Verbalize it.

“Drink more?” vs. “More tea?”

From The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett:

“A difference in language practice that startles both Chinese speakers and English speakers when they hear how the other group handles it concerns the proper way to ask someone whether they would like more tea to drink.

In Chinese, one asks “Drink more?” In English, one asks “More tea?” To Chinese speakers, its perfectly obvious that it’s tea one is talking about drinking more of, to mention tea would be redundant. To English speakers, it’s perfectly obvious that one is talking about drinking the tea, as opposed to any other activity that might be carried out with it, so it would be rather bizarre for the question to refer to drinking.”

“Does diagramming sentences teach us anything except how to diagram sentences?”

The curious art of diagramming sentences was invented 165 years ago by S.W. Clark, a schoolmaster in Homer, N.Y. [1] His book, published in 1847, was called “A Practical Grammar: In which Words, Phrases, and Sentences Are Classified According to Their Offices and Their Various Relations to One Another.” His goal was to simplify the teaching of English grammar. It was more than 300 pages long, contained information on such things as unipersonal verbs and “rhetorico-grammatical figures,” and provided a long section on Prosody, which he defined as “that part of the Science of Language which treats of utterance.”

See A Picture of Language- NY Times

“Writing letters constitutes my most agreeable employment.”

“We may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence”

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
by Steven Pinker 

… “the idea that humans are peaceable by nature and corrupted by modern institutions—pops up frequently in the writing of public intellectuals like José Ortega y Gasset (“War is not an instinct but an invention”), Stephen Jay Gould (“Homo sapiens is not an evil or destructive species”), and Ashley Montagu (“Biological studies lend support to the ethic of universal brotherhood”),” he writes. “But, now that social scientists have started to count bodies in different historical periods, they have discovered that the romantic theory gets it backward: Far from causing us to become more violent, something in modernity and its cultural institutions has made us nobler.”

A World of Stories

Storytelling is one way we verbalize everyday life and the big picture. Storytelling methods, plots, archetypal characters, and other elements of composition vary across cultures, yet I wonder if there are some universal themes: good vs. evil, fall from innocence, the quest, happily ever after, tragedy… 

I found a post about “Plotting the Universal Story” that touches on some interesting points. What do you think are universals elements of stories from around the world? And perhaps more importantly, why?

Disney Villans

On Music

On the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of the iPod, NY Times featured an interview with Daniel J. Levitin, a neuroscientist at McGill University, the author of “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.” 

A few statements from the article got me thinking:

 “The average 12-year-old can hold in her hand more songs than my great-grandfather would have heard in his entire lifetime.”

“…digital music is a great democratizing force for musicians. They no longer have to go through the narrow turnstile of record companies.”

“… using headphones reduces your sense of personal space on subways: you’re willing to let someone stand closer to you if you’ve got your tunes playing.”

“Music listening used to be an activity that we did with great ceremony. We’d invite friends over and sit down, pass the album cover around, study the artwork. And when the record started, we’d listen intently together and do nothing else. In short: music listening was deeply social. The iPod has turned music listening into a mostly solitary experience.”

The iPod, or something like it, is used by many of us in our everyday life, and its use has had implications on the societal level. It has given us access to more music than previous generations could ever have imagined,  and has changed the way music is produced, sold,  distributed, and consumed (for better or for worse, or both). It alters our preferences for personal space, and has made music listening more solitary than collective.

In the same article, it discusses how we can actually become addicted to music as it releases oxytocin and dopamine chemicals/hormones into our body, and that it is often used for emotional regulation similar to caffeine and alcohol. (Even as I write about music, I feel an urge to listen to some, a similar sensation to when you think about food before lunch time.) In addition to triggering chemical and emotional reactions, music can also be said to have a spiritual dimension.

If music has such a powerful influence on our brains, bodies, hearts, and minds, perhaps we should treat our playlists a little more discriminately, choosing artists we find to be inspirational or positive for us in some way. Although my one year old daughter starts bouncing up and down to a hip hop beat, do I want to build positive perceptions in her mind that extend to the associated lyrics and lifestyle? The answer is no, yet even as I say it I can see her as a teenager with the earbuds in, listening to “whatever she wants”.

Technology is a tool, but we still have to decide how to use it.

Picture of Gild the Lily, a harp and guitar duo, Lana Quinn (my mom) and Byron Olson. Photo by Viewpoint Photography.

Zombies in the City

There is nothing wrong with being utterly horrified by the zombie, or with laughing at his buffoonery. In both cases the zombie is humanity; it is a warning of what we could become and it is a reflection of what we already are. (Stokes, 2010)

I live in a city of over 25 million people. I suppose each of us have our own daily routines, challenges, dreams and emotions. But for some reason, especially when we are transporting to and from work on the metro, we enter an altered state, where we retract into our own world, and become some kind of herded mass (It’s gotten worse since mp3 players and smart phones, we always seem to have ear buds in, head down looking at a screen, even while walking). It sometimes feels like we are all zombies, half alive, and half dead. It’s a bit morbid I know, and in reality it’s not a horrifying scene, but I do find it thought provoking nonetheless.

