The New Biology Textbook

As I’ve read on, I realized how much I have learned with just a few pages of this book. Looking back into what the actual biology textbook has taught me, this book is more effective and it hasn’t used a single image. With simple metaphors of: binders with loose pages, pieces of tape, and even the crew of a boat, I’ve learned much more than with the 1000 page textbook we use in biology class. With simple metaphors and informal register as a reader I feel almost as if Dawkins is taking me personally through a journey of genetics, almost as if he was a narrator in a documentary.

“The ‘book-case’ in a cell is called the nucleus…This metaphor will take us quite a long way. When it finally breaks down I shall introduce other metaphors.” (Pg. 22-23)

Although the metaphors were introduced last chapter, Dawkins has taken a much more informal register in this section. He hasn’t made the mistake of making it familiar, nevertheless you can almost feel like it’s a conversation. What’s even better is how he has taken the time to explain what he will do further on, however this might be necessary for him to maintain his reader alert of what he is attempting to explain. To keep us readers even more alert, Dawkins or maybe his editor has even highlighted important terms by placing them in italics. “The opposite of a recessive gene is a dominant gene” (Pg. 26)

The author’s style is quite different from anything I’ve read. Although it is not considered rule, Dawkins breaks the barrier between author and reader. To my understanding there is no such rule of a “fourth wall” as there is in theatre, but it is a very strange for him to suddenly ‘talk’ to the readers. “To be strict, this book should be called not The Selfish Gene nor The Selfish Chromosome, but The slightly big bit of chromosome and even more selfish little bit of chromosome”(Pg. 33) A reference to the own books title is something I had never seen read before. But what surprised me even more was how bold his writing was.

“It was created inside one of our father’s testicles, shortly before you were conceived. It had never existed before in the whole history of the world.”

When read this seams quite bold to appear in a book without using more scientific terms, yet the subtlety in this Englishman’s writing makes it seam natural, it is natural after all. Yet this proves that for true learning things must be said upfront. I just hope that this book decreases in specific terminology and goes more into the impact of what is being written.