ISBN: 9781933392318 Year Added to Catalog: 2007 Book Format: Paperback Number of Pages: 6 x 9, 392 pages Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Old ISBN: 1933392312 Release Date: May 16, 2007
??In Dazzle Gradually
we have one of the great iconoclastic biologists of our time and her son, both
excellent writers, firing ideas at us, reflecting, asking questions, making
connections. ??Truth??s superb surprise?? is their gift to us.?
??Roald Hoffman, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, from the
Foreword
??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
??Brilliant and fascinating, Dazzle Gradually unrolls for us the scroll of life on earth. These
essays show us the intricate complexities of microbes; an atmosphere that
performs self-maintenance; our own minds. Margulis and Sagan do not blink at
the big questions or hard answers, and their writing is lively, precise,
entertaining, and provocative, their passion for science everywhere evident and
persuasive. Anyone who has ever wondered where we came from, who we are, and
where we may be headed will delight in this extraordinarily exciting book.?
??-Kelly Cherry, author of Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems
??Deeply personal, humorous, and brilliant?reading Dazzle is like journeying into two of
the most original and creative scientific minds of our time. Lynn Margulis and
Dorion Sagan discuss their most revelatory and complex ideas in concise essays
with accessible language, making this book a must-read primer to foraying their
broad academic and intellectual interests.?
??-Alan Berger, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture,
HarvardUniversityGraduateSchool of Design
??In Dazzle Gradually,
Margulis and Sagan effectively tap into the cultural waveform through a series
of original science essays and provocative ideas to reveal why we are living in
an open social networked world, and why survival of the fittest no longer means
fit to kill, but fitting in with the rest of life. Simply said, Darwin is left in the
dust.?
??Margulis and Sagan continue to dazzle??much like the natural
world they are describing.This is a
wonderful collection of essays that breaks down false barriers and challenges
the reader to rethink the very concepts of life, self, and change.Among the false dualisms that the authors
attack is the very nature of writing itself.Written in neither dense, technical-academic prose nor some mere
watered-down, populist version of science, Margulis and Sagan maintain their
reputation for being able to bring the best of both worlds together??and in so
doing show us that the dichotomy is to no one??s advantage.Indeed, in many ways Dazzle Gradually is
their finest work, both in that it brings together some of the authors??
greatest contributions to and speculations on science, and in that they
seamlessly move from autobiography to nature, from the personal to the
transpersonal, with subtle humor, clear examples, and revolutionary thinking.
Dazzle Gradually not only eloquently states the queries but has the courage to
offer arguments that point toward answers as well.It is a remarkable book.A book that might just make a move toward
resolving some of the big questions: questions concerning the birth of life,
the origin of sex, the rise of death, and everything in between.Even raccoons in space.?
??H. Peter Steeves, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy
at DePaulUniversity, and author of The Things Themselves
??Enlightening, argumentative, and passionate reflections
from a lifetime of debate about science, sex, and society. A fine personal
summing up by mother and son??two of the finest creative thinkers and writers in
the literature.?
?? Greg Bear
??Here is a certain slant of light, a profound exploration
exposing false hierarchies and convenient dualisms and illuminating the
continuities of biology, literature, physics, and philosophy. Margulis and
Sagan make a dazzling team--their science allows us to glimpse, to begin to
understand, a universe of unseen worlds.?
?? Joseph Coulson, author of The Vanishing Moon and Of
Song and Water. Novelist, playwright, and coeditor of The Nature of Life: Readings in Biology.
??Dazzle Gradually
sparkles with insight and wit as it delves into a host of topics in biology and
ecology, linking them in new ways that highlight scientific understanding and
speculation at their enjoyable best.?
?? Donald Goldsmith is the co-author of Origins:
Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution and The Search for Life in the Universe
??This book is a thrilling account of deep insights into life
and its evolution, and will likely influence fundamental research in biology
and environmental sciences.?
??Zoltán Toroczkai, Associate Professor of Physics,
University of Notre Dame
??Biological phenomena are usually viewed in terms of plants
and animals. Margulis and Sagan look at them from their extremes: Gaia??the
living system of the Earth as a whole??and bacteria. Both Gaia and bacteria
dazzle the reader accustomed to conventional fare. It is re-viewing of this
kind that paves the way for real advance in science.?
??John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor Emeritus, ClaremontSchool
of Theology
??Dazzle Gradually
is like an air-raid siren, calling for science to reinvent itself for the 21st
century; to look beyond the categorization and characterization of things and
the traditional view of nature into a highly networked and involved view. In
particular, it advises us to descend from our throne of delusion and realize
that humanity (with all its technological and cultural trappings), is
intimately and inextricably immersed in this grand system along with the
protoctists and bacteria, plants and animals, the living world that surrounds
us. Our very identity??our minds and souls??are a result of the evolving
experiment we call nature. Dazzle
Gradually is like opening the door to a vast and brilliant garden, which
slowly assimilates us as we become part of nature??s teeming, humming, growing,
and unendingly magical realm.?
??Stephen Miles Uzzo, Ph.D., New York Hall of Science
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