Good Sense Of Humor Research Articles

Sir Alan Hodgkin (1914-1998).

E very now and then giants come along, raise the bar, and lift us all; Alan Hodgkin was one of them. He never worked for a Ph.D.; didn't have a research supervisor; and built, borrowed, or begged equipment to ask and answer his own questions. Yet despite—or because of—what might be viewed today as these initial “handicaps,” as a second-year undergraduate, Hodgkin began an active research career that spanned more than 50 years. His studies resulted in landmark discoveries that rewrote textbooks, established the keystones of modern physiology, and set new standards for experimental neuroscience. He is most recognized for his work on nerves. As a 20-year-old undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, Hodgkin established that the action potential is propagated electrically by currents spreading passively in a local circuit. Later, with Andrew Huxley, he made the first intracellular recordings from squid axon and discovered unexpectedly that the action potential overshot zero by many tens of millivolts. This demonstrated that the action potential was generated by selective changes in the electrical properties of the surface membrane and did not involve proteins in the axoplasm as many thought. Their excitement was cut short 3 weeks later when Hitler's army marched into Poland and England was plunged into war. Hodgkin was assigned to research on radar and spent the next 5 years working as a physicist, an unusual assignment for a biologist who was self-taught in mathematics and physics, but he was an excellent choice. Hodgkin was a quick study, creative, with penetrating intelligence and common honesty. “Alan, what was the most important thing you learned at school?” “To read widely and work on my own.” “Yes, but what did you like the best about school?” “The holidays.” [A. L. Hodgkin, Chance and Design , 1992]. Boyhood holidays were spent exploring the outdoors, which was the original source of Hodgkin's enthusiasm for natural history. It was through a keen interest in bird watching that he first recognized the essential relationship between observation (research) and learning. The war ended, and Hodgkin and Huxley returned to their work on the giant axon. Using a feedback circuit to clamp membrane voltage at fixed levels they dissected the ionic basis of the action potential, and discovered voltage-gated sodium and potassium conductance changes, showing how their properties could account for the excitation and propagation of the nerve impulse. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized their work in 1963. Hodgkin became president of the Royal Society in 1970 and switched to research on vision, the focus of his experimental work for the rest of his career. He began working with M. G. F. Fuortes at Woods Hole on the photoreceptors of the horseshoe crab, Limulus . They investigated the long delay that preceded the electrical response evoked by a light flash and attributed it to the time taken for a signal to pass through a cascade of chemical reactions. They recognized that stages of chemical amplification may underlie the generation of the photoresponse and that feedback mechanisms were likely to be responsible for the reciprocal changes in response sensitivity and time resolution that occur when the receptor is light- or dark-adapted. Rarely working with more than one person at a time, Hodgkin undertook research on retinal cones and rods that lasted 17 years and through elegant experimentation and imaginative quantitative analysis established many tenets of retinal photoreceptor physiology. As with his work on the electrical properties of nerve, Hodgkin's research on vision redefined the landscape, expanded the vocabulary, and focused attention on the next set of crucial questions. Alan Hodgkin was a tall man, with a quiet disposition, a good sense of humor, and lively eyes that could express a full range of emotions. He was modest despite his achievements. He did not put his name on any work that he did not fully participate in. He had no interest in having a large research group and felt that one collaborator at a time was best, two were awkward, and more than that impossible. He was fun to work with. Experiments were rarely planned ahead of time, as there was the unexpressed sense that this would somehow ruin the chase by quenching the feeling of exploration and discovery that was, after all, the point of the process—the chance in Chance and Design .

