THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610180055
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ
LENGTH: 71 lines
BACTERIA, BATS, rats and antelopes don't get the evolutionary respect they deserve. As for humans - yesterday's tiny sprouting on the ancient bush of life - we see the world in the most parochial of terms. Humanity fancies itself as standing at the pinnacle of Nature, testament and tribute to the inevitability of progress.
Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould says: Get over it.
``Look in the mirror,'' writes Gould in his new book, ``Full House: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin,'' ``and don't be tempted to equate transient domination with either intrinsic superiority or prospects for extended survival.''
In ``Full House,'' Gould takes us on yet another foray through the labyrinth of natural selection, where changing conditions shape and sharpen the form and function of life. Over the course of millions of years, weird and amazing creatures develop, flourish, spread over the globe and then perish, becoming footnotes in a fossil record whose vast breadth modern researchers are only beginning to appreciate.
In the book's introduction, Gould asserts: ``We must give up a conventional notion of human dominion, but we learn to cherish particulars, of which we are but one. . . . ``It is, indeed, a wonderful life within the full house of our planet's history of organic diversity.''
This book comes about a year after Gould, a self-described ``essay machine,'' released ``Dinosaur in a Haystack,'' a collection of 34 pieces of musings on everything from extinction to the movie ``Jurassic Park.'' It is the follow-up to a book he wrote in 1989 called ``Wonderful Life.''
Alas. Despite Gould's best intentions, ``Full House'' isn't well assembled. Gould can't seem to decide whether the book should be a textbook, a scientific paper, a collection of linked essays or a cogent storyline.
Gould squanders opportunities that could have led to a much more readable and compelling narrative. The excellent epilogue, for example, could have been adapted to kick off the book. And Gould's cursory report on his (successful) bout with a rare cancer could have been personalized, expanded and tied to the larger statistical and evolutionary points he ends up making.
Gould is often ponderous, occasionally pompous. He uses jargon that he sometimes defines and sometimes doesn't. There is rarely a parenthetical elaboration or aside that goes unexpressed (which, page after page, becomes remarkably tedious). Where was the editor brave enough - or, given Gould's erudition, smart enough - to have challenged this format?
Despite these stylistic flaws, the book's substance remains provocative and persuasive. Where Gould particularly succeeds is his explanation for the disappearance of .400 hitting from major league baseball, a section on bacteria, and concluding remarks about the nature and pace of human technological and cultural change. But be warned: Don't equate improvements in the human condition with ``progress'' in the natural world. Gould will have none of that, as he makes clear again and again.
``If progress is so damned good, why don't we see more of it?'' he writes. Later, Gould emphasizes the same point: ``If progress is so damned obvious, how shall this elusive notion be defined when ants wreck our picnics and bacteria take our lives?''
We might best approach this book as we approach a visit to someone possessed of an extensive wine collection. We might not be personally inclined to uncork a bottle, but if we sit back, relax and pay attention to the collector's minutiae, we'll begin to understand the necessary relationship between the vineyard and the vintage. MEMO: James Schultz is a science writer who lives in Williamsburg. ILLUSTRATION: BOOK REVIEW
``Full House: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin''
Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: Harmony Books. 244 pp.
Price: $25 by CNB