I Have Landed
Stephen Jay Gould
"Well, I Have Landed, I think the end of a beginning in natural history, is the final of ten sets of essays, most of them published in Natural History magazine over a 30-year period or so by Stephen J. Gould; and he continues to be interesting, some of the essays more than others.
For me, the interesting question about whether to read this book is whether you read it even if you haven't read any of his other essays, and I'm conflicted about that. I'd love to be able to say, "Oh, yeah! Great way in to start with the one to most recent." He ends with these short, reflective bits about the 9/11 incidents and the immediate aftermath of it. He's also got a section in there of some briefer pieces about the - yeah, the Kansas situation, the Kansas School Board situation on evolution and creationism. I guess if I had to say to someone where to start with Stephen J. Gould, maybe this one; and allow yourself to browse, but also get the first one, Ever Since Darwin.
I think for me in thinking back through I Have Landed and thinking about the range of topics that he deals with, the most pertinent thing to bring up is the religion and faith tension. Various things throughout the book will touch you and will make sense for you and help you to deal with the fact that life is really, really complex, that intellectual history is as complex as it seems.
To make your way through some of the sentences and paragraphs - especially when you do realize that he's being repetitive for the sake of emphasis, that he's restating, he's making sure you don't miss it - it can become rather tiresome and you can reach the ends of several paragraphs 2/3, 3/4 of the way through a given essay usually and feel that you just wish you had known to skip two pages because you weren't gonna miss anything. You already knew where he had gone.
Four stars feels about right. The book is rich and a little longer than it needs to be."
RSS feed 
