Children who grew up
reading the backs of cereal boxes turn into
adults who can only eat
when distracted. For this reason alone, I found
myself picking through
granola over the latest issue of the Yale Undergraduate
Magazine, Òfondly
referred to as YUMÓ.
The editorÕs note was
sort of menacing: ÒOur short stories will ask you to pause,
think, smile. They will
force you to recognize the important joys in life.Ó
Yikes! Luckily, YUM did
not make good on their threat. Just some silly poems and
too many stories that
made children and old relatives seem profound. I was left
with the strong
impression that the magazine had not been made by people
who had studied or
planned to pursue writing, but rather hobbyists.
I wonder what would
happen if writers and Lit majors did the same thing with science.
IÕm sure the resulting
Ôzine would fail in the same ways that YUM did: assert the obvious
for ignorance that it
had been done before, and better; invoke outdated or misremembered
high school icons
(Richard Dawkins is the Kurt Vonnegut of the science world!);
embarrass anyone with a
serious interest in the subject, and confuse everyone else.
