Sue Blackmore
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Seduced by science
Norman Mailer has said that writing a novel is like falling in love - and it's the same for us writers of non-fiction too.
Norman Mailer has released his first new novel in 10 years and he's been talking about writing. In an outrageous snub to us science writers he declared that writing a novel is like falling in love, but writing non-fiction isn't. You don't choose to write a novel; it just happens to you and you've no choice but to follow through. But writing non-fiction, he said, is straightforward. It's just a matter of gathering the material, deciding how long the book is going to be and who is going to publish it - easy!
I suppose he cannot imagine what it's like to write science, but I know. It is like falling love. You catch a glimpse, you become intrigued by some mystery, you take another look and before you know it you are in too deep to stop.
Some of my books were inspired by strange states of consciousness, and some by a long obsession with the mysteries of the mind. The Meme Machine forced itself on me during a long illness. As I lay in bed, hour after hour, month after month, ideas from Dawkins and Dennett tumbled in my head, mixed themselves up, straightened themselves out, and produced numerous moments of "aha ... " "what if ... " and "but ... " When I finally got well again the ideas forced me to write them down.
But what of other science writers? I decided to ask them and was rewarded with some wonderful comparisons - bringing up a child, finding money in the street, thinking, and - yes - falling in love.
Steven Pinker gets "seduced into science writing for many reasons, not all of them rational. I've written long stretches out of some internal compulsion to understand something for myself, or out of some sense of completeness or responsibility, or just out of some inexplicable obsession! Very much like love, yes."
Some find writing agonising (but can't love be like that too?). For Nicholas Humphrey it is "really difficult. More like bringing up a child!" For Martin Rees, "writing is always a pain" and Adam Hart-Davis described it as "a sequence of compulsions; I want to write; I want to tell the world; I manically research and tap away on trains and planes and even in the back of taxis; and I love it when I have finished." For Guy Claxton, writing is thinking. "I don't think out what I am going to say, and then put it down. I am continually surprised, sometimes delighted and occasionally appalled by what my fingers come up with."
The passion of these science writers was obvious. Matt Ridley, author of Genome, talked about "the first creature to read its own recipe in 4 billion years - why would I ever want to write about anything else?" and delights that "the giddy thrill of sharing a new truth till now unknown to the world is one that only science writers know."
Dan Wegner finds writing "like finding money in the street. You're just walking along and you look down and there's something shiny, and then something else, and then more over there!" And Simon Singh only writes about stories he's genuinely passionate about. "So when I suddenly come across a science story that captures my imagination it is a bit like falling in love. Even though I knew that a subject like cryptography would be fascinating, it was only with time that I really appreciated all the heroes and villains, and all the intricate details that adorn the world of codes and codebreaking."
Toughest on Mailer was Steve Jones, who said that "like all other novelists, he is a mere observer, retailing sex, drugs and rock and roll at second hand, however amorously he does the job. Scientists make science, while historians do not make history and biographers tend not to have much of a life."
It was Carl Sagan who wrote: "Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world." Richard Dawkins reminded me of this, and told me: "I couldn't put it better myself if I tried, so I won't. But I was delighted when a reviewer described Unweaving the Rainbow as a love letter to science."
So, Mr Mailer, you novelists can't have it all to yourself. We science writers can fall in love too.
my highlights / emphasis / edits
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