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RE: Nabokov Bibliography; Nabokov and ScienceEDITOR's NOTE: Kurt Johnson is the co-author of the fascinating NABOKOV's BLUES, an account of VN's work in lepidoptery.
----- Original Message -----
From: Johnson, Kurt
To: 'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 12:12 PM
Subject: RE: Nabokov Bibliography; Nabokov and Science
Nabokov Bibliography; Nabokov and Science
Readers of my recent contribution to Nabokov's Studies will note my references to lepidopterist Bernard d'Abrera's strident creationist statements in various of his purported "scientific" works concerning Lepidoptera. Very recently, Nabokov and d'Abrera have become curiously connected in the professional scientific literature by some circumstance worthy of note here (and which may well stir some further controversy). Let me first say, regarding this subject, I would much rather have done a long post (typing out fully the relevant quotations) but "time" doesn't ever seem to allow for this. So, I will try to provide the information in a nutshell, at least with the relevant citations.
Recently, Dr. Arthur M. Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis (and a character in Nabokov's Blues) reviewed (in the NCSE REPORTS [I think that is National [Council? (something or other)] of Systematic Entomology Reports] (pardon that, I was only sent a tear page)) d'Abrera's recent book The Concise Atlas of Butterflies of the World [London, Hill House, 2001, (353 pp.)]. Shapiro notes d'Abrera's increasingly strident attacks on evolutionary theory and notes that in this new book d'Abrera presents a 5-page "creationist" manifesto, expanding from a similar one presented by him in 1998 in his Butterflies of Ceylon [Melbourne, Hill House, 1998].
Shapiro reports that d'Abrera purports to have discovered the "true nature of time, along with a new principle of nature" which d'Abrera calls "The Theorem/Law of Bio-Temporal Decay" and, of which, d'Abrera says it is a "new theorem of Time...that..Creation Time has existed in two successive states...Primordial Time and Post-Primordial Time, or Dynamical Time".... [Shapiro quotes some 260 words of the text beginning on p. 93 of The Concise Atlas....]. Mr. d'Abrera (a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society who publishes many of his books in collaboration with The Natural History Museum (London) books [controversially apparently by legal agreement prior to his tirades against evolution]) also promises to soon publish the mathematics of his new Theorem/Law..
However, then Shapiro continues with this surprise: "Sadly for d'Abrera, his discovery of the true nature of time is not new after all. The same discovery was in fact made by another lepidopterist-one who accepted evolution and built it into his scientific and literary work: Vladimir Nabokov". Shapiro follows by quoting about 150 words from Chapter 5 of Ada, p. 539 [New York, Vintage, 1969] so that the words can be seen side by side.
The similarity is more than striking, Nabokov using slightly different words but quite the same reasoning, "essential Time, straight or round...", "a primitive form of Time in which, say, the Past was not yet clearly differentiated from the Present...", "And what time did it take for Old Time to become Newton's?"..., "Pure Time, Perceptual Time, Tangible Time, Time free of content, context, and running commentary-- this is my time and theme" [Ada, loc. cit. p. 539].
Continues Shapiro "Same idea; different soul. What a pity there is no whimsy in d'Abrera who-like Reich-[Shapiro has previously in the review referred to Wilhelm Reich, psychiatrist and follower of Freud, who claimed to have discovered "orgone", a new fundamental energy in the universe] truly believes that he has proven something new about the universe and is obliged to promote his discovery with bombast. Poor d'Abrera: he could be having fun, instead of becoming a figure thereof."
Many thanks to Dr. Arthur Shapiro for his cross-critical knowledge of both evolutionary thought and Nabokov. I wonder what controversy this new "gem" will summon up.
Dr. Kurt Johnson
----- Original Message -----
From: Johnson, Kurt
To: 'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 12:12 PM
Subject: RE: Nabokov Bibliography; Nabokov and Science
Nabokov Bibliography; Nabokov and Science
Readers of my recent contribution to Nabokov's Studies will note my references to lepidopterist Bernard d'Abrera's strident creationist statements in various of his purported "scientific" works concerning Lepidoptera. Very recently, Nabokov and d'Abrera have become curiously connected in the professional scientific literature by some circumstance worthy of note here (and which may well stir some further controversy). Let me first say, regarding this subject, I would much rather have done a long post (typing out fully the relevant quotations) but "time" doesn't ever seem to allow for this. So, I will try to provide the information in a nutshell, at least with the relevant citations.
Recently, Dr. Arthur M. Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis (and a character in Nabokov's Blues) reviewed (in the NCSE REPORTS [I think that is National [Council? (something or other)] of Systematic Entomology Reports] (pardon that, I was only sent a tear page)) d'Abrera's recent book The Concise Atlas of Butterflies of the World [London, Hill House, 2001, (353 pp.)]. Shapiro notes d'Abrera's increasingly strident attacks on evolutionary theory and notes that in this new book d'Abrera presents a 5-page "creationist" manifesto, expanding from a similar one presented by him in 1998 in his Butterflies of Ceylon [Melbourne, Hill House, 1998].
Shapiro reports that d'Abrera purports to have discovered the "true nature of time, along with a new principle of nature" which d'Abrera calls "The Theorem/Law of Bio-Temporal Decay" and, of which, d'Abrera says it is a "new theorem of Time...that..Creation Time has existed in two successive states...Primordial Time and Post-Primordial Time, or Dynamical Time".... [Shapiro quotes some 260 words of the text beginning on p. 93 of The Concise Atlas....]. Mr. d'Abrera (a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society who publishes many of his books in collaboration with The Natural History Museum (London) books [controversially apparently by legal agreement prior to his tirades against evolution]) also promises to soon publish the mathematics of his new Theorem/Law..
However, then Shapiro continues with this surprise: "Sadly for d'Abrera, his discovery of the true nature of time is not new after all. The same discovery was in fact made by another lepidopterist-one who accepted evolution and built it into his scientific and literary work: Vladimir Nabokov". Shapiro follows by quoting about 150 words from Chapter 5 of Ada, p. 539 [New York, Vintage, 1969] so that the words can be seen side by side.
The similarity is more than striking, Nabokov using slightly different words but quite the same reasoning, "essential Time, straight or round...", "a primitive form of Time in which, say, the Past was not yet clearly differentiated from the Present...", "And what time did it take for Old Time to become Newton's?"..., "Pure Time, Perceptual Time, Tangible Time, Time free of content, context, and running commentary-- this is my time and theme" [Ada, loc. cit. p. 539].
Continues Shapiro "Same idea; different soul. What a pity there is no whimsy in d'Abrera who-like Reich-[Shapiro has previously in the review referred to Wilhelm Reich, psychiatrist and follower of Freud, who claimed to have discovered "orgone", a new fundamental energy in the universe] truly believes that he has proven something new about the universe and is obliged to promote his discovery with bombast. Poor d'Abrera: he could be having fun, instead of becoming a figure thereof."
Many thanks to Dr. Arthur Shapiro for his cross-critical knowledge of both evolutionary thought and Nabokov. I wonder what controversy this new "gem" will summon up.
Dr. Kurt Johnson