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The Evolution of Scientific Writing-Was Darwin a Poet?
The
poet Marianne Moore once said, "Do the poet and scientist not work
analogously? Both are willing to waste effort. To be hard on
himself is one of the main strengths of each. Each is attentive to clues,
each must narrow the choice, must strive for precision." There is
often perceived to be an invariable boundary between the sciences and the
humanities. This boundary is found in the interdisciplinary space between
science and the humanities-a space that is perceived as an ever-widening gap.
However, as stated by Moore, this boundary is not as clear as society
presents it and if we take a closer look at both science and the humanities, we
will observe an intricate network that resembles more of a continuum rather
than a classification of two separate entities.
Darwin seems to acknowledge this continuum and himself becomes a
scientific poet or a poetic scientist, placing his work more along the middle
of this continuum. By doing so, Darwin introduces a new variety of
scientific writing into the pool of scientific texts, making science writing
more adaptive to the time period and the rapidly changing societal views.
Perhaps then, scientists
should attribute more than the just the development of the theory of evolution
to Darwin. Darwin was a revolutionary not only for his theory, but for his use
of literary and poetic elements in an attempt to present scientific information
in an approachable and agreeable manner that allowed for the evolution of
scientific text writing into what it is today.
Before attempting to analyze Darwin's writing and the evolutionary
trajectory towards modern scientific writing that it initiated, it is important
to first understand the public view of science during the 19th century
and the effect this may have had on Darwin's writing.
With the 19th century came numerous technological and
scientific advances as people began to manipulate the world around them with
the inventions such as electricity, the telephone and the railroad.
However, a manipulation of the world around us is always preceded by an
understanding of that world and position and purpose within it. Darwin's
attempt to grapple with this notion of an individual's position within the
realm of nature was a scary thought for society. As people are constantly
manipulating the world around them to fit their own needs, it then becomes
difficult and scary to comprehend that nature is a more powerful force than was
previously thought and perhaps, even more powerful than human intervention
itself. The notion that there may not exist a
higher power that all life can be attributed to, but rather, the nature that we
so intermittently try to manipulate is the higher power, is a disheartening
thought. We then begin to think that if an entity is strong enough to
produce us, than surely is strong enough to lead to our demise. Perhaps
then, creationism was a better acknowledged story during this time because it
eradicated this fear. A Victorian poem written shortly after the
publication of Darwin’s book, called Lay
of the Trilobite by May Kendall, effectively
expresses this public fear: (3)
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I wish our skulls were thicker,
I wish that Evolution could
Have stopped a little quicker;
For oh, it was a happy plight,
Of liberty and ease,
To be a simple Trilobite
In the Silurian seas!
I
wish our brains were not so good, |
The most prevalent literary technique used by Darwin throughout his text is the use of metaphors. Darwin's entire argument seems to take on the form of one large metaphor as he compares the theory of natural selection to the domestication of animals-something that his readers would be more familiar with. The most powerful metaphor used by Darwin is the use of a tree to describe the evolution of life throughout time. On page 176, Darwin states:
“The affinities of all the beings of the same class
have sometimes been represented by a great tree. The green and budding
twigs may represent existing species; and those
produced during former years may represent the long
succession of extinct species... as buds give rise by growth to fresh
buds....which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth,
and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramification.”
(1).
Such
metaphors as this are powerful in that they provide the reader with an
image-something tangible to relate Darwin's abstract image to. Darwin
takes an idea as threatening as natural selection and uses his metaphors to
present it as beautiful. Even if the reader is not able to suspend all
disbelief and trust in Darwin, his metaphors allow the reader to visualize
something that is more familiar to them and in so doing, using that as a comparison
to the larger idea that Darwin is explaining. As stated by Gillian Beer
in Darwin's Plot , "metaphors become part of a continuous
truth-discovering process...the power of metaphor in all kinds of narrative
depends precisely upon the “stretching to a radically new situation” that she
associates peculiarly with scientific metaphor"(1). These metaphors
allow the reader to step away from the scientific aspect of the text and read
the book for what it simply it-a piece of descriptive literature that is
analyzing observations. By allowing the reader to consider his text a
poetic, on-fiction piece, Darwin is allowing his reader to attribute
intentional fallacy to his text. As the metaphors allow the reader to
interpret the text as they wish, his text becomes more approachable and
agreeable with a reader of the particular time period. As On the Origin of Species is saturated
with metaphors and comparisons very similar to the tree of life, I think that
the use of metaphors is the most vital aspect of Darwin's text that contributed
to the evolution of scientific writing.
A number of
other poetic elements are used by Darwin throughout his text, making his
reading more approachable, including change in footing, tone and use of
rhetorical questions. Linguistic anthropologists find that one
manipulation of language that is used by speakers to avoid offending an
audience by an idea they are presenting is change in footing between the
speaker and the audience. Darwin usually speaks in the first person
plural when analyzing empirical evidence he has collected and only uses the
first person singular when he is specifically speaking about his own actions,
such as, "..many special facts which i have collected," or when he is
speaking about his own qualms, such as "I am well aware that there are on,
on this view, many cases of difficulty, some of which I am trying to
investigate." However, when analyzing his evidence, he always uses
"we", such as "we notice", or "we
understand"(2). Darwin's change in
footing when he is explaining his theory places himself and the reader on the
same level and makes him a more "humble" presenter, allowing us to
suspend disbelief for at least the time being and trust him.
