Edward Ricketts
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ...
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Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends—artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures—including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts's mind “had no horizons.” This collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts's scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts's unique, holistic approach to science, include “Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip,” the basic manuscript for Steinbeck's and Ricketts's “Log from the Sea of Cortez”; the essays “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” and “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry”; several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. This critical biography, with a number of rare photographs, offers a new, detailed view of Ricketts's life.Less
Trailblazing marine biologist, visionary conservationist, deep ecology philosopher, Edward F. Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends—artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures—including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts's mind “had no horizons.” This collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts's scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts's unique, holistic approach to science, include “Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip,” the basic manuscript for Steinbeck's and Ricketts's “Log from the Sea of Cortez”; the essays “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” and “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry”; several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. This critical biography, with a number of rare photographs, offers a new, detailed view of Ricketts's life.
Katharine A. Rodger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Edward F. Ricketts's passion for zoology began when he was a child in urban Chicago during the first years of the twentieth century, well before he was a fledgling collector on the shores of Monterey ...
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Edward F. Ricketts's passion for zoology began when he was a child in urban Chicago during the first years of the twentieth century, well before he was a fledgling collector on the shores of Monterey Bay in California in the 1920s. In his seminal text, Between Pacific Tides, Ricketts grouped animals by five primary intertidal habitats: rocky shores, sandy beaches, sand flats, mud flats, and wharf pilings. Ricketts also collected specimens to add to his Pacific Biological Laboratories stock and to further develop his theories on the effects of wave shock on the distribution of marine animals. In the decade before his seminal trip to the Gulf of California, he had begun to piece together the concept in a series of three philosophical essays that articulated the components of his holistic worldview: “The Philosophy of Breaking Through,” “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry,” and “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking.” John Steinbeck included a version of the latter essay in the log portion of Sea of Cortez, which he composed in mid-1941.Less
Edward F. Ricketts's passion for zoology began when he was a child in urban Chicago during the first years of the twentieth century, well before he was a fledgling collector on the shores of Monterey Bay in California in the 1920s. In his seminal text, Between Pacific Tides, Ricketts grouped animals by five primary intertidal habitats: rocky shores, sandy beaches, sand flats, mud flats, and wharf pilings. Ricketts also collected specimens to add to his Pacific Biological Laboratories stock and to further develop his theories on the effects of wave shock on the distribution of marine animals. In the decade before his seminal trip to the Gulf of California, he had begun to piece together the concept in a series of three philosophical essays that articulated the components of his holistic worldview: “The Philosophy of Breaking Through,” “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry,” and “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking.” John Steinbeck included a version of the latter essay in the log portion of Sea of Cortez, which he composed in mid-1941.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846312120
- eISBN:
- 9781846315190
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846315190.011
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter focuses on the works of John Steinbeck. It discusses Steinbeck's most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath (1940); his collaboration with film-maker Pare Lorentz in a hospital documentary, ...
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This chapter focuses on the works of John Steinbeck. It discusses Steinbeck's most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath (1940); his collaboration with film-maker Pare Lorentz in a hospital documentary, The Fight for Life; his own documentary film, The Forgotten Village; and his work on Viva Zapata! (1952), a film based on the life of the Mexican revolutionary.Less
This chapter focuses on the works of John Steinbeck. It discusses Steinbeck's most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath (1940); his collaboration with film-maker Pare Lorentz in a hospital documentary, The Fight for Life; his own documentary film, The Forgotten Village; and his work on Viva Zapata! (1952), a film based on the life of the Mexican revolutionary.
Tara Stubbs
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719084331
- eISBN:
- 9781781705841
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719084331.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
A study of American modernism and Irish culture must necessarily begin with a consideration of family. The affiliations and disaffiliations to Ireland experienced by the American writers discussed in ...
