Reading Moran’s chapter on “Science, Space, and Nature” in Interdisciplinarity confused me a lot. I am a Political Science major and a Black Studies minor, so trying to comprehend what is being argued in a book that touches upon actual science in an English course is out of my comfort zone, to say the least. However, I will say that the joy of not knowing does bring out a sense of wanting to learn more so I can become a more well-rounded student and individual. I guess this exercise will help me achieve one or more of Geneseo’s GLOBE learning outcomes.
To unpack the argument Moran presented about science and its popularity throughout the years made me come up with a ‘both/and’ connection. Both disciplines of concrete sciences and literary studies go through a constant shift of superiority over one another and these subjects are alleged to be fundamental in the academics in general. In reality, the relationship that exists between the two needs to be nurtured and maintained. C. P. Snow’s lecture, “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution,” brings up a counterargument, stating that the absence of a relationship between science and the humanities is damaging to our society and “persons educated with the greatest intensity we know can no longer communicate with each other on the plane of their major intellectual concern” (Moran, 135). Scholars should overlook the competition that comes from what society views as the best academic field and they should focus more on how to link and intersect their ideas so a department isn’t left outdated.
Luckily, our class is titled “Percival Everett and Intertextuality,” which includes an interconnected between disciplines and Percival Everett. Being the genius that he is, Everett has written books that somewhat solve this problem of not letting academics mix. In his stories like Zulus or re: f (gesture), Everett challenges the reader to do more than just read his stories. The headings of each chapter in Zulus was written in an abecedarian order and alluded to other cross-cultural disciplines. For example, the paratextual introductions from this dystopian novel are actually from his book re: f (gesture), which my discussion group one day argued that it could be about religion, breeding, and life in general. This sort of metacommentary writing encourages Everett’s audience to a scholarly level of thinkING and reflect on the important lessons his stories bring out. Although his writing style is unorthodox, it’s one of many answers to this idea of having a shared space between all academics.
Personally, I believe that having this sort of conversation between the sciences, literary studies, and other departments of that nature is essential for our schooling to progress as a whole. To reinforce my placement in Geneseo, currently, I am a Political Science major and a Black Studies minor. After some self-reflection, I’ve come to realize that I’m studying the fundamentals of government and law (political) by analyzing how these institutions function in society, which is the scientific side. As for my minor, Black Studies is cultural but it also encompasses elements of science by focusing research on how people interact in the space they live in, which is similar to the cultural geography. Overall, what I’ve learned is that I shouldn’t distance myself (nor should anybody else) from other academic outlets because we are all connected one way or another.