First 9 Pages of Weschler Response

Upon first read, I became worried that I had picked up the wrong book. Although interesting, the first nine pages seemed to be a load of random facts and information. Multiple reviews provided more insight; the thought process of the book follows ideas of inspiration, and why, according to the author, certain events and ideas came into being. I believe the story of the ant and the spores was an introduction to the following profiles, giving background to the bits of information thrown around. In the way that the ant contributes to the rest of the rainforest by producing more spores, the men profiled also contributed to their society, sparking other contributions to add on to their discoveries and theories, and so on. Matson’s writings provoked Griffith’s expedition, Delani’s Korsakov’s syndrome pushed Sonnabend in creating a new theory of memory, just as the dead ant’s spores causes more spores to be produced, creating a continual process. As we focused on culture in Tuesday’s class, I tried to tie this into the reading as well. The author’s intention could possibly be to tie together the way different cultures influence and interact with each other, and the way cultures create off of one another. Cultures can thrive off of one another, as the examples in the book thrived off of those before them.