John Baker’s Blog

Poets, by tradition, imagine themselves likely to die young. But that’s not a matter of imagination alone. Marc Abrahams in The Education Guardian reports on the research of Associate Professor James C Kaufman, of California State University at San Bernardino:
Kaufman looked at the lives and deaths of 1,987 deceased writers from four different cultures: American, [...]

Jonah Lehrer at The Boston Globe describes recent experiments into the nature of expectation, looking at research into people’s experiences of wine, medication, motor cars and a host of other products. Fascinating studies.
The human brain, research suggests, isn’t built for objectivity. The brain doesn’t passively take in perceptions. Rather, brain regions involved in developing expectations [...]

I’m expecting a raid. When the police come to my house, they’ll find a shelf full of books glorifying terrorism. In The Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla, by Carlos Marighella, they’ll find detailed instructions on waging war against the state. Among the Red Army Faction communiques they’ll find statements like this: “Either a pig or [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
Before the creation of a text can begin I have to do a fair amount of work on research. This may involve visiting places to see what they look like, get a feeling for atmosphere, to see how people use their streets and squares, to see [...]