When I was very young, and already a history buff, I loved to devour books about the history of dinosaur paleontology and play two groundbreaking MS-DOS turn-based strategy videogames on a clunky INTEL 80286, Centurion: Defender of Rome (Bits of Magic, 1990) and Sid Meier’s Civilization (MicroProse, 1991). Both videogames were early examples of what would have become known as “4X” empire-building strategy games, i.e., videogames that involved the exploration of a virtual map, expansion of territory with the conquest or annexation of provinces, exploitation of the resources available on the map, and extermination of (or diplomatic alliance with) enemy factions (Ghita and Andrikopulos 2009). As their names suggest, Centurion allowed the player to take active part in Roman military history as an army officer, while Civilization offered the exhilarating possibility of replaying history with several civilizations on ever-different scenarios and maps.
Read moreA Pirandellian History of Religions
The first page of the English translation of Pirandello’s novella L’eresia catara, included in The Medals and Other Stories, New York: Dutton & Co., 1939, 177-188, and published without any indication of the translator. Oddly enough, here Lamis becomes a “Professor of Ecclesiastical History” [Copy kindly provided by L. H. Martin]
In 1905, Italian novelist and future Nobel prize laureate Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) published a short story entitled L’eresia catara (“The Cathar Heresy”). In his novella, Pirandello follows the pitiful personal and professional misadventures of Bernardino Lamis, a shy and modest Full Professor of History of Religions (professore ordinario di storia delle religioni) in an unnamed Italian University.
Read moreNarrator, mendax, sciens: creating meaning in a world of stories
We are made of stories - and these are some of stories I am made of. An amazing project over one year in the making, by Italian artist Emiliano Troco. Oil on canvas, © 2020 Emiliano Troco
Human cultures are neural environments extended throughout time and space. Cultures reach out to the ancestors. They explain the origins of everything. Thunders, earthquakes, life, death. They connect the most remote past with the future. And in the process, they provide meaning. Cultures make sense of all that happens. In the skies up above, on earth down below. Within us, between us, among us. Our similarities, our differences, our emotions, our thoughts. Everything is culture, and culture is everything.
Read moreUnhorror, Propp’s universal grammar, and box office successes
Horror comes in many shapes and forms… Private collection.
... quiet… quiet … BANG! Darryl Jones has recently suggested to label unhorror the blockbuster, mainstream “marketization” of the post-millennial horror, which compensates for its depoliticized and polished nature by the implementation of the now “dominant aesthetic technique” called scare-jumps or “jump-shocks”.
Read moreFrom Magic Lantern Ghost Shows to IMAX: Horror and Modernity
Engraving depicting the most successful magic lantern ghost show of the 19th century, Étienne-Gaspard Robertson’s Fantasmagorie. Source: F. Marion, L’Optique, 1867. From Wikipedia.
In his On Deep History and the Brain, historian Daniel L. Smail suggested that technologies and dedicated socio-economic systems develop around specific psychotropic practices, that is, practices which piggyback our neuroendocrine system to deliver a rewarding, addictive experience (Smail 2008). According to Smail, the period that ranges from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the imperial coda of the French Revolution (1815) stands out as a pivotal moment in the “invention” of a distinctly modern mass economy of psychotropic products and practices.
Read moreDid Ancient Romans Eat Pizza?
FIG.1. An astonishing seafood emblema (centerpiece mosaic) from Pompeii, ca. 100-79 CE. Definitely, not a single pizza in sight here. National Archaeological Museum, Naples, on loan for the Last Supper in Pompeii exhibition, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 10 November 2019 (CC BY-ND 4.0, Leonardo Ambasciano).
Last November – which in the current predicament seems like a lifetime away – my wife and I went to the Last Supper in Pompeii exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The temporary exhibition, which closed on 12 January 2020, “include[d] about 300 objects loaned by Naples and Pompeii, many of which have never left Italy before” (Brown 2019). The exhibition gave us the unprecedented opportunity to see in person some of the most breathtaking remains ever discovered in the history of Roman archaeology.
However, during our visit we spotted a baffling passage in the caption of one terra sigillata pottery showcase (8.1).
Read moreA cognitive exploration of horror tropes
“2019 Bela Lugosi Dracula Funko Super7 ReAction 9943.” Author: Brechtbug (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
You know the drill. You went to the movies to watch the latest installment or the much talked about reboot of your favourite horror/thriller series. You read the interviews, you heard the podcasts, you checked some quite promising non-spoiler reviews. This time it really looked like the new movie could be a lot of fun. All you hoped for was a breath of fresh air, and then… meh. Nothing. Been there, done that. Déjà vu. Just more of the same.
Read moreThe (neurochemical) medium is the message
“Movie Theater at Shibuya.” Author: naoyafujii (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Cinema provides a virtual environment specifically engineered to stimulate our cognitive and sensorial inclinations – for our own entertainment. The cinematic experience itself is an embodied simulation based on illusory stimuli able to elicit the mirror neurons of our brains – putting us effortlessly in the characters’ shoes and making us feel what they feel (Gallese and Guerra 2012; Gallese and Guerra 2015). The illusion does not stop at emotionally connecting to the characters’ adventures. We intuitively transform opaque cinematic techniques into flawless narratives (e.g., converting an illogical jump cut into the natural blink of an eye).
Read morePseudoscience at the time of Covid-19
The Battle of Balaclava, 2020 edition: the Russian artillery stands for SARS-CoV-2; the Light Brigade of the Six Hundred is herd immunity. Source: Charge of the Light Brigade by R. C. Woodville Jr. Wikipedia.
The response by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his team to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been dismal. On 12 March, I had to endure possibly one of the most cringeworthy political speeches of recent history, when Johnson addressed the nation to tell its citizens that despite the fact that “many more families [were] going to lose loved ones before their time” (meaning the elderly), there was basically nothing to do in terms of prevention (Stewart, Proctor and Siddique 2020). Johnson’s statement was mind-boggling for a variety of reason, the most astounding of which was that the core Tory electorate is currently made up of older people (Inman 2019). You get what you vote for, I guess (Walker 2020), but is a selective culling of the elderly really what elderly Conservative voters voted for during the recent national election?
Read moreNostalgia, Metamodernism, and the Third Death Star
Subverting your expectation since 2017. Star Wars: The Last Jedi © Odeon, private collection.
The final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy produced under the auspices of Disney is finally out. As I’m writing this on 18 December 2019, the early reviews and the critics’ reactions to the Rise of Skywalker have been lukewarm or mixed. There is utter regret for what could have been, palpable disappointment for how the clunky plot of the sequel trilogy has been mishandled, and sheer sadness over the misuse (some would say abuse) of the legacy characters.
In hindsight, this is a result that’s been seven years in the making. The unwise decision to discard the pre-Disney lore material which antagonized the core audience, a baffling marketing strategy to target global audiences who did not experience Star Wars in the 1970s and thus have no affective attachment to the saga (e.g., China), a cheap dilution of the franchise through marginal side quests explored in anthology movies, theme parks attractions that inexplicably disregarded the original films, poor top-down communication skills, the sore lack of leadership skills, and the indifference towards the development of a road map have been - to put it mildly - bewildering [1]. The urgency to deliver and make a profit after the company’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.05 billion has led to an astonishing series of rushed and inappropriate business decisions, and I think that many, if not all, of them are connected to the lack of knowledge and insight about what the DNA of Star Wars really is.
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