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Summary: Fitting Epitaph To A Glorious Career In Science And Prose
Review: "I Have Landed", Stephen Jay Gould's tenth - and last - collection of essays compiled primarily from his Natural History magazine column "This View Of Life" is his most personal, touching on themes as diverse as his own family history, the relevance of science to art - and vice versa, and the meaning of evolution. There is a brilliant essay describing how Vladimir Nabokov was a fine scientist as well as a literary prose artist, and how his scientific skill in studying and describing butterflies proved invaluable in his fictional observations of people and their behavior. Another splendid essay examines how Freud struggled to understand evolutionary theory and make use of it in his own pioneering work in psychoanalysis. There are also Gould's eloquent rebuttals against those determined to remove evolution as a vital part of science education written for both the general public and his fellow scientists. Yet his most profound, most universal writing is saved for his own family history and how it oddly is tied to the tragic terrorist attacks on the United States over a year ago.Stephen Jay Gould was our finest popularizer of science and among natural history's most eloquent essayists. His untimely demise at the relatively young age of 60 is a tragic loss not only to paleobiology and evolutionary biology, but to all of humanity. "I Have Landed" is a fitting epitaph to Gould's glorious careers in science and the art of letters.
Rating: 
Summary: An almost perfect landing.
Review: Darwin disciple, Stephen Jay Gould, described himself as a "paleontologist by trade," and a "card-carrying liberal in politics" (p. 218). In this anthology of thirty-one essays (some of which are stronger than others), selected from his 300 contributions to "Natural History" magazine, Gould not only reveals his interests in a diversity of subjects including "the scourge of syphilis," Victorian evangelicalism, Karl Marx's funeral, Vladimir Nabokov's (LOLITA) credentials as a lepidopterist, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, but he also shines "the factual torch of modern science" (p. 260)on creationist attacks on evolution, evolutionary theory, and Biblical creation stories. "Let me suggest that, as patriotic Americans" he writes, for instance, in response to the Kansas Board of Education's 1999 decision to remove evolution and big-bang theory from the curriculum, "we should cringe in embarrassment that, at the dawn of a new, technological millennium, a jurisdiction in our heartland has opted to suppress one of the greatest triumphs of human discovery. Evolution cannot be dismissed as a peripheral subject, for Darwin's concept operates as the central organizing principle of all biological science. No one who has not read the Bible or the Bard can be considered educated in Western traditions; similarly, no one ignorant of evolution can understand science" (p. 215). At a time when we need voices like his the most, this intellectually stimulating anthology--Gould's tenth and final book--is a rather sad reminder of what a brilliant, scientific mind the world lost on May 20, 2002, when Gould died at age sixty. G. Merritt
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Summary: still at the top of his game
Review: Gould intended that this book would be the last of his 10-volume series of collected essays, but it also became his last work of any sort. It is a fitting end-piece to the career of this original thinker, exciting writer, and dynamic personality. Gould has been dismissed as a "popularizer" by some rather snooty intellectual types, but this is a denigration of an honorable goal: the bringing of difficult scientific concepts to the general public in a readable way without ever sacrificing accuracy or complexity. In this book, Gould himself speaks to the importance of this function, and eloquently defends the value of this sort of work. As usual, he approaches the subject obliquely, starting off with an analysis of the literary and musical achievements of Gilbert and Sullivan! (Of course, Gould has plenty of scholarly work in his resumé as well; he could never be dismissed as a "mere" popularizer.) Any of Gould's myriad readers will want this final volume. His powers were still at their peak in his last work.
Rating: 
Summary: grain & chaff
Review: Gould's later books, including this one, seem more self-indulgent and wordy than earlier ones. I found quite a few interesting tidbits and insights, but had to read a lot of unnecessary verbiage to get to them.
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Summary: Read the Preface last!
