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Journal ArticleDOI

Fact and artefact: poetry, science, and a few thoughts on Ian McEwan's Saturday

01 Dec 2005-Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (Taylor & Francis)-Vol. 30, Iss: 4, pp 331-340
TL;DR: In this article, the main arguments of Matthew Arnold (1822-88) and I. A. Richards (1893-1979) in their writings on the differences between science and poetry, before considering the imaginative exploration of such differences in Ian McEwan's recent novel Saturday.
Abstract: In this article I think through the kind of knowledge a poem constitutes. I summarise some of the main arguments of Matthew Arnold (1822–88) and I. A. Richards (1893–1979) in their writings on the differences between science and poetry, before considering the imaginative exploration of such differences in Ian McEwan's recent novel Saturday. McEwan uses Arnold's poem 'Dover Beach' as a focus in his novel, both thematically and in terms of plot. I go on to ask why this might be, suggesting that perpetuation of the divisions between poetry and science is ultimately unhelpful.
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DissertationDOI
11 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The writing of this thesis was supported by a Doctoral grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and I gratefully acknowledge that support here as mentioned in this paper, and a Mellon-Sawyer Risk Dissertation Fellowship from the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and HumanITIES (CRASSH) supported the completion of the thesis.
Abstract: The writing of this thesis was supported by a Doctoral grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and I gratefully acknowledge that support here. A Mellon-Sawyer Risk Dissertation Fellowship from the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) supported the completion of this thesis.

4 citations

Dissertation
07 May 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors offer readings of McEwan's Enduring Love, Saturday, and The Children Act to study the relationship between meaning and faith and suggest that meaning is only achievable in the context of belief in the irreducibility of ideas like love, beauty, and wonder.
Abstract: In this thesis, I offer readings of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, Saturday, and The Children Act to study the relationship between meaning and faith. This is an important question because some New Atheists have pointed to McEwan’s work as proof that meaning is possible in the absence of God. In this thesis I suggest that while McEwan makes a strong case for the possibility of meaning through aesthetic experiences, he also complicates meaning by suggesting that it is only achievable in the context of belief in the irreducibility of ideas like love, beauty, and wonder.

1 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken, and shows how an understanding of science enhances our wonder of the world as discussed by the authors, arguing that mysteries do not lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution is often more beautiful than the puzzle.
Abstract: A dazzling, passionate polemic against anti-science movements of all kinds Cover note: Each copy of the new edition of Unweaving the Rainbow features a unique wavelength pattern. No two covers are exactly alike. Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours. In this illuminating and provocative book, Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken, and shows how an understanding of science enhances our wonder of the world. He argues that mysteries do not lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution is often more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering even deeper mysteries. Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement on the human appetite for wonder. Cover note: Each copy of the new edition of Unweaving the Rainbow features a unique wavelength pattern. No two covers are exactly alike.

287 citations

Book
04 Feb 2000
TL;DR: Tiffany as mentioned in this paper traces the historical conjunction of matter and metaphor through a remarkable range of topics: automata in classical antiquity and the eighteenth century; Kepler's treatise on snowflakes; animal magnetism; fireworks and cloud-chamber photographs; the origins of the microscope as a philosophical toy and its bearing on the figure of the virtuoso.
Abstract: What begins with an unlikely collection of unrelated phenomena--mechanical dolls, weather, atoms, lyric poetry--blossoms in the course of Toy Medium into a subtle and persuasive meditation on one of Western philosophy's biggest puzzles: the relation of mind and matter. What is the role of the imagination in defining material substance? In a dazzling study of the poetics of materialist philosophy and of the materialism of lyric poetry, Daniel Tiffany traces the historical conjunction of matter and metaphor through a remarkable range of topics: automata in classical antiquity and the eighteenth century; Kepler's treatise on snowflakes; animal magnetism; fireworks and cloud-chamber photographs; the origins of the microscope as a philosophical toy and its bearing on the figure of the virtuoso. At critical junctures in modern Western culture, Tiffany finds uncanny parallels between the metaphorics of science and visions of material substance rooted in popular culture and lyric poetry. Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000

45 citations