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A study of American modernism and Irish culture must necessarily begin with a consideration of family. The affiliations and disaffiliations to Ireland experienced by the American writers discussed in this chapter reveal a reading of ‘family’ as literal and metaphorical, as each writer negotiates his relationship with Ireland. Each writer discussed – Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Moore and O’Neill – experiences a nuanced and often troubling relationship with Ireland – thanks to family connections that are sometimes enhanced, and at other times played down, according to complex channels of racial and cultural influence and interference.Less
A study of American modernism and Irish culture must necessarily begin with a consideration of family. The affiliations and disaffiliations to Ireland experienced by the American writers discussed in this chapter reveal a reading of ‘family’ as literal and metaphorical, as each writer negotiates his relationship with Ireland. Each writer discussed – Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Moore and O’Neill – experiences a nuanced and often troubling relationship with Ireland – thanks to family connections that are sometimes enhanced, and at other times played down, according to complex channels of racial and cultural influence and interference.
Heidi Kim
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190456252
- eISBN:
- 9780190456276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190456252.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden features a Chinese American domestic servant, Lee, who performs all the household tasks in order to keep a wifeless, motherless white frontier family together. Lee’s ...
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John Steinbeck’s East of Eden features a Chinese American domestic servant, Lee, who performs all the household tasks in order to keep a wifeless, motherless white frontier family together. Lee’s masquerade as a stereotypical pidgin-speaking foreigner draws upon a long history of duality about Chinese laborers, troubling gender norms or bolstering the nuclear family. Steinbeck employs Lee to voice a complicated American racial theory, in which he attempts to link a diverse, sprawling, complicated American personality to an origin of tough morality and individualism that, not accidentally, strongly protests the group mentality of communism. While Steinbeck’s adoption of individualism in East of Eden is now a staple of his criticism, Lee brings greater nuance to this ethos, which strands him without an ethnic group or identity and forces him to narrate and claim an Americanness that adheres to the frontier myth.Less
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden features a Chinese American domestic servant, Lee, who performs all the household tasks in order to keep a wifeless, motherless white frontier family together. Lee’s masquerade as a stereotypical pidgin-speaking foreigner draws upon a long history of duality about Chinese laborers, troubling gender norms or bolstering the nuclear family. Steinbeck employs Lee to voice a complicated American racial theory, in which he attempts to link a diverse, sprawling, complicated American personality to an origin of tough morality and individualism that, not accidentally, strongly protests the group mentality of communism. While Steinbeck’s adoption of individualism in East of Eden is now a staple of his criticism, Lee brings greater nuance to this ethos, which strands him without an ethnic group or identity and forces him to narrate and claim an Americanness that adheres to the frontier myth.
Michael J Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264786
- eISBN:
- 9780520946064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264786.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In the spring of 1939, Edward F. Ricketts's Between Pacific Tides and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath were published. Steinbeck was getting a lot of unwanted publicity, especially from conservative ...
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In the spring of 1939, Edward F. Ricketts's Between Pacific Tides and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath were published. Steinbeck was getting a lot of unwanted publicity, especially from conservative politicians and groups such as the Associated Farmers. He was shaken by assertions that he had exaggerated the plight of the Okies, and by being ostracized by Californians, especially former friends. During the fall and winter of 1939–1940, Steinbeck spent a lot of time in the Pacific Biological Laboratories helping Ricketts, learning marine biology, and preparing for field trips. Ricketts and Steinbeck decided to collaborate on a pair of projects. The first arose from a request by Stanford University Press that Ricketts write a book on San Francisco Bay invertebrates. And Steinbeck had been considering a trip to Mexico, which morphed into the second project, a collecting expedition in the Sea of Cortés (Gulf of California). Steinbeck hired the seventy-six-foot Western Flyer, owned and captained by Tony Berry. Ricketts and Steinbeck's collaboration resulted in Sea of Cortez, published by Viking on December 5, 1941.Less
In the spring of 1939, Edward F. Ricketts's Between Pacific Tides and John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath were published. Steinbeck was getting a lot of unwanted publicity, especially from conservative politicians and groups such as the Associated Farmers. He was shaken by assertions that he had exaggerated the plight of the Okies, and by being ostracized by Californians, especially former friends. During the fall and winter of 1939–1940, Steinbeck spent a lot of time in the Pacific Biological Laboratories helping Ricketts, learning marine biology, and preparing for field trips. Ricketts and Steinbeck decided to collaborate on a pair of projects. The first arose from a request by Stanford University Press that Ricketts write a book on San Francisco Bay invertebrates. And Steinbeck had been considering a trip to Mexico, which morphed into the second project, a collecting expedition in the Sea of Cortés (Gulf of California). Steinbeck hired the seventy-six-foot Western Flyer, owned and captained by Tony Berry. Ricketts and Steinbeck's collaboration resulted in Sea of Cortez, published by Viking on December 5, 1941.
