Re: A New Form of Lit. Analysis

Jim writes:
<< It's nice to see that Evolutionary Theory has taken one more step away
from science and toward being our predominant myth by making itself
available to reinforce our most banal stereotypes.>>

If I am inadvertantly inspiring a conversation on biological evolution or
those stereotypes, I will quickly slip out the door like an adolescent who
throws a stink-bomb into the girls' locker room.

That said, I am compelled to add (as my only contribution) that the
statistical existence and biological sources of these "stereotypes" or
whathaveyou have been discussed for a number of years before anyone thought
to apply the discussion to romantic literature. I believe that they first
came up somewhat unexpectedly in statistical analyses of various data taken
by medical researchers quite uninvolved in "Evolutionary Theory" -- such as
the estimated percentage of men in Britain who were, without knowing it,
raising children not their own offspring (I believe that this particular
datum was such a surprise and scandal that it went unpublished for decades).

Subsequent investigations took various outlooks and methodologies, most of
them employing surveys but sometimes other more plainly clinical
examinations. Of course the nature of the work is such that it cannot
always be expected to be borne out in particular cases, but in large enough
samples the numbers were frequently leaning toward varying degrees of
support for the "banal stereotypes," even when the "Evolutionary Theorists"
were not involved and no evolutionary explanation given.

Some of the grittier and more clinical details have been especially
interesting. For one thing, if I remember correctly, it was even
demonstrated that the numbers favoring the "cads" were appreciably higher
when the surveyed women were ovulating, whether they knew they were
ovulating or not.

Anyway, the article shouldn't be taken as illustraing the methodological
rigor of this sort of study, and perhaps more thorough examination of the
particlar research would strengthen claims of "banal stereotypes" or further
steps "away from science."

-Robbie
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
Received on Tue Dec 9 19:09:35 2003