Allen:
You have an interesting impression. I haven't heard of the book and I notice that it is not among the top 35 in the NY Times non-fiction list.
Maybe this is another case in which the obvious finally to inside the beltway.
Ken Allen Esterson wrote:
From this side of the pond there is an impression that Drew Westen's *The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation* has taken Washington (and political America) by storm. Now it may well be that Westen's message is something Democrat election campaign advisors should take to heart, but I must say that when I first heard about it my immediate reaction was that it was (to use the vernacular) a statement of the bleedin' obvious. How long is it since you saw a TV commercial for a car [trans.: automobile -:) ] that gave the viewer *specific* factual information about its performance, rather than an appeal to the emotions? Or, to take a more directly relevant example, let's go back to the dear old Bard and the funeral oration scene on the death of Caesar. For Brutus' oration, Shakespeare gives him a speech in prose (as far as I can see the only one in the whole play) in which he appeals to the crowd to understand the reasons for the action of the conspirators. Then back to blank verse for Mark Antony. And how does he appeal to the crowd:
Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org
-- --------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA --------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
