Re: Gould

[Jeff Bartlett <jabartle@unity.ncsu.edu>]

Yes, a quick assent to Ralph's views of SJG and his enormous volumes of
well written if possibly overwritten prose.  And who knows better of SJG's
quantitative work than the redoubtable morphometrist?  

To make it in popular literature, Gould has only to surmount a very low
bar of writing standards.  And yet he suffuses all with rich metaphor and
literary allusion far in front of most.  It may be prolix, and border on
the outrageous, perhaps even a bit self-aggrandizing (who isn't now - I
should recommend my advisor Dale Russell).  Witness in his late book
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms:  Count how many times
he uses "maximal".  But for all the inflation in writing, Gould has in
fact written to engage readers of all stripes, in popular and scholarly
publications.  His arguments are interesting to read, period.  How much
bald prose is there now published without any useful metaphorical device
or departure from sterile passive voice?

Would that we all possessed skills enough to write in richer and more
persuasive prose, not merely as decoration but as writing with content and
style.

:::::::::::::::::::::
Jeffrey Alan Bartlett
Paleoecology Group
North Carolina State University
jabartle@unity.ncsu.edu
North Carolina State Museum
(919)233-8214