Wolfe's Lamarkism

Mark Millman · 05 Jun 1998, 17:53 · from urth-v0013.mbox · original

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From: "Mark Millman"<Mark_Millman at hmco.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Wolfe's Lamarkism
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 17:53:39
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Craig Christensen wrote:

> Mark Millman,
>
> Thank-you for the very clear explanation of Lamarkism.
> I thought I had a passing familiarity with it, but I confess
> I was lumping it together with Lysenkoism.  I recall the
> story of the mice clearly.
>
> But, what I was looking for were specific stories where
> Wolfe discusses or defends his belief in Lamarkism.
> Can you help me out here?
>
> BTW, have you read DARWIN'S CENTURY by Loren
> Eiseley?  He is another favorite author of mine.  In this
> book he discusses all of the discoveries of others that
> Darwin built his own theory upon.  I enjoyed it, but less
> than his collections of essays.

As far as I can recall there are no stories in which Wolfe explicitly
discusses evolution at all (and now, no doubt, someone will post
the titles of several), though he perhaps comes closest in "The
Hero as Werwolf", "Tracking Song", and "Peritonitis".  I do recall
his having discussed the issue in the interview he granted to
James B. Jordan (you can find it on Paul Duggan's Wolfe Web
site at http://world.std.com/~pduggan/gwjbj1.html#sci; the link is
directly to the part of the interview in which he discusses Lamarck)
and, briefly, on page 15 of the Science Fiction Book Club edition
of _The Castle of the Otter_.

I haven't read _Darwin's Century_, but I'll look for it now.

Mark Millman

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