In my 2009 essay For Madmen Only (now a page on this site), I presented my idea that the ending of Herman Hesse's novel Steppenwolf isn't at the end of the book, but at the beginning. For several years that was a page on the previous Alan Conrad/Shy Highway website where it received more visits than the rest … Continue reading Steppenwolf vs Herman Hesse
Rescuing Fiction
When I had my previous website, The Loner's Highway, it was accompanied by a secondary blog known as The Society for the Protection of Fictional Characters, or, in short, the SPFC. I liked that name, and the acronym, but the acronym presented a problem. A web search found that SPFC includes: São Paol FC, a football/soccer … Continue reading Rescuing Fiction
Are We a Social Animal?
I've been asking myself this since I was in high school in the 1960s. That's when I read the chapters in H.G. Wells's Outline of History, where he introduced me to the evolution of early humans. Inspired, I read everything I could find on human origins. Over the years I noticed that most writers assumed that humanity … Continue reading Are We a Social Animal?
AVEN and Asexuality
Recently I discovered the AVEN site - The Asexual Visibility and Educational Network. Although I've noticed over the years that there are men and women who show little interest in sex, sometimes none at all, I was not aware that this is now seen, at least by the AVEN people, as a fourth sexual orientation. … Continue reading AVEN and Asexuality
Lonely in the City? – Maybe Not
Here is a post from my previous blog, Loner's Highway. I was writing about columnist Heather Mallick's review in the Toronto Star of Olivia Laing's book The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone. I think this should interest most shy people as well as loners, so I'm repeating it here. What interested … Continue reading Lonely in the City? – Maybe Not
What is your Dunbar number?
Do you know about Dunbar's number? A British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, studied the size of stable social groups and concluded in the 1990s that an individual's preferred number of people is 150. Neolithic farming villages supposedly were that size, the basic operating units of armies since Roman times have been and are that size, and … Continue reading What is your Dunbar number?
Selfie 2 – A review of Selfish
Last week I wrote about all the selfie photographers on the Brooklyn Bridge. Yesterday I was browsing shelves in the library when I came upon something that gave me a bit of a shock - Kim Kardashian's 444 page book Selfish. It's not a book about selfishness, not exactly. There is almost no text. What you … Continue reading Selfie 2 – A review of Selfish
Frogs and the Universe
Did you know that frogs can see much farther than us? Much, much farther. In British physicist David Deutsch's 1997 book Fabric of Reality, he discusses the electric torch (flashlight) experiment, where an experimenter gradually backs away from the torch, the light from it becoming fainter and fainter, then he says: Can light really be spread more … Continue reading Frogs and the Universe
Big Bang Basketball
What started the Big Bang?
Alan Conrad 