#Kidd and Castano

[stanleyisworking]

SOMA Pt. 2: Student Profile - B

My next student will be code-named "B", because I am not creative with names! (By the way, in case you were wondering - I don't usually take videos of myself teaching in my studio if consent was not given by my students, so I'll try to provide as much information as possible through these walls of texts, bear with me!)

Here's a random video of the dedicated space given to me by SOMA, though!

B is much older and previously I mentioned that A wanted to get into SOTA, right? Well, B wanted to get into Berklee!

I had to take a different approach with B. Since they were considered late teens/young adult, their prior experience with singing would be a consideration for me. In fact, with all students, I take their prior knowledge into consideration, but when it comes to working with late teenagers, we would be dealing more on self-esteem, self worth, clashes in ideas, and sometimes learning how to eat the humble pie. There is a story for another day, if we even have that day, where I struggled to keep up with a specific teenage student's moodswings, but that was before I was teaching at SOMA. Nonetheless, I am thankful for that prior experience so I am better equipped this time with B!

Problem: B came to me and their main concern was not liking the sound of their voice.

I was a bit confused. When I heard them sing during the first lesson, they were perfectly fine. Sure, there were some things that we could work on - perhaps breathing technique, articulation, enunciation, and emotional interpretation, but, I quite enjoyed their vocal tone.

Solution: I tried to find out more about what they did not like about their voice.

I soon realized it was due to a lot of unfavorable comments about their singing when they were growing up. I strongly resonated with them afterward.

One of the reasons why I enjoy teaching voice so much goes back to how I put mental health first above everything else. I believe that the voice is one of those instruments that, because of an individual's past experiences and traumatic memories, can alter the way they sound. (See: Monti E, Kidd DC, Carroll LM, Castano E. What's in a singer's voice: The effect of attachment, emotions and trauma. Logoped Phoniatr Vocol. 2017)

Hence, sometimes I could share all the right techniques and hammer the countless vocal exercises, but mentally, if a singer has trauma holding them back, they would not deliver. Personally, I relate to this very much.

However! I have found many methods that worked for me in the past and I was very eager to gain B's trust and confidence, so we could work better together.

Whenever they would tell me they were uncomfortable with singing in a specific tone, I would affirm them and tell them that they sounded fine. They would say "But, in the past," and it would be about what someone had said about their voice. I acknowledged it and told them it was a valid concern, but I threw the question back at them and asked if they think thought sounded fine? Did they felt uncomfortable while singing?

Upon much reflection, B realized singing in the tone that was "disliked" by others was way more comfortable than trying to sound similar to what people liked. I was trying to assist them in developing their identity and their sound, taking the pressure away from sounding like what their friends or family liked to listen to, and to be more in tune with their body and what felt natural to them.

They slowly opened up to me as the weeks went by and we made significant progress. This student managed to hit an Ab! With a full belt! No head voice and falsetto! What?! I told them even I couldn't do that!

Seeing them proud of themselves made me proud. I know I sit in a very privileged position to be able to hear stories on how their past experience has shaped them today.

This is the most fulfilling part of my job, because I get to impact people's lives and see them grow until they are ready to take the stage on their own.

B will definitely do well and I hope they get into Berklee!

[texasdreamer01]

how is "they're hot together" a bad reason to ship something, thats literally the whole point

I suppose that

observed chemistry,

potential romantic interest,

preexisting romantic relationship confirmed by canon,

and “There is a story in this ship and I am interested in that story.”

just really doesn’t factor into this equation for you, does it?

In my opinion - since this is a personal blog and you are a random, anonymized stranger to me so thus my words must be taken as the singular opinion they are - “they’re hot together” and Progressive Shipping rely upon the same predisposition by shippers to stereotype characters and file off the serial numbers until these characters can be squeezed into a mold that fit’s a shipper’s needs/whims/insert motivation here, instead of relying upon defining, unique characteristics that would make shipping these characters attractive in their own right.

Having watched the rise and now, hopefully, fall of Progressive Shipping as a successor to “they’re hot together”, the pattern of shipper behaviour that exhibits itself as Progressive Shipping has become a reflection of the recent trends of identity politics and performative virtue signalling. It is exhausting to interact with, I think, and while I definitely agree with the merits of empathizing with one’s source material, Progressive Shipping appears to be more a way for fans to interact with each other in a socially-acceptable facade that… looks to be taken a step or five too far in some areas and actually inhibits effective and meaningful communication within a fandom.

As for “they’re hot together”, someone worded a facet of that particular pattern of shipping behaviour very concisely:

here’s a concept I think people don’t understand - you can ship mlm all you want, but there is a difference between liking a ship, and fetishizing mlm content.

