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Act 3 Scene 3

Act 3 Scene 3 Galapaghosts
Long after the fact - a haunting
elaborating on how Charles almost missed the message of the Enchantatas - the enchanted islands of the Galapagos
a dream of destiny - Darwin asleep - like Lewis Carrols “Walrus and the Carpenter” (stuck on the island)
The monks are now the Galapaghosts  and Darwin takes part in the dream...

Darwin 1st person - recurring dreams on board the Beagle

Mendel - the monk - forgotten in the files - an explanatory apparition - seen and dismissed

MENDEL
Allow me to introduce myself. My name was Gregor Mendel.
I was reputed to be the founder of mathematical biology
and the father of modern genetics.

(They cross themselves)
In the monastery, I was not allowed to work with mammals.
The abbot thought, studying little mousie sex
unseemly for a celibate man of the cloth...

I was not similarly restrained in the gardens
- even after Adam and Eve's fall from favor -
What's sexy about plants; pistils, stamens, and pollen?

I love mathematics, counting, and clerical work -
after all, I was a monk –
So, I took to working with pea plants and their obvious recognizable variations.

I discovered why the characteristics of auspicious variation
are not diluted back into the greater population.

This particular, pertinent, and particulate information
would salve his conscience and one of his greatest problems regarding speciation.

Fitzroy suicide - depth of anxiety

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Thomas Scott Nelson ©
last modified August 22, 2021