It's Friday. That seems to be the correct time for whimsical thoughts.
Here's a note. It's not LBC, but it was inspired by the by-line of a lister.
For those listers who hate whimsy, please delete this note immediately. I
apologise for wasting the bandwidth of the list, but I just couldn't resist.
Ed Quinn commented:
>Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system
of Government....
>however in physics...
I thought the comment was great. The Physics were originally separate.
Putting them together seemed strange. Physics, Lady-in-the-lake. Doesn't
work for science either. Then I thought, "let's take this from a different
angle. Perhaps this is a good thing." The following note resulted:
Hmmm. Ed, I'm not sure about government, but if one considers how much of
modern Physics has been developed by countries where the culture references
sword-bearing or martial women, one might well come to the conclusion that
it is a pre-requisite in order for any country to have greatness in the
sciences...
If one also considers the early anglo/german/scandinavian citizenry
surrounded by armed women, all singing opera and slinging swords out of
ponds/lakes/burns (don't forget Brunhilde, Boadicea and Grendel's mother,
(monstrous, but very maternal)), one could well imagine that they would have
had to invent some sort of intellectual structure just to try and make sense
of it all. From chaos comes order etc. The French had Joan of Arc. The
Italians had to make do with lots of red wine and grappa. Those citizens who
refused to study Physics were reduced to hopeless drug addicts writing
strange poetry and creating pseudo-sciences like Psychology. Freud took cold
showers every time he thought of his mother. Lewis Carroll saw rabbits
running from little girls and strong-minded woman chopping off men's heads.
What could be clearer? Just think, a couple of courses in the binomial
theorem and he could have led a quiet life as a country parson. Instead we
have been treated to a century of analysis on whether a cigar is just a
cigar or sometimes it's a rabbit.
This situation has existed for a long long time. The Greeks had Artemis with
her weaponry. That seems to have set them off developing the structured
method of thought in Natural Philosophy that evenutally separated into the
new sciences. Copericus in Poland saw hordes of people bearing swords and
images of Mary. A new structure of the heavens soon resulted.
The influence of the martial maiden on scientific thought is not limited to
the old world. The Unites States began to make great strides in the sciences
right about the time they installed the Statue of Liberty and took on the
image of the sword-bearing Lady Justice. Benjamin Franklin became a man of
scientific renown right after travelling to London and visiting the Old
Bailey with, wait for it, a statue of a sword-wielding maiden on the roof. A
woman standing on a roof holding an iron bar. And we credit Franklin with
the invention of the lightning rod. The influence is evident.
If we take my own situation as a case in point, I have a mother who runs
marathons and sister who batters men (bad men, and only when required, but
nevertheless a pattern emerges). With such close family connections my
choices in education were clear. I took a degree in Physics with a minor in
Philosophy. It didn't work completely; I am still surrounded by
sword-bearing women and confusion. My mother won her age group in the US
Marine marathon in 1998 (in her mid 60s) and my sister is a business
manager/surfer with a mean right hook living in Australia. As for my
wife..., well I won't go there... Half the management of the hi-tech firm I
work at is made up of stylish women who will claw the shirt right off your
back if you even think of wronging them. To compensate I started a technical
project applying symmetric analysis from Physics to electronic data
distribution.
The question is, do we have a formula for success? A pattern to reproduce?
Take one pretty woman. Give her a sword. Tell her to run around waving it,
or to perch on buildings in plain view. Will everybody nearby suddenly start
thinking strange new thoughts? Inquiring minds wanting to know...
Certainly martial womanhood is all about us. At first it seems confusing, a
martial maternalism with a salubrious effect. But somehow, after years of
reflection, I see the whole situation more clearly. I am beginning to feel
quite strongly that the presence of those sword-wielding ladies in our
culture may the only thing driving us all forward. So bring on those
Boadiceas and Brunhildes. Lay on a Xena Warrior Princess or two. The more
the merrier. Before long we may be out among the stars.
Mark Hooper
72 TR6
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