A few good books
Reading about the Earth
Just in time for the holidays is
a great new book. After reading
about Edward O. Wilson’s “The
Diversity of Life” (Belknap
Harvard),! had to gooutandbuy
it. He’s a well-known biologist, a
Harvard professor, but this is not
a textbook. It’s one of those
deliciously special books I wish
everybody would read because
it explains so much so well, and
beautifully.
At the Earth Summit the U.S.
delegation stood alone in oppo
sition to the rest of the world
against the biodiversity protec
tion treaty. Ourown Endangered
Species Act is up for
reauthorization and might be
endangered itself. (Sec “What is
a species?” by Stephen Jay G ou Id,
“Discover”, Dec. ’92) These are
two of the most serious issues of
our time because the health of
various populations reflect the
health of various ecosystems,
which add up to the health of the
whole biosphere.
Another worthwhile book is
"Last Animals at the Zoo — How
mass extinction can be stopped”
by Colin Tudge. It’s all about
modern conservation or “cap
tive” breeding programs. You
might have noticed the recent
news about the ongoing demise
of wild populations of tigers,
both Bengal and Siberian. There
are enough tigers in captivity to
keep the species going — so
they are not exactly endangered
— but the gene pool has to be
carefully managed. The zoo as
“ark” is a fascinating story.
Tudge projects, like the World
Health Organization, that the hu
man population will continue to
expand, peak at 10 billion to 12
billion in another generation or
so, then decline, “one hopes of
its own volition.” After a few
centuries we, or they, might re
store enough natural habitation
for the release of many currently
endangered species, provided we
begin the programs to carry them
over while enough individual
animals remain for an adequately
diverse gene pool.
To “balance” my reading I also
absorbed "The Covenant of the
Wild — Why animals chose do
mestication” by Stephen
Budiansky. He argues that the
process of domestication began
with natural selection, sort of
accidentally, and continues as a
perfectly natural evolutionary
process by which the animals
most fit to survive in the modern
- M
/ realize how much of
what we think is im
portant rests on our
various assumptions
about the future.
-99 -
world turn out to be those which
have evolved into a mutually
dependent coexistence with our
selves: our livestock.
He makes some interesting
points but makes it sound like
the charismatic fauna we like to
identify as wildlife are destined
to bite the dust and that’snature’s
way.
In reading these books and
thinking about these things, I
realize how much of what we
think is important rests on our
various assumptions about the
future. Some projectionsare more
accurate than others. Two weeks
ago it was again reported that
stratospheric ozone depletion is
worse than expected.
Are you realistically preparing
and educating yourself for the
future?
—Daniel Clinchard
Baldridge
Continued from Page 6
I here are a few in every group
hat chose a darker mentor. Satan
md his ilk, claim a great number of
rollowers among the little children
Hut t he impulse is the same, toseek
:>ut means power, protection and
earlcssness.
Comic books, then, offer a fairly
nild alternative to the flagellations,
elf inflicted or otherwise, so often
issociaied with youthful devotion,
hey were cheap, disposable and
eft no permanent scars.
Why were they so condemned
>y our adult counterparts?
Those who watched the miser
ble daytime dramas of my youth
- u
Both skin mags and
comics had to be
hidden from your
parents. Both were
sweated over and
read until they fell to
pieces. And not a few
comic pages were
stuck together per
manently by a young
boy's overenthusiasm
for some scantily
clad super heroine.
-tt •
— ■■ ■ ■ ... I
have no ground from which to
speak about any rotting a way of the
mind possibly caused by comic
books.
I knew this even then: We will
have our indulgences.
Hut today’s comic books, like
the daytimes and evening dramas
of today, have changed. They have
pretensions of literature, culture
and moral instruction. That seems
too bad, really. Because soon there
won’t be any outlet for the raw
untreated nightmare that is adoles
cence that doesn’t involve a video
game. Skateboarding is the obvi
ous exception, but requires a good
deal of coordination unavailable to
■ a lot of kids just coming into their
own.
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■ ■■ I . II —J
"Don} voor<7 Son, II doesn't
hurl- people, -Ifa
bindb olown-Voiwn Srt \J
<-—r'.
—______Paul Tisdale
Kepfield
Continued from Page 7
ers, such as Boneyard Press. Hi;
thinking takes a step-by-step ap
proach — get accepted by the
smaller presses, allowing lime tc
improve his art and techniques
and then break into the big time
places like DC Comics.
,
His ultimate goal?
“I’d like to wake up late and
draw comics all day. To make a
living off doing my art, have a good
’ body of work with a client I enjoy
doing business with on magazines,
comics, whatever.
I
“I’m down at theboltom, but I’ve
got my hand on theladder, and I’m
not going to let go,”
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