Zombie Origins

It seems that the modern concept of zombies appearing in horror movies and fiction was largely popularized by George A. Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. He derived inspiration from the Richard Matheson novel  I am Legend (published in 1945, which also featured vampirism as a disease). Romero himself feels it is video games that have truly promoted the prevalence of zombies in modern culture. (See http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/george-a-romero-zombies/)

Apparently the Romero’s zombie movies reflected what was happening in America during the decades of their release. In 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, for example, the shopping mall setting enabled Romero to allude to the dangers of rampant, soulless consumerism. (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7280793.stm)

Prior to the film Night of the Living Dead, beings similar to zombies (human bodies influenced by witchcraft or hypnosis) did exist in folklore. The zombie word originates from Haitian Voodoo, for example. There are also similarities between zombies and Frankenstein, from the novel by Mary Shelley in 1818.

Zombie Apocalypse

Much of zombie fiction includes a Zombie Apocalypse, where the world gets taken over by zombies as the state is spread like epidemic.

As mentioned on Wikipedia page “Zombies in popular culture”:  “The narrative of a zombie apocalypse carries strong connections to the turbulent social landscape of the United States in the 1960s when the originator of this genre, the film Night of the Living Dead, was first created. Many also feel that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world.^”

As you can see, zombies are not just monsters used to entertain cinema audiences, but also metaphors for human life and society. As Jasie Stokes explains in her thesis paper on zombies and popular culture, “The zombie is a study of what it means to be human in the postmodern world”. Furthermore, zombie fiction is “a barometer for social anxieties”. 

The New Zombies

There has been a turn in the zombie film genre to also include zombie comedies, one of the first and more influential being Shaun of the Dead (2004). A monster/comedy combo is noteworthy in terms of what it might signify regarding underlying social conditions.  (Things have gotten so bad it’s humorous? Just kidding…)

Simon Pegg, the lead actor in Shaun of the Dead, states “The great thing about zombies is that they’re ever-changing - because they’re basically us. They can be employed to represent any facet of our development or social standing. If in “Dawn of the Dead,” they’re the consuming masses, literally, in “Shaun of the Dead” they’re the apathy of living in a big city and how it can swallow you up. “

So we come back to Zombies in the City, the exact sensation I experienced on the Shanghai Metro!

It has also been suggested that pop culture consumers have moved on from their fascination with zombies, and are now taking a fancy to vampires instead.There are volumes of books and countless papers written on the subject of Zombies. (Here’s a compilation I found on Google Books.)

Zombie: To Be or Not to Be

Well, looking into the history of zombies and what they mean and represent in society was a fascinating exploration, but how will I deal with my morning commute on the metro, surrounded by spaced out, shuffling, modern city workers, myself included?

Should I fight the muted emotions and walk merrily with a kick in my step? Or should I follow suit and trudge through the morning ritual with the rest of the masses?

Like the heroes in the films, I will resist becoming a zombie. Hopefully I’ll be successful.  ;-)

Universal Deep Metaphors

I recently have been reading a book called Marketing Metaphoria, which discusses the concept of “deep metaphors” and what it means for consumer insights.

The authors uncovered 7 deep metaphors (termed the “Seven Giants”) that were consistent regardless of culture, business sectors, or research teams by drawing on data collected through 12,000 in-depth interviews for more than 100 clients in over 30 countries.

In short: “People who otherwise differ in cultural background, age, gender, education, occupation, political values, consumer experiences, basic beliefs, religious preference, and almost anything else we can name share these seven giants.” (Zaltman & Zaltman)

The Seven Giants are listed and described below:

Balance: ideas of equilibrium, adjusting, maintaining or offsetting forces, and things as they should be (“I’m overweight”, equal opportunity employment policies)

Transformation: changing states or statuses (“Turning over a new leaf”, becoming a mother)

Journey: aspects of life as a journey, or life itself as one big journey (“It’s downhill from here”, staying “on track”)

Container: could involve keeping things in or keeping things out (“I’m wrapped up in a novel”, saving money)

Connection: feelings of belonging or exclusion (“This is my team”, “I lost my job”)

Resource: things that are needed to survive (“My phone is my lifeline”)

Control: the need to be in control of our lives (the outcome is “out of our hands”, or “spiraling out of control”)

Although these various metaphors may be expressed differently in different countries, and their application may vary from individual to individual, I find it very interesting that they appear to be present across so many cultures and contexts. In the diverse world we live in, it is easy to overemphasize differences, but it is not as intuitive to uncover those universal concepts that connect us all.

5 years in China

On September 10^th it marked 5 years since my husband and I first stepped off the plane in Shanghai. Our arrival began as a short term adventure, as we originally thought we would stay for 6 months to a year. Our China experience has now transformed into a significant chapter of our lives.

