Science And Literature — Olaf Stapledon, lecture notes

Original manuscript — sheet 1

Transcription

25
John of London Circle1
20.10.37
WEA Lit Soc .11.38
L’pl Univ. Lit’ Club. 14.12.38
Science and Literature
Aim of this Lecture:
Remote?
1  what effect has Science had on lit? (good & bad)
but —
2  what effect should it have?F25
assume S-
culture S-
3  what is Literature’s function in a Scientific Culture
word ugl
What Science is — modern natural science
observation, induction, abstraction
1. attitude & method
determinism  in some sense
2. facts & details
materialism  in some sense
θ case of Psychology
What Literature is: expression of thoughts & feelings in hwords.
culture —
xpression o-
econ’c crisesthree two kinds — apart from good & bad craft or art
①  Literature of escape: legitimate but dangerous
1  distracts attention from unpleasant reality
2  affords wish-fulfilment — cp. fairy story.
②  Literature of current needs: propaganda + comment(accepted values)
③  Literature of creative imagination
welcomes reality, & explores it
epitomizes reality in Symbols
reveals essential patterns
not formerly grasped
enhances sensibility & understanding
i e reveals new aspects of reality
and creates new human capacity

Original manuscript — sheet 2

Transcription

2
Impact of Science on Literature
examples and random comments
early examples
Dante: influenced by contemporary science
pre-Copernican astronomy - verisimilitude
Bacon: Trumpeter of a New Age - prophet of power
New Atlantis - Republic of Science
Milton: conflict of science & mythology
No direct
influence
of scienceRabelais: Gargantua - people lost in his mouth
gigantism realistically worked out
Swift: works out consequences of novel ideas - realism
Lilliput & Brobdidnag
Horses
Immortals
x Puts man in his place
Shelley: medley of science & Greece
Prometheus = science
promise of a New World
Wordsworth: alarmed, flies to perceived nature
x "botanizing on his mother's tomb"
abstraction, dissection, materialism
Samuel Butler: Erewhon
scientific analysis & "shuffling" - sickness & crime
machines take power - warning
prophet of evolution - Life Purpose
Meredith: Evolution again
contrast Wordsworth's nature - more objective
x "Warrior Horse" - small effects of our effort
Hardy: Two on a Tower - immensity - fear - fascination
Moon's disc
Europe - large scale vision of Man. heath bells
Jules VerneRosny: Un Autre Monde, les Xipehus etc
superimposed worlds
Flat Land: consequences of two-dimensional life
+ imaginative filling

Original manuscript — sheet 3

Transcription

3
Shaw:
evolutionist
but hostile to science
contemporary examplesmedicine
Wells: master
scientific melodrama: War of ð Worlds; ð Star; Time Machine
levitating drug; quick living
sheer mind-stretching: Country of ð Blind
prophet of scientific utopia: in all his work
J.D. BernalJ.B.S. Haldane: Possible Worlds; fall of moon; Venus
ð World ð Flesh ðabolition of pain, & re-instatement
ð DevilAldous Huxley: warns us — Brave New World.
live worldsconsequences of: mechanization
mass production — regimentation
mass suggestion — pillow phones
aimless industry: technocracy + robots
Lindsay: Voyage to Arcturus
rotating universe; strange scenery; yellow water.
human beings — glorified.
? O'Neil: Land Under England — influence of psychology
unplausible mechanism; subterranean light; fungus
food from upper earth
hypnotic people; symbol of Fascism
Underground RaceMurray Constantine: Proud Man — psychology again
an angel visits us — perfect disposition
self-tortured humans
I will unfrock myself
Hilton: Lost Horizon — psychological-mystical-scientific
J.C. Powys: Morwyn — hates science — scientists & sadists
faulty mechanism — meteor fall — gravity at centre
Bulwer Lytton: “Coming Race”Shiels: The Purple Cloud
gas cloud destroys all life
description of dead world
“Scientifiction”: Wonder Stories, Amazing Stories etc
subterranean races; intelligent reptiles; time;
crude human factor; with the subatomic life
Messac on Micromegas — fantasies of ð big & ð little
giants — heads too high; subatomic laws of life
× Quinzinzinzili; La Cité des Asphyxiés.
19

Original manuscript — sheet 4

Transcription

4
Upshot of ð foregoing examples —
Types of influence of science on literature
prophesy of wisdom and power
mechanical power
man's greatness & potentiality
revulsion against science ; prophesy of disaster
man's littleness & inconsequence
ruin of individuality
determinism
effects of industrialism deplored
materialism deplored
obsession of size & number
natural piety toward ð universe
for its aloofness
for its potentiality
atrophe of "man's proper study" — man
weakening of human interest
cult of ð marvelous
"realism"
objectivity
effect of science on literary style
unemotional, unrhetorical,
dry, concise,
abstract

Original manuscript — sheet 5

Transcription

1
Jules Verne
amount o Lit v. small
Wells     sci'c lit?   amaz'g stories.

Original manuscript — sheet 6

Transcription

5-
[ink blots]How Science should Benefit Literature
1A. Escape Literature (not necessarily bad, but minor)
new satisfactions — wonder, power, aloofness
2 ∧needs to be plausible
3B. Creative Literature: plausibility — else farcical
Current:1. Effect on General Creative Literature
mannerscience should keep it in touch with ð actual
matter"        " afford it new themes
"        "        " understanding of man
& of ð world
2. The Scientific Fantasy:
particular mind stretchings
must be abreast of exploration
3. Myth: symbol of ð pattern of a whole culture
cp. epic poem
must “open windows”
‖ cannot but assimilate science
but beware of passing fashions
Function of Literature in a Scientific Culture
A. suggestive speculation in terms of ð culture itself
B. criticism of ð culture, correction of ð specialists' fallacy
abstraction
materialism
determinism
magnitude
myopic detail
must stress ð higher human capacities—
which sciences cannot yet tackle
(& ∴ fails to notice)

Original manuscript — sheet 7

Transcription

* Style: unconventional, restrained
Soc’l sci + hist + phil
X wh s θ art o study Nat. — an escape?
Anthropology + astronomy → escape.
◤ Meredith & Hardy.
Sci cn’t describe θ mind
man = electrons & atoms — where s mind
un o spiritual?
X θ correlates needed.
necessity + requirement o wh?
X God whispers in θ ear of some
don’t under prophesy
don’t over-step θ mark
don’t be over-awed by any scientist, subtlety
[but some o θ ideas r right]
X we cn escape fm reality — in sanity
[emotional purge o sci — by writing]
X 1. Sci lacks mere rel’g’s bitterness.
2. Sci s dangerous
amount o gd done (some people’s) gtg awry
ii. N irresponsible &c any
X [Pessimism & optimism]
racial superiority
myth of Communism — one coming
θ facts o sci so contradictory & numerous9 humanities
N yet synthesized
Maugham — Sadism /
Shakespeare — whole o human nature
Priestley — Midnight on θ Desert
Scientists’ specialism
1000 yrs ago
1. sci — define
Xample o un sci’c lit.
2. θ sci’c drama.
If θ scist cd spk — ’ Jules Verne.
prophesy
prophesy
in hope