Watson, Lyall 1939-

views updated

WATSON, Lyall 1939-

PERSONAL: Born April 12, 1939, in Johannesburg, South Africa; son of Douglas (an architect) and Mary (Morkel) Watson; married Vivienne Mawson, 1961 (divorced, 1966). Education: University of Witwatersrand, B.S., 1958; University of Natal, M.S., 1959; University of London, Ph.D., 1963. Politics: "Absolutely none." Religion: "Animist." Hobbies and other interests: Tribal art, bird-watching, archaeology, ethnobotany, conchology.

ADDRESSES: Home—Ballplehob, West Cork, Ireland; also lived on oceangoing trawler Amazon, 1982-94. Office—BCM-Biologic, London WC1N 3XX, England. Agent—David Higham Associates, 5-8 Lower John Street, Golden Square, London W1R 4HA, England.

CAREER: Zoological Garden of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, director, 1964-65; British Broadcasting Corp., London, England, producer of documentary films, 1966-67; BCM-Biologic (life science consultancy), London, founder and director, 1968; writer, 1970—. Once apprenticed to Desmond Morris, London Zoo; worked in archaeology with American School of Oriental Research, Jordan and Saudi Arabia; worked in anthropology in northern Nigeria; expedition leader and researcher in Antarctica, Amazon River area, the Seychelles, Galapagos, and Indonesia, etc., 1968; commissioner for Seychelles on International Whaling Commission, 1978-82; Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary, founder.

AWARDS, HONORS: Appointed Knight of the Golden Ark by The Netherlands, 1983.

WRITINGS:

The Omnivorous Ape, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan (New York, NY), 1971.

Supernature: The Natural History of the Supernatural, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1973, first U.S. edition published as Supernature, Anchor (Garden City, NY), 1973, also published with original title, Coronet (London, England), 1974.

The Romeo Error: A Matter of Life and Death, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1974, first paperback edition, Anchor (Garden City, NY), 1975.

Gifts of Unknown Things, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1976, Simon & Schuster (New York City), 1976, published as Gifts of Unknown Things: A True Story of Nature, Healing, and Initiation from Indonesia's "Dancing Island," Destiny Books (Rochester, VT), 1991.

Lifetide: The Biology of the Unconscious, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1979, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1979.

Sea Guide to Whales of the World, illustrated by Tom Ritchie, Hutchinson (London, England), 1981, Dutton (New York, NY), 1981.

Lightning Bird: The Story of One Man's Journey into Africa's Past (biography), Dutton (New York, NY), 1982, first paperback edition, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.

Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1984, first U.S. edition, Morrow (New York, NY), 1984.

Earthworks: Ideas on the Edge of Natural History, with illustrations by Fujio Watanabe, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1986.

The Dreams of Dragons: Riddles of Natural History, Morrow (New York, NY), 1987, published as The Dreams of Dragons: An Exploration and Celebration of the Mysteries of Nature, Destiny Books (Rochester, VT), 1992.

Beyond Supernature: A New Natural History of the Supernatural (sequel to Supernature), Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1986, first paperback edition, Bantam (New York, NY), 1988.

The Water Planet: A Celebration of the Wonder of Water, with images by Jerry Derbyshire, Crown (New York, NY), 1988.

Sumo, Sidgwick & Jackson (London, England), 1988.

The Nature of Things: The Secret Life of Inanimate Objects, Hodder and Stoughton (London, England), 1990, Destiny Books (Rochester, VT), 1992.

Neophilia, Sceptre (London, England), 1993.

Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

(Author of essay) Turtle Islands: Balinese Ritual and the Green Turtle, photography and journals by Charles Lindsay, Takarajima Books (New York, NY), 1995.

By the River of the Elephants: An African Childhood, Kingfisher (New York, NY), 1997.

(For children) Warriors, Warthogs, and Wisdom: Growing Up in Africa, illustrated by Keith West, first American edition, Kingfisher (New York, NY), 1997.

Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell, Penguin (London, England), 1999, first American edition, Norton (New York, NY), 2000.

Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant, Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

Also author of screenplays for feature films Gifts of Unknown Things and Lifetide: The Biology of the Unconscious. Contributor to Reader's Digest Services' Living World of Animals series, 1970. Contributor to professional journals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Research on the building of a bridge between scientific investigation and mystic revelation.

SIDELIGHTS: Biologist, naturalist, and writer Lyall Watson grew up in South Africa, where he learned much about life from an elderly Zulu friend and the natural world around him as a child. At college he studied with Raymond Dart, who discovered the early hominid Australopithecus; later studies in Europe led to an apprenticeship with Desmond Morris at the London Zoo. Archaeological fieldwork in Jordan in the late 1960s led Watson to an offer to direct the rebuilding of a Johannesburg zoo. He later became a producer of documentary nature films for the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) in London. Following this career, he founded Biologic of London, a company that designs zoos, organizes safaris, and consults on various life science projects. In 1973, Watson had his first big success with a book, Supernature: The Natural History of the Supernatural, which sold a million copies and launched his writing career.

"Since 1967 I have traveled constantly," Watson once said, "looking and listening, collecting bits and pieces of apparently useless and unconnected information, stopping every two years to put the fragments together into some sort of meaningful pattern. Sometimes it works out. And so far, enough people have enjoyed the results to justify publishing several million copies in fourteen languages."

Gifts of Unknown Things is an account of Watson's brief visit to Nus Tarian, a small Indonesian island, and the seemingly supernatural occurrences he witnessed there. Many of the paranormal phenomena in the book center on a young girl named Tia, and several of the book's reviewers found the events incredible. John Naughton, for example, wrote in the New Statesman that Watson's "chronicle of [Tia's] more spectacular exploits stretches the reader's credulity to breaking point and beyond." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of the New York Times remarked: "I don't believe that Tia, the young orphan girl of the island, learned to heal burns by touching them with her hand, to cure schizophrenia by drawing out bad chemicals, to raise a man from the dead, and, finally, when the Muslim natives begin to find Tia's powers too disturbing to their orthodoxy, to transform herself into a porpoise....Nowitmay well be, as Mr. Watson argues, that my Western rationalism is woefully limited—that it fails to perceive what children and poets and Eastern mystics and with-it physicists see with the greatest of ease, which is that 'There are levels of reality far too mysterious for totally objective common sense. There are things that cannot be known by exercise only of the scientific method.' Fair enough. But just because Newton has turned out to be wrong doesn't make all things possible....Yet this is how Mr. Watson reasons."

In Lifetide: The Biology of the Unconscious, Watson attempts to construct a unified model of life and the universe that accounts for phenomena currently unexplained by modern science. Using a plethora of examples from biology—his own area of expertise—as well as such disciplines as physics, anthropology, medicine, psychology, and paleontology, Watson argues that evolution and everything else in the cosmos is deliberately directed by a kind of collective unconscious of all living things (including biological components). He calls this "contingent system" the Lifetide and describes it as "the whole panoply of hidden forces that shape life in all its miraculous guises, . . . the eddies and vortices of nature that flow together to form the living stream." Reviewing the book for Washington Post Book World, Dan Sperling commented: "Watson builds an admirable case in favor of the existence of such a contingent system, and believes that the eventual discovery of its parameters and properties will reveal it to be the source of much that we now call the paranormal, . . . [although] even this, he feels, will not solve the underlying mysteries of the Lifetide." Sperling also pointed out that Watson's description of this system contains "language so rich and lively that at times the book seems as though it were written by a poet rather than a scientist."

Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil examines the nature of evil from the perspective of that which upsets the natural order of a society. Evil, Watson explains in the book, is anything "that is bad for ecology." As a Kirkus Reviews contributor explained, "evil is anything that disrupts the integrity of the ecological moment—the sense of place and community—anything that disturbs diversity, relative abundance, and communication." Evil, as Watson defines the term, is a force of nature. For example, headhunters in Indonesia are ethically sound from this point of view because their killings are done with cultural purpose and serve as population controls in an area with limited resources. Serial killers in America are evil because there are no apparent societal or ecological benefits. As Charles C. Mann commented in the Washington Post Book World, Watson examines the "baffling intersection of morality and biology" and "the apparent ethical implications of genetics and evolutionary theory." In examining the nature of evil, Watson "ranges through philosophy, psychology, anthropology, history, ecology, and especially biology," a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote.

Watson acknowledges that genes play the major role in determining individual behavior and that aggression and violence seem genetically inherent in human beings. He confronts the idea of natural selection and finds it at great odds with morality and aesthetics. "Natural selection," Watson writes, "is extraordinarily good at maximising immediate genetic interests, but it is uncommonly bad at long-term planning." He calls natural selection "a blind man married to a beautiful woman; and we are the products of that union."

Robert Edgerton praised the work in the National Review, writing, with "admirable judgement and superb craftsmanship, Watson ranges widely over such topics as the nature of ecology, genetic fitness, the selfish and deceptive behavior of gorillas, the premeditated violence of chimpanzees, and the altruism of false killer whales." Mann found that "most nonfiction has small factual errors of the sort that reviewers cite to demonstrate their own superiority. But Dark Nature has an astonishing number of them." He also cited several "odd lapses in logic and tone," but concluded that "buried within the factual and logical muddle is an energetic, thoughtful discussion of an important issue."

Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell is a book about the traditional sense of smell and a kind of sixth sense, the vomeronasal organ in the human nose, discovered by a Danish anatomist named Jacobson in 1809. The organ is said to pick up subtle pheromonal, sexual, and chemical odors and transmit them to the hypothalamus in the brain. Watson writes about this type of sensing ability and how it is found throughout the animal and plant kingdoms as well. Donna Seaman of Booklist praised Watson's "intriguing and instructive examples" and "passages of sheer wonder" as he details the amazing senses of smell—how smell can rekindle memories, help us recognize others, and distinguish between good and bad encounters—and what odors mean in the natural world. A writer for W. W. Norton's Web site observed, "In this surprising and delightful book, Lyall Watson rescues our most unappreciated sense from obscurity." A Publisher's Weekly contributor was less convinced, however, concluding, "As with his earlier work, Watson provides tantalizing conjectures, but his uncritical acceptance of the paranormal reduces his credibility." Ann Finkbeiner, writing a review of the book for the New York Times, pointed out that Watson reminds his readers that some of his theory is pure speculation and disagrees with traditional science, but she concluded, "I like scientists' care with belief. But Watson's book is loving, the writing is lively.... Also, he's having such a delightful time up there in his cottage on the cliff, spinning facts and foaming nonsense into this vision of the world's creatures, Jacobsonly joined."

Watson's Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant is a combination of memoir, myth, and scientific facts about this intelligent, powerful, yet emotional species. A writer for W. W. Norton called the book "part meditation on an elusive animal, part evocation of the power of place." It includes what a Kirkus Reviews contributor called a "superbly rendered account," told with "wonderful freshness and enthusiasm," of events from Watson's boyhood, when he and friends sighted a wild white elephant and met a South African Khoi tribesman who passed on wisdom about the creatures during days on the beach. Stories of ancient myths about elephants are woven together with accounts of Watson's later experiences with the animals in his zoological work and with facts presented by elephant researchers. Reports of how elephants have shaped their land and how hunters have sought to destroy them are also included. The Kirkus contributor concluded that Watson, "much more evocatively than any zoologist has ever managed," treats his readers to powerful insight into the elephant's place in nature and time. "His chronicle of these majestic creatures will cast a spell on readers," a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote. Edell M. Schaefer, reviewing the book for Library Journal, observed, "The rambling narrative style does not diminish the treasures to be gleaned from Watson's personal experiences," even though she thought some readers simply looking for facts might be disappointed. Nancy Bent of Booklist wrote that Watson "has created a lyrical paean to an animal that is as much myth as fact."