Michael J Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264786
- eISBN:
- 9780520946064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264786.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Edward F. Ricketts sought to parlay his midwestern work ethic and his University of Chicago experiences into a career built on nature. After he left Chicago in 1923, Ricketts and his new family ...
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Edward F. Ricketts sought to parlay his midwestern work ethic and his University of Chicago experiences into a career built on nature. After he left Chicago in 1923, Ricketts and his new family settled on the Monterey Peninsula. The year before, Libbie Hyman, a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago, had studied at the Hopkins Marine Station there, and Joel Hedgpeth speculates that it may have been her accounts of the rich seashore life that prompted Ricketts and Albert E. Galigher to choose the region for their biological supply business. As with any business where customers are distributed, Pacific Biological Laboratories needed a catalog, and Ricketts assembled one. He became friends with John Steinbeck, with whom he shared his ideas on biology, ecology, and philosophy, as well as any other topics that arose. The story of Ricketts's maturation intertwines and tangles with those of Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell. Xenia Cage, the wife of the avant-garde composer John Cage, was an important link among members of Ricketts's Lab.Less
Edward F. Ricketts sought to parlay his midwestern work ethic and his University of Chicago experiences into a career built on nature. After he left Chicago in 1923, Ricketts and his new family settled on the Monterey Peninsula. The year before, Libbie Hyman, a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago, had studied at the Hopkins Marine Station there, and Joel Hedgpeth speculates that it may have been her accounts of the rich seashore life that prompted Ricketts and Albert E. Galigher to choose the region for their biological supply business. As with any business where customers are distributed, Pacific Biological Laboratories needed a catalog, and Ricketts assembled one. He became friends with John Steinbeck, with whom he shared his ideas on biology, ecology, and philosophy, as well as any other topics that arose. The story of Ricketts's maturation intertwines and tangles with those of Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell. Xenia Cage, the wife of the avant-garde composer John Cage, was an important link among members of Ricketts's Lab.
Michael J Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264786
- eISBN:
- 9780520946064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264786.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Aldo Leopold formalized the mature view of his land ethic sixty years ago, and as a philosophy it garnered wide appreciation forty years ago. But appreciation is not acceptance. The future of ...
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Aldo Leopold formalized the mature view of his land ethic sixty years ago, and as a philosophy it garnered wide appreciation forty years ago. But appreciation is not acceptance. The future of humanity lies not in the old mind-set of individual self-preservation, but rather in the new comprehension that all life, even human life, must fit within the limits of the Earth's ecosystems. Edward F. Ricketts and John Steinbeck perceived that in today's world the features that we universally admire, such as wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, and humility, are “invariable concomitants” of failure, while features such as cruelty, greed, self-interest, and rapacity are regarded as the cornerstones of success. One way to overcome people's resistance to changing their views and behaviors involves a synthesis of Leopold and Ricketts's worldviews. Together, their ideas create a unified, natural history-based worldview representing something broader than ecological thinking. The benefits of an ecology that is focused more on natural history extend far beyond the practice of science.Less
Aldo Leopold formalized the mature view of his land ethic sixty years ago, and as a philosophy it garnered wide appreciation forty years ago. But appreciation is not acceptance. The future of humanity lies not in the old mind-set of individual self-preservation, but rather in the new comprehension that all life, even human life, must fit within the limits of the Earth's ecosystems. Edward F. Ricketts and John Steinbeck perceived that in today's world the features that we universally admire, such as wisdom, tolerance, kindliness, generosity, and humility, are “invariable concomitants” of failure, while features such as cruelty, greed, self-interest, and rapacity are regarded as the cornerstones of success. One way to overcome people's resistance to changing their views and behaviors involves a synthesis of Leopold and Ricketts's worldviews. Together, their ideas create a unified, natural history-based worldview representing something broader than ecological thinking. The benefits of an ecology that is focused more on natural history extend far beyond the practice of science.