Zorba the Greek scientist

I begin by stating that I have not regretted coming back to Greece after 17 years of working abroad and that I have no plans to seek employment in another country. I still enjoy both living in and doing science in Greece. Having said that, let me say that most non-Greeks to whom I describe my life as a researcher tend to see in me a clear-cut case of schizophrenia.How can one plan anything in a country where, over the past 15 years, there have been 10 or so different Secretaries-General for Research and Technology and a slightly larger number of Ministers of Education? How can one do research when the annual funds allocated to the universities for that purpose arrive in August, or even later (if ever)? How can one hope to obtain the necessary funds if, in order for a research grant proposal to be accepted, one has almost always to include a partner from the private sector, even on the most basic science projects? And this, in a country in which the private industry hardly invests any money in development. The solution to these and other similar problems was provided years ago by Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece's most famous modern writer: act like Zorba the Greek — be ebullient.Unpredictability is the most prominent characteristic of modern Greek life, and science is no exception. As a matter of fact, unpredictability is itself so predictable that most of us have learned to live with it. For example, there are always transport strikes during the days before Christmas or Easter, so you plan your travel accordingly. There are always power failures in Crete in the winter months, so you use sophisticated back-up systems to ensure that your sequencer will be running uninterrupted. You know that a letter from Greece to Brussels will take anything from one day to two weeks, so you use an overnight courier when you need to meet a grant deadline. You not only learn to cope with these ‘simple’ problems, but you also wonder why foreigners can't.Are these the only problems encountered? Obviously not, but I don't think it would help to write a catalogue of examples of how things should not be. Several of these problems are not unique to Greek scientists; indeed, some of them have already been mentioned in this column by my colleagues of different nationalities when they described the situation in their own home countries.There is the ever-present problem of the brain drain towards the United States and other more developed countries, affecting all levels of science from graduate students to established researchers. There are the usual complaints about some particular rules of European Union research funding — coping with these often requires a very good sense of humour. And the biggest problem is the exhaustion arising from the constant need to overcome these difficulties. This fatigue leads many excellent scientists to feel so defeated that they're likely to give up the struggle — for ever.Am I really schizophrenic when I say that I enjoy my job, then? I don't think so. Things do improve in Greece. There might still be four ministries that are responsible for research but, although for several years the complete lack of communication between them was a fact of life, the Secretariat General for Research and Technology (SGRT) will soon be heading a coordination committee. Furthermore, the SGRT is perhaps the least bureaucratic Government agency and the Secretary General was, before his appointment, an active researcher himself. The fact that he's been in office for more than two years, an aeon by Greek standards, offers the hope of a degree of consistency in the Government's policies.Moreover, structural funds from the European Union, co-administered by national agencies, provide the opportunity to acquire equipment that could not otherwise be purchased. In addition, there is also a small but measurable influx of young postdocs who take advantage of some of the European Union's mobility programmes. These postdocs come to work in some of the already existing excellent Greek laboratories, which help act as a nucleation core as well as reversing, to some extent, the brain drain. All of these facts, combined with several everyday improvements in Greek life, will help, sooner or later, to bring research in my country much closer to what are considered to be ‘international standards’.As I said, I still enjoy it here. And if something unpredictable happens that will prevent me from working for a few hours, well, the beach is 10 minutes drive from the lab and you can reach the snow in less than an hour. There are not many places that offer these advantages and Zorba the Greek could only thrive here!

The immunoenhancing effects of humor on secretory IgA and resistance to respiratory infections

In three different studies involving exposun to two differcot humorous and comparison videotapes, it was demonstrated that humor arousal signiticantly increases S-IgA in college students. Furthermore significantly more of the subjects exposed to the humor films showed an increese in S-IgA than the subjects exposed to the comparison films. A good sense of humor, measured as a trait, was associated with higher baseline concentrations of S-IgA and with greater increases in S-IgA in response to a humor arousing film. Higher bascline kvels and gains in S-IgA in respoase to humor were associated with lower reported severity of colds in the past twelve months and in the three months following assessment. However, a good sense of humor was related to lesser cold incidence and severity only if it involved appreciation rather than production of humor. While those who actively tell jokes also show higher S-IgA levels, they show greater susceptibility to colds than those who only appreciate humor probably because they sodalize more often under conditions that expose them more to cold infections.

Who cares for those who care?

