I have long wondered at the identity of the man lurking behind the 'nom-de-keyboard', Deogolwulf, and now, at long last, courtesy of the excellent Corky Again, I have it!
We must not underestimate the size of the market for works of this kind, for philosophy-fiction. Just as compulsory primary education created a market catered for by cheap dailies and weeklies, so the spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.
There you have it, people, pure unadulterated 'Deogolwulf' in all his caustic splendour, the exact ... er ... ooops ... sorry ... my mistake ... actually that was the late Sir Peter Medawar, an absolutely terrific biology swot with a line in philosophy. So, 'they seek him here, they seek him there, they seek that damned Deogowulf everywhere' - but still with no success.
Oh well, back to "The Sun - We Love It"!
ASTONISHING, said Death. REALLY ASTONISHING. LET ME PUT
FORWARD ANOTHER SUGGESTION: THAT YOU ARE NOTHING
MORE THAN A LUCKY SPECIES OF APE THAT IS TRYING TO
UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATION VIA A LANGUAGE
THAT EVOLVED IN ORDER TO TELL ONE ANOTHER WHERE THE
RIPE FRUIT WAS?
Fighting for breath, the philosopher managed to say: "Don't be silly."
THE REMARK WAS NOT INTENDED AS DEROGATORY, said Death.
UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED A GREAT DEAL.
(Terry Pratchett, Death and What Comes Next [short story])
Posted by: Able | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 17:26
I have never really fancied Pratchett, mostly because I don't 'do' phantasy stuff, but I'm warming to him already!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 18:14
Medawar's widow wrote an interesting memoir about him. Just in case your backlog is shrinking, Duffers.
Posted by: dearieme | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 22:12
In essence what did she say about him, DM? I only remember him vaguely as a top line scientist who was struck down too early by some dreadful disease. Mind you, he does 'haughty' with the best of 'em!
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 22:59
Thanks for steering some visitors to my obscure little blog, David.
But I can't take credit for discovering that Medawar quote.
As I noted in my blog entry, the credit rightfully belongs to Michael Gilleland. He has a knack for finding interesting passages, both ancient and modern.
So I'd like to do him the same favor you've done me, and refer your readers to his truly excellent blog: http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com
Posted by: CorkyAgain | Monday, 15 October 2012 at 23:45
Thanks, Corky, and he is now well and truly bookmarked by me. I did enjoy reading his profile in which he listed as favourites all the great classical works of antiquity and then and then went on to list some real crash-bang-wallopers by way of his favourite films!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 16 October 2012 at 08:43