Catharine A. Mackinnon
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195305104
- eISBN:
- 9780199850556
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305104.003.0013
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This chapter presents a feminist view on animal rights. It investigates why it is necessary for animals to be like people to be protected from them or to be entitled to their own lives, and presents ...
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This chapter presents a feminist view on animal rights. It investigates why it is necessary for animals to be like people to be protected from them or to be entitled to their own lives, and presents a reading of John Steinbeck's play Of Mice and Men. The chapter considers the ways nonhuman animals are seen and treated by human animals in gendered terms and suggests that comparing humans' treatment of animals with men's treatment of women illuminates the way the legal system's response to animals is gendered. It argues for the analysis of the situation of animals on their own terms, however difficult.Less
This chapter presents a feminist view on animal rights. It investigates why it is necessary for animals to be like people to be protected from them or to be entitled to their own lives, and presents a reading of John Steinbeck's play Of Mice and Men. The chapter considers the ways nonhuman animals are seen and treated by human animals in gendered terms and suggests that comparing humans' treatment of animals with men's treatment of women illuminates the way the legal system's response to animals is gendered. It argues for the analysis of the situation of animals on their own terms, however difficult.
Michael J Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264786
- eISBN:
- 9780520946064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264786.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
When Edward F. Ricketts arrived, the Monterey Peninsula was “still a quiet part of the world, a pleasant end of the road along one of the loveliest of seashores.” In an airplane “it looks like a ...
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When Edward F. Ricketts arrived, the Monterey Peninsula was “still a quiet part of the world, a pleasant end of the road along one of the loveliest of seashores.” In an airplane “it looks like a bear's head jutting out into the sea, Pacific Grove is in the bear's mouth, Cannery Row lies under its jaw, and Monterey, the largest of the three towns, spreads out along its throat and chest.” Aside from churches, in 1923 the principal intellectual establishment of the peninsula was the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, recently relocated to Cabrillo Point, not far from the canneries. After only a year in business together, Ricketts and Albert E. Galigher dissolved their partnership. Ricketts became the sole owner of Pacific Biological Laboratories. During the spring and summer of 1932, John Steinbeck's wife Carol was also in the Lab quite a lot, working part-time for Ricketts. In late 1936, Cannery Row caught fire and Ricketts's Lab was incinerated. By the end of January 1937, a new Lab was built.Less
When Edward F. Ricketts arrived, the Monterey Peninsula was “still a quiet part of the world, a pleasant end of the road along one of the loveliest of seashores.” In an airplane “it looks like a bear's head jutting out into the sea, Pacific Grove is in the bear's mouth, Cannery Row lies under its jaw, and Monterey, the largest of the three towns, spreads out along its throat and chest.” Aside from churches, in 1923 the principal intellectual establishment of the peninsula was the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, recently relocated to Cabrillo Point, not far from the canneries. After only a year in business together, Ricketts and Albert E. Galigher dissolved their partnership. Ricketts became the sole owner of Pacific Biological Laboratories. During the spring and summer of 1932, John Steinbeck's wife Carol was also in the Lab quite a lot, working part-time for Ricketts. In late 1936, Cannery Row caught fire and Ricketts's Lab was incinerated. By the end of January 1937, a new Lab was built.
Tara Stubbs
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719084331
- eISBN:
- 9781781705841
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719084331.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
It is easy, particularly within contemporary critical circles, to dismiss Celticism as a fanciful, archaic construction. But for some American modernist writers, the enchantment of Celticism – as ...
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It is easy, particularly within contemporary critical circles, to dismiss Celticism as a fanciful, archaic construction. But for some American modernist writers, the enchantment of Celticism – as conveyed and celebrated by the Revivalists – offered a certain promise despite, or even because of, its unreality. The efforts of W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde and J. M. Synge from the late 1880s onwards had done much to revive American writers’ interest in Celtic culture – and to establish a Celtic ideal that influenced different social groups. This chapter therefore discusses the cultural interpretation of Celticism that was pervasive in American modernist circles, as writers like Moore, Steinbeck and Stevens became inspired by the folklore and history surrounding the Revival.Less
It is easy, particularly within contemporary critical circles, to dismiss Celticism as a fanciful, archaic construction. But for some American modernist writers, the enchantment of Celticism – as conveyed and celebrated by the Revivalists – offered a certain promise despite, or even because of, its unreality. The efforts of W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Douglas Hyde and J. M. Synge from the late 1880s onwards had done much to revive American writers’ interest in Celtic culture – and to establish a Celtic ideal that influenced different social groups. This chapter therefore discusses the cultural interpretation of Celticism that was pervasive in American modernist circles, as writers like Moore, Steinbeck and Stevens became inspired by the folklore and history surrounding the Revival.