Doctor AB had worked as a general practitioner in a small market town in Wales for 35 years. His family had lived in the area for generations before and his father held a prominent position in the local community. The only time he had moved away was to go to medical school in England, but he returned to his roots, went into practice, married, and brought up his family. He was a well liked man with a good sense of humour. His patients thought the world of him. He was conscientious and hard working and devoted himself to the health and wellbeing of the community he served. He had always worked to the highest of personal and professional standards. He was not an ambitious man, not a seeker of influence or power, but simply enjoyed doing what he was extremely good at - being a country general practitioner. Then, over the years, his work gradually changed. The town grew and his list increased. Every summer an influx of holiday makers added to his workload. That was in the 1960s and 1970s. Ten years ago something else happened. Changes in the organisation and management of the health service meant that he and his partners had to face increasing amounts of paperwork. The situation became particularly acute at the start of the 1990s when the partners considered that they should become a fundholding practice. …

Theses on English-Canadian Literature: A Bibliography of Research Produced in Canada and Elsewhere from 1903 Forward by Appolonia Steele

his diaries that he printed in his major collections, two groups of William Michael’scorrespondence, about Shelley and Whitman, have been previously published, and chapters on him appear in Waller’s The Rossetti Family and Weintraub’s Four Rossettis. But he has not as yet been the subject ofa fullscale life or critical study. William Michael Rossetti is patently deserving of a good biographer: with this edition of the letters behind him, with the vast archive he has accumulated over nearly thirty years, with his encylopaedic knowledge of the man, and with his discriminating and accurate assessment of William Michael Rossetti’s achievement, Professor Peattie is eminently qualified to undertake the task. The Pre-Raphaelites have not always been lucky in the scholars and writers that have been attracted to them. Professor Peattie ranks close to the best. w il l ia m E. f r e d e m a n / University of British Columbia Theses on English-Canadian Literature: A Bibliography of Research Pro­ duced in Canada and Elsewherefrom 1903 Forward, compiled by Appolonia Steele (with assistance from Joanne K. Henning) (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1989). xxvi, 505. $34.95 paper. In a recent back-page report in an English newspaper, it was suggested, with some amusement, that students in the field of English literature had almost exhausted profitable areas of thesis research. Such a conclusion was reached by virtue of the fact that a doctoral candidate was being allowed to submit a thesis on graffiti found on the walls of female water closets (known to us as toilets). As specious as that conclusion might be, it supports a growing contention that students are finding it increasingly difficult to find an ‘unworked’topicforboth M.A. and Ph.D. theses. And thefield ofEnglishCanadian literature is no exception — a fact attested to by Ms. Steele’s weighty bibliography. Everything from the CODCO players to the Family Herald have been appropriated as suitable subjects to test the intellectual prowess of some two thousand students since 1903 and no doubt try the patience of as many supervisors. There are forty-five theses on Margaret Atwood alone (making it now possible to write a thesis on those theses), almost twice as many on Margaret Laurence, and at least one on Aritha Van Herk who was herself a student not very many years ago. It won’t be long, it seems, before Canadian students too will be searching the walls of toilets for possible thesis material. That rather unhappy impression was the first that forced itself on my beleaguered mind as I thumbed through the five hundred pages of thesis titles presented in this book. I was no doubt predisposed to this impression 367 because the bibliography seems to support what students have been saying for a number of years: “there doesn’t seem to be much left to write about, does there?” On reflection, however, I realized that there were other, more diverting, purposes that could have suggested themselves. That is, if one has the time and perhaps a good sense of humour. There is, for example, an index of theses by university, allowing us to see which are (as one of my colleagues puts it) “pouring out the most.” One can even go further and see just which university’s graduates have been most successful in the academic world. There is an index of theses by date, offering a kind of condensed history of Canadian studies — the pioneers ofour profession — in the theses of Ray Palmer Baker (1916), R.K. Gordon (1920), V.L.O. Chittick (1924), Carl Klinck (1930), and so forth. This, and the complete author index, allows one to see whose theses have (like that of Chittick) been turned into books. One can also do a count of thesis writers to determine just how many are now prominent in Canadian studies. Or, perversely, one can see just how many noted teachers of Canadian literature never wrote a thesis on the subject. So many things, so little reason. If all this sounds somewhat facetious, I can only reply that it is very diffi­ cult to propose an important purpose (or use) for this kind of bibliography — other than as...

