Issue 11 / 1998
11 / A View From The Divide
Science meets prose
This special double issue demonstrates the many ways in which aspects of the scientific world—from biology, medicine, physics, and astronomy—can be captured and dramatized for a humanities-oriented readership. In the tradition of Lewis Thomas, Stephen J. Gould, and Oliver Sachs, this powerful collection of essays captures an eclectic range of ideas combining literary style and intellectual substance.
“A View from the Divide” includes essays written by poets, immunologists and physicists, established writers and up-and-coming new talent, including the winner of the Bayer Creative Science Writing Award for the best original essay about science, Alison Hawthorne Deming. In one essay, a writer threatened by blindness discovers the power of pursuing a normal life through Beethoven’s “Fantasia.” There is a discourse on the value of meteorites, a personal account of living with migraine headaches, an inside look at the fury of a hurricane, an essay by a successful attorney living with schizophrenia, and a meditation from a construction worker on the psychological intersection between fear and work.
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Introduction: Doctors and Writers
One morning some years ago I found myself in the office of a dermatologist who, while tearing into my Plantar's wart on my right foot, glanced nervously up at my chest.Science and Poetry: A View from the Divide
The harmony between scientific language and poeticsAstronomy 111: Grief and Memory
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Earthquake Country
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.The Moon on Ice
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Solo
I follow the yellow line. Six months ago, I trailed from one side of the taxiway to the other, and I chased this wide stripe as though it was moving erratically instead of me.In the Dark
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.With Enough Aspirin: Living for Now in Pain’s Company
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.What They Don’t Tell You About Hurricanes
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.The Lightning in My Eyes
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Proud Flesh
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Power
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Weird Science
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.On a Duet, Sung Long After the Music Had Stopped
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.The Lyapunov Exponent
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.A Well-Worn Hanky
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Blur (The Interior of a Diagnosis)
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.About the Author: Simon Pang
About the Author A TURNING POINT Simon Pang Author of “A Well-Worn Hanky” This essay, full of narrative surprises, offers an unexpected take on the life of a paramedic. Voice plays an important role here as Pang toys with the reader, creating uncertainty as to whether or not he harbors any sympathy toward his clients.About the Author: Jean Hanson
About the Author MIGRAINE Jean Hanson author of “The Lightning in My Eyes” In Hanson’s essay, the reader is immediately pulled into the surreal world of a migraine headache sufferer.About the Author: Scott A. Sandford
About the Author KNOW THY AUDIENCE Scott A. Sandford Author of “The Moon on Ice” In “The Moon on Ice,” Sandford uses humor and dramatization to enliven a meteorite hunt around Antarctica.About the Author: Mara Gorman
About the Author A FLY ON THE WALL Mara Gorman Author of “Proud Flesh” All the classic elements of creative nonfiction – strong characterization, scene setting, dramatization, careful attention to language -come together in Mara Gorman’s essay.About the Author: James Glanz
About the Author CREATIVE SCIENCE James Glanz Author of “The Lyapunov Exponent” Snowflakes, laundry, and a physicist named Lyapunov; few writers would unite these seemingly disparate themes under the guise of one essay.About the Author: Philip Gerard
About the Author FINDING PASSION IN FEAR AND DESTRUCTION Philip Gerard Author of “What They Don’t Tell You About Hurricanes” Phil Gerard sat down and wrote, by kerosene lamplight, the original version of “What They Don’t Tell You About Hurricanes,” during and in the immediate aftermath of the long, hot, scary hours of Hurricane Fran, that hit his home in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1996.About the Author: Laura S. Distelheim
About the Author TRANSCENDING THE ORDINARY Laura S. Distelheim Author of “On a Duet, Sung Long After the Music Has Stopped” “On a Duet, Sung Long After the Music Has Stopped” stirs strong emotions, shedding light on what Distelheim calls the “miracle of the ordinary.”About the Author: Alison Hawthorne Deming
Alison Hawthorne Deming had a relationship with science from a very young age. "Even as a little kid I had a very cool encyclopedia of natural history with great pictures and also a wonderful little book of narratives called "Great Scientific Expeditions" that presented science as great travel narratives."About the Author: Carol Sanford
About the Author BALANCING ACT Carol Sanford Author of “Astronomy 111: Grief and Memory” Poetic language, use of metaphor, and an innovative structure highlight Sanford’s essay “Astronomy 111: Grief and Memory,” a moving tribute to her son.About the Author: Gerald Callahan
About the Author WHERE MEMORIES LINGER Gerald Callahan Author of “Chimera” The opening paragraph of Gerald Callahan’s, “Chimera,” has all the qualities of great fiction: mysterious characters; a setting every reader can place himself in; a rhythmic flow of language and images; and an enticing hook; the arrival of a dead spouse, in person.About the Author: Ruth Gila Berger
About the Author HIDDEN RAZORS Ruth Gila Berger Author of “Blur (The Interior of a Diagnosis)” Powerful, honest, and poignant characterize Ruth Gila Berger’s “Blur (The Interior of a Diagnosis).”About the Author: Luanne Armstrong
About the Author RETHINKING LIFE Luanne Armstrong Author of “With Enough Aspirin: Living For Now in Pain’s Company” In Luanne Armstrong’s essay, images of pain flow freely. “Pain is a kind of uninvited guest who has moved in and now refuses to leave, the rude kind who uses all the towels in the bathroom, eats all the food, makes life a hell of interruptions and never apologizes.About the Author: Geoffery Alexander
About the Author EXPLORING INTERIOR SPACES Geoffrey Alexander Author of “In the Dark” When he wrote “In the Dark,” Geoffrey Alexander didn’t have any outline or structure in mind. He simply wanted to convey the experience of fear.Chimera
Last Thursday, one of those gray, fall days when the starlings gather up and string between the elms around here, my children’s mother–dead 10 years–walked into a pastry shop where I was buttering a croissant.