* This can be a particular mini-Problematica. Let’s name it Half 2.5 of my two-part essay on the origin of novel characters. (Listed here are Elements 1 and 2.) Problematica is written by Max Dresow…
Have you ever ever had the expertise of studying about one thing after which— unexpectedly— seeing it in all places? The phenomenon apparently has a reputation: the “Baader-Meinhof” phantasm, in reference to a West German militant communist group. A St. Paul resident, Terry Mullen, coined the time period in a letter to my native newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Apparently after studying in regards to the Baader-Meinhof (or Purple Military Faction) group, Mr. Mullen started noticing it in all places. A kind of domino principle for the world of memes. Or, if you happen to favor, right here’s Lewis Black:
The man subsequent door to you says, “There’s a bear shitting in all places!” You say, “Oh, that’s ridiculous,” and the following day the bear is following you round.
I had a Baader-Meinhof expertise yesterday. My private shitting bear was Mivart’s dilemma— not one thing I simply discovered about, however one thing I simply wrote about. Right here’s what occurred. Whereas I used to be loitering exterior my two-year-old’s room, stealing a second of peace, I pulled a guide from my bookshelf. It was an essay assortment referred to as Doable Worlds by J. B. S. Haldane, printed in 1927. One essay was titled “Darwinism to-day,” the identical title as Vernon Kellogg’s 1907 guide, which I wrote about in my final publish. Curious, I started to learn. It begins with a Haldane staple— utilizing biology to ridicule the argument from design:
On common, each vertebrate harbours some dozens of parasitic worms, whose distant ancestors have been free-living. Blake requested considerably doubtfully of the tiger: ‘Did he who made the lamb make thee?’ The identical query applies with equal pressure to the tapeworm, and an affirmative reply would clearly postulate a creator whose sense of values wouldn’t commend him to the admiration of humanity. (Haldane 1927, 29)*
[* Everyone has heard the story about Haldane and the theologian. The theologian asks Haldane what the biologist can say about the attributes of the Creator from a broad knowledge of his works. Haldane replies that He must have “an inordinate fondness for beetles.” Stephen Jay Gould tracks down the origins of this story in an essay, “A special fondness for beetles,” reprinted in Dinosaur in a Haystack.]