An assessment of the social status and perceived personality and school traits of gifted students by non‐gifted peers

This study investigated the social status of gifted elementary pupils enrolled in an educational pull‐out program with their non‐gifted peers. In addition, the perceived personality, physical, and school attributes of the gifted students were assessed by their non‐gifted peers. Strong gender differences were found in that while gifted boys were the most popular of the four gifted x gender groups, gifted girls were the least popular. Girls overall were perceived as generally moody or sad, while boys were perceived as being funny and having a good sense of humor. Gifted boys were perceived to be more physically attractive than non‐gifted boys and were found to be less aggressive, more creative, and smarter than children in the other groups. Results are discussed in terms of differing behavioral attributes and cultural expectations of gifted boys and girls.

Verbal Humor in Gifted Students and Students in the General Population: A Comparison of Spontaneous Mirth and Comprehension

The spontaneous mirth response and comprehension of verbal humor were compared in gifted students and students from the general population. A total of 120 students in grades four, six, and eight participated in the study. A twenty-item instrument containing age-appropriate riddles, jokes, puns, selections of satire, and nonhumorous items was developed by the researcher to gather data. The results indicated that the gifted subjects performed significantly higher in spontaneous mirth response and comprehension than the general population group. This finding lends support to the assumption that gifted children noticeably have a “good sense of humor,” a characteristic often attributed to them as a group. No significant differences were discovered between either group with respect to gender, and grade level explained only part of the difference in the scores between the groups. The gifted group also had higher mean scores for spontaneous mirth response and comprehension on the pun and satire items. On the basis of the findings, implications for classroom use and teacher preparation are addressed.

Intervening during crises of life transitions: Promoting a sense of humor as a stress moderator

Abstract The numerous crisis situations associated with life cycle transitions present the mental health professional with numerous intervention opportunities. Since a good sense of humor can assist in the mediation of stress, a crisis intervention technique designed to enrich a person's appreciation of humor during and after life cycle transitions has therapeutic merit. Toward this goal, the author has designed an imagery technique which permits the enhancement of a person's sense of humor. Guiding clients towards the generation of humor at the imagery level has been found to be therapeutically beneficial. Methods of intervention utilizing the factors of absurdity, incongruity and exaggeration are discussed in promoting an adaptive sense of humor.

