Biology Lurks Beneath

[Dave Monroe]

Biology Lurks Beneath: Bioliterary Explorations of the
Individual versus Society

David P. Barash, Department of Psychology, University
of Washington, Seattle, Wa. 98195, USA.

Evolutionary Psychology 2: 200-219


A huge octopus emerges from the ocean, wraps an
oversized tentacle around the waist of a young woman,
and proceeds to drag her into the sea. This memorable
episode from Thomas Pynchon's vast and surreal novel,
Gravity's Rainbow, has a happy ending, however, owing
to the intervention of Mr. Tyrone Slothrop, who first
unavailingly beats the molluscan monster over the head
with an empty wine bottle. Then, in a stroke of
zoologically informed genius, he offers the briny
behemoth something even more alluring than a fair
maiden: a crab. It works, suggesting that this
particular octopus conforms, at least in its dietary
preference, to the norm for its species. We learn,
nonetheless, that "In their brief time together,
Slothrop formed the impression that this octopus was
not in good mental health."

It isn't entirely clear where the creature's mental
derangement lies. After all, it behaved with a
reasonable degree of healthy, enlightened
self-interest in seeking first to consume the young
lady, and then forgoing her for the even more
delectable crab. Yet nature writer David Quammen may
have been onto something when he pointed out that
octopi generally - not just Pynchon's fictional
creation - might be especially vulnerable to mental
disequilibrium, if only because one of their
distinguishing characteristics is having immense
brains. Mental strain is probably not unknown among
animals, but there seems little doubt that it is
particularly well-developed in the species Homo
sapiens, whose brains - like Pynchon's octopus - are
especially large, and whose strain, is correspondingly
(and regrettably) great.

This essay will argue that one of the major themes of
evolutionary biology - the conflict between individual
selfishness and group altruism - is paralleled by a
comparable theme in literature, and that each usefully
illuminates the other.

The tension between individual and group may also shed
light on another longstanding evolutionary conundrum:
Why do people have such big brains, bigger even than
our hungry octopus? ...

http://human-nature.com/ep/articles/ep02200219.html

http://human-nature.com/ep/downloads/ep02200219.pdf



		
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