Heidi Kim
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190456252
- eISBN:
- 9780190456276
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190456252.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Invisible Subjects: Asian America in Postwar Literature broadens the archive of Asian American studies, using advances in Asian American history and historiography to reinterpret the politics of the ...
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Invisible Subjects: Asian America in Postwar Literature broadens the archive of Asian American studies, using advances in Asian American history and historiography to reinterpret the politics of the major figures of post–World War II American literature and criticism. Taking its theoretical inspiration from the work of Ralph Ellison and his focus on the invisibility of a racial minority in mainstream history, Invisible Subjects argues that the work of American studies and literature in the early Cold War era to explain and contain the troubling Asian figure reflects both the swift amnesia that covers the Pacific theater of World War II and the importance of the Asian to immigration debates and civil rights. From the Melville Revival through the myth and symbol school, as well as the fiction of John Steinbeck and William Faulkner, the postwar literary scene exhibits the ambiguity of Asian forms in the 1950s within the binaries of foreigner-native and black-white, as well as the constructs of gender and the nuclear family. It contrasts with the tortured redefinitions of race and nationality that appear in immigration acts and court cases, particularly those about segregation and interracial marriage. The Melville Revival critics’ discussion of a mythic yet realistic diabolical Asian, the role of a Chinese housekeeper in preserving the pioneer family in Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and the extent to which the history of the Mississippi Chinese sheds light on Faulkner’s stagnant societies all work to subsume a troubling presence.Less
Invisible Subjects: Asian America in Postwar Literature broadens the archive of Asian American studies, using advances in Asian American history and historiography to reinterpret the politics of the major figures of post–World War II American literature and criticism. Taking its theoretical inspiration from the work of Ralph Ellison and his focus on the invisibility of a racial minority in mainstream history, Invisible Subjects argues that the work of American studies and literature in the early Cold War era to explain and contain the troubling Asian figure reflects both the swift amnesia that covers the Pacific theater of World War II and the importance of the Asian to immigration debates and civil rights. From the Melville Revival through the myth and symbol school, as well as the fiction of John Steinbeck and William Faulkner, the postwar literary scene exhibits the ambiguity of Asian forms in the 1950s within the binaries of foreigner-native and black-white, as well as the constructs of gender and the nuclear family. It contrasts with the tortured redefinitions of race and nationality that appear in immigration acts and court cases, particularly those about segregation and interracial marriage. The Melville Revival critics’ discussion of a mythic yet realistic diabolical Asian, the role of a Chinese housekeeper in preserving the pioneer family in Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and the extent to which the history of the Mississippi Chinese sheds light on Faulkner’s stagnant societies all work to subsume a troubling presence.
Katharine A. Rodger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
“Verbatim Transcription of Notes of Gulf of California Trip, March–April 1940” is a collection of notes consisting of forty-six, single-spaced typed pages documenting the Sea of Cortez expedition, as ...
