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The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought

Contents

ARTICLES 

The Two Cultures at the End of the Twentieth Century: An Essay on Poetry and Science 

Awe and Arrogance in Science 

Bartleby / Job / America 

Einstein on Religion 

The Wound Called Germany 

Historical Self-Consciousness, Postmodernism, and Humanities Education 

POEMS 

Feeding On Air 

Shadow Dancing 

Eskimo Joe 

Death Cocoa 

Looking 

Parsimony 

Landscape 

Oceanside, Early August 

Driving Past the Cemetery 

Thaw  

Swallow John C. Stennis Space Center, Mississippi 

Crow 

Cold Morning, High Country 

On Hearing of the Suicide of a Young Farmer 

Collecting Sleep an Flight 

REVIEWS 

James J. Fisher; The Best of Jim Fisher 

Denise Low; Tulip Elegies / An Alchemy Writing 

Stephen E. Meats; Looking for the Pale Eagle 

Abstract

Taking seriously C.P. Snow's mid-century caution that scientists and writers had increasingly little understanding of the other, KELLY CHERRY explains how she and other poets have reflected the scientific world. Author of ten books, including God's Loud Hand, a volume of poems to be published this year by Louisiana State University Press, Cherry is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

After Kurt Gödel's proof that no theory can completely explain a system, particularly one involving arithmetic, ADAM DROZDEK suggests, only the intellectually arrogant scientist can presume to understand the nature of humans. Yet many have tried in the last century and this to reduce it to a level of abstraction that diminishes the human and the understanding desired. A Professor of Computer Science at Duquesne University, Drozdek has published several articles and a book, Searching for the Point of Departure, on problems in the philosophy of science. He is particularly interested in philosophical and ethical implications of computer science, especially of artificial intelligence.

Having completed his epic characterization of a modern-day Job, Moby-Dick, Herman Melville turned to another Job in his short story "Bartleby," this time a small figure of very unepic proportions. How and why Melville did this forms the essence of DAN VOGEL's essay. After long association with Yeshiva University in New York, Vogel is now Professor of English at Michlalah-Jerusalem College in Israel. Vogel has many publications, including books on The Three Masks of American Tragedy and Emma Lazarus.

MARCIA ARRIETA mothers, writes, teaches, and tries to remain sane in Pasadena, California. She edits Indefinite Space and has had poems appear recently in Tin Whistle, Wind, and Pacific Review.

CRAIG CHALLENDER directs the Authors Series at Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia. He has two poetry chapbooks to his credit and has published poems in Tar River Poetry, South Carolina Review, Northeast, and other journals.

PHILIP DACEY and his sons Emmett and Austin make up the trio Strong Measures, which combines music and poetry for public performance. Dacey's latest book of poetry, Night Shift at the Crucifix Factory, was published by the University of Iowa Press in 1991. He lives and writes in Lynd, Minnesota.

GEORGE ESTREICH teaches at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and at the University of Pennsylvania. His poetry has appeared in Iris and Zone 3.

CAROL HAMILTON, Midwest City, Oklahoma, has recently published work in New York Quarterly, Poet Lore, Greensboro Review, and other journals. Her poetry chapbook, Once the Dust, won the 1992 Oklahoma Book Award for poetry and the Pegasus Award. Her children's novel, The Dawn Seekers, received a Southwest Book Award.

SUZANNE KEYWORTH teaches at Manatee Community College in Bradenton, Florida, and lives in Sarasota. She published a chapbook in 1989, and her work has also appeared in Shenandoah, Chattahoochee Review, Kalliope, and other journals.

WILLIAM KLOEFKORN teaches at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln. Two recent collections of his poems are Dragging Sand Creek for Minnows (Spoon River Poetry Press) and Going Out, Coming Back (White Pine Press).

GREG KUZMA teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and hides out in Crete.

LYN LIFSHIN resides in Washington, D.C., but lives on Appletree Lane in Niskayuna, New York. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines, including Ploughshares, Greensboro Review, Cream City Review, and others. Two recent books are Appletree Lane and Children Who Made It to the Cambodian Border. Harcourt has recently released an enlarged edition of her book, Tangled Vines.

MATTHEW MURREY had a poem published recently in Poet & Critic. He lives in Urbana, Illinois.

MARJORIE SAISER grew up near the Keya Paha River in northeast Nebraska. She now lives in Lincoln. Her poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Calyx, Crazy Horse, and other journals.

COREEN DWYER REES, Omaha, Nebraska, has published poetry in Smackwarm, Mankato Poetry Review, and Scrivener. Her work also appeared in Artfeast: An Anthology by Seven Women.

Albert Einstein’s religious faith embraced a pessimistic cosmic determinism and belief that individuals were free and responsible for their choices, a contradiction he never resolved, argues DONALD A. CROSBY. Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University, Crosby’s most recent book is The Specter of the Absurd: Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism. His own vision of religious naturalism Crosby sketched in a Summer 1991 essay in the journal Religious Humanism.

Was reunification the beginning or the end of Germany? What future has the Germany of power and the Germany of the mind? These are questions STEPHEN BROCKMANN considers in his essay on the future (and past) of Germany as Germans perceive it. A teacher of German Studies at Michigan State University, Brockmann includes among his publications essays on war in the modern consciousness and papers on modern German history and culture.

If the waning years of the modern age have witnessed a forgetfulness about history, the postmodern era asks for a new rendering of the past in service to the present. This, in turn, urges refocusing the humanities curriculum argues JAMES V. MEHL. Professor of Humanities at Missouri Western State College, Mehl has published many articles on European history, particularly on the Renaissance and Reformation, and in recent years on humanities education, with special emphasis on integrating disciplines in the humanities, arts, and related fields in educational and cultural institutions.

JAMES W. GOODRICH is Executive Director of the State Historical Society of Missouri and Editor of the Missouri Historical Review.

JO MCDOUGALL is a poet who teaches writing and American literature courses at Pittsburg State University.

JARED CARTER, noted Indianapolis poet, has at least two books to his credit: Work, for the Night is Coming and After the Rain.

After long and distinguished service to the Midwest Quarterly, Dudley T. Cornish has decided to step down as Review Editor. Founding editor of this journal, Cornish saw it through the early years of establishing the Midwest Quarterly as a unique voice, a scholarly publication not tied to a specific academic discipline. When he left that position to take up administrative responsibilities at Pittsburg State University, he handed over a prospering publication. Many years later, in retirement from teaching, he rejoined it to continue broadening the scope of the review section. His fine words and good humor will be missed by all associated with Midwest Quarterly over the years.

Joining us as Review Editor will be Patricia A. Behlar, an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Science at Pittsburg State, where she teaches political science courses and serves as pre-law advisor. Her academic degrees include the B.A. in history from the University of New Orleans, and M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Louisiana State University. She is currently researching the career of Judge Wayne G. Borah, who served as a federal district judge and federal court of appeals judge from the late 1920s through the mid-1950s. Her contributions to reference works include eleven entries in the Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights: From Emancipation to the Present (Greenwood Press, 1992), which the Library Journal named one of the outstanding reference sources published that year.

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