Bully for Brontosaurus
Haegel, Nancy M.
tells us, falsifies and thus diminishes the suffering of actual, decent people. If we make them heroes or saints we comfort ourselves at the cost of failing to honor them. And of course, we cannot...
...Moreover, the virtue of his own work does, to some extent at least, dispute his claim...
...GERALD O'COLLINS, SJ...
...Environmental concerns receive special attention...
...Both sexes are variants upon a single ground plan, elaborated in later embryology...
...When an understanding priest urges him to simply accept his humanity, Miles stalks out of the confessional...
...Our documentation of life's evolutionary tree records one of sci- ence's greatest triumphs, a profoundly lib- erating discovery...
...For Miles, though a weak man, who is sexually immature and confused in his affairs with two women--Margaret, an alcoholic who sleeps with Miles and cares for both him and his mother, and Diane, his department chairperson, who uses him for one ofher"flings"--is a very good man...
...The result is a rich and integrated col- lection of essays...
...Distraught on the night of her death, Miles goes home with a man met at a gay bar for a one-night, first-time fling...
...The author himself calls it the best of the five, in part because "I have become a better writer by monthly practice...
...The main themes will be familiar to those acquainted with Gould's work evolution (with pointed reminders of our historical and continuing tendency to misunderstand or misuse the theory), the oddities of nature, apparent trivia with a larger story to tell...
...Norton, $22.95,510 pp...
...Those interested in clitoral ripples will have to read the essay for themselves...
...Gould sets down and adheres to three rules for science writing for the public-- "no compromises with conceptual richness, no bypassing of ambi- guity or ignorance, removal of jargon, but no dumbing down of ideas...
...Should he have let poor Billy hold him rather than back off...
...Scientists must confine themselves, at least professionally, to ideas that can be tested, theories that can be "affirmed or denied," Gould reminds us...
...And of course, we cannot be on guard against evil if we do not acknowledge it...
...Intellectually disciplined passion shines through all the essays...
...The book consists of thirty-five essays...
...Echoing the prophet Micah, Gould believes that Homo sapiens should walk humbly on the earth...
...What's that you're reading...
...But we can surely eliminate our fragile selves--and our well-buffered earth might then breathe a metaphorical sigh of relief at the ultimate failure of an interesting but dangerous experiment in consciousness...
...Would that those same rules be applied to all public discourse on the major issues--political and ethical as well as technological, i i WEAK MAN, POWERFUL STORY AN HONORABLE PROFESSION John L'Henreux Viking, $19.95,403 pp...
...my friends --some students and teachers--ask...
...PBS's "Frontline" broadcast a documentary on a small town hysterical with daycare child abuse accu- sations...
...One of the things we ask of our best nov- elists is wisdom--an assurance that they not only see with more clarity than the rest "With verve and understated humor, Bawker critiques reduction- istic thinking about the relationship between religion and death...
...WILLIAM S. KURZ, S.J...
...in a game called Violation, they grab him, strip him, arouse him, pin him down, and shove a broom handle into his rectum...
...The correspondence, reflected in postscripts or subsequent essays, moves the author outside a world populated pri- marily by land snails (his favorite research topic) and Nobel Prize winners (his friends and colleagues...
...What's it about...
...The existence of a creator or his role in creation is not one of these...
...produced by a first-rate team of schoIars...
...These things may not have happened at their schools...
...The school's most popular teacher, the witty, idiosyncratic Miles Bannon, discov- ers the bleeding boy and, while the school administration covers up the scandal, befriends him, takes him jogging, and, inadvertently, wins from the boy a love neither can control...
...Gould has received thousands of letters over the years...
...Males and females are not separate entities, shaped independently by natural selection...
...Langer compares the oral testimonies he's studied against written accounts, and finds that though the latter convey the troth, the very fact that they have a structure and coherence means they don't accurately por- tray the Holocaust, because, as the oral tes- timony shows, there was no shape or mean- ing to what happened...
...This confusion is the central theme in an essay titled, "Justice Scalia's MisunderAFTER THE ABSOLUTE The Dialogical Future of Religious Reflection LEONARD SWIDLER A sweeping proposal for recasting aIl religious reflection in the face of our religiously plural world Paper $14.95 THE DISTANCING OF GOD The Ambiguity of Symbolism in History and Theology BERNARD d. COOKE Explores how Christianity's attempts to symbolize the presence of "God among us" have aetualiy diminished our awareness of the immediate presence of God, Cloth $24.95 FAITH'S FREEDOM A Classic Spirituality for Contemporary Christians LUKE T. JOHNSON "This tough-minded but enjoyable argument stands out from the crowd...
