Relay Race: Science vs Literature

Minute-to-Minute:

@20: 07 – FINAL! This is the end ladies and gentlemen, its Coleridge. Coleridge gives the Literature team the victory. Science team must be proud of the pure battle they gave to their rival. Anyways, I’m sure all of you underwent a voyage of mind and body by watching these fine racers. This is everything for today. Have a nice evening and remember Coleridge: “For he on honey-dew hath fed, / And drunk the milk of Paradise” (53-54).

@20:06 – Still tied. It will have to be decided in the final relay. The two best voyagers in the world for the end. What a final ladies and gentlemen. Its just a matter of seconds. Coleridge and Banks. Let’s take a look at Banks, and in my opinion, leave the best for last. His voyage on board of the Endeavour involves both the exterior and interior of himself. Bank’s voyage leaves many details upon Romanticism. Through the physical and metaphysical approach to his voyage, we are able to unite the Romantic science and poetry. His arrival of paradise can be interpreted both as the destiny he arrived (Tahiti), and the boundaries that were reached through his cognitive process. This idea of expeditions and mind journeys is the basis of Coleridge’s argument of voyage. Indeed, his poem “Kubla Khan” portrays through water imagery (the river) the voyage to paradise through dreams. Finally, even though voyage leads to a physical and metaphysical destiny, according to Coleridge, there might be no way back. Therefore, he establishes a connection between poetry and science: he questions whether a voyager is master of its discoveries or a slave of them. Also, Wordsworth’s “The Prelude” employ’s the river to portray the voyage towards imagination, and how mankind tries to connect its cognitive and sound power to pave nature towards paradise.

@20:04 – Close tie. The next relays, Cook for the Science side, and Conrad for the Literature team, continue the race amazingly tied. Many things are said about Cook’s voyage. Holmes, for example, compares it to that of Darwin to Galapagos. Even though both are “exploratory voyages,” they don’t conclude at the moment the voyager finds its discovery. In fact, I don’t believe he will never completely overcome the process of discovering. As he returned to England, he encouraged others to venture into the unknown, and relay his discovery. Afterwards, he was killed by natives in his third voyage, never fulfilling his discovery. On the other hand, Conrad maintains Cook’s fast rhythm, knowing that if they arrive at the same time, Coleridge will undoubtedly beat Banks. Anyways, Conrad’s approach to the idea of voyage in The Heart Of Darkness illustrates a metaphysical desire to reach something that, in the end is never discovered: the heart of darkness. Manifested through dreams, thoughts, and recreations of Marlow’s mind, the story within the story leads the reader to believe that there is no end in life’s voyage. In this case, the reader is brought back to the beginning at the end of the novel, in order to start a new voyage. How F. Scott Fitzgerald would once finish a book of his, we are “borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

@20:02 – Davy is able to take a 1.23 seconds advantage over Cowper. Now its Herschel and Wordsworth. Wow two Williams. Greetings to all the Williams who are watching this amazing Relay to Paradise. Wordsworth is now cutting distances with Herschel. Wordsworth was able to take an static image and imagine Newton “voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone” (Holmes xvii). Converts Newton’s plain image into a Romantic landscape. It’s not about the statue, but about what it’s looking, thinking, and wandering. Meanwhile, Herschel is looking at those stars that Newton’s statue, and that Romantic traveler, wanders. He didn´t only discover the first new planet to be seen in one thousand years, but also expanded humanity’s lantern of imagination. The boundaries of the imagination were now greater.

@20:01 – Cowper seems to be falling behind from Davy’s amazing rhythm. Another voyager this Cowper guy. In this book I’ve been reading lately The Age Of Wonder, Holmes describes him as the one who “invented the idea of the armchair traveler” (Holmes 51). It’s overwhelming how all these voyagers are able to create instead of receding upon the voyage’s dangers. I recall Shackleton. His leadership and persistence led him to survive his Antarctic expedition and bring his voyagers back with him. Even though these voyagers reach their destiny physically, they remain restless and unfulfilled, as there’s no such thing as an end to the voyage. The poem goes forever.

@20:00 – START! The first racers begin their run. Davy takes the lead. Wonderful chemist. He initiates a voyage for the scientific world. His lantern, that which would ignite the beginning of a scientific wonder. What might that tell us? Will his precedent help the Science team to beat Literature? Even though his voyage was purely scientific, his discoveries around Chemistry symbolize a poem, which begins with a word and ends with many meanings. Anyways, apparently Cowper is being left behind…

@19:55 – The members of each team are already in position, waiting for the signal to begin the race. The first relays will be Davy and Cowper, followed by Herschel and Wordsworth. It will start at any minute…

@19:50 – Here are the four members of each team. On the Science side: William Herschel, Humphry Davy, James Cook, and their captain, Joseph Banks. On the Literature side: William Cowper, William Wordsworth, Joseph Conrad, and their captain, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

@ 19:47 – Hello everyone! Greetings from “the island of Tahiti, 17 degrees South, 149 degrees West” (Holmes 1), we are here present to live, minute-to-minute the wonderful Final Relay Race of the season. It’s been a passionate year. We’ve seen prospects show their talents on track, and I’m sure we’ll see some pretty good ones today in the Final.