A Stanford anthropologist has proposed
that small genetic changes "some time between last Tuesday and 200,000 years ago," perhaps in a single gene, led to truly human creativity. Slashdot has a lively, skeptical, and pretty funny discussion on the subject. Hasn't yet hit talk.origins or sci.anthropology.paleo.
It's got me wondering if my copy of the gene isn't fundamentally different from Ron Silliman's, who lavishes praise ("spare, riveting," "an experience so powerful that I have to ration it judiciously") on this poem by Barret Watten--a poem that, in the 10 2-line sections Silliman copies, seems to me utterly flat and affectless.
9:59:11 PM
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