"Life is not only stranger than we imagine; life is stranger than we can imagine."
~ J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964)
As quoted in Robert Sapolsky's "Emperor Has No Clothes Award" acceptance speech, at the 25th annual convention of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (23 November 2003)
More J.B.S. Haldane online.
4 comments:
I just got absorbed in Haldane's bio, thanks. It is always interesting to read about someone who you actually know about, but don't know their name, or like Haldane, I had many stories in my head of people, like oxygen experiments, but I hadn't realized they were all one person.
It seems most references suggest that he said "queerer" rather than "stranger" which I think gives the quote a more uncanny feel.
Given Haldane's era & British nationality, I agree that "queerer" is probably more accurate and definitely communicates a more uncanny feel. Given Sapolsky's era (our own), I can see why he may have fudged the quotation to avoid possible offense or misinterpretation.
I wish I kept better notes regarding how I stumbled across these things. No doubt I found Haldane via the Sapolsky link, but now I can't remember how I wound up on that page. I got absorbed in Haldane, too, spending an afternoon reading his correspondence with Arnold Lunn. Haldane was quite a character.
I finally recalled where I read about Haldane! It was in Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". The "queerer" quote was on page 17 and the pages 242-245 are dedicated to his family.
I don't think I'd ever encountered Haldane's name before -- or if I did, it was in the context of his work as a geneticist, and I promptly forgot it. I'm fascinated that a "short" history could afford to devote 3 pages to the Haldanes (presumably the famous father & son).
What a burden of history we carry into the 21st Century! I can almost forgive the public education system for ignoring most of it to charm us with tall tales of Pocahontas & Paul Revere.
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