This is the first article in the entire collection of The Best American Science and Nature Writing where I could actually feel the author's passion for his subject, understand his message, and be able to explain it someone else. In other words, I actually really enjoyed this piece. Sure I didn't understand the names and descriptions of all of the microorganisms that ___ writes about, but I was able to really grasp his main message. Nature is beautiful. Its simplicity, its variety, the understated complexity of its internal structures, its constant yet low-mainentance availability are what make it so beautiful. Just when you think you've hit the bottom of the pond, you have seen and studied all that is out there, you dig a little bit through the sand and discover a new animalcule.
To some individuals, the fact that Smith feels that he has "trouble explaining my [his] satisfaction with the animalcules" might seem strange. After all, at the end of the day theyre all animals, theyre just really really small animals. What satisfaction is there to have? How could there possibly be any trouble in finding the apropriate explanation? I might be wrong in the attempt I am about to make in answering this question, but I think that this is how it works. I'll use an example. My mom buys a big tub of tollhouse chocolate chip cookie dough. She bakes a few cookies. I eat one or two and am satisfied because I have seen the big tub I know that there are plenty more and even when that tub runs out there is some supermarket somewhere that will have another one. I know what to expect because it is a delicious chocolate chip cookie, but each batch is never the same so I also am able to contendtedly anticipate what this exact batch will be like.
Smith says that, " for some reason i often feel calm and reassured afterward perhaps because I realize how much room there remains for more." He then goes on to talk about his paparazzi-like fascination with the lives and purposes of the animalcules. "Just one cell, this Euplotes, and barely one-tenth of a millimeter in length, but it scurries with purpose and aplomb in this world."
Smith loves Animalcules and I love chocolate chip cookies (and David Beckham although i love him for very differnt reasons) and I think that the reasons why we are fascinated with both subjects are relatively similar.
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I think that your analogy with your moms choclate chip cookies is a really good one. I like to comment on your blog because you always add in parts of your life that are pretty funny. I also think though that Smith is trying to show how unpredictable microscopic life is. I think that he finds joy in the fact that two people can look at the same thing and come up with very different findings. An example of this is when he talks about the hindguts.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on that this article was the most passionate in the entire volume. I thought it made reading much more enjoyable.
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