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“Verbatim Transcription of Notes of Gulf of California Trip, March–April 1940” is a collection of notes consisting of forty-six, single-spaced typed pages documenting the Sea of Cortez expedition, as well a two-page addendum called “Statement of Collecting Stations in the Spring 1940” that lists coordinates and topographical information for each collecting stop. The notes detail every aspect of the trip; passages describe incidents and locations, and list the specimens collected and weather conditions. The typescript also presents Edward F. Ricketts's personal observations and reflections about everything from scientific work, including his remarks on collecting methods and wildlife; to local culture, including in particular his observations about the friendliness of Mexicans they encountered; to interpersonal relationships among the crew, including humorous incidents involving mishaps on board their boat, the Western Flyer. But most significantly, the record of the trip itself is both a scientific log documenting the more than four thousand miles they traversed and the twenty-five collecting stations they investigated, and an extended philosophical essay on Ricketts's and John Steinbeck's musings about holism and transcendence.Less
“Verbatim Transcription of Notes of Gulf of California Trip, March–April 1940” is a collection of notes consisting of forty-six, single-spaced typed pages documenting the Sea of Cortez expedition, as well a two-page addendum called “Statement of Collecting Stations in the Spring 1940” that lists coordinates and topographical information for each collecting stop. The notes detail every aspect of the trip; passages describe incidents and locations, and list the specimens collected and weather conditions. The typescript also presents Edward F. Ricketts's personal observations and reflections about everything from scientific work, including his remarks on collecting methods and wildlife; to local culture, including in particular his observations about the friendliness of Mexicans they encountered; to interpersonal relationships among the crew, including humorous incidents involving mishaps on board their boat, the Western Flyer. But most significantly, the record of the trip itself is both a scientific log documenting the more than four thousand miles they traversed and the twenty-five collecting stations they investigated, and an extended philosophical essay on Ricketts's and John Steinbeck's musings about holism and transcendence.
Rósa Magnúsdóttir
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190681463
- eISBN:
- 9780190681494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190681463.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses Soviet efforts to “tell the truth about Soviet socialism” at home and abroad, showing how not only Soviet anti-Americanism but also American McCarthyism stood in the way of the ...
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This chapter discusses Soviet efforts to “tell the truth about Soviet socialism” at home and abroad, showing how not only Soviet anti-Americanism but also American McCarthyism stood in the way of the development of Soviet-American cultural relations in the early years of the Cold War. It surveys the way Soviet cultural institutions as well as Soviet front organizations in the United States were organized in the late Stalin era. It puts the spotlight on the most famous American visit in the postwar period, namely the Steinbeck-Capa 1947 tour. It is a remarkable story of how Soviet propaganda authorities tried to explain postwar socialism and control the visitors’ experiences in the Soviet Union, but it also details Steinbeck’s fascination with Soviet knowledge and understanding of the United States (or lack thereof).Less
This chapter discusses Soviet efforts to “tell the truth about Soviet socialism” at home and abroad, showing how not only Soviet anti-Americanism but also American McCarthyism stood in the way of the development of Soviet-American cultural relations in the early years of the Cold War. It surveys the way Soviet cultural institutions as well as Soviet front organizations in the United States were organized in the late Stalin era. It puts the spotlight on the most famous American visit in the postwar period, namely the Steinbeck-Capa 1947 tour. It is a remarkable story of how Soviet propaganda authorities tried to explain postwar socialism and control the visitors’ experiences in the Soviet Union, but it also details Steinbeck’s fascination with Soviet knowledge and understanding of the United States (or lack thereof).
Katharine A. Rodger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Edward F. Ricketts developed his “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking” during the early years of his friendship with John Steinbeck, a period also marked by collaborations with Joseph Campbell, Henry ...
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Edward F. Ricketts developed his “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking” during the early years of his friendship with John Steinbeck, a period also marked by collaborations with Joseph Campbell, Henry Miller, and other friends and colleagues. At the heart of Ricketts's desire to articulate non-teleological thinking is his struggle to put into language that which by its very nature eludes definition. Deeply philosophical, Ricketts's essay is at times convoluted, but the significance of non-teleological thinking is of primary importance to his unified field hypothesis. Through “his thinking,” Ricketts believes, an individual may better accept and understand the world and ultimately “break through” or transcend. Ricketts and Steinbeck's 1940 expedition to the Gulf of California was inspired in part by their desire to integrate scientific inquiry with non-teleological thinking, and Steinbeck later included a revision of the “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking” in Sea of Cortez. The seventeen-page version included in this chapter, marked “Typed by Toni, March 1941, original to John,” is likely the draft the latter worked from while writing Sea of Cortez.Less
Edward F. Ricketts developed his “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking” during the early years of his friendship with John Steinbeck, a period also marked by collaborations with Joseph Campbell, Henry Miller, and other friends and colleagues. At the heart of Ricketts's desire to articulate non-teleological thinking is his struggle to put into language that which by its very nature eludes definition. Deeply philosophical, Ricketts's essay is at times convoluted, but the significance of non-teleological thinking is of primary importance to his unified field hypothesis. Through “his thinking,” Ricketts believes, an individual may better accept and understand the world and ultimately “break through” or transcend. Ricketts and Steinbeck's 1940 expedition to the Gulf of California was inspired in part by their desire to integrate scientific inquiry with non-teleological thinking, and Steinbeck later included a revision of the “Essay on Non-teleological Thinking” in Sea of Cortez. The seventeen-page version included in this chapter, marked “Typed by Toni, March 1941, original to John,” is likely the draft the latter worked from while writing Sea of Cortez.
