Biology Reference
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between these two ideas, such interpretations would be impossible. In fact,
the plausibility of such later readings reflects a real genealogical connection.
There is something progress-like in Bacon's interpretations of providence,
but this is only because the modernist ideas that contemporary readers rec-
ognize in his works have descended from Bacon's works themselves.
In chapter 1, while treating the feigned histories that now convey evo-
lutionism in contemporary science fiction, I noted the extent to which they
recapitulate narrative structures of salvation found in the Bible. The quests
undertaken by human characters like Dave Bowman and Gwyllm Griffiths,
and by alien ones like E.T., reenact the saving heroics of Christ. This is
because while these are stories about an imagined future, they take their
plot structures from the past. In general, this occurs because the mecha-
nism of descent in cultural evolution is imitation, or mimesis. But one rea-
son why mimesis is so attractive is that it maintains at every moment of
this evolutionary process a sense of coherence that enables the future to
be reconciled with the past. The long-term consequence of this is that past
story forms abide all through the course of such evolutionary change. The
evolution of literature may represent the constant search for new stories,
but the necessities of audience adaptation (cultural integration) will always
guarantee that old structures endure.
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