Russel Edsons Counting Sheep :: Edson Counting Sheep Essays

Russel Edsons Counting Sheep   by and by British scientists had cloned a sheep called Dolly, people were asking them why they had done it and they utter because they could do it. Last week it was anounced that the human genome had been decrypted. Although everybody agrees that this is a blessing for mankind, umpteen people are worried more or less what scientists might do with their newfangled toy, again, just because they are able to do it. Long before anybody level thought just about cloning sheep, Russel Edson had them shrinked. His poem Counting Sheep is a shrewd approach to the question of use and misuse of science.   The ability to shrink yield certainly stands for a technically very advanced culture, in which scientists essential have almost god-like powers. But after shrinking the sheep, this scientist wonders what he should do with them. In a counseling, he resembles a child and the innocent cash dispenser of the poem contributes to this impr ession. He falls asleep counting sheep. Like in Goethes The Magicians Apprentice, the creation overcomes its creator. However, when the scientist thinks of possible uses for his invention, he thinks about a alter for rice, a sort of wooly rice, but never about shrinking hostile armies and crushing them with the tip of a finger. Edson makes him look so naive, that we almost forget that we are dealing with a very wicked issue. Even when the scientist rubs the sheep to a red paste between his fingers, he doesnt do it on purpose but seems more like a tinkers dam in a china shop. What if it were not sheep but apes or plane humans? He definately has the power to do that. We are reminded of the scientists who discovered nuclear power. It had never occured to them that someone might use it to build the worst doom weapon ever. By describing the minimum credible accident, Edson makes us think about the maximum credible accident.   Like The Death of an Angel, Darwin Descen ding and The cable car, Counting Sheep is partly a parody on our modern societys attitude towards science and technical advancement, which has almost assumed religious features. Edson comments on the way we treat our scientists like half-gods and on our blind believe in their obviously unlimited powers.