Act 2 Scene 1

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Act 2 Scene 1

If the universe is only 6 to 10 thousand years old… what did God do before taking up this hobby?

Act 2 Scene 1 Wallace October 29, 2007
Wallace is in the now
Heaven on earth now
Social democracy now
I will be famous someday
A man of ideas and importance
I will be somebody
Ambitious and altruistic

Isolated islands of diversity
Paddle in the stream – in the dream

Going where curiosity leads
Up river in the Amazon
In search of knowledge and adventure
As well as the toucan and python

It’s remarkable and unknown
Another species to send home
Perhaps worthy of a monograph or tome
I shall be known throughout the world

I shall be famous someday
An explorers life is fine
A life of exploration is mine
While the future will be forever…

Specialization is for Insects
In men this is a defect
One should not expect a small minded focus

I will not be bounded by small minds
Tradition or convention
It is my intention to grow to my fullest extention
And now a pregnant pause

‘Wallaces response to stay in your place – passed along by broker Samuel Stevens
initially an observation - then a bitter commentary on our ‘display’ boxes
stage “action” the packing of boxes
taken from Wallace by stage hands and “delivered”
then ‘unpacked’ w/”written” commentary... and mailed back -
same method - returned ‘up river’ to Wallace
his response is frustration
and specialization is for insects

Stevens

it's all very fine your theories and conjectures
as you gather - you intimately know your specimens
but please be content
to leave the philosophizing and real science
for the elevated
men of reason, luxury and leisure
to assess the value of your collecting

features and flaws
creatures and laws
but is an adaptation today may be a vice my advice is my
confirms
an infirmity a frailty
I confirm if conditions change and they always do

things could be worse
give them time and they will be
look before you leap
hesitate now and you are lost
is this life we live
a paradox lost

adapt and specialize
I know for a fact
that the generalist can better adapt to change

Wallace:

- upstream
?what do you see

Guide and bearer: Dinner, a job, a living, an ignorant white man

Herbert: I’d follow my brother anywhere
I followed him to the Amazon
where I died...

stranded out at sea
and there upon the horizon
was our recovery

we were lost at sea three weeks out our vessel ‘Helen” went down in flames
Thank heaven for living in modern times
steam engines a technological marvel
on the horizon
belching black smoke
a freighter

found us adrift in the Carribean
two weeks out from where our vessel
the ‘Helen” in flames and on fire
sank hissing beneath the waves
all lost
my lifes work
my drawings, my paintings, my notebooks and specimens
all gathered from the amazon with great dangers and care
in the vastness of South America’s rainforests
gone beneath the waves
at least we were alive and yes we were saved
we were rescued and returned safely
to family and friends
to London
to civilization again
to libraries museums and colleagues
sometimes we forget how lucky, how fortunate we are to be born
into an age of comfort and convenience

we could be saved...
if technology is coming our way

‘conflate with the mass

our lives will go on
thanks be to God
thanks be to technology
we are saved
on earth as it
will be in heaven