chapter 4 Science and the Thing: Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World
Introduction
In this chapter on The Lost World, the problematic role of science is examined in regard to two different facets. The first concerns science’s complete disre- gard of the jouissance-Thing (and in consequence the resulting failure of the sexual relationship) in contrast to the role of the Name-of-the-Father, art and religion. As noted in the introduction, the plot loosely follows that of Freud’s Totem and Taboo, where the primal father, an ‘ape-man’ is killed by a band of brothers – an expeditionary group of four Englishmen. While in Freud’s work the appearance of the primal father concerns another historical era, here, this figure re-appears contemporaneously, in a fantasy space antithetical to the nor- mal every day one, and in the wake of the abdication of the actual father and his traditional authority. It turns out that without the Name-of-the-Father the sexual relationship does not happen – and the novel ends without marriag e – even though it seems that in the father’s absence the way is opened for would- be couple, Gladys and Malone, to form according to their inclinations. While the expedition returns in a triumph for (empirical) science, Malone does not attain his lady. The second relates to science in its form of ‘empirical realism’ as represent- ed by the scientist, Challenger, which still forms the dominant paradigm for judging the truth value of social science disciplines. One sees the workings of this type of science in in the naming and cataloguing of a pre-existing reality as represented in The Lost World by the dinosaurs and fauna (re-)discovered on the plateau. It is the ‘need to see with one’s own eyes’ the actual thing or object, as if ‘in the raw’, which provides the whole impetus of the story: the scientific expedition sent out to bring back evidence of the continuing existence of di- nosaurs and the proof an actual dinosaur (albeit a baby one). While the novel appears to end in triumph with the production of the irrefutable evidence, sev- eral aspects completely undermine this apparent happy ending: the depiction of the scientist Challenger as the double of the King of the ape-men, Gladys’ marriage to the ‘wrong’ man (not the hero of the tale) and the evident fact that in reality dinosaurs do not exist. What occurs in The Lost World is the bogus
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The Plot
For those readers unfamiliar with the novel, a synopsis of the plot is given here. The Lost World, a science fiction adventure yarn, begins when a young reporter, Edward Malone asks Gladys Huntingdon for her hand in marriage. Gladys’ an- swer is that Malone would have to do something worthy of her and be ‘a man of great deeds’.1 In answer to his request for an assignment comprising dan- ger and adventure, Malone’s editor sends him to interview Professor George Edward Challenger, a famous zoologist but reclusive and violent, whose claims to have discovered dinosaurs in South America have been dismissed as a hoax. Although, the interview ends in a fight, the two make up, with Challenger sug- gesting Malone come to the public lecture of another zoologist which he will be attending. At the crowded lecture, Challenger interrupts continually, leading to a general uproar. Its outcome is a proposed expedition to retrace Challeng er’s original journey to South America. The new party consists of Challenger, one of the disbelieving zoologists – Professor Summerlee – Malone, and an English aristocrat, Lord John Roxton, who has already been to the area and aided some of the indigenous tribes against their more powerful oppressors. With the aid of local guides, the new expedition reaches the mysterious plateau where Challenger claims to have seen the dinosaurs. One of the guides, Gomez, will turn out to be the brother of a man killed by Roxton on his previ- ous trip. When the expedition manages to get onto the plateau by bridging a ra- vine, Gomez destroys the makeshift construction, trapping them. Stranded in any event, they decide to investigate the plateau and it is here that most of the action of the novel will take place. The explorers discover a tribe of indigenous Indians living there and through the annihilation in two momentous fights, of their enemies, a tribe of ape-men and some monstrous dinosaurs, they help the Indians take control of the whole plateau. One of them eventually reveals the hidden tunnel which enables the explorers to escape from the plateau. Upon returning to England, they present their findings in another public lecture. The new testimony is received with the same scepticism as before until the incontrovertible evidence is dramatically produced; a live baby pterodac- tyl brought in a cage from South America. During the resulting turmoil the
1 Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World and Other Stories (Ware: Wordsworth, 1995), p. 13.