...In a moving remi- niscence about his experiences in the New 554: Commonweal York All City High School Chorus, Gould pays tribute to his director, Peter Wilhousky: "His only rule, tacit but pervasive, pro- claimed: 'No compromises.' ...As I worked with Wilhousky, I slowly personalized the dream that excellence in one activity might be extended to become the pattern, or at least the goal, of an actual life...
...Because of the similarity and repetition of themes, this is a book best savored in small bites, more enjoyable as a snack than a cover- to-cover meal...
...Gould loves to expose myths, myths associated with everything from the origins of baseball to the origins of life...
...I doubt that we can wreak much permanent havoc upon insects as a whole (whatever our power to destroy local populations and species...
...The title essay is classic Gould...
...Gould has always been ready to point out the tenuousness of human exis- tence in the "copiously branching bush" (his favorite metaphor for evolution) that describes the development of life on earth: "We certainly cannot wipe out bacteria (they have been the modal organisms on earth from the start, and probably shall be until the sun explodes...
...He is tolerant, compassionate, open, kind...
...1 ,,,;c,,," 13F~N P OAI I~DQ Pa standing," in which Gould comments on Scalia's dissenting vote in the 1987 case: "We (scientists) do not search for unattain- able ultimates...
...21.95 per volume, t~x) w)lume set $39.95 BETWEEN THE SEXES Foundations for a Christian Ethics of Sexuality LISA SOWLE CAHILL...
...LOUIS DUPRI~ Paper $12.95 REVELATION Vision of a Just World ELISABETH SCHUSSLER FIORENZA Charts a new' and provocative course in the interpretation of the book of Revelation-- conveying a vision of a liberated world...
...Newspaper reporters, including one from the Boston Globe, prowl the hallways interviewing students and faculty at will: What do you think of this Miles person...
...Innocent, human acts--he once complimented an athlete on his broad shoulders, he is unmarried at thir- ty-six, he likes to read love poems to his class--are twisted into evidence of his guilt...
...no per- son of substance could be unmoved by something so interesting...
...BERNARD d. COOKE, Paper $16.95 than fiction, even if truth can't always fulfill the self-serving aims of the myth makers...
...yet, the New York Times recently published an update on the story of high school football players in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, who penetrated a retarded girl with a broom handle and a small baseball bat...
...Stephen Jay Gould's gift as a science writer is that he himself embraces that dic- tum...
...For they both do and do not rec- ognize the world John L' Heureux's novel, An Honorable Profession, portrays...
...Programs for a Life of Ministry .9 Master of Divinity .9 Master of Theology .9 Master of Theological Studies .9 Licentiate in Sacred Theology .9 Sabbatical Renewal We also offer: .9 Distinguished Faculty .9 A Community of Faith .9 Diverse Student Body .9 Access to the nine schools of the Boston Theological Institute Financial Aid Information Available For more information contact: Rev...
...Amid stories of kiwi eggs, frogs that brood young in their stomachs, and the Voyager photo encounter with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (the "greatest technological and intellectual triumph of our century"), the author also comments on matters of current public debate...
...Early on, Gould asks the read- er to "Bear with me," and, on many occa- sions, one does have to make that commit- ment, as he unearths intriguing connections among seemingly unconnected events...
...He then comments on our current discussion con- cerning diversity and excellence and sug- gests that pluralism and excellence are attainable goals, "but only if we can recover, and fully embrace, Wilhousky's dictum: No compromises...
...Library Journal* This compelling book gives an overview of what is said about death in the major religious traditions and clears up many misconceptions of death and its relation to the origin of religion...
...J. Frank Devine, S J, Director of Admissions Weston School of Theology 3 Phillips Place, Department C1 Cambridge, MA 02138-3495 Telephone: (617) 492-1960 Fax: (617) 492-5833 Weston School of Theology A National Jesuit Theological Center in Cambridge, MA 27 September 1991:553 SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Roman Catholic Perspectives Edited by FRANCIS SCft{JSSLER FIORENZA and JOHN P. GALVIN Each chapter integrates relevant church traditions and teaching along with the most significant contemporary proposals into the discussion...
...It is the essays, not the book as a whole, to which readers respond...
...Line after line and page after page, Holocaust Testimonies batters us not only with the dreadful facts, but with the author's eloquent insistence that we "share this dissonance...
...a welcome contribution to current discussions of sexual morality" --JAMES M. GUSTAFSON Paper $8.95 THE DESCENT OF GOD Divine Suffering in History and Theology JOSEPH M. HALLMAN "...a fascinating study which confirms that there is as much support in the Fathers as in heterodox sources--though different--for the idea of a suffering God...