NB: I’m using mlm ships as a sticking point because mlm ships are very, very popular across many fandoms.

While fandom is usually at a disadvantage in available shippable characters (x), straight girls (and I’m going to use “girls” instead “women” because this isn’t age-restricted, nor “females” because it rings wrong to my ears in this context) have exhibited a tendency to fetishize mlm ships to the point where they as a group are mocked (x x). And they are mocked for a valid reason.

“They’re hot together” strips characters of their individuality in a way that fetishizes characters - a behaviour that I’ve personally seen being reflected upon fellow fans and used as a means to be apathetic towards the individuality of others in one’s fandom as well as the individuality of a - yes, usually entirely fictional - character.

David Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano published a piece of research in 2013 named Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind (auto-download PDF) which states that the more a person reads - at least of literary fiction - the more empathetic they are. Unfortunately, theory of mind is a thorny subject riddled with such pitfalls as being originally based upon neurotypical subjects and assuming that a reader interacts with characters in a literary environment with perspective-taking (of either a emotional or cognitive variety), a subject of which you can poke around in yourself.

(As an aside, I’m not going to touch the subject of feminization of a character in an mlm ship, however pertinent it might be to this topic.)

The act of shipping in a “they’re hot together” manner is the exact opposite of perspective-taking. Progressive Shipping began as a response to this behaviour and an attempt at retaking and recontextualizing ships from this era of fandom in an empathetic, other-oriented manner. It got out of hand and became embroiled in identity politics, but that’s rather beside the point of your question.

It is therefore my opinion that using the reasoning of “they’re hot together” as the primary and often self-described most important point of shipping a ship is an apathetic, selfish interaction with a ship in particular and a ship’s source material in general.

If that’s how you roll, you’re perfectly entitled to do so! I will certainly not dictate to you how to behave, most especially in a fandom environment. But, you - random, anonymized stranger - ought not believe that the way you ship is the way I ship verbatim, nor that either of us are obliged to like/accept/insert verb here how another interacts with a ship/source material/pick a combo.

[fierceawakening]

And yes, the article agrees that the problem with empathy is that it naturally focuses on one’s kin group, rather than everyone. If you want quotes I can give them. Its discussions of how we compensate for this are super interesting to me:

“In the course of history, people have enlarged the range of beings whose interests they value as they value their own, from direct offspring, to relatives, to affiliates, and finally to strangers (Singer, 1981). Thus, nurture is not confined to the dependent young of one’s own kin system, but also to current and future generations. Such a capacity to help and care for unfamiliar individuals is often viewed as complex behavior that depends on high cognitive capacities, social modeling, and cultural transmission (Levine, Prosser, Evans, & Reicher, 2005).”

“Preliminary research suggests that reading literary fiction temporarily improves the capacity to identify and understand others’ subjective affective and cognitive mental states (Kidd & Castano, 2013). Studies conducted by Bal and Veltkamp (2013) investigated the influence of fictional narrative experience on empathy over time, and indicate that self-reported empathic skills significantly changed over the course of one week for readers of a fictional stories.”

...yes, art matters. Yes, it’s useful, not just fun.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4241340/

This is fantastic. It covers so many details.

This bits relevant to why I keep thinking I’m right (there are other bits that suggest I’m not, too)

In naturalistic studies, young children with high empathic disposition are more readily aroused vicariously by other’s sadness, pain or distress, but at the same time possess greater capacities for emotion regulation such that their own negative arousal motivates rather than overwhelms their desire to alleviate the other’s distress (Nichols, Svetlova, & Brownell, 2009).

[fictionsocialcognition-blog]

Recent research from the field of psychology has explored the effect that reading fiction has on social cognition processes - the processes through which we understand and make sense of our social world.

An interesting article reviewing these research findings by scholar and writer Keith Oatley in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences in 2016:

Fiction: Simulation of Social Worlds

Abstract: Fiction is the simulation of selves in interaction. People who read it improve their understanding of others. This effect is especially marked with literary fiction, which also enables people to change themselves. These effects are due partly to the process of engagement in stories, which includes making inferences and becoming emotionally involved, and partly to the contents of fiction, which include complex characters and circumstances that we might not encounter in daily life. Fiction can be thought of as a form of consciousness of selves and others that can be passed from an author to a reader or spectator, and can be internalized to augment everyday cognition.

Oatley builds on his own collaborative work with other researchers at the University of Toronto, notably Raymond Mar. Mar and colleagues published an excellent piece in 2009, in the journal Communications:

Exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy: Ruling out individual differences and examining outcomes

Abstract: Readers of fiction tend to have better abilities of empathy and theory of mind (Mar et al., 2006). We present a study designed to replicate this finding, rule out one possible explanation, and extend the assessment of social outcomes. In order to rule out the role of personality, we first identified Openness as the most consistent correlate. This trait was then statis- tically controlled for, along with two other important individual differences: the tendency to be drawn into stories and gender. Even after accounting for these variables, fiction exposure still predicted performance on an em- pathy task. Extending these results, we also found that exposure to fiction was positively correlated with social support. Exposure to nonfiction, in contrast, was associated with loneliness, and negatively related to social support.