Review: Gould's passing is a loss to essay writing. No-one ever faulted Gould for the wide reach of his interests. As with most of his previous collections of the columns he wrote for Natural History magazine, the spectrum covered here is spacious in both time and topic. From syphilis to spandrels, he uses his writing talents to reveal, explain, bemuse and provoke the reader. As the final collection of these commentaries, the title is appropriate in many ways. Even here, Gould exhibits his adroit phrasing - some readers thought it was derived from the Apollo 1969 Lunar landing, not the record of an immigrant coming ashore at New York a century ago. Gould touches on this "landing" so often that his reputed bridling at being edited shows as a misplaced conceit. Readers may wander through this collection at random without loss. With eight main divisions, selection should be easy. The topics listed however, are anything but intuitive. Instead, they represent his - part of his - clever language manipulation. Each reader must select preferences - each reviewer will disclose theirs here. Whatever subject is addressed, you are guaranteed to be confronted with new ideas while enhancing your vocabulary. Some of the new ideas may seem arcane, or obscure. Ironies abound in this collection. The essay on J.F Blumenbach, for example, one of the early classifiers of race, follows a twisted path. You are told the origins of "Causcasian" to describe Europeans. At the same time you are given a stern lecture on preconceived notions when reporting data. By the end of the essay you aren't certain whether to admire Blumenbach or revile him. Gould becomes caught up in many ironies of his own making. While promoting his stance as a staunch defender of Darwin, here, as in other collections, he never fails to take a swipe at the naturalist. Darwin is castigated for his racist views, his demeaning of women and his elitist social position. Gould also, predictably, unleashes his well-worn lash to flail that equus mortus - "reductionism". Like the emperor's robe, a close look reveals its absence. These are old themes to the regular Gould reader and we mustn't chasten too harshly. There's comfort in the familiar. The four concluding essays on the World Trade Centre assault reinforce the need for stronger editing. While we in Canada are gratified that Gould found welcome refuge in Halifax, four repetitive essays only dull the impact of the event. These, however, may prepare the reader for that you were advised to first skip - the Preface. Someone who has worked diligently for so many years ceaselessly producing articles of consummate interest with originality and skill deserves a bit of boast. Gould was anything but lazy. Given the vast research and his sharing of interests with us, he deserves our applause. Yet, the Preface to this book, even at the end of a notable career, is more than a little overbearing. That's why it should be saved to last. Readership of this book is split between the long-term Gould fans and newcomers just getting acquainted with this famous essayist. The fan will know what to expect, but the beginner should proceed with caution. Whether this book suits as a starting point for novice Gouldians is dubious at best. Read earlier books and work up to this one. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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Summary: Gould delivers
Review: I had finally gotten used to Gould's unique style of writting when he happened to pass away. As sad as that is, at least he goes out on top. His last book is one of his better works. Many issues are covered in this book including a perspective of his family coming into the USA, are very interesting. Gould tackles various issues from fossils to Freud's wierd evolutionry ideas to views on science and on the Bible. Gould even tackles problematic issues such as the defintion of evolution and the Kansas school board decision. Gould goes on to mention that various scientific categories define evolution various ways, and that this causes much confusion. Gould is right when he argues that evolution is not progressive, however, he still fails to give an accurate definiton of what evolution means. The Kansas board decision was not to eliminate evolution from the science classroom, rather the decision was to keep science in the science classroom and remove historical theories from an objective field. Many good stories covering a wide range of material. If you like this book try Gould's Ever Since Darwin, because IMO it is his best work.
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Summary: Rich in observation and scientific insight
Review: I Have Landed is the tenth and final collection of essays based on Gould's contributions to Natural History magazine, and provides over thirty writings that demonstrate his beliefs and scientific insights. From icebergs to the Andes, these are rich in observation and scientific insight and flavored with Gould's own particular spice of wry humor.
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Summary: The tenth and final collection
Review: I was a little bit disconcerted when I saw the title of this, Stephen Jay Gould's last collection of essays. I thought: has he anticipated his own sadly premature death with the metaphoric "I Have Landed" or is this a kind of melancholy coincidence, or perhaps I am reading into the title something different from what it warrants? As it turns out, "I Have Landed" is not a reference to the Lethe shore of the poet, but a reference to his grandfather's arrival at Ellis Island on September 11, 1901, exactly, to the day, one century before the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. It is from this coincidence that Gould embarks upon some musings that form the touchstone for this, his tenth and last collection of essays. He is a man who will be sorely missed, a complete original, at once the very embodiment of a meticulous scientist and an establishment New York liberal. He is one of our greatest essayists, a humanist and a quintessentially rational man who has often argued in favor of the value and importance of religious thought. Born in modest circumstance, descendent of Hungarian immigrants (as was another of our most prolific writers, Isaac Asimov) he fell in love (as he recounts in these pages) with the NYC Museum of National History as a child and never lost his love for "the odd little tidbits," nor his sense of himself as a natural historian. He is a "student of snails" (p. 324), a classical nerd "shorter than average" (p. 246) who spent more time at the Hayden Planetarium and the Tyrannosaurus exhibition than he did playing his beloved baseball, a paleontologist who became not only a gifted essayist but an international celebrity. It's a neat trick what Stephen Jay Gould has done with his life, and it is a neat trick that he "chose" (if I may) to leave this vale of tears almost immediately after finishing not just this book, but more significantly, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, the "life work" of his "mature years, twenty years in the making and 1,500 pages in the printing." It has been noted that people typically die after a long illness not the day before Christmas or the day before their birthday or the day before the christening of their youngest grandchild, but the day after. And the very great choose