BOOK REVIEW SCIENCE IN LITERATURE. A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE THROUGH THE EYES OF WRITERS OF ALL AGES Author: Xavier Duran From the reader report by: Rodrigo Petronio There is debate as to exactly when the closer relations between science and literature began. Some authors believe that this interface started in a more systematic way from the 19th century onward. Others, like Adam Roberts, look for the origins of science fiction and the deep relations between science and literature in Antiquity. This is the same premise as Xavier Duran’s. More than defining a genre, the book is a broad, exhaustive, and classical exploration of all the appearances of science in literature. More than a history of science fiction, the work seeks to describe science in fiction. The book begins with Chekhov’s famous parable in one of his letters to Suvórin, the editor of one of the newspapers for which he collaborated. In it, the writer physician says that medicine and literature are, respectively, his wife and his lover. And the book ends with the well-known image of physicist and writer Charles Percy Snow about the two cultures: the culture of human sciences and the culture of natural sciences. Both cultures have seemingly irreversibly forked at some point in history. Could they be reunited? Snow’s image has served as ground for every current debate on transdisciplinarity. Duran starts from it to dissect the relations between science and literature in the last fifty years. Xavier Duran has a degree in Chemical Sciences and a doctorate in Communication Sciences from the Universitat Autónoma of Barcelona. He writes to numerous newspapers and magazines. Duran’s book is exceptional. One of the best science popularization books I have ever read. It is erudite, largely documented, fluent, didactic, and quite extensive in its artistic, technical, literary, and scientific references.
PUBLISHED IN NEW SPANISH BOOKS BR
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