Recent reading: bits and pieces
Aug. 12th, 2021 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeThe Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox by Stephen Jay Gould (2003). Subtitled Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities, which more or less explains what the book is about. The hedgehog and the fox come from a proverb which forms the central image of Gould's argument: to paraphrase, the fox uses its cunning to devise many strategies for evading its enemies, whereas the hedgehog concentrates all its effort into a single highly effective strategy (curling up into a ball, protected by its spines). Gould relates the animals to his ideal for a full intellectual life and culture: we need the diverse strategies of the fox, represented by the different and complementary approaches of the sciences and humanities, allied to the hedgehog's definitiveness of purpose in our intellectual aims. He develops this argument by exploring the history of conflict between the sciences and the humanities, showing how it has its roots in the emergence of modern science in the seventeenth century in a context dominated by a Renaissance humanism which was often hostile to the new approach of empirical science. He argues that the antagonism this situation created is no longer relevant in the modern world, and also argues against the modern scientific view—represented by his biologist colleague E. O. Wilson—that the humanities should be subsumed into the sciences in a sort of hierarchy; instead, the different intellectual traditions must work together on equal terms. I am as much in awe as ever of Gould's insight and erudition; his arguments are beautifully thought out and fascinating, and his prose is a pleasure to read. I especially appreciated his own particular scientist's perspective—as a palaeontologist, Gould is more aware of the historical aspects of science and the usefulness of more humanities-like approaches to understanding the world than perhaps a more reductive physicist (for example) might be, and brings this into his arguments very interestingly.
Very good stuff, and I really must read more of Gould's longer books. After this one I especially want to look at Rocks of Ages, about science and religion, another topic I trust him to have interesting and good thoughts on—but of course there are the more purely scientific books as well, and Full House looks particularly good.
A Pacifist's War by Frances Partridge (written 1939-45, published 1978). Another account of life in World War II, from another interesting perspective. Frances Partridge was a writer, a connection of the Bloomsbury Group and a principled pacifist, who lived during the war in the Wiltshire countryside with her husband and young son; her diary records their everyday life and her thoughts about the war and life in general. A lot of it is taken up by accounts of visits to and from Bloomsbury Group friends, which were not all that interesting (I found many of the people described kind of annoying). The parts I most enjoyed were Partridge's private reflections on and feelings about the events of the war, which presented a fascinating contrast to Mollie Panter-Downes's more public and conventional accounts: without being particularly closely involved in events, she records in detail the emotions of living through the war as someone who took seriously the idea of war as an evil in itself, while necessarily being very much invested in Britain winning. The conflict, emotional contradictions, anxiety and hopelessness she writes about are, I think, a very valuable perspective—pretty much, it was an awful time to be alive. Partridge's husband Ralph, who had become a pacifist after fighting in World War I, was called up, chose to register as a conscientious objector and actually had a hard time convincing the authorities that he was genuine in his beliefs—that process was also interesting to read about.
And a couple of shorter things:
I had missed out D. K. Broster's short story 'Mongst All Foes (1902) in my read-through, and was reminded of it now. It makes very interesting context for Flight of the Heron: not only was Broster already writing about the Jacobites more than twenty years before the novel, the story contains some very similar themes of friendship, honour, terrible dilemmas and noble tragedy, as well as some particular familiar elements like hurt/comfort, dramatic swordfights and more than a little homoeroticism. (Arguably more overt homoeroticism than FotH, actually—the narrator actually says at one point that he could never have loved a woman, because he loved his friend first). The writing style is also interesting—unlike most of Broster's writing, the story is in first person, and the style, while recognisable as Broster's own, is not yet the distinctive omniscient voice of the novels. It feels more consciously old-fashioned than most of her historical writing, as well—there's especially a lot of use of the 'had it been... it had been' subjunctive, a construction I think is very elegant if slightly confusing.
And speaking of '~friendship~', I've also been having a look through The Quorum: A Magazine of Friendship, whose single issue was published in 1920. Very interesting stuff, and wide-ranging—the contributions include homoerotic poetry, a review of a recent school story and an essay arguing that friendship across class boundaries is necessary to heal political conflict—and also interesting for the perspective it gives on period views of 'friendship' and types of relationship in general. The linked edition contains an introduction discussing the historical queer and literary context in more detail. I came across the magazine viasovay commenting on a discussion of historical attitudes to friendship and love on osprey_archer's journal, and the contributor most discussed there was Dorothy L. Sayers, whose poem 'Veronica' was probably my favourite thing in the magazine. Her book Unnatural Death seems to be especially relevant to this side of things in her writing—I bounced off the second Peter Wimsey book several years ago, but recent discussions have intrigued me, and I see that Unnatural Death is in fact the third book in the series, so I may well go back and give it a try now...
Finally, I have also read E. W. Hornung's Witching Hill! It is excellent—one of my favourites of his so far, I think—and I shall write up a proper review this weekend. :)
Very good stuff, and I really must read more of Gould's longer books. After this one I especially want to look at Rocks of Ages, about science and religion, another topic I trust him to have interesting and good thoughts on—but of course there are the more purely scientific books as well, and Full House looks particularly good.