Darwin also
uses change in tone, rhetorical questions and imagery abundantly throughout his
text. His change of tone is particularly apparent due to his abundant use
of exclamation marks. His rhetorical questions are also different than
the usual questions asked in scientific texts. Rather than simply asking
questions and providing an answer directly following the question, as is done
in many scientific texts, Darwin does not always provide us with the answer.
He really wants the reader to consider the questions that he was not able
to answer. In this way, he encourages introspection -what I consider a
vital aspect of poetry. Again, this places Darwin and the reader on the
same level and allows for suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, the use
of these poetic elements along with the abundant use of metaphors allows Darwin
to become a character of his own story. We are tempted to enter his
story; even if we trust it to be entirely fictional, and just for a second
consider the questions he asks us and become a part of the story as well.
The last poetic
element that Darwin uses in his text is detailed imagery. Although many may consider Darwin's use of detail as the signs of a good
empirical scientist, it is also possible to view Darwin's attention to detail
as an attempt at imagery. The abundant amount of detail that Darwin
provides his readers with allows us to join him in his thinking -we are able to
view these organisms that we may have never thought
twice about. The more detail that Darwin provides us with, the more real
the story becomes to us. Similar to imagery within a poem, the more
detailed an image that is provided to us, the more invested we become in the
poem and the more we can join the poet in his or her thinking.
It is evident
that Darwin used a number of poetic elements throughout his text; however, it
is not possible to yet make a claim about Darwin introducing a new variety of
scientific texts which led to the evolution of scientific writing, until we
examine a text from one of Darwin's contemporaries and a modern scientific
text. If we observe portions of Alfred Russell Wallace's text, Contributions to the Theory of Natural
Selection, we notice that Wallace's use of metaphors and imagery is
limited. He provides abundant detail, but when compared to Darwin, it is
only enough to prove his argument. He also uses rhetorical questions
throughout the text; however, he only uses them to move his argument along and
they are few and scattered (4).
However, when
comparing Darwin's text to a modern text about evolution, such as the Beak of
the Finch by Janathan Weiner, we see that the writing incorporates the numerous
poetic elements that are evident in On
The Origin of Species. The use of metaphor is particularly prevalent
throughout Weiner's text. On page 62, when describing natural selection,
Weiner states, "Darwinian competition is not only the clash of stag horns,
the gore on the jaws of lions, nature red in tooth and claws. Competition
can also be a silent race..."(5). Weiner
also changes his tone a great deal and even incorporates jokes into the text.
On page 43 he states, "Only God and Peter Grant can recognize
Darwin's finches"(5). Furthermore, Weiner uses an astonishing amount
of imagery, making the reader feel as if they are sitting next to Peter and
Rosemary Grant as they are observing the finches. What is most
interesting, however, is that although Weiner's text is sold under the
"science" category in bookstores, if one were to read his book with
no prior knowledge about evolution, this can very easily be considered a work
of fiction. Similar to Darwin's text, Weiner's use of poetic elements
places his book more along the middle of the science-humanities continuum,
making it difficult to assign it to either category.
Thus, it is
evident that Darwin does use numerous poetic elements in his text, making his
writing unique from any of his contemporaries, such as Wallace. Although
it is true that Darwin's writing was very different, we cannot make a
conclusive argument that Darwin's introduction of a new type of writing led to
the evolution of scientific writing into what we have today,
as we would need to examine multiple scientific texts written after Darwin's
work. However, it is possible to say that Darwin can be considered a
poet-after all, his grandfather Erasmus was a poet, himself. It is also
possible to conclude that Darwin's work did contribute to the modern writing of
scientific texts.
Bibliography
1) Beer, Gillian. Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Elliot and Nineteenth Century Fiction. N.Y.: Cambridge UP, 2000.
2) Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species. Ed. Joseph Carroll. New York: Broadview P, 2003.
3) O'Gorman, Francis, ed. Victorian Poetry : An Annotated Anthology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2004.
4) Wallace, Alfred R. Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1871.
5) Weiner, Jonathan. The Beak of the Finch : A Story of Evolution in Our Time. New York: Vintage, 1995.
Comments
Darwin: who's responsible and who gets to know?
Lots of interesting ideas is here. Among them is the notion that Darwin was troubling because the story suggests we are ourselves responsible for the the future and the related notion that Darwin was himself interesting in communicating not only with scientists but humans in general. The latter reminds me of troubles that Galileo got into several centures earlier. His story of the earth going around the sun was particularly troubling to the Catholic church because Galileo insisted on telling it in the vernacular rather than confining himself to writing in Latin, where it would be readable only by the highly educated.