;)
Add to Cart $25.00
Item Information
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 6 x 9, 392 pages
ISBN: 978-1-933392-31-8
Old ISBN: 1-933392-31-2
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Release Date: 2007-09-06
Dazzle Gradually
Reflections on the Nature of Nature
Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan“This is a ripsnorting intellectual barnstorm of a book, a sort of chimeric hybrid of mental genes from Dorion Sagan, his genius mother Lynn Margulis, and his dead father Carl Sagan—surely one of the smartest families on the planet. The result is a remarkably coherent and blazingly original proposal for the next grand narrative of our civilization (now that we have pretty much burned out the Cartesian one).”
— Frederick Turner, author of Natural Classicism and The Culture of Hope
At the crossroads of philosophy and science, the sometimes-dry topics of evolution and ecology come alive in this new collection of essays—many never before anthologized. Learn how technology may be a sort of second nature, how the systemic human fungus Candida albicans can lead to cravings for carrot cake and beer, how the presence of life may be why there’s water on Earth, and many other fascinating facts.
The essay “Metametazoa” presents perspectives on biology in
a philosophical context, demonstrating how the intellectual librarian,
pornographer, and political agitator Georges Bataille was influenced by Russian
mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky and how this led to his notion of the absence
of meaning in the face of the sun—which later influenced Jacques Derrida,
thereby establishing a causal chain of influence from the hard sciences to
topics as abstract as deconstruction and postmodernism.
In “Spirochetes Awake” the bizarre connection between syphilis and genius in the life of Friedrich Nietzsche is traced. The astonishing similarities of the Acquired-Immune-Deficiency-Syndrome symptoms with those of chronic spirochete infection, it is argued, contrast sharply with the lack of evidence that "HIV is the cause of AIDS". Throughout these readings we are dazzled by the intimacy and necessity of relationships between us and our other planetmates. In our ignorance as “civilized” people we dismiss, disdain, and deny our kinship with the only productive life forms that sustain this living planet.
About the Authors
Lynn Margulis is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and received the Presidential Medal of Science in 1999. Among her many books are Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution; Symbiosis in Cell Evolution: Microbial Communities in the Archean and Proterozoic Eons; What Is Life?; What Is Sex?; Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins of Species (last three with Dorion Sagan); and Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth (with K. V. Schwartz). Margulis lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Dorion Sagan is author of numerous articles and sixteen books translated into eleven languages, including Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life (with Eric D. Schneider) and Up from Dragons: Evolution of Human Intelligence (with John Skoyles). He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Sciencewriters Books Imprint
With the publication of Dazzle Gradually Chelsea Green adds to the newly launched Sciencewriters Books, a new imprint to develop outstanding works of science for the general public. Sciencewriters Books is codirected by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, founders of Sciencewriters, an educational partnership devoted to advancing science through fantastic and informative books, videos, and other media (www.sciencewriters.org). Blending exciting writing with depth of knowledge and dedication to scientific integrity, Sciencewriters Books will publish new and established authors on cutting-edge topics that are key to our survival.