New Appalachian Books

New Appalachian Books by George Brosi* Barker, Garry. Mountain Passage and Other Stories. 250 pages. Berea, Kentucky: Kentucke Imprints, 1986. Trade paperback. $9.95. Three of the stories in this, the author's second short story collection, won prizes. Barker was born in 1943, the third child in a family of nine raised in Fleming County, Kentucky, in the northeastern part of the state. He has lived in Berea, Kentucky, and worked in crafts marketing, throughout this decade. Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. 228 pages. San Francisco, California: Sierra Club Books, a 1986 edition of a 1977 release. Trade paperback. $7.95. A new preface, dated 1986, sets off what has become a classic plea for America to turn back to a respectful rootedness on the earth. An urgent, compelling and thought-provoking book, one of the most powerful of the current era. Best, Bill. The Great Appalachian Sperm Bank and Other Writings. 125 pages. Berea, Kentucky: Kentucke Imprints, 1986. Trade paperback. $6.95. The title essay in this collection is an attempt to satirize Harry Caudill's blunt insistence that some of Appalachia's problems are genetic. In his foreword, however, Caudill insists that Best's "sperm bank" is a wonderful idea. AU of this makes for enjoyable reading for those who don't take things too seriously. The other essays take on other issues with Best's characteristic provocative and pointed commentary giving the reader a great deal to ponder. •George Brosi owns and operates the Appalachian Bookstore in Berea and publishes the bimonthly Appalachian Mountain Books. He also sells books through mail orders to clients in all parts of the country . If readers need more information about any of the above listings, write him at 123 Walnut Street, Berea, KY 40403. 92 Carter, Forest. The Education ofLittle Tree. 216 pages. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, a 1986 reprint of a 1976 release with a new preface. Trade paperback. $10.95. "Everyone who has ever read The Education ofLittle Tree seems to remember when and where and how they came to know the book...for [it] is a book from which one never quite recovers.... Little Tree is Carter's autobiographical remembrances of life with his Eastern Cherokee hill country grandparents. But [it] is... much more than a touching account of 1930s' depression-era life. This book is a human document of universal meaning. The Education ofLittle Tree speaks to the human spirit and reaches the very depth of the human soul." —Rennard Strickland in the new preface. Caudill, Harry M. Lester's Progress. 106 pages. Berea, Kentucky: Kentucke Imprints, 1986. Trade paperback. $6.95. The author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, widely regarded as one of the most powerful books ever written on Appalachia, here turns his hand to biting satire making fun of all the hallowed institutions of the "Quackgrass State," even "Gruff" Arena and "Harry M. Cuddle" himself! Sure to offend anyone who reads it, and not recommended for people still forming their impressions of Eastern Kentucky, it is perfect, however, for those with a good sense of humor who have kept abreast of current events in Kentucky. This book is a tribute to small presses. No major publisher would have touched it. Chappell, Fred. Dagon. 181 pages. New York: St. Martin's Press, the first paperback edition, 1987, of a 1968 release. Mass market paperback. $3.50. "I am honestly convinced that Fred Chappell is one of the finest writers of this time, one of the rare and precious few who are truly 'major' " —George Garrett. "Dagon is fascinating and disturbing, and...smoothly and beautifully written. It casts its own spell which is not easy to shake off." —Joan Williams. The novel centers around a writer and his wife who go to his late grandfather's farm in the North Carolina mountains to write a book about a pagan god. It turns out that the god, Dagon, is alive and well and haunting the farm. The French Academy named Dagon the Best Foreign Novel of 1968. Cherniack, Martin. The Hawk's Nest Incident: America's Worst Industrial Disaster. 194 pages. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press...

Who Will Teach Our Children?

If a person does not like children, he should not be a teacher. The attitude of the teacher communicates itself to the children in the class. If the teacher is interested in what he or she is doing and is enthusiastic and dedicated, the children, in turn, will become infected by this interest and enthusiasm. He might be compared to a salesman who enjoys his work and has confidence in his company and its product; this salesman will do a better job selling to prospective customers than one who does not like his work, or the people with whom he must deal. If a teacher does not like teaching and dislikes children, or if he or she looks upon students as adversaries, good rapport is impossible between teacher and class. Under these conditions, learning takes place with great difficulty, if at all. There must be some means by which to determine whether the teacher is flexible or rigid, sympathetic and empathetic, or arrogant and intolerant. He must have a good sense of humor. Without this, a teacher cannot be successful in the classroom. Also, it is imperative that he be curious and inquisitive with regard to his subject matter and constantly seek to expand his command of it. In most American school systems, a teacher is hired on the basis of one interview. As will be evidenced, a decision based on one interview is pitifully outdated and ineffective. Surely, in hiring a teacher, one interview and the judgment of one person is not enough. When I applied for my present position, I was interviewed by the superintendent, an assistant superintendent, and the principal of the high school. (In addition, of course, they reviewed my college transcripts, my employment history, and my teaching license, and they contacted my personal references.) I was subsequently interviewed by two other school corporations. In one case, it was by the superintendent alone, who asked me to talk about myself, smiled, and said he would let me know, and in the other, by the director of teacher personnel who, after reading my application, asked how I got along with blacks, and then terminated the interview. It is obvious which was the better hiring process. In discussions with other teachers, the hiring processes of some nearby townships have surfaced. For instance, I have heard that in one nearby school system, a young pretty female applicant who is brazen enough to show a fair amount of thigh can strongly influence the middle-aged male interviewer. The man who told me this is a principal of an elementary school and is bitter about the quality of the teachers assigned to his school. There is a superintendent in another school corporation who prides himself on the low cost of education in his district. He hires only firstor second-year teachers with bachelors degrees, because of the lower salary bracket. Consequently, there is a high turnover in teacher personnel at the expense of good education. An assistant superintendent of secondary schools in another township has made a science of teacher selection. He not only supplements his own personal judgments with psychological tests, but he also engages the applicant in role playing, giving the applicant a hypothetical situation and asking him or her what should be done under the circumstances. He also asks the applicant to draw a picture of a person. From this Mr. Morris is a teacher at the North Central Hig School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Perspective from the Grain Trade