Benjamin Mangrum
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190909376
- eISBN:
- 9780190909406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190909376.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The introduction begins by assessing standard historical accounts about the fracturing of the Democratic Party during the 1967–1968 presidential election. The standard account presents the period ...
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The introduction begins by assessing standard historical accounts about the fracturing of the Democratic Party during the 1967–1968 presidential election. The standard account presents the period from 1945 to 1968 as the “apex of American liberalism,” presenting the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 as a result of Democratic conflicts over the Vietnam War and civil rights legislation. This book shows, however, that the cultural ideas that received intellectual prestige during the postwar decades complicate this standard narrative. The character of liberal thought underwent vast changes long before the mid-1960s, turning against the legacy of Roosevelt-era reform. The contrast between the political fiction of John Steinbeck from the 1930s and Norman Mailer from the 1950s illustrates one version of the transformation of liberal political culture. The introduction also describes the methodology of the book and outlines the subsequent chapters.Less
The introduction begins by assessing standard historical accounts about the fracturing of the Democratic Party during the 1967–1968 presidential election. The standard account presents the period from 1945 to 1968 as the “apex of American liberalism,” presenting the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 as a result of Democratic conflicts over the Vietnam War and civil rights legislation. This book shows, however, that the cultural ideas that received intellectual prestige during the postwar decades complicate this standard narrative. The character of liberal thought underwent vast changes long before the mid-1960s, turning against the legacy of Roosevelt-era reform. The contrast between the political fiction of John Steinbeck from the 1930s and Norman Mailer from the 1950s illustrates one version of the transformation of liberal political culture. The introduction also describes the methodology of the book and outlines the subsequent chapters.
Katharine A. Rodger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
During the summer of 1940, Edward F. Ricketts composed an antiscript entitled “Thesis and Materials for a Script on Mexico Which Shall Be Motivated Oppositely to John's ‘Forgotten Village’.” A ...
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During the summer of 1940, Edward F. Ricketts composed an antiscript entitled “Thesis and Materials for a Script on Mexico Which Shall Be Motivated Oppositely to John's ‘Forgotten Village’.” A thirteen-page typescript partly in outline form, the antiscript was Ricketts's pointed response to John Steinbeck's movie script The Forgotten Village, in which technology triumphs over traditional custom. Even more important, it reveals Ricketts's growing discomfort with the global decline of indigenous culture crowded out by sprawling modernity, a phenomenon he witnessed firsthand in his travels to the Sea of Cortez and later the outer shores of British Columbia. This widening gap between cultures—which he saw in Steinbeck's The Forgotten Village and objected to—would lead, Ricketts believed, to disharmony among human beings and disengagement from a nurturing natural world. The antiscript includes some of the most explicit statements he made about the interconnectedness between human societies and the environment, and demonstrates how his unified field hypothesis continued to broaden during the 1940s to reconcile human interactions among groups and their subsequent effects on the natural world.Less
During the summer of 1940, Edward F. Ricketts composed an antiscript entitled “Thesis and Materials for a Script on Mexico Which Shall Be Motivated Oppositely to John's ‘Forgotten Village’.” A thirteen-page typescript partly in outline form, the antiscript was Ricketts's pointed response to John Steinbeck's movie script The Forgotten Village, in which technology triumphs over traditional custom. Even more important, it reveals Ricketts's growing discomfort with the global decline of indigenous culture crowded out by sprawling modernity, a phenomenon he witnessed firsthand in his travels to the Sea of Cortez and later the outer shores of British Columbia. This widening gap between cultures—which he saw in Steinbeck's The Forgotten Village and objected to—would lead, Ricketts believed, to disharmony among human beings and disengagement from a nurturing natural world. The antiscript includes some of the most explicit statements he made about the interconnectedness between human societies and the environment, and demonstrates how his unified field hypothesis continued to broaden during the 1940s to reconcile human interactions among groups and their subsequent effects on the natural world.