...Paper $8.95 TO PRAY AND TO LOVE Conversations on Prayer with the Early Church ROBERTA BONDI "Roberta Bondi's book on prayer is real, salt,, I~,,i...
...This bit of encouragement to those who practice the writer's craft is espe- cially welcome from Gould, the acknowl- edged master of the popular science essay...
...Gould's interaction with librarians, octogenarians, and former presidents (a letter from Jimmy Carter receives a lengthy reply) gives credence to his statement that "the 'perceptive and intelligent' layperson is no myth...
...And respond they do...
...And, virtually crippled with guilt: Did he "let" his mother die...
...We invite the collaborative participa- tion of lay and religious men and women, in the process of developing and enhancing their intellectual and practical skills in the service of today's Church...
...Nevertheless, he reads and learns, passing first-hand and other commentary on to us...
...And the New Orleans Times Picayune has broken still another story of a priest-university teacher having sex with and videotaping boys...
...And I tell them and they wince...
...That's the first chapter...
...postage stamp...
...Meanwhile, Miles's mother is dying slowly of Lou Gehrig's disease...
...He finds, as the saying goes, that truth is stranger DeepenCommitment Through Life-longLearning Participate with us in a dynamic community of faith and learning at Weston School of Theology, a national Jesuit theological center...
...His greatest intellectual scorn is reserved for creationists...
...Nancy M. Haegel .9 ully for Brontosaurus is D Stephen Jay Gould's fifth 4 volume of essays collectD ed from his monthly contributions to Natural History magazine...
...For the past twenty years, the Harvard pale- ontologist and author, most recently of A Wonderful Life, has been sharing his knowl- edge of evolution with the public in a style which has become uniquely his own...
...Those who perished in it will have no one to mourn them as individuals, or to directly bear witness...
...He would also, by the way, sense the excitement of evolution and its evidence...
...While celebrating the Supreme Court's 1987 decision striking down a Louisiana statute requiring equal time for "creation science," Gould calls attention to the continuing tendency of many, even among the highly educated, to err in their understanding of science and its aims...
...But anyone who reads Langer's book will heed the injunction I've heard from my earliest days, and that I believe all Jews--and good people of every heritage and religion--want broadcast and obeyed: Never forget, i THE QUESTIONS SCIENTISTS CAN ANSWER BULLY FOR BRONTOSAURUS Stephen Jay Gould W.W...
...THE MEANINGS OF DEATH John Bowker "Bowker's analysis of the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism uncovers much richer and more varied responses to the fact of death than the compensatory model allows...
...An essay with the intriguing title, "Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples," debunks another common fallacy, a false theory of evolution which requires that all structures have a purpose, past or present, After numerous requests from readers, Gould was compelled to address this question and, using the example of nipples in male mam- mals, puts it quickly to rest...
...If Justice Scalia heeded our definitions and our practices, he would understand why creationism cannot qualify as science...
...It begins with a discussion of stamps from Monaco, looks back to a crucial meeting in 1913 affecting the course of zoological naming, and concludes with commentary on a recent brouhaha about the brontosaurus on a U.S...
...Hardcover $27.95 Available at your local bookstore Cambridge University Press 27 September 1991:555...
...A gang of football players--a drunken, doped-up bunch known as the Roids because they pump themselves up on steroids--surround their slight, trembling manager, seventeen- year-old Billy Mack...
...Do you think he's gay...
...Raymond A. Schroth / t's the boys' locker room at Malburn High, one of those nice preppy public schools in the ring around Boston...
...When Billy's father, a coarse, heavy- drinking cop, becomes obsessed with the notion that Miles had seduced his son, the police begin an investigation, and gossip transforms Miles's life into a living hell...
...The quirky, funny English teacher to whom the class had dedicated the yearbook becomes a leper, a "fag...
...L'Heureux's dev- astating portrayal of this good man's humil- iation, particularly when the police strip him--first metaphorically, later literal- ly--naked with their questions and rum- mage through his home, is as painful a pas- sage as one will read in a long while...
...Soon--in the next decades--all the Holocaust survivors will be gone...
...Male mam- mals have nipples because females need them...
...One day on a jog, Billy suddenly embraces Miles passionately, and, when Miles fends him off, like Richard Cory in the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem they had read in class, Billy goes home and puts a bullet in his head...
...We have made this dis- covery by recognizing what can be answered and what must be left alone...
...Paper $9.95 TRINITY AND MYSTERY PETER DRILLING "...a major and challenging contribution to our ongoing study of Christian ministry...
Vol. 118 • September 1991 • No. 16
