We did the most interesting thing in my English class this week: we talked about science. While studying Voltaire, we discussed the biology of humor. This made me wonder if I could find a broader connection between science and literature. After some thought, I came to this conclusion: a written work is the result of the literary version of a chemical reaction.
The kind of chemical reaction we will be using in this metaphor is a combination reaction, where one or more reactants (substances that undergo a change during the reaction) are combined to make a single, different product. For literature, the “reactants” are the various rhetorical and plot aspects of the work. Each literary work has slightly different “reactants”, making each reaction unique.
Next, many chemical reactions require heat or some kind of catalyst to make the reactants interact efficiently and properly. In the case of literature, this component would be the author’s distinctive take on the work. It could be his or her lived experience or twists on imitations of past works.
After we combine our “reactants” in the presence of our “heat” or “catalyst”, we obtain the product (substance formed by a chemical reaction), which in this case is the literary work. This final “product” has slightly different properties than the separate “reactants”. When the various rhetorical and plot elements come together in a piece of literature, they convey a stronger, more complex message than they did on their own.
The coolest part of this literary reaction? It’s reversible, meaning we as readers can decompose the written work we are studying through critical analysis in order to examine its individual elements. We can then combine the parts back together again and analyze the work as a whole.
Who knew authors wore lab coats?
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