Key highlights:

Trying to learn Mandarin

Making friends

Finding apartments

Homesickness

Developing careers

Continuing education

Hosting friends and family

Traveling

Health challenges

Becoming parents

Food, transportation, paying bills, and other everyday adventures

When I go home to Canada for visits people often ask me “So how’s China?” Normally I can only take a few minutes to answer briefly unless the person is keenly interested. After these five years, the two words I would use to describe China are Ambitious and Complex. Here’s why:

Ambitious:

Education level is rising: many Chinese students study abroad or are in a continuous state of self-study and improvement through additional courses, classes, and qualifications.

Career aspirations are strong: Young Chinese men and women expend considerable effort in advancing their careers through working overtime and job hopping to different companies to quickly climb the corporate ladder. The popularity of the recruitment/head hunting industry in large Chinese cities are testament to both the job market demand and career goals, and may be contributing to a fast increase in salary levels in some industries.

Consumerism: Many Chinese people, whether affluent or not, display their ambitions through the purchases they make. In first tier Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing, luxury watches, designer hand bags, expensive smart phones, lavish travel, vehicles, and more are manifestations of a ravenous ambition for “the good life”.

Speaking out: With the rise and immense popularity of microblogging, Chinese people are communicating information, expressing opinions, and engaging in immense dialogue on topics ranging from the mundane to the controversial. The quest for more and better of everything fuels these verbalizations.

Complex:

Communism and Consumption: Over the past two decades the Communist political structure has been combined with a (somewhat) Capitalist economic model. This unique system has had its benefits, but is also not without side effects.

Culture, Ancient and Imported: China has thousands of years of ancient history, an intricate character-based language, and a turbulent recent past. It is also a large country with regional differences in terms of dialects, beliefs and practices. This inherently nuanced backdrop now faces foreign cultural influences in the form of arts, products, lifestyles and ideas arriving through channels both official and underground.  It is a cultural smorgasbord of old and new, east and west, with interesting manifestations on individual and group levels.

Collectivism and Competition: Collectivism has been defined as subordinating personal goals to group goals. Visitors to China are often confused when they see someone fall off their bicycle and passersby do not stop to help. As a Chinese professor of mine once explained, here the “group” actually refers to the “in group”, normally close friends and family, rather than the general public. However, discourse surrounding harmonious society and building Chinese civilization are still prominent, causing the collective/community well being to have resonance with people.

In China’s modern economic environment, collective/communist ideology and fierce competition coexist.  The individual has still not won over the collective, but personal and group goals struggle with each other every day.

Living in China for the past 5 years, I have witnessed a great deal of change in everyday life and on a macro scale. The China chapter is not over yet- I look forward to upcoming plots, characters, and settings that it will hold, especially with our daughter at our side. Here, like anywhere else, you have your good days and your bad days, but all things considered I think it is most important to be grateful.Photo taken by Saba Mazloum

I’ve been meaning to write a post for days. There are several brewing, but in the meantime, I can’t resist sharing this photo of a hip hop artist from days gone by, Coolio.

A lesson in coffee and infographics

Why do human beings use cigarette lighters?

What is the basic reason human beings use lighters? Some would say to light cigarettes.  Ernest Dichter (1964) had another answer. Is it over analytical or genius?

The reliability of a lighter is important because it is integrally connected with the basic reason for using a lighter… The basic reason for using a lighter [is] the desire for mastery and power. The capacity to summon fire inevitably gives every human being, child or grownup, a sense of power. Reasons go far back into man’s history. Fire and the ability to command it are prized because they are associated not only with warmth, but also with life itself. As attested to by the Greek legend of Prometheus and many other myths, the ability to control fire is an age-old symbol of man’s conquest of the physical world he inhabits.

A cigarette lighter provides conspicuous evidence of this ability to summon fire. The ease and speed with which the lighter works enhances the feeling of power. The failure of a lighter to work does not just create superficial social embarrassment, it frustrates a deep-seated desire for a feeling of mastery and control. (p. 341)

Is tipping point the new slippery slope?

A slippery slope is a classic form of argument, and is most often an informal fallacy. It goes something like this: “If we let our kids smoke cigarettes, before you know it they will be heroine addicts.” As Wikipedia says “A slippery slope argument states that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect.The strength of such an argument depends on the warrant, i.e. whether or not one can demonstrate a process which leads to the significant effect.”

You hear the slippery slope argument frequently in politics, and often in everyday conversation as well.

Another commonly used concept/argument: the tipping point.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”

I was listening to two friends talk about work lately. Both of them have good jobs that they enjoy. One was explaining that he isn’t that busy at work, that perhaps he could be busier. The other friend is extremely busy, often putting in 60 hour work weeks. Through their discussions they decided that if the less busy friend were to move just one level higher in his organization, he would go from not very busy to extremely busy, that there was a threshold, a tipping point, that he would cross over, and suddenly be thrown into a demanding work schedule with overtime, travel, etc.

Is this true? Perhaps yes. But at the same time, maybe it wouldn’t be the case.

It seems to me that just like the slippery slope, the tipping point argument can be a fallacy.