 Wonderful Life Indeed.
Although not described as such, Stephen Jay Gould's book "Wonderful Life, The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History" is in fact case studies of all the aspects revealed in the case study of the discovery of, and subsequent reassessment of, a Cambrian largely soft bodied fossil assemblage. The importance of the message that Gould sends is that it illustrates the consequences that a closed mind can have on the value of 'original' research. As a cautionary tale that message applies to any research on any subject that treads new ground, no matter what is the subject of of that research.
One of these days a work will be published that exemplifies the importance of being wrong. The condemnation of speculative 'kite flying,' whether right or wrong, has the effect of closing possible new avenues of research, for who knows when the final definitive aspect of any research on any subject is actually reached?
That then is the real and major importance of this book, in addition of course, to its great value when describing early examples of animal life forms.
Geoffrey Fairclough. Author of "Rammmi's Children."
A must read for people interested in the history of life
Wonderfull Life of Stepehen Gould was probably one of the first books I did read on history of life. Although several minor points have been proven to be wrong the overal picture is still true and this book will never fail to increase our interest and curiostity about how life evolved many millon years ago. In many of the books I did read on subjects related to evolution and paleontolgoy I found mentions to Stephen Gould and/or the Cambrian explosion. Only therefore I am already happy to have read it. Every time Cambian explosion is mentioned images of the rich fauna described by Stephen Gould in this book comes to my mind.
 "Wonderful" Tries Too Hard, Remains Pretty Good
Overview:
Gould marries science and chance in describing the history in and of the Burgess Shale. He asserts that Charles Walcott, discoverer of the Cambrian fossils in the Shale, wrongly classified these weird animals based on philosophical preconceptions--a mistake that stood for several generations. These animals, most of which are extinct, account for all (or nearly all) of the phyla in existence today, and Gould infers that chance decimation--not natural selection--plays the ultimate role in life's history.
Despite its shortcomings--among them, awkward format and a host of unqualified, perhaps unrecognized assumptions--Gould serves up a daring and not-too-unpleasant read. I recommend it.
Themes:
-Evolution is not predictable. It is not progress. "Wind the tape back," he says repeatedly. "Wind back the tape of life to the early days of the Burgess Shale; let it play again from an identical starting point, and the chance becomes vanishingly small that anything like human intelligence would grace the replay."
-Early experimentation, later decimation. Gould notes that animal life appears in the fossil record in bursts, rather than a stately progression from simple-to-complex. It is then decimated by catastrophe, not competition ("When diversity plummets to 4 percent of its former value, we must entertain the idea that some groups lose by something akin to sheer bad luck"), and evolution is left to produce variations on a few remaining body plans.
-Wonder, weirdness, science couched in literature. Gould dwells on the "500 million years of wonderful stories, triumphs and tragedies" since the Cambrian explosion, the varied and often strange body plans of the Cambrian animals, and the place of contingency within science: Literature does a better job of acknowledging contingency than does science, he says, and cites numerous books and movies (including Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," from whence this book borrows its title) to illustrate his point. He even arranges Chapter III ("The Burgess Drama") into acts and scenes, as if to emphasize that history could have been written many ways.
-Defense of paleontology's place among the sciences. "Why has the story [of the wild Cambrian proliferation] not taken hold, or been regarded as momentous?" Gould queries. His emphasis on the "wonder" of life, and the great care with which paleontologists unlock its secrets, reverberates throughout the book. He seems gently but genuinely offended as he quotes Luie Alvarez: "I don't like to say bad things about paleontologists, but they're really not very good scientists. They're more like stamp collectors." In a subtle way, and as much as any other goal, the book seems to focus on refuting that sentiment.
Strengths:
Gould is exquisitely--almost painfully--careful to explain every detail of his argument with copious sidebars, parentheses, illustrations, and asterisks. He is relatively gentle on Walcott, Alvarez, and others he dislikes or with whom he disagrees. He recognizes that scientists, as humans, are subject to the same philosophical pitfalls (i.e., blind conformity) as other humans--and pokes a stick in the collective eye of those who would lobby for scientific infallibility.
Most fascinating, though, is his well-supported statement that "Virtually all major groups of modern animals" appear in the fossil record "within the minuscule span, geologically speaking, of a few million years." And, "The history of life is a story of massive removal followed by differentiation within a few surviving stocks, not the conventional tale of steadily increasing excellence, complexity, and diversity." Regardless of the origins of this `instant diversity,' it was and is most unexpected--especially since it seems to be the pattern of life. I like open questions and paradigm shifts, so Gould's careful history of the Burgess re-discovery intrigued me.
Weaknesses:
Gould's "literary" presentation is contrived. Certainly, he is well-read--but inserting William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Omar Kayyam, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, biblical proverbs, and a recognizable phrase uttered by Jesus simply doesn't work with the material. Or at least, it doesn't work as it is presented. For example, Gould utters this awkward ejaculation:
"I write this book to pay my respects, and to discharge an intellectual debt for the thrill that such creatures can inspire in a profession that might reinterpret Quasimodo's lament as an optimistic plea for fellowship: Oh why was I not made of stone like these!"
Why indeed. Or consider this ill-used proverb:
"...the mere pattern of life and death offers no evidence that the survivors directly vanquished the losers. The sources of victory are as varied and mysterious as the four phenomena proclaimed so wonderful that we know them not (Proverbs 30:19)--the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid."
In these and other cases, he seems to be "Goulding the lily"--as if the material weren't good enough without the contrived literary references. Arranging the "Burgess Drama" into acts and scenes as he does is fine, too, but in context of the awkward quotations, it merely adds to the problem.
And though Gould warns us of assumptions, he falls victim to a few unwarranted ones himself. He continually refers to "the awesome improbability of human evolution" (I understand his point, but what IS the improbability, exactly, and how does he know?) and assumes to speak for "us" and why we misread the Burgess Shale:
"I don't think that any particular secret, mystery, or inordinate subtlety underlies the reasons for our allegiance to these false iconographies of ladder and cone [indicative of evolutionary "progress"]. They are adopted because they nurture our hopes for a universe of intrinsic meaning defined in our terms. We simply cannot bear the implications of Omar Kayyam's honesty..."
And so on. I found this tendency mildly irritating because in no way does Gould speak for me, though he claims to do so throughout the book. I much prefer Gould the paleontologist to Gould the psychologist.
Conclusion:
I gave "Wonderful Life" four stars because, in spite of its shortcomings, it is truly an iconoclastic book--not wantonly destructive, and not quite surgical, but devastating nonetheless. It respectfully, yet irreverently, raises radical points about the nature of evolution that demand our attention today. I recommend it.
Wonderful Life Review
Beloved, clear, boundlessly enthusiastic Stephen Jay Gould tells us about the 570-million-years-old fossils of the Burgess Shale. This book is a mystery-adventure. The clues are a treasure trove of animal types: misunderstood, misnamed, dismissed--until a group of dedicated detectives reexamined the evidence. Their findings remind Gould of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, for they offer the opportunity to imagine what life on earth might have been like, had our ancestors not survived the various extinctions since the Cambrian Explosion.
The most famous Gould's book
This is one of the most famous books from S.J. Gould! I actually bought it because two of my professors recommend it for me saying that every biologist shall read it once in his/her life, since the portuguese translation is out of print now, I bought the original paperback edition form W.W. Norton and I'm really delighted. Great book! Well-writen by its unique style, the acclaimed Gould book calls attention to one of the most exciting discover of the 20th century! I recommend!
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