Nina Goes to Victoria, British Columbia...And Signs a Book

A short while ago I had the fortune of finding myself in not only one of my favorite book stores (Chapters) but in the quaint and beautiful west coast capital of British Columbia, VICTORIA. What a cool town! Several years ago, I lived in Victoria and taught biology courses at the University of Victoria (UVic). I used to hang out at the bohemian bistros and “karma” cafés on Government Street with students of mine and drank free espresso thanks to my betting prowess and an infinite collection of willing succ—eh—betting partners. We used to loiter beside Roger’s Chocolates, snag the freebie samples, and watch the tourists navigate their way through “souvenir-alley”. I used to take students on field trips past Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park to the breakwaters of the Pacific Ocean and watch them scramble the slippery rocks in search of the elusive Postelsia.

Victoria is Western Canada's oldest city. The City began in 1843 as a Hudson Bay Company trading post, named in honour of Queen Victoria. Then, with the Fraser Valley gold rush in 1858, Victoria grew rapidly as the main port of entry to the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. When the colonies combined, the City became the colonial capital and was established as the provincial capital when British Columbia joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871. Today, Victoria houses the provincial legislature and is a bustling tourist attraction for travelers from around the world.

This time Toulouse and I wandered the Old Town area and stopped in at Munro’s Books on Government Street, where Darwin’s Paradox is for sale. You can catch Jim Munro himself on the floor of this gorgeous bookstore, housed inside a 1909 neo-classical building that resembles a Florentine museum with vaulted ceilings, and ornate walls draped with stunning tapestries (created by Carole Sabiston) that depict the four seasons. After sliding down a quick lunch and awesome hazelnut latte at Blenz Coffee, I wandered over to Chapter’s on Douglas Street; it was time to do my signing—and meet Victoria face to face. Pete had set me at a wonderful antique table by the entrance with a Starbucks coffee and I began to meet some of Victoria’s most interesting people.

I met and had excellent discussions with UVic students, physicists, biochemists, business men, poets, and other writers (including Bev Cooke, local Victoria author). Among those I met was Kevan, who’d studied in the Yukon for his Masters Degree under Charlie Krebs, and was heading up to northern Ontario to do two months of research and report-writing. He packed a signed copy of my book on the plane and read it all the way there! Way to go, Kevan! Not only did he recognize the relevance of Pielou Mall (to the ecologist, E.C. Pielou), but he made some awesome commentary on the book’s science and speculations. Kevan is currently working with two colleagues on a wilderness survival manual for northern Ontario and enjoyed the section in Darwin’s Paradox on Julie’s survival in the wilderness heath of Ontario. In fact, he let me know that he’d wished that I’d put more of it in the book. I guess I did it right… Kevan posits some interesting and thought provoking notions on the topic of independent development/discovery brought up in my book. Here’s what he says: “Can RNA drift in the wind like a virus and write itself into the genome of other organisms assuming some skills are genetic in origin? More mystically is it possible to tap into a body of knowledge, or have some quantum fluctuation bring knowledge from the future/other places directly into others' heads?? Certainly fuel for the imagination, and your exploration of the intelligent (and symbiotic) virus meme is another one of the reasons I enjoyed your book.”

These are awesome thoughts and brings to mind some of the notions by Rupert Sheldrake on “morphic resonance” and “extended mind”. Sheldrake's 1981 controversial book A New Science of Life introduced the concept of morphogenetic fields. For Sheldrake, the laws of the universe appear not to be laws at all, but rather deeply ingrained habits of action, built up over the eons…like ancient riverbeds on the surface of Mars. Sheldrake calls the habitual tendency of nature “morphic resonance”, in which present forms are influenced by past forms. According to Sheldrake, morphic resonance is transmitted through “morphogenetic fields”, which are analogous to electromagnetic fields in that they transmit information, but differ in that they do so without using energy and are therefore not diminished by transmission through time or space.

Take our physical forms, for instance. Sheldrake proposes that the physical forms we take on are not necessarily contained inside our genes, which he suggests may in fact be more analogous to transistors tuned in to the proper frequencies for translating invisible information into visible form. In other words, any form always looks alike because it ‘remembers’ its form through repetition and that any new form having similar characteristics will use the pattern of already existing forms as a guide for its appearance. According to Sheldrake, morphogenetic fields are located invisibly in and around organisms and may account for the regeneration of severed limbs in worms and salamanders, the holographic properties of memory, telepathy, and the increasing ease with which new skills are learned as greater quantities of a population acquire them. In his subsequent books, The Presence of the Past (1988) and The Rebirth of Nature (1991), Sheldrake traced the birth, rise, and inevitable death of the materialistic world view currently under siege by revolutionary concepts and paradigms such as chaos theory, the Gaia hypothesis, cellular symbiosis, and morphic resonance. What are YOUR thoughts?

Near the end of the day, Karl and Stephanie Johanson, publisher and art director of Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine (eligible for an Aurora and Hugo this year), dropped by and took me out for supper. We feasted on wonderful food, drink and great conversation.

Neo-Opsis is eligible for Best work in English Other in the Auroras and Best Semi-prozine for the Hugos. Stephanie is eligible for Artistic Achievement for the Auroras and for Fan Artist for the Hugos. The Aurora needs specific works nominated. This includes cover and interior art for Neo-opsis 14 & 15. Karl’s story, Pioneers in Sci Phi Journal is also eligible for an Aurora award (English short form) as well. Both the Auroras and the Hugos are now open for nominations for 2008 works.

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.