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neadodsWhile I followed Kitzmiller v Dover as much as possible in real time, I've been coming in a day late and a dollar short to Ed Hume's take on it: I only found out about his book on the trial, Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America's Soul, a few weeks ago, when there was a post about it on Pharyngula. And I only found out about the reading downtown when M sent me an email Thursday morning.
So I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I went. Particularly since I could hear a couple behind me discussing the case in terms that suggested that they were pretty vague on the situation, the people, and intelligent design itself. (It would turn out that they were people he'd discussed in a previous book, Over Here.
Humes was a little late - not enough to notice particularly (okay, I didn't look at my watch) but enough that he felt we merited an apology and an explanation... basically, he'd gotten off at the right Metro stop but, not knowing the streets, ended up at HUD. "Who weren't that interested in my writing."
Could have been worse; the Justice Department's down there too!
We started with a speech, rehearsed well enough to come across as extemporaneous except when he turned pages. (I could see this because I was dead front center, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but made me wonder if I was coming across as a twit later.) The speech started with the explanation of a great acronym: MEGO for "my eyes glaze over," which Hume said his wife had been writing at the margins as she edited the book. Then it wandered to the recently infamous "Preacher Teacher", who had been preaching to his classes and telling his students they were condemned to hell until one of his students taped him... at which point the community rallied around teacher David Paszkiewicz, turned on the student who provided audio proof, and the school banned recording devices. (Humes presented that like a punch line, which made me wonder if he and I were the only ones there already familiar with the case. This is why I shouldn't have been in the front; not only did I start feeling like teacher's pet, I couldn't "read" the room.) Finally, it covered Dover in highly abbreviated form (since the idea is, of course, to get us to buy the book rather than hear him talk about it!) Mostly he pointed out that as far as the students were concerned, their reaction to evolution was "Darwin... which President was he?" and that anyone who three brain cells would agree that the "evolution" described by the creationists is the dumbest idea ever. Unfortunately for that position, though, it's a "strawman theory" that has essentially no bearing on the science involved.
Then there was a reading. Now, the book itself reads like someone talking to you - his writing style is both clear and colloquial, is flavored with grace notes about the people involved that make them interesting as individuals, and punctuated with nice, dryly humorous turns of phrase. MEnoGO. At one point he broke into his own reading to provide a grace note to a grace note, saying he knew someone's neck turned red "because I was sitting right behind him."
As a writer? Tops. As a reader? Not so much. Sorry, Mr. Humes, you sounded a bit like you were reading a book report to the class, and weren't particularly sure how the sentences went together.
Then we were on to the Q&A and that's where things really took off. Humes knows not just the Dover case backwards and forwards, he knows the whole background, so we could really get into it. I think, however, he was slightly disappointed that there weren't any anti-evolutionists charging into the fray, as apparently there have been at other talks.
Did he think he was this court case's H.L. Mencken? (I can't read my own notes, but he was pretty flattered by the comparison.)
I brought up, not that coherently, the line that had impressed me so much about science and the cold war. He was interested in how I'd read into it, I think, but said that he thought that the rise of anti-evolution sentiment was really just a faction attempting to restore the pre-Scopes status quo.
What was it like to see Behe slaughtered on the stand? He went into the background of Behe's "irreducible complexity" theory and how it went down like a house of cards, but didn't really make a personal observation about it. He did say that Judge Jones considered that round of testimony "one for the law books."
He was asked if he knew that "Dr. Dino" Hovind was in jail, and if he wanted to comment. "I won't kick a man while he's down."
I asked, this time clearly, what drew him to this trial. After setting aside my miscomprehension that he'd only written true crime, he said that he liked writing court cases in particular because "pretty soon any idea you're interested in will walk through those doors, and they can't say 'no comment' when you ask about them."
Which of his books was he proudest of? "The one about juvenile court."
With a few last words about anti-evolutionism, which he sees as "a uniquely American issue" (we are, alas, beginning to export it), we moved on to the signing.
And that is where I got my biggest shock of the evening. The guy ahead of me, who had Over Here and Monkey Girl, asked that they both be signed with just author name and date. Usually I just want the same - the way books flow in and out of my hands, I want to keep their pass-on value high. But I've thoroughly enjoyed Monkey Girl - two opposable thumbs up from this reviewer! - so I asked for him to personalize it. I may never know why I asked him to sign it to Nea rather than what Nea is short for, but I'll never forget his response.
"You're the creature! The blog!"
Naturally I took this with suavity and grace, for which you should read that I blurted "OH, MY GOD!" and rocked back a step, covering my mouth before squeaking, "Creature of Mad Enthusiasms, yes. Ack! I know people can google open posts but, ACK!"
(Mr. Humes, if you're reading this, please realize that my friends list, my only indicator of how many people regularly read this blog, is a far-from-Pharyngula 169 people, most of whom I could pick out of a lineup* and the rest of whom will dump me like a hot rock as soon as every other post stops being about Doctor Who. So even though I know that Creature shows up on google, I hardly expected you to have noticed it! And I have set comments on this post open for anyone, which means you can thow in your $.02 if you wish.)
Anyway, he thanked me for helping to advertise the reading (he didn't mention the Darwinian pickup lines) and signed my copy "To Nea: All the best to a Creature of Mad Enthusiasm!"
Since I had come in with Monkey Girl, I gave Olssons its druthers by buying From Midnight to Dawn which probably sounds like science fiction, but is actually about the passage from Detroit, Michigan (codename: Midnight) to Windsor, Ontario (codename: Dawn) which was the last, vital stage of the Underground Railroad.
For all of y'all who didn't click the cut tags, I shall sum up thusly: Go buy Monkey Girl.
*There is one intriguing case of someone who obviously knows me well, but I can't tell from comments or her profile who the heck she is.