My remarks reflect primarily my experience and observations at Cook Industries and more specifically, the Agri-Products Group. This group is involved in merchandising grains, oilseeds, oilseed products, feed ingredients, and cotton on a worldwide basis. Other segments of our Agri-Products Group include elevator operations, processing operations, and the entire infrastructure that augments commodity trading. We hire individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. I believe this to be logical for two reasons: it is very difficult, if not impossible, to stereotype individuals as the only type suitable for a particular job, and the qualifications of various jobs differ. For example, Cook's Agri-Products Group is divided into a grain division, a processing and refining division, a cotton division, a controller's department, ocean freight operations, economic research, and European operations. There is a need for special qualifications and/or special assignments within this breakdown. With this background, let's turn to what Cook is looking for in a young person to fit the basic role of our business. In commodity merchandising management, we consider the following attributes. Grades are not keenly important as long as they are reasonable (A-C), but we like to see how a person has applied himself or herself. A person's record is examined to observe progress, as many may be late starters. Also, we are interested in his/her activities, not just the number, but the kind of activity and the scope of responsibility. Aggressiveness takes different forms, but we need go getters and self starters, people who involve themselves and make things happen. A person must be able to communicate with people in order to extract information and get things done. A person must listen to and hear what people are saying (very important to working in markets). One characteristic that is important is a person's ability to make decisions and not always be qualifying recommendations. We need people who can stand up to constant pressure. A good sense of humor is a must to survive in commodity merchandising. A person must be analytical; he or she must be a quick thinker who likes to play with numbers and sort out answers on an ongoing basis. A person must have a strong curiosity to find out how markets work. We need people who cannot be pushed around and who can defend his or her point of view. With respect to academic background, traditional strong liberal arts courses are producing the majority of management-oriented grain merchants in grain companies. As a general rule, we are looking for students with backgrounds combining such subjects as economics, English, history, philosophy, mathematics, languages, and political science. I feel real progress has been made in identifying the type of person we strive to hire. We look for people who can grasp relevant situations. For example, what are the impacts of changes in price support levels, changes in supply-demand situations for major crops, dry weather in Russia, spread relationships between various markets and commodities, supply and demand for freight, and feeding relationships? Second, the person needs to be able to sort out the main issues and get to the heart of the matter right away. Third, the person must be objective. The price paid for a commodity or the company's position today may not be relevant in assessing the market for tomorrow. Fourth, decision making is extremely important. A person can be a good analyst, be objective, and identify main issues, but if he fails to act on the basis of his Willard R. Sparks is with Cook Industries.

From medical practice to theoretical medicine; an autobiographical sketch (W.R. HESS).

