"The Human Race is Just Unbelievably Deep"

Yesterday morning while driving I was listening to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's morning radio program "q" when a very interesting interview began. It featured New York Times obituary writer Bruce Weber, who is touring to promote a new documentary film by Vanessa Gould that focuses on the obituary department of the Times.  (Links are provided below.)

Among other things, Mr. Weber talked about the process involved in deciding who will have their obituary written for the Times and who won't. As he said, many people are worthy but not many are newsworthy, and it is this latter quality that is usually the deciding factor.

As interesting as the interview was, it was the very last thing Mr. Weber said that stayed with me. Asked about his insight into how people featured in a Times obit have contributed to history, he said that many of his obituaries have covered people who contributed a great deal to history, such as distinguished veterans, but whose lives are largely forgotten, as the famous tend to overshadow the less-than-famous. However, he said, there are many less-than-famous people whose lives have nudged history in a certain direction.

He concluded: "The human race is just unbelievably deep. We've got a big bench."

He said it with such enthusiasm and affection that it stayed with me long after I got out of the car and went about with the rest of my day. Given that he'd talked about the sadness of his job and how it had affected his long-term view of life, his enduring fascination with people and the contributions they make in their lives resonated with me.

I recognized in it my own unflagging interest in people and my very strong conviction that there is no end to the supply of inspiration for the characters that writers create for their stories. There's no reason on earth why readers should ever settle for flat or stereotypic characters when, as Mr. Weber said, "the human race is just unbelievably deep." There's no reason why I should settle for less, either, in my own work.

Find the CBC interview of Bruce Weber here
Find the teaser for the documentary film Obit here

The Inimitable Leonard Nimoy

Like many others, I was saddened to hear of the death of Leonard Nimoy. I was a fan of the Star Trek series and of the character Mr. Spock.

 Leonard Nimoy was teaching method acting in his own studio when he was cast as Mr. Spock. Gene Rodenberry, the creator of Star Trek, would later refer to Nimoy as the "conscience" of the show.

Although he will always be associated with Spock, Leonard Nimoy had many other accomplishments. Here are some highlights of his life from the New York Times:

He served in the US Army for two years;

He appeared in television series such as Wagon Train, Rawhide, and Perry Mason before being cast as Mr. Spock. Later he would have a starring role in the television series Mission Impossible;

He returned to college in his 40s and obtained a Master's degree in Spanish from Antioch University. Later he would be awarded an honorary doctorate by that university;

He directed two of the Star Trek movies, as well as the film Three Men and a Baby;

He was nominated for an Emmy for his role as the husband of Golda Meir in a made-for-television movie depicting her life. Ingrid Bergman played Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel;

He published two autobiographies, as well as books of poetry and photography;

He frequently appeared on stage, including performances in Fiddler on the Roof;

He recorded music, and his first album was called Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space;

He did voices for Disney animation, as well as the voice-over for the computer game "Civilization IV"; and

He had a recurring role in the science fiction series Fringe.

 For the full text of the New York Times article, including two videos, please click here. For additional information and links showing Leonard Nimoy's versatility, please click here.  

RIP Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015

The Science of Aging Wisely

There is an interesting and very positive article in a recent edition of The New York Times which examines the topic of wisdom as it relates to age. The article looks at various studies and how wisdom encompasses not only cognitive knowledge, but our ability to gain insights from that knowledge as a basis for our decisions and behaviors.

Among the observations of researchers are the following:

- Older people have much more information in their brains so retrieving it naturally takes longer;

- While younger people are faster in cognitive performance, the quality of information in older people is more nuanced;

- One neuroscientist has postulated that there are "cognitive templates" based on pattern recognition that develop in the older brain, and these "templates" form the basis for wise behavior and decisions;

- One of the impediments to wisdom in older people is negative thinking and dwelling on the perceived negatives of aging; and

- Showing compassion to others is an important element of wisdom: "Wise people try to understand situations from multiple perspectives, not just their own, and they show tolerance as a result."


For the full text of the article, please click here.

The Game's Afoot

There is an interesting article in The New York Times on the use of video games to improve brain function. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, neuroscience research lab are trying to determine whether the addictive feature of many video games can actually be used to our advantage to make our minds healthier.  

As indicated in the article, researchers are using neuro-imaging techniques (brain scans) to peer into gamers' heads to determine if "we might develop games to treat depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Or games that rewire our brains to improve memory and cognitive function. . . . For now the goal is to figure out what makes a game addictive on a neurological level, then to couple this with brain research showing how play can improve the mind."

Maybe we don't have to feel so guilty about the time spent on gaming after all!

For the full text of this interesting article, please click here.

The Upcoming Biography of J.D. Salinger

The New York Times Art Beat blog reports that a biography of the reclusive J.D. Salinger, who died in 2010, will be published by Simon & Schuster in September. Entitled The Private War of J.D. Salinger, it has been eight years in the making and is based on interviews with 150 people who worked with, knew, or were influenced by Salinger. One of the co-authors, Shane Salerno, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie Savages, said of Salinger: “The myth that people have read about and believed for 60 years about J.D. Salinger is one of someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched. We replace the myth of Salinger with an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being. Our book offers a complete re-evaluation and reinterpretation of the work and the life.”

It's interesting to note that two previous works published during Salinger's lifetime also purported to be an intimate portrait of Salinger. In 1999 his ex-lover Joyce Maynard, after selling Salinger's private letters at auction, published At Home in the World: A Memoir, chronicling her relationship with Salinger, who was 35 years older. This was followed in 2000 by the publication of the controversial and largely unflattering portrait of Salinger in Dreamcatcher: A Memoir, written by his daughter Margaret.

The publisher of the forthcoming biography is billing it as an opportunity for Salinger's readers to know the author better. Those who grew up reading Salinger's exquisite short stories and his coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye may wish to give it a pass, however, and continue to let the writer's works speak for themselves.

For the original article, see http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/biography-of-j-d-salinger-coming-in-september/#postComment.