Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
Why Fish Don't Exist tells the fascinating story of David Starr Jordan, the pioneering ichthyologist who became the first president of Stanford University. Jordan devoted his career to cataloguing and classifying the diverse fish species of the American West, amassing what was considered the most comprehensive collection of fish specimens in the world during the late 1800s. Miller uses his life and work to explore how science is constructed through acts of both discovery and denial. Plot twist: Jordan also deliberately ignored evidence that contradicted his preconceptions, was embroiled in a murder conspiracy, and was guilty of eugenics. Ouch.
“When people have this feeling of personal inefficiency, compulsive collecting helps them in feeling better.”
When Jordan dismissed theories of evolution and envisioned fish taxonomy to reflect God's intentional design, Miller uses his story to argue that scientific facts do not exist independently of the scientists who work to establish them, as all taxonomy involves ambiguity and selective judgment that reflect the classifiers’ biases. By chronicling Jordan’s contributions yet refusal to acknowledge inconvenient data, Miller examined the complex interplay between discovery and prejudice, crafting a thoughtful study of the human decisions that establish what we accept as objective facts about the natural world.
Perhaps even more fascinating was how Jordan’s fragile fish collection was crushed not once but multiple times. Yet, he refused defeat and resurrected his work again and again. It’s tenacity and unwavering dedication on his part, the irony of which further sets us up for the twist at the very end on the book’s punchy title: why fish don’t exist.
“‘When you give up the stars you get a universe. So what happens when you give up the fish?’ I had no idea. But I knew in that moment, that was it. That waiting on the other side of the fish was something else. That letting go of the fish would result in some sort of existential exchange. And I figured the result would be different for everyone. Just as it had been with the stars.”
By contrast, Jordan believed humans underwent evolution (vs fish hierarchy being an act of God), resulting in hierarchical races with arbitrary yet inheritable traits. We often conveniently credit eugenics to the Nazis when really, Jordan was one of its first advocators. Instead of condemning races to death, he held a yardstick of intelligence, mental illnesses and criminal history, spearheading American policies for compulsory sterilisation to improve” the gene pool. It’s chilling to think that even he, a highly respected scientist, stooped so low as to use his scientific authority to advance racism.
But the book is as much about the emerging fields of taxonomy, genetics and evolution in the late 1800s as it was about Jordan – and Miller herself. As readers ride along Jordan’s life story, Miller also blends in her struggles, mostly centred around her father’s passing and the challenging life views it left behind. In a smooth narrative, Miller weaves witty humour into her empathy and grief, turning to Jordan’s life publications to glimpse how to grapple with the world.
“There is grandeur in this view of life.”
Why Fish Don’t Exist may be a fascinating account of how subjectivity can influence even a highly respected scientist, bringing him down to earth a notch, but at heart, it is a reminder of how we hinge our life upon our faiths, rational or not, to survive the curveballs it throws at us.
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