Although Watson maintains on his new Web site that he has never been one for using computers and technology in his writing and research, preferring instead to write "with a fountain pen, in black ink, on paper with the reassuring colour and feel of old vellum," he agrees that his readers might enjoy finding him on the Web. His world travels and simple lifestyle—he lived on a converted shrimp trawler for twelve years and now lives in a restored farm cottage on Ireland's rocky coast—allow him to take what comes and report, he said on his Web site, "what I find along the way." Out to prove no premise or promote any philosophy, Watson explained, "All I do is look, listen and try to make sense of what I find, in biological terms. Which means asking, again and again, the three essential questions that put discoveries and insights into evolutionary perspective: 'Where did it come from?, Does it have survival value?, and What happens next?'" Watson said he considers it worthwhile to pursue "the soft edges of science"—those answers that have not yet reached the level of human understanding but may reconcile science with the human experience.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

International Who's Who 2000, 63rd edition, Europa (London, England), 2000.

Watson, Lyall, Lifetide: The Biology of the Unconscious, Simon & Schuster, 1978.

Watson, Lyall, Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil, HarperCollins, 1995.

Writers Directory 2001, 16th edition, edited by Miranda H. Ferrara, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 1996, p. 967; April 1, 2000, Donna Seaman, review of Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell, p. 1423; April 1, 2002, Nancy Bent, review of Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant, p. 1290.

Cruising World, September, 1982, p. 146.

Earth Science, winter, 1988, pp. 32-33.

Fate, January, 1980, p. 106; March, 1983, p. 93.

Globe and Mail (Toronto), December 8, 1984; October 4, 1986.

Horn Book Guide, spring, 1998, review of Warriors, Warthogs, and Wisdom, p. 182.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1995, review of Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil, pp. 1760-61; February 15, 2002, review of Elephantoms, p. 243.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Edell M. Schaefer, review of Elephantoms, p. 105.

National Review, September 2, 1996, Robert Edgerton, review of Dark Nature, p. 92.

Natural History, April, 2000, review of Jacobson's Organ, p. 90.

New Scientist, December 25, 1999, review of Jacobson's Organ, p. 81.

New Statesman, July 2, 1976, John Naughton, review of Gifts of Unknown Things.

New Yorker, July 22, 1996, p. 62.

New York Times, April 13, 1977, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Gifts of Unknown Things; April 9, 2000, Ann Finkbeiner, "The Sixth Sense," review of Jacobson's Organ, Late Edition, Section 7, p. 25.

New York Times Book Review, June 3, 1979; April 18, 1982; May 10, 1987.

Oceans, September-October, 1982, p. 60.

Parabola, February, 1986, p. 104.

Publishers Weekly, January 15, 1996, review of Dark Nature, p. 456; March 20, 2000, review of Jacobson's Organ, p. 82; April 8, 2002, review of Elephantoms, p. 213.

Sea Frontiers, March-April, 1982, p. 121.

Skeptical Inquirer, fall, 1993, pp. 76-79.

Social Education, April, 1998, review of Warriors, Warthogs, and Wisdom, p. 8.

Spectator, October 26, 1974.

Times Literary Supplement, December 20, 1974; August 20, 1982.

Washington Post Book World, April 10, 1977; July 15, 1979, Dan Sperling, review of Lifetide: The Biology of the Unconscious; May 23, 1982; March 31, 1996, Charles C. Mann, review of Dark Nature, p. 9.

Wilson Library Bulletin, February, 1982, p. 464; December, 1985, p. 70.

Yachting, May, 1982, p. 32.