to leave us only after they have finished some compelling project to which they have devoted the last years of their life. Gould remarked in the Preface on the coincidence of his finishing these twin projects together in time for publication in the "palindromic" year of 2002--(how he loves the odd fact, the detail that others might miss, and how he rejoices in sharing such "tidbits")--while recalling the earlier "conjunction" of the near simultaneous publication of his first book of collected essays, Ever Since Darwin, and his "first technical book for professional colleagues," Ontogeny and Phylogeny in 1977. I wonder if he knew that these would be the bookends of his life. This collection is touted on the blurb as "the most personal book he has ever published"; nonetheless it is very much like the nine other collections. There is the usual intricate and sometimes whimsical analysis of a bewildering range of subjects anchored to natural history with (of course) some asides on baseball. The style has gotten a trifle more ornate, the qualifications upon qualifications a bit more belabored, the subordinated clauses in the parallel construction of his architectured sentences a bit more in number, but otherwise he is still the same man, ponderously thorough and passionately alive in argument and analysis. Some old subjects (the limitations of reduction in the biological sciences; the misleading popularizations of evolutionary ideas; the excessive ink the dinosaurs get, the delusion of racism, etc) are returned to and reworked. There is a convincing argument in favor of Vladimir Nabokov as a scientist in addition to his work as a literary artist. There is a return to Freud and his "evolutionary fantasy." (Freud could not shake himself from a Lamarckian view). There is a look into the origin and meaning and misuse of such words as "syphilis" and "evolution," noting respectively that science has done a poor job of treating syphilis and that the meaning of "evolution" has changed. (Darwin did not use the word in the first edition of Origin of Species, although, as Gould notes, he ended the book slyly with the word "evolved.") Less anyone think that Gould is all learning and little insight (a laughable idea considering his contributions to evolutionary theory, his punctuated equilibria and his spandrels, to name the best known) consider this salient (and to some extent, self-addressed) question from page 4: "How do scientists and other researchers blast and bumble toward their complex mixture of conclusions (great factual discoveries of enduring worth mixed with unconscious social prejudices of astonishing transparency to later generations)? How indeed do we escape the prejudices of our times, and to what extent does this apply to Gould himself? There are drawings and black and white prints and in all 39 chapters in this handsome book. Gould ends where he began with his grandfather Papa Joe with thoughts about New York and its people adorned with the majestic cadences of Ecclesiastes, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted...." And a time to be landed. Gould, no doubt, has landed not on the Lethe shore but near the Cambrian sea where he might take a closer look at those myriad creatures to which he devoted so much of his life, and from which he learned so much that he was able to share with us.
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Summary: The passing of an era
Review: That's how one review in the media described this - the tenth and final collection of Gould's essays written for Natural History. Another commented on the fact that Gould knew when to move on - to give up writing scientific essays, even though he is widely recognized as being the first to "popularize" science using this format. Most scientists avoid writing essays, largely they argue, because it's inappropriate for science. You wouldn't be too far off however if you thought that perhaps it's also because Gould had already mastered the genre, and absolutely no scientist wishes to come second to Gould. If you know only one thing about the "science wars" it's a good bet it's you know that mentioning the name Stephen Jay Gould to many scientists is akin to waving a red flag at a bull. Much of science reading will be that much duller now. Gould's death from cancer earlier this week makes this last group of 30 essays truly his final collection. It's thus likely to be much more popular that many previous ones. All the more so when you start reading and see here that Gould is much more personal, ranges further and deeper with his philosophical thinking, and refreshingly is less polemical in his views. Although on this last point in an essay on the Human Genome Project and its revelation that our genome contains only about a third of the number of genes predicted, Gould takes his mandatory swipe at the "Dawkinsian" scientists and says that the HGP shows "the failure of reductionism". Another essay I enjoyed is Gould's discussion of recent feathered dinosaur finds and their significance to understanding the origins of flight. Also interesting is his thinking on the supposed incompatibilty of the humanities and science (he sees a commonality of motive, if not methodology) These are just two of the more contentious topics in their respective areas of science and so it's natural that Gould would tackle them with gusto. His usual self-confident, opinionated, the-world-according-to-Gould, style of writing remains on display and still has the capacity to annoy. This time though it's definitely tempered by Gould's openess and willingness to share more of himself. Gould begins and ends talking about family and connectedness through time and the similarity of the tree of life with that of a family tree. Gould speaks of his continuation of the dreams that his beloved grandfather arrived on these shores with on September 11, 1901. Stephen writes poignantly of the aborted celebration of the centenary of his grandfather's arrival at Ellis Island; his flight to New York on September 11, 2001 was diverted for obvious reasons. Read the following tribute to his grandfather and then allow yourself to see a different Gould than the abrasive and boastful one we thought he was. "Dear Papa Joe, I have been faithful to your dream of persistence and attentive to a hope that the increments of each worthy generation may buttress the continuity of evolution...I have finally won the right to restate your noble words and to tell you that their inspiration still lights my journey: I HAVE LANDED. But I also can't help wondering what comes next!" Goodbye Stephen Jay Gould. Both you and your books will be greatly missed
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Summary: At the pinnacle of life
Review: The late Stephen Jay Gould just managed to close this huge chapter in his life before leaving us with an incredible heap of reflections, just in his whole collection of assays (300 of them), not to say in all his other books. Such a fertile writer might give the impression of scarce profundity, nothing more different from the truth. Gould guides us through history, art and science with such an ease that makes you feel a Gaia voyager in a never ending trip. He was such a heuristic and resourceful guide, you end up completely spellbound with his eloquent digresions. Lovely, just lovely, as always.
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