Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who is one of my favorite books of all time. Geisel was a genius who managed to impress on his young target audience the importance of such hallowed values as the strong protecting the weak and the need to speak up when one's community is endangered. So I was delighted to find the article Dr. Suess meets Charles Darwin in today's National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=1562468 In the article, columnist Robert Fulford discusses a new book by University of Auckland English Professor Brian Boyd entitled On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction (Harvard University Press) which he describes as a "searching, free-wheeling book that sets forth a Darwinian view of narrative's place in human history".
I particularly like Fulford's description of how the meme of evolution and literature are interwined:
Boyd draws parallels between the theory of evolution and the work of artists - Homer, Dr. Seuss, whoever. Natural selection, motiveless and unconscious as it is, nevertheless follows certain patterns. Again and again it randomly sets in motion possible solutions to problems of survival, fails, then starts again, re-using whatever elements have proven valuable. "In time, it can create richer solutions to richer problems." Put that way, evolution sounds exactly like the work of a writer.
Richard Dawkins has been quoted as saying: "if there are other worlds elsewhere in the universe, I would conjecture they are governed by the same laws of natural selection". I think this is a safe bet.
Is there any chance that you might convert from the Charles Cheese House of Faith to the Dr. Seus Missionary? If so, then beware that your meat lover followers may abandon your cause.
ReplyDelete