FROMMEDICAL PRACTICE TO THEORETICAL MEDICINE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHIC SKETCH W. R. HESS* Ancestry I should like to begin this short sketch ofmy life with a few comments concerning my forebears. This will come as no surprise to readers interested in biology, who are well aware of the decisive influences one's inheritance has in the shaping ofone's life. In my own case it is rather interesting , as two different folk-groups are represented in my pedigree. My father's ancestors belonged to the Alemanni, a Germanic tribe ofthe upper Rhine valley formerly under Roman control. In several expansive movements these peoples drove the Romans southward and over the Alps; they then occupied the now German-speaking region ofnortheastern Switzerland and are considered the principal ancestors ofits present population. My mother's people came from the region of the former kingdom of Saxony where East European types were to be found along with the Nordic. This divergence between the maternal and paternal inheritance generally is ofa certain genetic interest. A rather broad range of trades and professions is to be found in my family tree. It includes farmers, craftsmen, and merchants as well as more distantly related clergymen and politicians who were rather gifted orators. My father, a college teacher in physics, combined a remarkable sense of order with a teacher's talent. Although fundamentally a very serious man, he always retained a good sense ofhumor. My mother had an altogether happy and pleasant disposition, which stood in striking contrast to the rather sober mood and reserved attitude so characteristic ofthe inhabitants ofeastern Switzerland at that time. It is no wonder that we had little contact with our neighbors, who looked upon us almost as strangers with dif- * Goldauerstrasse 25, Zürich, Switzerland. This autobiographic sketch was translated from the original German manuscript by Dr. E. Castagnoli, an American physician, presently in Zürich. 4OO W. R. Hess · From Medical Practice to Tlteoretical Medicine Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1963 ferent customs and social standards. My mother also had an unusually lively disposition. She bubbled over with energy—so much so, in fact, that she often had a hard time falling asleep. I, too, was to suffer from this difficulty throughout my life. I have always had to struggle to shut out the impressions and experiences ofthe day. Early Environment The editors who invited me to write a short autobiography encouraged me to include a psychological background to mylife story. This is in keeping with modern autobiographic writing and means that the role played by the external environment in developing, shaping, and limiting an individual's inherited capabilities must not be overlooked. My own childhood was provided with ample opportunities to become aware ofnature at firsthand. My early curiosity about the world around me was stimulated and supported by my father. Even at the age offive, I used to explore the fields and meadows to collect plants, and every new specimen meant an exciting experience, for it was brought home and carefully classified with Father's help. Soon I had my herbarium and a collection ofbutterflies. As time went on, I became aware ofthe significance of the ecological setting, that is to say, of the specific interrelationship between flora and fauna. I could see, for example, that a particular species of caterpillar was always to be found on a certain plant. Such observations were unforgettable. Even much later I remembered the exact place where they had occurred. More and more it became clear that functional manifestations , such as the germination of a seed or the rapid sprouting of a shoot from a willow, were more apt to capture my mind than purely morphological features. Perhaps most fascinating to me was the observation ofthe metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Ijust couldn't get enough ofnature. How beautiful were those solitary walks through fields and forests and along streams and rivers. By the time I entered elementary school I had thoroughly discovered the countryside surrounding my village. Student Years The phase in my life that did much to form my personality began with my entrance into the Gymnasium at the age oftwelve. My father soon allowed me to visit his...

Passionate Reverie: W. B. Yeats's Tragic Correlative

As a dramatic theoretician and a dramatist, Yeats has recently been given a good deal of attention. Bnt about the place and meaning of tragedy—and comedy7mdash;in the pattern of his aesthetic something remains to be said. While Yeats undoubtedly had a very good sense of humour, he recoiled from the comic spirit; thongh fearing it, he understood it very well. The threats in comedy were irony and parody, both of which he detected in Wilde and Beardsley, distorting and undercutting the integrity of their art. "I was in despair," he writes in the Autobiography, "at the new breath of comedy that had begun to wither the beauty that I loved, just when that beauty seemed to have united itself to mystery." And, though he responded enthusiastically to Cervantes and Rabelais, Synge and Villon, and cultivated an expert's interest in naughty ballads, it was gusto—another form of passion—which really attracted him, not the comic perceptions of life. The ecstatic moment was, after all, the highest achievement of literary art, and ecstasy was possible only in tragedy. But between the quiet dignity of Greek tragedy and the salty flavour of one of Synge's "reckless" comedies lay the whole spectrum of literary modes. Great combiner that he was, Yeats built into his vision of tragedy, and often into his poems, a tension (he once called it a "quarrel") between the desire to adapt comic gusto, vitality without strain, to the resonant ecstasy of tragedy, passionate and energetic with struggle. This, ultimately, became the dialectic balance between passion and reverie.