It’s not an easy interface, some would say. Yet, on the one hand, science is a set of methods which can be used to examine everything. And, in fact, on so many levels, science has sought to unravel the workings of all aesthetics, including literature.
But that’s not all. It is rare to find a real scientist who has no love for reading. Not just the reading of scientific literature - a class of writings seemingly far removed from the core purpose of literature and that is poetry, and prose of a pleasurable kind. All excellence, at the end of the day, is infused with multiple excellences. And good science writing reads as good as any best selling piece of literature.
All people of quality in any walk of life are usually those who have quantitatively and qualitatively gulped down the best of human endeavours. And that is how excellence in output very naturally evolves.
I’m, at present, working with Madhu to train Indian scientists to write science in a way that is transparent and easy to read for, at least, academics or scientists in other fields. While I’ve no head for science, I find it pretty cool in its rigour and other pursuits. But I basically delight in fiction and verse. A world many would deem irreconcilably divorced from the realm of scientific endeavour.
And, yet, even fiction and verse have a method to their seeming madness and not a day goes by that a scientist somewhere is busy untangling that which constitutes good writing. Madhu uses his workshops to explore the art and science of writing and their role in constructing science writing.
Some years back I had started a Facebook Page - Writer Rites - to bring good literature to people. Using a Ray Bradbury ‘challenge’, I devoted myself to posting, every day, one short story, one poem and one bookish article. Usually, based around a theme.
There is a challenge I face, though. And it’s not only the imagined divide between literature and science. There is, also, the issue that science, in the attempts at ‘science popularisation’, among other things, has come to symbolise, for the layperson, various peculiar things - doomsday science fiction,
And, thus, I undertake to unearth fiction/poetry by scientists or fiction or poems that showcase the joys of scientific endeavour.
Here's a sample from November:
The Solitude of Prime Numbers, By Paulo Giordano
I’m, at present, working with Madhu to train Indian scientists to write science in a way that is transparent and easy to read for, at least, academics or scientists in other fields. While I’ve no head for science, I find it pretty cool in its rigour and other pursuits. But I basically delight in fiction and verse. A world many would deem irreconcilably divorced from the realm of scientific endeavour.
And, yet, even fiction and verse have a method to their seeming madness and not a day goes by that a scientist somewhere is busy untangling that which constitutes good writing. Madhu uses his workshops to explore the art and science of writing and their role in constructing science writing.
Some years back I had started a Facebook Page - Writer Rites - to bring good literature to people. Using a Ray Bradbury ‘challenge’, I devoted myself to posting, every day, one short story, one poem and one bookish article. Usually, based around a theme.
Increasingly, at least once a week, I’m seeking to bring science as a theme.
There is a challenge I face, though. And it’s not only the imagined divide between literature and science. There is, also, the issue that science, in the attempts at ‘science popularisation’, among other things, has come to symbolise, for the layperson, various peculiar things - doomsday science fiction,
peculiar animal behaviour from cute to grotesque and a disturbing role of doling out dos and don’ts that borders on exactly what religions do.
And, thus, I undertake to unearth fiction/poetry by scientists or fiction or poems that showcase the joys of scientific endeavour.
Here's a sample from November:
The Solitude of Prime Numbers, By Paulo Giordano
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