If you just substitute “climate change” for “measles”, “Renewable Energy” for “vaccines”, and “Climate scientists” for “Doctors”, the parallels are uncanny.
The fossil fuel and tobacco industry have their template for poisoning the dialogue. Something like this could be the template for healing it.
Yep. And that Doctor Ad is great stuff!
Greenman and Fellow Climate Crockers,
It is partially incumbent on the entertainment industry to make people aware that anti-science stances are not socially acceptable. For younger people, who are under the impression that pop entertainment is a huge part of earthly existence, this realm can solidify an idea as ‘common knowledge’. Therefore, I’ve recently written a historical fiction book (as a hobby; I ain’t no Charles Dickens), which is a satire on science denial, and after a few rounds of editing in January and February, I think I’m now at a point in the process where I can safely share it amongst friends and acquaintances.
It’s been selling on Amazon at a rate of one book every three or four days, without any promotion, thus far. My next step before I attempt promotion this summer is to get some reviews. I was wondering if you or the other blog readers might take a peek at it in a few places for such purpose? No hurry – like I said, I plan on doing some free e-book giveaways this summer to push my ranking up on Amazon (with about 4 hours work so far, I’ve been able to locate several social media groups that allow one to freely post their promotional book giveaway; I’ve collected a list that cumulatively contains 78,000 members, and I’m just getting started). Or if you’re too busy or not into it, don’t worry about it – I’m going to be asking several people for reviews, naturally.
In the links below, I’ve provided a PDF file of the full book, but in the interest of time, I’ve also provided a link to a blog post where I’ve cut-n-pasted twenty seven snippets from it, that have to do with the denial satire and science commentary. The second to last of these snippets has a hat tip to Climate Crocks, and a few poke fun at the Willie Soon crowd, Bill O’Reilly, &c.
Links
http://www.hiltonheadadventurer.com/PDF_backups/W&H_FinalVersion6.pdf [Full PDF; science stuff starts in Chapter 3, Pg. 69; and denial stuff starts in Chapter 4, Pg. 105]
http://www.woodbridgeandhedgely.com/?p=77 [Blog with science denial snippets for mini-review of the book]
http://www.hiltonheadadventurer.com/PDF_backups/Of+Woodbridge+and+Hedgely.mobi [Kindle Version for download]
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TDFH0RE or
http://www.amazon.com/Of-Woodbridge-Hedgely-Historical-Englands-ebook/dp/B00TDFH0RE/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt [Amazon links to post a review, if interested. Or if you want to email me your thoughts, I’ll post them in the book description box on Amazon, with your name, website title, &c. {andrew.feazelle@att.net}]
Book Description
From the back of the book: ‘Of Woodbridge and Hedgely is a satire on science denial set in the 1820’s countryside of Gloucester, England. The Industrial Revolution has begun to saturate country, but there are still quaint and naïve pockets like these binary towns whose inhabitants are resistant to change. Alas, the enlightenment is brought before them when a young bachelor and engineer, Thomas Winter – the son of a wealthy industrialist – moves into the area with the intention of applying science to their fields to produce higher crop yields. Further, their local Anglican parson, Jonathan Moore, begins a series of science lectures dedicated to the memory of his recently departed brother, in which the subjects of deep time, uniformitarianism, and plutonism, formulated by pioneering geologist James Hutton, are introduced alongside pre-Darwinian evolution. Such is taken rather poorly by the towns’ Particular Baptists, led by the preacher George Edwards and funded by the recently wealthy Henry Wyatt, who conspire against these scientific men by way of news propaganda, the latter motivated by romantic adversity.’
On the Grammar
Grammar Trigger Warning – The book’s dialect and prose are mildly variant from modern English in order to place the reader back into the early 19th century. Also, I constantly use the word ‘that’ in place of the phrase ‘so that’, to give a ‘biblical’ or ‘Shakespearean’ effect to the prose. For example: ‘He grabbed a pen from his desk, so that he could write a note,’ becomes, ‘He grabbed a pen from his desk, that he could write a note’. Further, my use of commas during moments of dialect is a little backwards, but consistent throughout. I imagine most readers won’t notice that aspect. And there is also a vocabulary section on the last two pages of the book in order to help the non-Austen or non-Regency readers.
Purpose of the Book
The purpose of the book is to use a popular entertainment literature genre (Jane Austen romance) to ‘inform’ the public that it is socially unacceptable to hold anti-science stances, and to emphasize the emotive attractiveness of science. Al Gore mentioned something about how there was a turning point in his lifetime when it was no longer acceptable to be a flagrant racist. I would offer that it’s partially up to pop-entertainment to not only reemphasize such, but also take shots at the anti-science, climate denialist crowd. It’s not uncommon in that realm, for knowledge to solidify to ‘common knowledge’, amongst the younger crowd.
I use a historical lens to complete my objective, because it allows my antagonists to take anti-science positions on topics that are very much settled today, in order to starkly reveal their absurdity. For example, there was a debate in the late 18th century on whether or not igneous rock, like granite and basalt, could be continually formed, because some thought only the Christian God could create this ‘primordial’ rock. Some people dismissed volcanic activity as merely coal seam fires that had gotten out of control and melted a little of this ‘primordial’ rock.
There are also some logistical examples in the book concerning how an ‘applied’ scientist may tackle a problem that has both knowns and unknowns, for the purpose of education about science. Further, there is a good deal of early natural history and agricultural science (before commercial fertilizer). And I’ve made allusions to climate security and climate science throughout.
Thanks,
Andrew Fez
Whoops – just noticed the Amazon links got converted into a picture of the cover and some ‘buy me’ script and ate my message that those links were there to post a review on Amazon. [The PDF and mobi (Kindle) files are the free files – don’t buy through Amazon – get the free version from my links]. You’re welcome to post a review or email me and I’ll paste it in the ‘about the book’ section with your name, website, &c. [andrew.feazelle@att.net] Again – no hurry – and no obligation…
this post pushes the edge. Keep them shorter in the future.
Sure, no problem. I was going to privately email it to you, but the essence of the Kimmel post kind of paralleled my own objective with the project. Sorry, i didn’t foresee the Amazon links blowing up into graphics and eating up the comment real estate so profoundly.
What a great advertisement. Unfortunately the people who need to see it probably won’t be reading this blog. They will be too busy consulting their star signs or the forecasts of the clairvoyant in their favourite magazine or celebrity gossip rag.
or watching the Jimmy Kimmel show…