[PREV - TWO_CULTS]    [TOP]

GENTLY_SNORING_SNOW


                                     September 15, 2004

Once, I put some time in on 
reading various volumes of 
C.P. Snow's long series of      I had high hopes about
novels, jointly titled          Snow, him being a     
"Strangers and Brothers".       scientist turned      
                                novelist and all.     
                                                      
Unfortunately, the dominant characteristic of     
the "Strangers and Brothers" books is             
tediousness... they're boring in that peculiar    
way that the British can be so good at.           
                                                  
Just as an example: there's this                 
one character who's very bright,  
but in an edgy, unfocused sort of 
way, and rather than do what he                  
needs to do to get along and be               
Successful, he's indulging in                 
various more unconventional            
intellectual pursuits.  He gathers       Corrupting youth is a time honored 
a group of young undergrads around       intellectual tradition, going back 
him...                                   to Plato.                          
                                                                             
Then he gets himself In Trouble somehow,          And consider Ayn Rand 
by doing something Very Very Foolish.             and her Objectivists.    
 
Is he sleeping with one of the 
undergrads?  Did he organize some                      (Which would make an 
sort of free love orgy?  Were they                     excellent name for 
scheming about alliances with the                      a rock band: Randy and 
international communist conspiracy?                    the Objectivists.) 
 
   As I remember it, Snow 
   doesn't bother to make 
   this clear.                  We just don't talk             
                                about such things,             
                                you know.                      
                                                               
                                             What things?          
                                                                   
                                                  Sorry, not allowed
On the other                                      to tell you.         
hand, Snow's                                             
first "serious"                                   
novel was really     (What were his "unserious"      
quite good: "The     efforts?  Mystery novels, 
Search".             like "Death Under Sail".) 
                                      
  A nicely put together                                    
  tale about the tensions                                  Why did Snow 
  between human personal                                   switch from
  concerns and the grand                                   Science to 
  cooperative quest for                                    Literature?
  knowledge...                                                
                                                           He says it
     This one always makes it                              was after     
     high up anyone's list of                              a piece of   
     novels of science.                  What *is* that    reasearch     
                                         supposed to       that "went   
                                         mean?  Was he     wrong".       
                                         (or someone he               
                                         was close to)     
                                         nailed for                  
                                         faking data?      
                                                           
                                                          
                                                      
                                                      
                                                      
                                                     
--------
[NEXT - AGAINST_STUPIDITY]