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Feb. 5th, 2007 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynSo, after owning it for a week or three, I've started reading H. G. Wells' cautionary novel The Food Of The Gods (And How It Came To Earth). The basic premise is that Victorian-era scientists discover a food additive that permits constant growth rather than punctuated-equilibrium growth models. According to the back cover synopsis it swiftly turns from "EEK GIANT ANIMALS NIGHT OF THE LEPUS NOOOOO" to "Granted amazing mental and physical powers by substances administered before their birth, the Children of the Atom'giants' struggle to find their way in a world that HATES AND FEARS them", but I haven't gotten that far yet. I haven't even gotten to the point of "ACK GIANT WASP".
I realise Wells was writing at a point in time when scientific procedure was often iffy, but the description of the Experimental Farm where the substance was first administered to chickens makes me want to tear my hair out. How could anybody be that lax in their protocols and controls and still call themselves a scientist and not a half-baked wizard wannabe? HOW? The main characters hired two of the worst incompetents in the country to run their farm because they couldn't do their experiments in their homes- seriously, we're talking people whom the author describes in terms of how awful their hygiene and how lazy their animal husbandry is- and it- it just- it- AAARGH! Was Victorian science really that badly run? I realise Wells is also trying to render a cautionary tale and express a fear of science as perceived by the general population, particularly science without considered consequence, but this reads like a Ron-bashing Potterverse fic, only there's no glorification of any of the other characters at the bashed characters' expense. Just "Lookit how awful these scientists are! Hur hur hur." I'm hoping he'll shift into a less heavy-handed mode as we start getting into the later details of the book, but...
Oh, and the other thing is that I keep waiting for words like 'Cyclopean' to pop up, because really- Victorian science + AH GOD WHY DID WE NOT THINK OF CONSEQUENCES WHYYYYYY = Cthulhu by gaslight. C'mon. You can't tell me that a link can't be made between Herakleiophorbia IV and the Colour Out Of Space, given how the animals on the affected farm in Colour Out Of Space are described. Granted, I haven't yet read how the Herakleiophorbia IV animals taste yet (that was a telling point in Colour), but still. This really makes me think of the line from the opening of The Call of Cthulhu:
The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Only, you know, Herakleiophorbia IV was manufactured by, used by, and tested by men who had no clue at all of the larger universe and no conception of what else might be influencing or interested in their work. But then that was H. G. Wells' point- that the 'scientists' he depicted suffered from an amazingly narrowed view of the world and completely forgot about the rest of existence outside their specialties of research. So it sort of fits, at least so far. We'll see.
I just hate cautionary tales where people get so spooked by what they're writing about that they go overly heavy-handed to make their point.
I realise Wells was writing at a point in time when scientific procedure was often iffy, but the description of the Experimental Farm where the substance was first administered to chickens makes me want to tear my hair out. How could anybody be that lax in their protocols and controls and still call themselves a scientist and not a half-baked wizard wannabe? HOW? The main characters hired two of the worst incompetents in the country to run their farm because they couldn't do their experiments in their homes- seriously, we're talking people whom the author describes in terms of how awful their hygiene and how lazy their animal husbandry is- and it- it just- it- AAARGH! Was Victorian science really that badly run? I realise Wells is also trying to render a cautionary tale and express a fear of science as perceived by the general population, particularly science without considered consequence, but this reads like a Ron-bashing Potterverse fic, only there's no glorification of any of the other characters at the bashed characters' expense. Just "Lookit how awful these scientists are! Hur hur hur." I'm hoping he'll shift into a less heavy-handed mode as we start getting into the later details of the book, but...
Oh, and the other thing is that I keep waiting for words like 'Cyclopean' to pop up, because really- Victorian science + AH GOD WHY DID WE NOT THINK OF CONSEQUENCES WHYYYYYY = Cthulhu by gaslight. C'mon. You can't tell me that a link can't be made between Herakleiophorbia IV and the Colour Out Of Space, given how the animals on the affected farm in Colour Out Of Space are described. Granted, I haven't yet read how the Herakleiophorbia IV animals taste yet (that was a telling point in Colour), but still. This really makes me think of the line from the opening of The Call of Cthulhu:
The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
Only, you know, Herakleiophorbia IV was manufactured by, used by, and tested by men who had no clue at all of the larger universe and no conception of what else might be influencing or interested in their work. But then that was H. G. Wells' point- that the 'scientists' he depicted suffered from an amazingly narrowed view of the world and completely forgot about the rest of existence outside their specialties of research. So it sort of fits, at least so far. We'll see.
I just hate cautionary tales where people get so spooked by what they're writing about that they go overly heavy-handed to make their point.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 03:38 pm (UTC)It's just... Jesus, people, what the hell is the matter with you that you can't maintain a reasonably rigorous procedure? I'm not even talking medicine! I'm just saying you need to isolate experimental factors! What the hell!
no subject
Date: 2007-02-05 05:43 pm (UTC)For serious. Sometimes I want to beat journals over the head with sticks. Just. OMG WHO GAVE THE GO AHEAD ON THIS RESEARCH?