It’s impossible not see the impact of Pokemon Go. Walking through the streets to see crowds gathered at seemingly random corners, huddled together in obscure parks, or stampeding towards the next rare Pokemon in sight has been a delightful surprise. Communities have been brought together by the immensely popular game, uniting people as they all enjoy trying to catch them all. The success of this enhanced reality crossover has inspired much speculation as to what franchise is next up to have it’s own “Go” game. So, how’s this sound; Harry Potter Go. Amazing, right? Imagine running around your neighborhood looking for …
Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri began as a civil servant of the Mamluk Empire. In 1310, the ancient Arabic scholar retired from his post and sought to work towards a Herculean intellectual feat, the product of which we are only now getting the chance to enjoy in English. From the extensive categorization of dust to instructions on escaping Rhino attacks, al-Nuwayri authored an encyclopedia attempting to catalogue everything known to exist. Coming out at a whopping 9,000 pages and 33 volumes, The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition is an astounding accomplishment. Flipping through its pages you’ll find biographies of great …
Claire Harman, recent author of Charlotte Brontë: A Life, believes that many of Emily Brontë’s documented idiosyncrasies may have been the result of Asperger’s. The author’s literary genius, her infamous reclusivity, and her bad temper are all characteristics which Harman cites as being indicative of the condition. Charlotte Gaskell, the Brontë sister’s first biographer, made note of one particularly disturbing display of violent anger by Emily. She apparently punched her dog in the face, leaving it “half blind and stupefied”, for having dirtied the laundry. Harman said at the Edinburgh International Book festival that Gaskell characterized the outburst as “a …
Dev Patel tugs at our collective heartstrings in the trailer for the upcoming Lion, a movie based off of the riveting memoir Long Way Home by Saroo Brierely. The story follows a young Saroo, who becomes separated from his older brother at a train station. Saroo, while searching for his brother, gets locked inside a train car that would end up taking him close to 1,000 miles away from his family. Dev Patel plays an older Saroo, whom after being adopted by an Australian family, is driven to find his original family, taking on the impossible task of tracing his train ride throughout …
Reading a good book often feels like getting lost in someone else’s thoughts. Their words bounce around your head, and their imagination colors your own. It’s hard to imagine that such a connection wouldn’t promote empathy; nothing puts you in someone else’s shoes quite like seeing the world through their eyes. However, a recent study done by NYC’s New School found that not all books are as effective in developing one’s ability to understand emotion. According to the study, literary fiction (as opposed to genre fiction) is exactly what we need to become better more sensitive people. There’s a lot of disagreement surrounding …
