Comments on: Echo Maker Roundtable #2 http://www.edrants.com/echo-maker-roundtable-2/ a cultural website in ever-shifting standing Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:01:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Lee http://www.edrants.com/echo-maker-roundtable-2/comment-page-1/#comment-54760 Lee Wed, 18 Oct 2006 10:49:45 +0000 http://www.edrants.com/?p=4553#comment-54760 I don't think the 'popular science' problem has much to do with a first-person/third-person narrative, since a third-person narrator can surely have the same preoccupations, but rather the way Powers presents large chunks of 'popular science' partly as internal musings, partly as close narrative - not a 'seen before' problem, but one of how best to integrate scientific material into fiction. The closer the voice, the less convincing the musings as mimesis become. A good overview to the 'drill' Powers refers to in the above quote is provided by Douwe Draaisma's Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas About the Mind. I don’t think the ‘popular science’ problem has much to do with a first-person/third-person narrative, since a third-person narrator can surely have the same preoccupations, but rather the way Powers presents large chunks of ‘popular science’ partly as internal musings, partly as close narrative – not a ‘seen before’ problem, but one of how best to integrate scientific material into fiction. The closer the voice, the less convincing the musings as mimesis become.

A good overview to the ‘drill’ Powers refers to in the above quote is provided by Douwe Draaisma’s Metaphors of Memory: A History of Ideas About the Mind.

]]> By: Fausto http://www.edrants.com/echo-maker-roundtable-2/comment-page-1/#comment-54007 Fausto Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:21:23 +0000 http://www.edrants.com/?p=4553#comment-54007 I wrote down the same quote Jenny did, in order to review the book myself once I read it. It is indeed the defining moment of the book as far as neurology is concerned. Not having read Ramachandran and Sacks, it didn't spoil the pleasure of reading at all: on the contrary, a lot of things would have escaped me had Powers considered most of his readers were bound to have some sort of background in the field. Thanks for making me aware of the two authors. I wrote down the same quote Jenny did, in order to review the book myself once I read it. It is indeed the defining moment of the book as far as neurology is concerned.
Not having read Ramachandran and Sacks, it didn’t spoil the pleasure of reading at all: on the contrary, a lot of things would have escaped me had Powers considered most of his readers were bound to have some sort of background in the field.
Thanks for making me aware of the two authors.

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