Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 58

Popular Culture Review

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because of the widespread popularity of such objects, because of their “pop” cul
tural cache, the scientific producer might find himself in a unique and powerful
position. Perhaps partly because of textual operations that organize discrete do
mains in culture and then array them in normative hierarchies, science can estab
lish and maintain its position as a privileged discourse in contemporary Western
society. Whatever the case may be, the value o f scientific value is certainly a func
tion of its vigilant deployment along scientific borders.
Kelley Kelleway
Notes
1.

2.

3.
4.

Attempts to define “science” have taken various forms through the years. T.H. Huxley and Matthew
Arnold crossed swords over the relative merits o f “science” and “art” in the nineteenth century,
each staking a claim to the proper “definition” o f science. Their debate resurfaced in the twentieth
century in the textual sparring of F.R. Leavis and C.P. Snow, who also articulated the “science vs.
art” argument via distinctions in what “science” is and what it can do. For additional views, see
Francis Bacon's The Great Instauration (I.‘>97), Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
(1802), Bertrand Russell’s 1913 article in The New Statesman, “Science as an Element in Culture,”
or Stefan Collini’s introduction to the 1993 edition of Snow’s The Two Cultures (Cambridge:
Cambridge UP).
Vertebrate paleontologist Robert Bakker, in The Dinosaur Heresies, fully examines the hunting
and predation practices of T rex, extrapolating that “Withstanding a Tyrannosaurus'^ attack required
either tanklike armor — the approach taken by Ankylosaurus — or most powerful defensive
weapons — the approach taken by Triceratops" (241). In Bakker’s world picture, the two categories
of animal, predator and prey, evolve in a sort o f hostile symbiosis. The predatory behavior of T
rex is so certain, in Bakker’s estimation, that he ba.ses “reactionary” adaptations in other animals
on this constant threat.
For a discussion o f dinosaurs and dinosaur icons as “totem animals” in contemporary Western
culture, see W.J.T. Mitchell’s The Ixist Dinosaur Book.
My source for this specific information regarding Dinamation's procedures of production is David
Kelleway, a mechanical designer and conceptual artist with the company from 1990-1993.

Works Cited
Bakker, Robert T. The Dinosaur Heresies. New York: Kensington, 1986.
Benton, Michael. “A Brief History of Dinosaur Paleontology.” The Scientific American Book of Dino
saurs. Ed. Gregory S. Paul. New York: Byron Press, 20(X). 10-44.
Horner, John R. and Don Lessem. The Complete T. rex. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
— and James Gorman. Dig^in^ Dinosaurs. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.
— and Edwin Dobb. Dinosaur Lives. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1997.
Kelleway. David. Personal interview. 1 March 2001.
Mitchell, W. J. T. The Last Dinosaur Book. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1998.
Paul, Gregory S. “Restoring the Life Appearance of Dinosaurs.” The Scientific American Book of Di
nosaurs. Ed. Gregory S. Paul. New' York: Byron Preiss, 2(X)().
Resnik, David B. The Ethics of Science. New York: Routledgc, 1998.