Comments on: On the On the Origin I

by: winch

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 08:25:37 +0000

Thanks for writing this blog post, it was informative, enjoyable, and most importantly - a good length!

by: Glynn

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:07:30 +0000

Oi oi, I’ve been following John’s blog and found it really interesting (and I see he’s commented here, cool!), as well as useful since it means I can avoid reading the actual thing, which I really don’t have time for at the moment. (I’m actually going through the Art Of War right now.)

Anyway, I don’t think it’s the knowledge that got in the way of Darwin experimenting, he spent most of his research career studying earthworms, so he was probably out in the field looking in the dirt.

by: Felicia Gilljam

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:01:42 +0000

Hi John and thanks for the comment - apologies for it sticking in the spam filter. No idea what triggered it…

I remember trying to read the occasional old classic in my teens (mostly when school forced me to) and it was awful. I think in the end to be able to get over the difference in language structures you need to either actually like the difference itself, or be really interested in the topic/into the story.

by: John Whitfield

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:04:09 +0000

I hope you’ll read the blog (and add your thoughts) once you’ve finished each chapter! I have struggled with a few bits (the latter half of chapter 5 in particular), but it hasn’t been the writing that’s bogged me down, it’s been when I can’t work out what Darwin is saying scientifically. Usually he is excellent at putting thought into words, but not all the time.

That said, I wouldn’t have wanted to try and read it in my teens. I think it helps to have read some other 19th century stuff first (Dickens would be ideal - he likes a comma, but, man, does he know how to entertain), and I found that I couldn’t read that with any pleasure until I was in my early 20s.

by: Felicia Gilljam

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:41:15 +0000

John; Excellent emulation of Darwin there.

Michael; Thanks for the heads-up!

by: Michael

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:27:02 +0000

Brace yourself for later chapters — when I read it I found the ones past the halfway mark (on geographic variation) a lot heavier.

by: JohnB

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:26:40 +0000

I had started reading The Origin several times in the past, but got distracted somehow and never finished it. I’m reading it again with every intention of doing so (along with his other three great books, all bound together in a wonderfully thick volume edited by E. O. Wilson, the ant guy). I actually like his writing style, liberal sprinkling of commas and all, and, if approached with a sense of curiosity rather than duty, it is a pleasure rather than the dead pull some people anticipate. (Even if his phraseology is a little contagious).