Today in class we talked about footprints and what they really mean. I guess I have never really thought about the impact footprints have and what they really stand for in our society. I mean how many times have you seen a poster with some inspirational quote genuinely placed on top of a background of footprints being washed away by the rolling tide? They are everywhere. We make them everyday.. and not just literally but figuratively too. Perhaps encountering something new for the first time or venturing to a place where you have never been before. But are footprints really noticed? I usually see a footprint, walk over it and do not even begin to think twice about it. Did the Lost World's scientific footprint really create and impact on our society? Did it start scientific controversy and question? Or was it the kind of footprint that just got rolled away with the approaching tides?
Personally, I'm not sure it has changed any kind of scientific reasoning, if any at all. I can't think of many that truly believe dinosaurs still exist in the deep corners of the Amazon. Instead of leaving a scientific footprint, The Lost World leaves more of an "entertaining" footprint. Call me a Debbie Downer, but I'm not sure Doyle's epic novel has the logical prowess to leave a footprint that would drastically affect they way our society thinks and acts towards science.
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I agree, I don't really think there was much a scientific impact. I think it was meant more as a model on how scientists should strive to be. In othe words, it was basically trying to show that scientists should be more open to new ideas. I don't think his idea of a "Lost World" was to be taken literally, and meant more as an example and that no matter how drastic or unbelievable an idea is, one should still be open to it. I think this idea not only applies to scientists, but all people in general.
ReplyDeleteI guess I really can’t call you a Debbie downer, but I’d have to call you a Rosamund Dalziell for trying to compare apples to oranges, no offence. By apples to oranges, I mean fiction to non-fiction. As far as I know, no work (or footprint) of scientific fiction has actually caused an impact upon the normal lives of the community nor the scientific community. It is better, I believe, for us to be able to appreciate the footprint called “The Lost World,” by Sir Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle for opening up a new world of improbable possibilities. I grew up in Michigan, where the most acrid of blizzards are quite the norm, and after such monstrosities, the city governments usually clear up most of the snow on the road. However, during some unfortunate winters, the blizzards have continued on for two weeks, to my recollection. When such misfortune had occurred, my parents just happened to be on the highway with myself in the car, caught in probably the very center of the snowstorm. As surprising it may sound, there was not another car in sight, but just a field of white to all four cardinal directions. All possible landmarks were buried under the deep snow, even the divide in the highway seemed to have disappeared. Because it is common in Michigan for them to not put up a wall between the oncoming traffic and the ongoing traffic, but to just use a ditch. To me, it seemed as though we were not even on the road, because even the divide between the road and the surrounding fields had been buried under the snow. However, I found my father driving still, as if nothing had happened. This was all thanks to the tire tracks made by the previous cars which have traversed the very same path. As insignificant as any tire track or footprint may be in normal times, when traveling into the unknown, any slightest bit of trace is appreciated. The very same tire tracks without the presence of snow would mean absolutely nothing. I believe this novel today is like the tire track on a snowless day. It is only because so many other novels trod the same path to clear up this new style of writing, that the first footprints left in this field by “The Lost World” have lost their appreciation.
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry for sounding quite awkward. I find myself writing in this fashion because I took a liking to the speech patterns of the professors from the novel.
I have to agree with Joey. I do think you're comparing apples to oranges. It would be one thing if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had set out to make a stance or claim in the scientific world, but he did not. I don't think he did anyways. He just found an interesting adventure story based on real life that he could spruce up and make a couple pennies off of by entertaining the common-folk. He was a writer, and that's what writers do. Though, I think it would be safe to say that he did leave enough of a "footprint" on the common-folk considering they made a movie about the Lost World in 1925. And, the movie made quite an impression for the film industry of the time. For the first time, dinosaurs were being brought back to life, and that's a pretty huge thing. Not to mention, the subsequent spin-offs from Michael Crichton and the Jurassic Park films. (I'm not saying that without Doyle there would be no Michael Crichton, but Doyle sure had a big impact on Crichton.) Furthermore, I don't think there are many people our age that would not know what Jurassic Park was. So, maybe he didn't leave a "footprint" on the scientific community, but he did leave a "footprint" in the hearts of many dreamers.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think with some of the themes he presented in his novel, the deeper meaning (one could say) about man and technological progress being more advanced than prehistoric times or advancing in some linearly progression of betterment is a very interesting "footprint" he left on me at least. And, I personally, think he did it in a very eloquent way. He never showed a definitive stance for whether we are indeed progressed further or not. One could use the Lost World to argue that he either does see it that way or does not. Both sides can be supported from the novel itself. Doyle was able to ask this interesting question and battle a scientific way of thinking by intriguing us to think about it for ourselves and presenting us with a mildly reasonable example of maybe why we shouldn't think we're so advanced. In a classroom full of learning scientists, we've all talked about it, and I don't think any of us have felt like Doyle was necessarily attacking scientists (like we all assumed Orwell was doing), which I find was very eloquent of him.
I agree with everyone that The Lost World is not the most influential novel but I believe that Doyle was able to get his certain themes across to his audience. His Sherlock Holmes stories are so ubiquitous in literary culture and with The Lost World, Doyle is able to get proffer up his ideas about science, scientific progress, etc. to readers who may have been fans of the Sherlock Holmes series.
ReplyDeleteLooking into the context of the novel, there was major scientific progress being made in the early twentieth century and as we've seen from the readings in class, there have been everything from positive to negative feedback on scientific progress and the scientific community. Doyle is able to make something truly unique about a story of scientific progress and unbelievable explorations. Although i do agree this novel is not a footprint in the whole literary community, I believe Doyle was able to reach his audience with the novel