So I wasn't entirely sure what to expect when I went. Particularly since I could hear a couple behind me discussing the case in terms that suggested that they were pretty vague on the situation, the people, and intelligent design itself. (It would turn out that they were people he'd discussed in a previous book, Over Here.
Humes was a little late - not enough to notice particularly (okay, I didn't look at my watch) but enough that he felt we merited an apology and an explanation... basically, he'd gotten off at the right Metro stop but, not knowing the streets, ended up at HUD. "Who weren't that interested in my writing."
Could have been worse; the Justice Department's down there too!
We started with a speech, rehearsed well enough to come across as extemporaneous except when he turned pages. (I could see this because I was dead front center, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but made me wonder if I was coming across as a twit later.) The speech started with the explanation of a great acronym: MEGO for "my eyes glaze over," which Hume said his wife had been writing at the margins as she edited the book. Then it wandered to the recently infamous "Preacher Teacher", who had been preaching to his classes and telling his students they were condemned to hell until one of his students taped him... at which point the community rallied around teacher David Paszkiewicz, turned on the student who provided audio proof, and the school banned recording devices. (Humes presented that like a punch line, which made me wonder if he and I were the only ones there already familiar with the case. This is why I shouldn't have been in the front; not only did I start feeling like teacher's pet, I couldn't "read" the room.) Finally, it covered Dover in highly abbreviated form (since the idea is, of course, to get us to buy the book rather than hear him talk about it!) Mostly he pointed out that as far as the students were concerned, their reaction to evolution was "Darwin... which President was he?" and that anyone who three brain cells would agree that the "evolution" described by the creationists is the dumbest idea ever. Unfortunately for that position, though, it's a "strawman theory" that has essentially no bearing on the science involved.
Then there was a reading. Now, the book itself reads like someone talking to you - his writing style is both clear and colloquial, is flavored with grace notes about the people involved that make them interesting as individuals, and punctuated with nice, dryly humorous turns of phrase. MEnoGO. At one point he broke into his own reading to provide a grace note to a grace note, saying he knew someone's neck turned red "because I was sitting right behind him."
As a writer? Tops. As a reader? Not so much. Sorry, Mr. Humes, you sounded a bit like you were reading a book report to the class, and weren't particularly sure how the sentences went together.
Then we were on to the Q&A and that's where things really took off. Humes knows not just the Dover case backwards and forwards, he knows the whole background, so we could really get into it. I think, however, he was slightly disappointed that there weren't any anti-evolutionists charging into the fray, as apparently there have been at other talks.
Did he think he was this court case's H.L. Mencken? (I can't read my own notes, but he was pretty flattered by the comparison.)
I brought up, not that coherently, the line that had impressed me so much about science and the cold war. He was interested in how I'd read into it, I think, but said that he thought that the rise of anti-evolution sentiment was really just a faction attempting to restore the pre-Scopes status quo.
What was it like to see Behe slaughtered on the stand? He went into the background of Behe's "irreducible complexity" theory and how it went down like a house of cards, but didn't really make a personal observation about it. He did say that Judge Jones considered that round of testimony "one for the law books."
He was asked if he knew that "Dr. Dino" Hovind was in jail, and if he wanted to comment. "I won't kick a man while he's down."
I asked, this time clearly, what drew him to this trial. After setting aside my miscomprehension that he'd only written true crime, he said that he liked writing court cases in particular because "pretty soon any idea you're interested in will walk through those doors, and they can't say 'no comment' when you ask about them."
Which of his books was he proudest of? "The one about juvenile court."
With a few last words about anti-evolutionism, which he sees as "a uniquely American issue" (we are, alas, beginning to export it), we moved on to the signing.
And that is where I got my biggest shock of the evening. The guy ahead of me, who had Over Here and Monkey Girl, asked that they both be signed with just author name and date. Usually I just want the same - the way books flow in and out of my hands, I want to keep their pass-on value high. But I've thoroughly enjoyed Monkey Girl - two opposable thumbs up from this reviewer! - so I asked for him to personalize it. I may never know why I asked him to sign it to Nea rather than what Nea is short for, but I'll never forget his response.
"You're the creature! The blog!"
Naturally I took this with suavity and grace, for which you should read that I blurted "OH, MY GOD!" and rocked back a step, covering my mouth before squeaking, "Creature of Mad Enthusiasms, yes. Ack! I know people can google open posts but, ACK!"
(Mr. Humes, if you're reading this, please realize that my friends list, my only indicator of how many people regularly read this blog, is a far-from-Pharyngula 169 people, most of whom I could pick out of a lineup* and the rest of whom will dump me like a hot rock as soon as every other post stops being about Doctor Who. So even though I know that Creature shows up on google, I hardly expected you to have noticed it! And I have set comments on this post open for anyone, which means you can thow in your $.02 if you wish.)
Anyway, he thanked me for helping to advertise the reading (he didn't mention the Darwinian pickup lines) and signed my copy "To Nea: All the best to a Creature of Mad Enthusiasm!"
Since I had come in with Monkey Girl, I gave Olssons its druthers by buying From Midnight to Dawn which probably sounds like science fiction, but is actually about the passage from Detroit, Michigan (codename: Midnight) to Windsor, Ontario (codename: Dawn) which was the last, vital stage of the Underground Railroad.
For all of y'all who didn't click the cut tags, I shall sum up thusly: Go buy Monkey Girl.
*There is one intriguing case of someone who obviously knows me well, but I can't tell from comments or her profile who the heck she is.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-17 11:19 pm (UTC)You're the creature! The blog!"
Date: 2007-02-18 01:39 am (UTC){{{{proud hug}}}}
And that's the sound of the whole time space continuum collapsing from the strain of coincidence and synchronicity!
Sal