Culture and Arts

According to Stanford Professor Joshua Landy, literature plays on our emotions instead of giving us rational reasons to adopt new beliefs, so we can easily be manipulated by it. Getting people to change their beliefs based on emotions is not an unambiguously positive thing: "When I do it, it's called persuasion. When you do it, it's called rhetoric. When they do it, it's called propaganda."  Does reading literature make you more moral? Scholars speaking at a Center for Ethics in Society event say the answer depends on who's reading. By Justin Tackett… more »

Jill Norgren reviews: Miss Anne in Harlem expands our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance. It is a story about female independence, race, and most of all unconventional lives — lives, Carla Kaplan writes, that are by definition the most difficult ones to live — and to judge. The book commands attention because it joins other memoir, biography, and political works that give us insight into the personalities and power. more »

Museum visitors will learn how Sherlock Holmes, a scientific expert ahead of his time, used seemingly trivial observations of clues others missed to solve some of his era's most mysterious crimes. The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes features original manuscripts and period artifacts, investigative tools influenced and used by Sherlock Holmes, and interactive crime-solving opportunities. more »

It isn’t snowing everywhere. In one town over it is only raining. It seems weird that weather systems have edges. These are known as weather fronts. It is the boundary between two air masses. One side can be dry and cold while the other moist and warm. Perhaps if we see boundaries as places to connect rather than divide, we will be able to appreciate that edge – even if it means more snow. And aren’t snowflakes beautiful? more »