Other research findings complicate matters, showing that reading literary fiction has different effects than reading popular fiction. Psychologist David Kidd and Emanuele Castano make this argument in an article that appeared in the journal Science in 2013:

Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind

Understanding others’ mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies. Yet little research has investigated what fosters this skill, which is known as Theory of Mind (ToM), in adults. We present five experiments showing that reading literary fiction led to better performance on tests of affective ToM (experiments 1 to 5) and cognitive ToM (experiments 4 and 5) compared with reading nonfiction (experiments 1), popular fiction (experiments 2 to 5), or nothing at all (experiments 2 and 5). Specifically, these results show that reading literary fiction temporarily enhances ToM. More broadly, they suggest that ToM may be influenced by engagement with works of art.

[kaditay]

023 Empathy Human Rights Literacy and Comics with John Schaidler and Lake of Tears by Comics Syllabus Images are at http://wp.me/p42KN3-HOA ( 16:45 ) Multiversity’s John Schaidler talks with us about empathy, literacy, and comics and graphic novels like “Spinning,” “Arab of the Future,” “American Born Chinese,” “Persepolis,” and “Nimona.” ( 1:24:26 ) Then we talk to John about his work in education and literacy, and how it leads to his part in the “Lake of Tears” comic project with writer Kwabena Ofei and artist Setor Fiadzigbey, in collaboration with Human Rights organization Challenging Heights. NEXT WEEK: Jason Shiga’s “Demon” (First Second) Welcome to the Comics Syllabus podcast, where we read widely and we dig deep. Your host Paul, a literacy researcher and English teacher, introduces curious readers to a range of current and classic comics, and then engages in closer discussion and analysis of particular comics works. First, in the introduction, ( 0:00 ) a shout out to “Plant Pathologist” for his Apple Podcasts review, and some of Paul’s comments on Bendis, Berganza, and podcast business. Mentioned: Elias Rosner’s “Thor” longform piece at Multiversity: http://ift.tt/2iEJEwa (Also, apologies that in comments about Bendis I misname Gabby Rivera as "Gabby Ramirez".... great job, Paul) On our General Ed segment (at 16:45 ) , we talk about “Empathy and Comics” with Multiversity’s John Schaidler ( http://ift.tt/2hxin20 ), discussing notions of how comics can help us build empathy and understanding of others and what that has to do with literacy. John and Paul discuss: Tillie Walden’s “Spinning” (First Second), Riad Sattouf’s “Arab of the Future” (Metropolitan Books), Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” (First Second), Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” (Pantheon), Noelle Stevenson’s “Nimona” (Harper Collins), and Honorable Mentions: Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do” (Pantheon), Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” Craig Thompson’s “Blankets,” and Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s “This One Summer.” Also mentioned, Kidd and Castano’s study in Science about Literary Fiction and Theory of Mind: http://ift.tt/1oiW7Hj Then our creator chat (at 46:01 ) is about John’s literacy education and comics life, culminating with the new “Lake of Tears” project based in Ghana. “Lake of Tears,” drawn by Setor Fiadzigbey and written by Kwabena Ofei, is edited by John and done in partnership with Challenging Heights, a human rights organization founded by James Kofi Annon. Lake of Tears Ghana: http://ift.tt/2hxrsrS And on Facebook: http://ift.tt/2jnJUUo Interview about Lake of Tears Ghana with Setor Fiadzigbey: http://ift.tt/2hxinz2 Challenging Heights, working to end child trafficking in Ghana: http://ift.tt/1JsJdek Subscribe and follow the Comics Syllabus podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Soundcloud, or copy this RSS feed to your podcatcher: http://ift.tt/2meGXCA or you can find archives for this podcast (previously named “Study Comics with Paul”) here: http://ift.tt/2qvRX44 Join the discussion on the Comics Syllabus Facebook page: http://ift.tt/2vK7hwg or Follow Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwoPlai or leave your comments here on the showpage. Thanks for listening!

[normanwlucas]

Cinematic references v. Literary Quotations

Some of us recall a time before the widespread use of cinematic references as shorthand for analogies or allegories about shared perceptions. Since the latter half of the twentieth century, film and video references have served more and more as quoted and shared references among people while bonding or relating emotional content as small talk.