A Pacifist's War by Frances Partridge (written 1939-45, published 1978). Another account of life in World War II, from another interesting perspective. Frances Partridge was a writer, a connection of the Bloomsbury Group and a principled pacifist, who lived during the war in the Wiltshire countryside with her husband and young son; her diary records their everyday life and her thoughts about the war and life in general. A lot of it is taken up by accounts of visits to and from Bloomsbury Group friends, which were not all that interesting (I found many of the people described kind of annoying). The parts I most enjoyed were Partridge's private reflections on and feelings about the events of the war, which presented a fascinating contrast to Mollie Panter-Downes's more public and conventional accounts: without being particularly closely involved in events, she records in detail the emotions of living through the war as someone who took seriously the idea of war as an evil in itself, while necessarily being very much invested in Britain winning. The conflict, emotional contradictions, anxiety and hopelessness she writes about are, I think, a very valuable perspective—pretty much, it was an awful time to be alive. Partridge's husband Ralph, who had become a pacifist after fighting in World War I, was called up, chose to register as a conscientious objector and actually had a hard time convincing the authorities that he was genuine in his beliefs—that process was also interesting to read about.
And a couple of shorter things:
I had missed out D. K. Broster's short story 'Mongst All Foes (1902) in my read-through, and was reminded of it now. It makes very interesting context for Flight of the Heron: not only was Broster already writing about the Jacobites more than twenty years before the novel, the story contains some very similar themes of friendship, honour, terrible dilemmas and noble tragedy, as well as some particular familiar elements like hurt/comfort, dramatic swordfights and more than a little homoeroticism. (Arguably more overt homoeroticism than FotH, actually—the narrator actually says at one point that he could never have loved a woman, because he loved his friend first). The writing style is also interesting—unlike most of Broster's writing, the story is in first person, and the style, while recognisable as Broster's own, is not yet the distinctive omniscient voice of the novels. It feels more consciously old-fashioned than most of her historical writing, as well—there's especially a lot of use of the 'had it been... it had been' subjunctive, a construction I think is very elegant if slightly confusing.
And speaking of '~friendship~', I've also been having a look through The Quorum: A Magazine of Friendship, whose single issue was published in 1920. Very interesting stuff, and wide-ranging—the contributions include homoerotic poetry, a review of a recent school story and an essay arguing that friendship across class boundaries is necessary to heal political conflict—and also interesting for the perspective it gives on period views of 'friendship' and types of relationship in general. The linked edition contains an introduction discussing the historical queer and literary context in more detail. I came across the magazine via
sovay commenting on a discussion of historical attitudes to friendship and love on osprey_archer's journal, and the contributor most discussed there was Dorothy L. Sayers, whose poem 'Veronica' was probably my favourite thing in the magazine. Her book Unnatural Death seems to be especially relevant to this side of things in her writing—I bounced off the second Peter Wimsey book several years ago, but recent discussions have intrigued me, and I see that Unnatural Death is in fact the third book in the series, so I may well go back and give it a try now...Finally, I have also read E. W. Hornung's Witching Hill! It is excellent—one of my favourites of his so far, I think—and I shall write up a proper review this weekend. :)
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Date: Aug. 12th, 2021 06:04 pm (UTC)I have the Broster short story open in a tab and am looking forward to it a lot.
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Date: Aug. 13th, 2021 04:19 pm (UTC)I have the Broster short story open in a tab and am looking forward to it a lot.
:D I hope you enjoy it!
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Date: Aug. 12th, 2021 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 13th, 2021 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 12th, 2021 10:00 pm (UTC)I can see why they made much of Sayers' poems in that journal, as the introduction notes, it's not her normal scene at all. The journal itself as you say was entertaining, the class boundary essay was my favourite bit. It made me think of what people in the 1920s would have done if they'd had blogs...
I adore Sayers and the Wimsey series and will happily chat about them if you do end up picking them up again :-)
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Date: Aug. 13th, 2021 04:25 pm (UTC)Oh, good—I'm sure I'll have things to say about Unnatural Death when I get round to it. :)
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Date: Aug. 12th, 2021 10:03 pm (UTC)(Arguably more overt homoeroticism than FotH, actually—the narrator actually says at one point that he could never have loved a woman, because he loved his friend first).
Ahhhh, imagine if she had kept that bit in TFOTH!!!! <3 But yes, there are so many similar little details, it's very cool! And I think it's interesting that Broster's style developed into something a bit more subtle-ish?... I mean, this story mentions love a couple of time, and while TFOTH doesn't as explicitely, as a reader I never doubt it... does that make sense?
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Date: Aug. 13th, 2021 04:30 pm (UTC)this story mentions love a couple of time, and while TFOTH doesn't as explicitely, as a reader I never doubt it... does that make sense?
That absolutely makes sense—and yes, you're right that FotH is just as much about love as this story, if it's not quite so blatant. It's much more complex emotionally as well, and I think more serious, which makes for a better relationship in an emotional sense... of course I love Keith and Ewen best, anyway. :)
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Date: Aug. 14th, 2021 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Aug. 15th, 2021 12:30 pm (UTC)