English. Topics include the significance of his illegitimate birth and childhood in the Gagarin household, his education and role as a teacher in rural Russia, his work as a Moscow librarian at the Rumiantsev Museum, his eccentric, ascetic manner of life, his previously unsuspected love for a young woman, his influence on Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and the presentation and reception of his work in Askhabad.Less
The chapter begins with a brief summary of Fedorov’s thought, then focuses on Fedorov’s biography, including information not previously presented in English. Topics include the significance of his illegitimate birth and childhood in the Gagarin household, his education and role as a teacher in rural Russia, his work as a Moscow librarian at the Rumiantsev Museum, his eccentric, ascetic manner of life, his previously unsuspected love for a young woman, his influence on Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and the presentation and reception of his work in Askhabad.
W. Puck Brecher
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824836665
- eISBN:
- 9780824871116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824836665.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter further contextualizes aesthetic eccentricity through a discussion of intellectual eccentricity, a parallel phenomenon that crystallized in the eighteenth century. After problematizing ...
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This chapter further contextualizes aesthetic eccentricity through a discussion of intellectual eccentricity, a parallel phenomenon that crystallized in the eighteenth century. After problematizing Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism as a true orthodoxy in the Tokugawa period, it introduces Confucianism's “mad” side—its doctrinal defense of kyō. It then revisits the Daoist roots of the ki aesthetic via its synergy with the Wang Yangming School (Yōmeigaku or Ōyōmeigaku) and National Learning (Kokugaku). Each of these traditions proved useful to eccentric thinkers like Hattori Somon (1724–1769) and Shidōken (1680?–1765), whose respective heresies advanced new ontological interpretations. The propagation of such thinkers suggests that a diverse and dynamic intellectual culture was becoming increasingly tolerant of strange people with strange thoughts. It was within this milieu that kijin maneuvered to find their place.Less
This chapter further contextualizes aesthetic eccentricity through a discussion of intellectual eccentricity, a parallel phenomenon that crystallized in the eighteenth century. After problematizing Zhu Xi Neo-Confucianism as a true orthodoxy in the Tokugawa period, it introduces Confucianism's “mad” side—its doctrinal defense of kyō. It then revisits the Daoist roots of the ki aesthetic via its synergy with the Wang Yangming School (Yōmeigaku or Ōyōmeigaku) and National Learning (Kokugaku). Each of these traditions proved useful to eccentric thinkers like Hattori Somon (1724–1769) and Shidōken (1680?–1765), whose respective heresies advanced new ontological interpretations. The propagation of such thinkers suggests that a diverse and dynamic intellectual culture was becoming increasingly tolerant of strange people with strange thoughts. It was within this milieu that kijin maneuvered to find their place.
Greg Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748619009
- eISBN:
- 9780748671168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748619009.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Television
The prime-time television serial cannot take care of all of its narrative business by staying solely within the tightly bound world of core characters. The prime-time serial needs guest stars. What ...
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The prime-time television serial cannot take care of all of its narrative business by staying solely within the tightly bound world of core characters. The prime-time serial needs guest stars. What narrative function do these guest actors play? Ally McBeal provides a case study in dealing with this larger question, demonstrating how such guest appearances provide conflict in ways that the core ensemble cannot. In addition, this chapter articulates how Ally balanced guest stars with recurring characters to make its political argument about eccentricity. By making its case about eccentric behaviour, instead of politically loaded differences such as race, Ally McBeal framed its argument in ways that seek to bypass resistances to questions of difference. It marshals our allegiances to long-running serial characters and balances them with the more targeted rhetoric provided by guest stars to create a complex appeal to audience attitudes.Less
The prime-time television serial cannot take care of all of its narrative business by staying solely within the tightly bound world of core characters. The prime-time serial needs guest stars. What narrative function do these guest actors play? Ally McBeal provides a case study in dealing with this larger question, demonstrating how such guest appearances provide conflict in ways that the core ensemble cannot. In addition, this chapter articulates how Ally balanced guest stars with recurring characters to make its political argument about eccentricity. By making its case about eccentric behaviour, instead of politically loaded differences such as race, Ally McBeal framed its argument in ways that seek to bypass resistances to questions of difference. It marshals our allegiances to long-running serial characters and balances them with the more targeted rhetoric provided by guest stars to create a complex appeal to audience attitudes.
Michèle Mendelssohn
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623853
- eISBN:
- 9780748651634
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623853.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book tells the story of Henry James's and Oscar Wilde's intricate, decades-long literary relationship and how it shaped transatlantic aesthetic relations. It shows that their relationship ...
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This book tells the story of Henry James's and Oscar Wilde's intricate, decades-long literary relationship and how it shaped transatlantic aesthetic relations. It shows that their relationship allegorises nineteenth-century American and British Aestheticism. It is a parable about two cultures in conflict that stridently externalised their concerns about one another and themselves while quietly internalising each others' values in print, exercising their ideas so that they could strengthen their respective cultures. Aestheticism refers to the literary and artistic movement that flourished in Britain and America between 1870 and 1900 and that advanced art for art's sake in opposition to the utilitarian doctrine of moral or practical usefulness. ‘Aesthetic culture’ indicates a catholic conception of Aestheticism. This book is framed by much larger questions of how Aestheticism was able to span differences as considerable as those between James and Wilde, America and Britain, authenticity and fakery, conventionality and eccentricity, morality and immorality. The ability to maintain these tensions makes transatlantic Aestheticism a bridge over troubled waters in every sense.Less
This book tells the story of Henry James's and Oscar Wilde's intricate, decades-long literary relationship and how it shaped transatlantic aesthetic relations. It shows that their relationship allegorises nineteenth-century American and British Aestheticism. It is a parable about two cultures in conflict that stridently externalised their concerns about one another and themselves while quietly internalising each others' values in print, exercising their ideas so that they could strengthen their respective cultures. Aestheticism refers to the literary and artistic movement that flourished in Britain and America between 1870 and 1900 and that advanced art for art's sake in opposition to the utilitarian doctrine of moral or practical usefulness. ‘Aesthetic culture’ indicates a catholic conception of Aestheticism. This book is framed by much larger questions of how Aestheticism was able to span differences as considerable as those between James and Wilde, America and Britain, authenticity and fakery, conventionality and eccentricity, morality and immorality. The ability to maintain these tensions makes transatlantic Aestheticism a bridge over troubled waters in every sense.
