The book by Carroll, Brave Genius, is a wonderfully and
lucidly crafted exposition of two major French figures at mid twentieth
century; Camus and Monod. In CP Snow’s book, The Two Cultures, written about
the same time of these events of the book which bemoans the gap between the
cultural intellectual and the scientist. This book clearly belies that tale.
This is a tale of two men, from and in different walks of
life in their day “jobs” and yet drawn to a common theme by the invasion and
capture of France in the early 1940s (1940-1944). It tells the tale of each of
them, their divergent lives and the convergence of common interests. It is, in
many ways, a uniquely French tale of intellect, action, culture and friendships.
Monod is the biologist, seen first as a student seeking,
albeit slowly, what to focus on. Monod clearly has little personal angst due to
his coming from a solid middle class family, his mother even being American. He
is a multi-talented young man, married to a Jewish woman. Camus on the other
hand is from Algeria, from near poverty, but educated and with the intents of
being a writer. His early work is marginally accepted yet he continues to extol
the ideas of what was to become broadly speaking, the Existential School.
Camus is well known for his works such as The Plague and the
Myth of Sisyphus; Monod, for explaining the details of DNA to protein
synthesis. Monod complemented the work of Watson and Crick, it let those of us
in the late 50s and early 60s to say; oh, that is how it works. Camus also
framed the challenge of life for many in the same period, as a clear voice for
those seeking the meaning of existence, and also as a strong counter voice to
Sartre.
This book throws these two together, not in an artificial
way, but as a telling of the factual interaction of what would become two Nobel
Prize winners; Camus for Literature and Monod for Medicine and Physiology.
The book starts before the War and its main discussion is
during the War itself and the actions of Camus on the underground paper Combat
and Monod as a significant participant in the underground. The book details
their exploits, of frustrating the Germans and of their cat and mouse games of
avoiding being identified or capture. Monod is a most interesting character
since at one time he is trying to pursue his research career while at the same
time he is rapidly moving up in the Resistance hierarchy. Camus, still hindered
by his Tuberculosis, manages to continually get his underground newspaper out
which is an ongoing assault to the Germans. Both Monod and Camus have by this
time interacted but their lives are each dominated by their goal to defeat the
Germans by deed or word.
The book does discuss the significant ambivalence of many of
the French during the occupation. Many just wanted to allow the Germans to
occupy them and not make things worse. In effect whether in Occupied France or
in Vichy the attitude was that they would like to have things as “normal” as
possible. In contrast it was truly a small band of quite brave resistors like
Camus and Monod who took a stand which not only placed them at odds with the
German occupiers but also with many of their French compatriots. The book does
tell the tale of the German opposition side but could have somewhat better
explored the dissonance in the French people at large. For it was the latter
that often created the greatest risks?
The last part of the book concerns the two of them and the
post War life and politics in France. French intellectuals of many types were
often Socialists and Communists. That included Camus and Monod. But the
challenge came when the Stalin and his extreme treatment of the people and
truth became common knowledge. For Monod it was Lysenko and the Stalinist
theory of genetics.
For Monod this was a breaking point and he took a public
stand and denounced Lysenko and by default Russian Communism. For that he
received the reprobation of the French Communists. For example on p. 279 the
author states: “…The fundamental flaw in Mendel’s … and other Western
scientists’ theories…was this insistence that inheritance was independent of
the conditions experienced by animals and plants, such that no characteristics
acquired during their lives were passed on to the next generation…the Lenin
Academy objected to the idea that the hereditary substance of animals and
plants was not influenced by the conditions experienced by the organism and
that it acted alone in determining inheritance…”
To this Monod took a strong negative position. Ironically it
would take another fifty plus years to somewhat alter the facts. Although the
gene was the controlling factor, and genes were passed on in a manner according
to Mendel, the impact of conditions of the parents, not just their genes, could
give rise to hypermethylation, which could them be imprinted and in effect be
passed down. The irony was that this was being demonstrated as a result of the
German starvation of the Dutch people (Dutch Famine 1944-1945).
Probably the most moving part of the book is the letter
Monod wrote to the US Counsel Office after his visa to the US was rejected
because of Communist affiliation. This letter on 305-306 is worth reading several
times, and it was subsequently published in Science.
For Camus it was the denouncing of Stalinist tactic of
suppression of Russians and their imprisonment. This was exemplified by the
classic battle in the press between him and Sartre. Sartre remained a devout
Communist and Camus moved into what at best could be termed the French
anti-Communist camp.
By the mid-50s Camus had begun to be well recognized for his
writings and in 1957 he is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. To some this
was a surprise but to others who had seen his reputation and literary influence
spread it was anticipated.
The book is exceptionally well written and smoothly
interlaces the stories of each man. Overall it does a superb task of blending
together two lives, arts and science, into a coherent tale which is truly
French; Camus and the absurd and Monod and the control of cellular metabolism
at the genetic level. It would have been an improvement if the author, a
skilled research in the field, took the reader a bit more thoroughly along the
details of Monod’s work and the problems he was addressing. Understanding the
work of Watson and Crick, and then taking it to another level, via brilliant
experimental technique, would have truly brought this work to the fore. The
Watson book, The Double Helix, reads like a detective novel, and one can feel
the excitement as they progress to the discovery of the DNA structure and
function. This book takes you down the path with Monod but somehow it lacks the
intensity.
Secondly the Camus tale could also have discussed his world
view a bit more, by using context, and it would have been interesting to see
his works in contrast to say Sartre, who became an antagonist in later parts of
his life. There are discussion regarding this but they assume a somewhat well-read
reader.
Overall, the book is a wonderful addition to the literature
on Camus and adds to an understanding of Monod, a man of dimension and
character.
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