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I probably should have mentioned in my brief self introduction that I'm an Anthropology major. That being said, I was shocked to realize I had never actually read On the Origin of Species (...etc.). I realized that we had talked about it, I had read about it in text books, read other people's take on it, but had never actually read it myself. The same can be said for the poem, "O Captain!". I was the person who sort of shouted out in class, "You learned it in 6th grade," in response to how some people knew it was about Lincoln, but I never actually read it in 6th grade. It's just one of those "American classics" that had somehow snuck into my subconscious. For all I know, I saw it on an episode of Wishbone (a great show, if you haven't seen it).

What surprised me most about Darwin's work is how many other people he cites. Essentially what he does in his book is connect the dots between the work of a lot of different people (what many scientists do), and test it out with the same population of finches over a long period of time to see if his observations are reasonably consistent. Yet, it is his name we remember when discussing or explaining the evolution of evolution. Darwin doesn't even use the word evolution. He is merely relating a theory on the origin of species, (thus his rather lengthy title).

Why do we not think of his contributing contemporaries when we think of terms like "survival of the fittest" and "evolution"? What made Darwin a more enduring cultural memory? Was it because his grandfather was famous? Was it because of his impressive beard? (Honestly, I think it might be the beard. I mean, look at it!) I hope we can talk about this in class.