Author:
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Christie Aschwanden
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Source:
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High Country News
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Date:
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08/07/2006
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Format:
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Long feature
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(registration and/or payment may be required)
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This is an example of argument-as-narrative, a fascinating account of scientists' squabbles over the meaning of subspecies and its real-world implications.
In this piece, we liked Aschwanden's mix of folksy language and humor with serious explication of scientific debate. She very clearly gets at what's at stake in the story; we were primarily engaged by this, by the question of how species and subspecies do and should get classified. This narrative-as-argument gets enlivened by such passages as this one about a group of experts: "Given their distinct morphology (bald head), adaptations (identical Macintosh laptops) and behavior (a tendency to ask probing questions) the panelists themselves might qualify as a distinct subspecies under some definitions."
Humor such as this lends the narrator voice, allies her with her reader and makes us want to continue in her company.
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© 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College