Alvin Kernan
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300092905
- eISBN:
- 9780300128345
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300092905.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The beleaguered Joad family of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath struggled in an era of disappointed dreams and empty pockets. But how might the grandchildren of that Dust Bowl generation fare in today's ...
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The beleaguered Joad family of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath struggled in an era of disappointed dreams and empty pockets. But how might the grandchildren of that Dust Bowl generation fare in today's more promising times? This book sends various descendants of the original Joad family on a postmodern journey out of California and into the excesses of American culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The experiences of today's Joads are as hilarious as they are discomfiting: they encounter a world of democracy gone haywire and social institutions in perplexing disarray. In ten satiric episodes, they visit virtually every important American institution—the family, education, religion, art, the military, law courts, sex, science and medicine, politics, and not least television and its advertisements. Unsparing with barbs, the book reveals both the fools and the knaves among us. The book's modern-day Joads find themselves in a distorted world where a surplus of democracy not only fails to free its inhabitants but also makes them vulnerable to the machinations of greedy and unscrupulous exploiters.Less
The beleaguered Joad family of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath struggled in an era of disappointed dreams and empty pockets. But how might the grandchildren of that Dust Bowl generation fare in today's more promising times? This book sends various descendants of the original Joad family on a postmodern journey out of California and into the excesses of American culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The experiences of today's Joads are as hilarious as they are discomfiting: they encounter a world of democracy gone haywire and social institutions in perplexing disarray. In ten satiric episodes, they visit virtually every important American institution—the family, education, religion, art, the military, law courts, sex, science and medicine, politics, and not least television and its advertisements. Unsparing with barbs, the book reveals both the fools and the knaves among us. The book's modern-day Joads find themselves in a distorted world where a surplus of democracy not only fails to free its inhabitants but also makes them vulnerable to the machinations of greedy and unscrupulous exploiters.
Katharine A. Rodger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520247048
- eISBN:
- 9780520932661
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520247048.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Edward F. Ricketts drafted and revised his essay “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, often after discussions and correspondence with friends such as John ...
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Edward F. Ricketts drafted and revised his essay “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, often after discussions and correspondence with friends such as John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell. The version included in this chapter is from a typescript marked “Revised July 1940, Mexico City,” composed of fifteen double-spaced pages, and it reflects a number of suggestions Campbell made in a 1939 letter. Ricketts's notion of breaking through derived largely from his readings of the Tao Teh Ching, T. D. Suzuki's Essays in Zen Buddhism, and Robinson Jeffers's Roan Stallion, but as with most of his ideas, he integrated concepts from many sources and disciplines.Less
Edward F. Ricketts drafted and revised his essay “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, often after discussions and correspondence with friends such as John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell. The version included in this chapter is from a typescript marked “Revised July 1940, Mexico City,” composed of fifteen double-spaced pages, and it reflects a number of suggestions Campbell made in a 1939 letter. Ricketts's notion of breaking through derived largely from his readings of the Tao Teh Ching, T. D. Suzuki's Essays in Zen Buddhism, and Robinson Jeffers's Roan Stallion, but as with most of his ideas, he integrated concepts from many sources and disciplines.
Michael Ruse
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190241025
- eISBN:
- 9780190241056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190241025.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
By the beginning of the 1930s, with evolutionary studies finally reaching professional status and with popular evolutionism now a secular religious worldview, creative writers turned to other more ...
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By the beginning of the 1930s, with evolutionary studies finally reaching professional status and with popular evolutionism now a secular religious worldview, creative writers turned to other more pressing subjects. They used evolutionary themes, but as background – William Faulkner in Absalom, Absalom on racism, John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath on the Depression, and William Golding in The Inheritors on human nature and original sin.Less
By the beginning of the 1930s, with evolutionary studies finally reaching professional status and with popular evolutionism now a secular religious worldview, creative writers turned to other more pressing subjects. They used evolutionary themes, but as background – William Faulkner in Absalom, Absalom on racism, John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath on the Depression, and William Golding in The Inheritors on human nature and original sin.