That trend has increasingly crowded out the use of literary references which previously served some of the same purposes. Rarely now do we quote Dickens or Tolstoy in everyday conversation.  I posit that the literary references of years past served those purposes better, and accompanied other benefits not available to those who quote cinematic or video content in routine conversation. 

At least one recent study (Kidd and Castano, 2016) has shown some benefits of socialization which can stem from reading literary fiction. Readers gain greater levels of insight into interpersonal relationships by reading classic literary fiction. These “Theory of Mind” abilities help us perceive or imagine the reaction of one person to the actions or words of another, up to a seventh degree of separation.  Popular fiction with less character development appears to endow readers with less of these abilities than literature. 

No such gains have yet become attributed to viewing films or video. Nevertheless, more and more fiction becomes consumed each year through film and video. So much so, that cinematic references have overtaken literary references in almost all social circles I know personally.  Along with social gains, literary references derived from reading may also extend the attention span and focus of those who refer to literature rather than video fiction. Reading and associated memorization appear to intensify and improve focus in ways that passive consumption of fictional video material cannot.

Whether or not “Theory of Mind” abilities strengthen society, recent insights into emotional intelligence suggest that individuals with these abilities lead and succeed in work and with other organizations. How much of that success stems from improved relationship skills and how much from intensified focus we may never know. Nevertheless, I believe that the reading of literary fiction has had positive affects on individuals and society which have sharply declined as video has become the preferred mode for consuming fiction. Do yourself a favor, go read some Jane Austen.

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[kaditay]

023 Empathy Human Rights Literacy and Comics with John Schaidler and Lake of Tears by Comics Syllabus Images are at http://wp.me/p42KN3-HOA ( 16:45 ) Multiversity’s John Schaidler talks with us about empathy, literacy, and comics and graphic novels like “Spinning,” “Arab of the Future,” “American Born Chinese,” “Persepolis,” and “Nimona.” ( 1:24:26 ) Then we talk to John about his work in education and literacy, and how it leads to his part in the “Lake of Tears” comic project with writer Kwabena Ofei and artist Setor Fiadzigbey, in collaboration with Human Rights organization Challenging Heights. NEXT WEEK: Jason Shiga’s “Demon” (First Second) Welcome to the Comics Syllabus podcast, where we read widely and we dig deep. Your host Paul, a literacy researcher and English teacher, introduces curious readers to a range of current and classic comics, and then engages in closer discussion and analysis of particular comics works. First, in the introduction, ( 0:00 ) a shout out to “Plant Pathologist” for his Apple Podcasts review, and some of Paul’s comments on Bendis, Berganza, and podcast business. Mentioned: Elias Rosner’s “Thor” longform piece at Multiversity: http://ift.tt/2iEJEwa (Also, apologies that in comments about Bendis I misname Gabby Rivera as "Gabby Ramirez".... great job, Paul) On our General Ed segment (at 16:45 ) , we talk about “Empathy and Comics” with Multiversity’s John Schaidler ( http://ift.tt/2hxin20 ), discussing notions of how comics can help us build empathy and understanding of others and what that has to do with literacy. John and Paul discuss: Tillie Walden’s “Spinning” (First Second), Riad Sattouf’s “Arab of the Future” (Metropolitan Books), Gene Luen Yang’s “American Born Chinese” (First Second), Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis” (Pantheon), Noelle Stevenson’s “Nimona” (Harper Collins), and Honorable Mentions: Thi Bui’s “The Best We Could Do” (Pantheon), Alison Bechdel’s “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” Craig Thompson’s “Blankets,” and Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s “This One Summer.” Also mentioned, Kidd and Castano’s study in Science about Literary Fiction and Theory of Mind: http://ift.tt/1oiW7Hj Then our creator chat (at 46:01 ) is about John’s literacy education and comics life, culminating with the new “Lake of Tears” project based in Ghana. “Lake of Tears,” drawn by Setor Fiadzigbey and written by Kwabena Ofei, is edited by John and done in partnership with Challenging Heights, a human rights organization founded by James Kofi Annon. Lake of Tears Ghana: http://ift.tt/2hxrsrS And on Facebook: http://ift.tt/2jnJUUo Interview about Lake of Tears Ghana with Setor Fiadzigbey: http://ift.tt/2hxinz2 Challenging Heights, working to end child trafficking in Ghana: http://ift.tt/1JsJdek Subscribe and follow the Comics Syllabus podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Soundcloud, or copy this RSS feed to your podcatcher: http://ift.tt/2meGXCA or you can find archives for this podcast (previously named “Study Comics with Paul”) here: http://ift.tt/2qvRX44 Join the discussion on the Comics Syllabus Facebook page: http://ift.tt/2vK7hwg or Follow Paul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TwoPlai or leave your comments here on the showpage. Thanks for listening!