Article ID: CBB385205511

Deceived by Orchids: Sex, Science, Fiction and Darwin (2016)

unapi

Between 1916 and 1927, botanists in several countries independently resolved three problems that had mystified earlier naturalists – including Charles Darwin: how did the many species of orchid that did not produce nectar persuade insects to pollinate them? Why did some orchid flowers seem to mimic insects? And why should a native British orchid suffer ‘attacks’ from a bee? Half a century after Darwin's death, these three mysteries were shown to be aspects of a phenomenon now known as pseudocopulation, whereby male insects are deceived into attempting to mate with the orchid's flowers, which mimic female insects; the males then carry the flower's pollen with them when they move on to try the next deceptive orchid. Early twentieth-century botanists were able to see what their predecessors had not because orchids (along with other plants) had undergone an imaginative re-creation: Darwin's science was appropriated by popular interpreters of science, including the novelist Grant Allen; then H.G. Wells imagined orchids as killers (inspiring a number of imitators), to produce a genre of orchid stories that reflected significant cultural shifts, not least in the presentation of female sexuality. It was only after these changes that scientists were able to see plants as equipped with agency, actively able to pursue their own, cunning reproductive strategies – and to outwit animals in the process. This paper traces the movement of a set of ideas that were created in a context that was recognizably scientific; they then became popular non-fiction, then popular fiction, and then inspired a new science, which in turn inspired a new generation of fiction writers. Long after clear barriers between elite and popular science had supposedly been established in the early twentieth century, they remained porous because a variety of imaginative writers kept destabilizing them. The fluidity of the boundaries between makers, interpreters and publics of scientific knowledge was a highly productive one; it helped biology become a vital part of public culture in the twentieth century and beyond.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Amy M. King (2018) Review of "Deceived by Orchids: Sex, Science, Fiction and Darwin". Journal of Literature and Science (pp. 124-125). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB385205511/

Similar Citations

Book Cheng, John; (2012)
Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and Science Fiction in Interwar America (/isis/citation/CBB001202122/)

Chapter Jones, Steve; (2010)
The Evolution of Utopia (/isis/citation/CBB001023134/)

Chapter Carlo Paghetti; (2014)
I scientific romances di H.G. Wells: variazioni sul tema dello scienziato darwiniano (/isis/citation/CBB786747471/)

Article Stiles, Anne; (2009)
Literature in Mind: H. G. Wells and the Evolution of the Mad Scientist (/isis/citation/CBB001030597/)

Book Henry, Holly; (2003)
Virginia Woolf and the Discourse of Science: The Aesthetics of Astronomy (/isis/citation/CBB000470393/)

Book McLean, Steven; (2009)
The Early Fiction of H. G. Wells: Fantasies of Science (/isis/citation/CBB000952806/)

Book Dawson, Gowan; (2007)
Darwin, Literature and Victorian Respectability (/isis/citation/CBB000774026/)

Book Greenslade, William; Rodgers, Terence; (2005)
Grant Allen: Literature and Cultural Politics at the Fin de Siècle (/isis/citation/CBB000501537/)

Article Maguire, Muireann; (2013)
Aleksei N. Tolstoi and the Enigmatic Engineer: A Case of Vicarious Revisionism (/isis/citation/CBB001201409/)

Book F. James; R. Bud; M. Shiach; P. Greenhalgh; (2018)
Being Modern: The Cultural Impact of Science in the Early Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB441532378/)

Book Will Tattersdill; (2016)
Science, Fiction, and the Fin-de-Siècle Periodical Press (/isis/citation/CBB727795187/)

Thesis Stiles, Anne Meredith; (2006)
Neurological Fictions: Brain Science and Literary History, 1865--1905 (/isis/citation/CBB001560560/)

Article Kreisel, Deanna K.; (2014)
The Discreet Charm of Abstraction: Hyperspace Worlds and Victorian Geometry (/isis/citation/CBB001550339/)

Thesis Farooq, Nihad M.; (2006)
Sensing Subjects: Ethnographic Modernity from Charles Darwin to Richard Wright (/isis/citation/CBB001561530/)

Thesis Walsh, Erin Aileen; (2010)
Analogy's Territories: Ethics and Aesthetics in Darwinism, Modernism, and Cybernetics (/isis/citation/CBB001560639/)

Authors & Contributors
Tattersdill, Will
Carlo Paghetti
Morag Shiach
Kreisel, Deanna K.
Choo, Jae-uk
Walsh, Erin Aileen
Concepts
Science and literature
Science fiction
Science and culture
Evolution
Darwinism
Modernism
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
20th century
Modern
18th century
Places
Great Britain
United Kingdom
Russia
Europe
Soviet Union
Vienna (Austria)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment