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The New York Times talks to literary theorist Terry Castle:

What are the latest trends in academia? Is poststructuralist theory dead yet?
Well, it carries on in its zombielike, jargon-ridden way here and there. But it’s on the wane. The smartest literary scholars right now are interested in evolutionary psychology and brain science — how we may be hard-wired for fiction-making, aesthetic appreciation and the like.

Is that a good development? How do you feel about seeing the adventure of life reduced to a function of DNA?
I guess I’m down with it because I’ve always felt, for instance, that my own lesbianism was genetic. My cousin, whom I was just visiting in London, we have the same DNA, and we’re both big, old dykes.

Um…you go girl?

If they had wi-fi, I’d be on the first spaceship out of town:

If it sounds unrealistic to suggest that astronauts would be willing to leave home never to return alive, then consider the results of several informal surveys I and several colleagues have conducted recently. One of my peers in Arizona recently accompanied a group of scientists and engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a geological field trip. During the day, he asked how many would be willing to go on a one-way mission into space. Every member of the group raised his hand. The lure of space travel remains intoxicating for a generation brought up on “Star Trek” and “Star Wars.”

Moms are more than sources of existential angst and mitochondrial DNA. My friend Nicole Chaison has written a book that demonstrates this with unmatched wit and aplomb. It’s called The Passion of the Hausfrau and if you are a parent or ever had parents, then you should obtain a copy post haste.

“None of us can do the things we did five years ago, not even you guys. Some of you are writing slower than ever. The stuff you talk about in the paper just don’t make sense. Some of you are dressing kinda funny.”

- Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb educating journalists on human frailty

Q: Don’t you think most of us want to be loved for who we are, as opposed to some artificially enhanced version of ourselves?
A: That will never happen. Are you out of your mind?

Joan Rivers on the enhancement imperative.

“Our genes are not our fate,” he says. I couldn’t agree more.

But do I have to eat kale?

“Vegas Solves Health Care Crisis!”

“Senior scientists running labs don’t read journals; they say the younger people will tell them about anything important that gets published—if they haven’t heard about it beforehand anyway…”

- Michael Crichton in Slate

Because [of] what your parents gave you to begin with — genetically or culturally or financially — and pure luck, you play a small role in determining how long you live. And even if you add a few years through your own initiative, by doing all the right things in terms of diet, exercise, sleep, vitamins, and so on, why is that to your moral credit? Extending your own life expectancy is the most selfish motive imaginable for doing anything. Do it, by all means. I do. But for heaven’s sake don’t take a bow and expect applause.

- Michael Kinsley on mortality