The Contextual Scientific Biography…
A few months ago, I had an e-mail exchange with my editor at Publisher’s Weekly (I do some science & technology book reviewing), in which I noted the following:
Something I’ve been noticing as I’ve been reviewing these books, in particular the last few, is that there’s a genre that might be described as:1) Take a historical figure known for one particular discovery.
2) Use their story as a jumping-off point for historical digressions,
usually one per chapter. About half of the digressions should be
scientific/philosophical, the other half political/cultural.Call it the “contextual scientific biography,” if you will…
The book that triggered this thought was Amir Aczel’s Pendulum. Now, the NY Times has their review of the same book up, and the reviewer writes:
You know the genre by now. Take a single event, object, invention (the cod, Pok√İmon, the Fender precision bass); make a grand claim for its influence (the fish, video game, instrument that “changed the world”); and offer a quickie history, with diverting asides. The results can be charming and enriching, a novel historical take that compels readers to reconsider their assumptions about cause and effect.
I wonder what it was about this particular book that seems to make people think consciously about the genre conventions of contemporary science/technology writing?