Archive for November, 2009

Why Darwin Matters by Michael Shermer

ISBN: 0805081216
224 pages
published in 2006.

I picked this up from my university library last week to have something quick on the subject to read since I’ve been really hungry lately for more information on the subject. There were some good and bad things about this. In my particular case, this book didn’t really present anything to me that I didn’t already know as it was sort of an introductory book on the topic. However, Shermer’s writing is clear, concise and easy to understand, and I probably would recommend this book to someone that was just starting to have questions on the topic.

The book is very anti-Intelligent Design, as is clear from the subtitle on the cover (“The Case Against Intelligent Design”) and it’s good at refuting the standard points that ID proponents tend to launch at evolutionists. Shermer lines them up and knocks them down, and his logic is very neatly fleshed out and easy to grasp. However, this is all regurgitated knowledge from other writers and he presents very little of his own ideas into the text. Once again, though, this is a useful way to approach the subject for a beginner, so I can understand his reasoning.

The only other thing that bothered me was, despite the fact that he is very against teaching ID in schools, he is a little too apologetic towards religion as institution. There was something very Gould about his approach towards science and religion as separate spheres, and while I’m not sure that’s the impression Shermer wanted to give, there was something about his writing that suggested he was not entirely comfortable flat-out dismissing spirituality. I have mixed feelings about this myself, but I don’t think this is something you can sort of hem-haw around about (to borrow an expression from my father).

All-in-all, though, however redundant the book can be when lined up against all of the other Evolution vs. Intelligent Design books on the shelf, it is a decent title in its genre and a gentle approach to the topic for new readers.

Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys

ISBN: 0393311465
192 pages
published in 1934.

Hate to cheat you guys out of a real review, but I’m super busy. Here’s a brief synopsis from Wiki:

Voyage in the Dark is a 1934 novel by Jean Rhys. It tells of the semi-tragic descent of its young protagonist Anna Morgan who is moved from her Caribbean home to England by an ‘evil’ stepmother. Once she leaves school, and she is cut off financially by the stepmother, Hester, Anna tries to support herself as a chorus girl, then falls in love with a man named Walter who briefly supports her but won’t marry her. When he leaves her, she begins a downward spiral. Like William Faulkner’s The Wild Palms, the novel features a botched illegal abortion. Rhys’ original version ended with the death of Anna from this abortion (see Bonnie Kime Scott’s The Gender of Modernism for the original ending), but she revised it before publication to the more ambivalent and modernist ending in which Anna survives to return to her now-shattered life “all over again.” The novel is rich in Caribbean folklore and tradition and post-colonial identity politics, including black self-identification by its white protagonist.

I loved it. It was distressing, but so beautifully written. It was part of the required reading for my Modern British Literature course this semester, and I am so grateful that it was. I found a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea at the used book store last week whilst I was in the middle of reading Voyage in the Dark so I’m very excited about starting that, as well (whenever I get a moment to spare! maybe over break.)