Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

5-31-2003

Abstract

In writing about George MacDonald choosing a college major, biographer William Raeper wrote that he chose “chemistry, a strange choice perhaps for a future novelist and poet and not an easy one for him to make.” He further conjectured that MacDonald’s choice was based on “common sense and sound economics” rather than “his poetic yearnings.” Many would agree with Raeper that science is a strange choice for a future poet and novelist. This paper argues that the role of beauty and imagination is very similar in science, mathematics, and literature, so it might not be so strange that someone could enjoy and appreciate mathematics and science as well as literature.

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