The classic “Uncleftish Beholding,”
A new chem-ken constantly molding:
Terms retro-translated;
In prose, aggregated.
New insights: abiding, unfolding.
In this particularly busy season, the second of my two Summer 2024 posts will also build on a non-Twitter poem that relates to a recent conference presentation. (After this post, I’ll pause until the new school year begins, to resume a regular posting routine.)
I gave a talk last week at the 2024 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education, held this year in Lexington, Kentucky. In this case, one major focus of my presentation was the potential of author Poul Anderson’s renowned essay “Uncleftish Beholding” for helping students to look beyond memorized chemistry vocabulary to the concepts underneath.
Given the number of quotes I’ll use here, I’ll double my typical goal and aim to keep things under 560 words, starting now.
The classic “Uncleftish Beholding,” /
A new chem-ken constantly molding…
Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was an award-winning science fiction writer whose work explored many aspects of the overlap of science and languages. “Uncleftish Beholding,” from his book All One Universe, is an inventive essay that explains atomic theory with a vocabulary that uses only Germanic-root terms, avoiding words originally from other languages. [Within this rule, “atomic” (since it is derived from Greek and Latin) must become “uncleftish,” while “theory” (derived from Greek) similarly becomes “beholding.”]
This set of rules refocuses attention on the meanings of the underlying concepts, “constantly molding” a “new chem-ken”: yielding new insights into and enhanced understanding of chemistry.
Terms retro-translated; /
In prose, aggregated.
Here is a paragraph from Anderson’s essay, with my interpretations of the pertinent concepts italicized in brackets:
“The worldken of this behaving [the study of this behavior], in all its manifold ways [in all its complexity], is called minglingken [chemistry]. Minglingers [chemists] have found that as the uncleftish tale of the firststuffs (that is, the tale of firststuffs in their kernels) waxes [as the atomic numbers of the elements increase], after a while they begin to show ownships not unlike those of others that went before them [periodic behavior can ultimately be observed among them]. So, for a showdeal [for an example], stonestuff (3), glasswortstuff (11), potashstuff (19), redstuff (37), and bluegraystuff (55) can each link with only one uncleft of waterstuff [lithium (atomic number 3), sodium (atomic number 11), potassium (atomic number 19), rubidium (atomic number 37), and cesium (atomic number 55) each bond to only one hydrogen atom], while coalstuff (6), flintstuff (14), germanstuff (32), tin (50), and lead (82) can each link with four [carbon (atomic number 6), silicon (atomic number 14), germanium (atomic number 32), tin (atomic number 50), and lead (atomic number 82) can each bond to four hydrogen atoms]. This is readily seen [this periodic behavior can be observed] when all are set forth in what is called the roundaround board of the firststuffs [the Periodic Table of the Elements].”
-From Poul Anderson’s “Uncleftish Beholding”
In Lines 3-4, I characterize Anderson’s essay as “terms retro-translated; in prose, aggregated.” Reading the piece requires intentional concentration, as the mesmerizing, old-fashioned-seeming terms accumulate. (On a comparable note, in preparing my talk, I was fascinated to find Douglas Hofstadter’s Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language, which includes a chapter analyzing and extending Anderson’s piece. For instance, Hofstadter discusses Einstein’s theories as the work of “old One Stone,” taking Anderson’s vocabulary constraint and adding in a new one: of using all-one-syllable words! It was a similarly rewarding reading experience.)
New insights: abiding, unfolding.
This academic year was the first time I deliberately taught “Uncleftish Beholding” in a class, sharing it– after much background information– with an upper-level chemistry lecture course. I was impressed with how enthusiastically students responded to the unusual exercise; their discussion and the resulting coursework had been the substance of my BCCE talk.
The title of this post takes the phrase “holding patterns” as its inspiration, but it also can be read as observing known concepts in unusual contexts: i.e., the steps necessary to translate this essay into modern chemistry vocabulary. This duality lines up well with the limerick’s final line; Anderson’s essay is continually both a reminder of “abiding” scientific knowledge and an “unfolding” inspiration.
Chemphasis 