TY - BOOK AU - Simon,David Carroll TI - Light without Heat: The Observational Mood from Bacon to Milton SN - 9781501723421 AV - PR438.S37 U1 - 820.9/004 23 PY - 2018///] CY - Ithaca, NY PB - Cornell University Press KW - Empiricism in literature KW - English literature KW - Early modern, 1500-1700 KW - History and criticism KW - Literature and science KW - England KW - History KW - 17th century KW - Observation (Scientific method) KW - Philosophy of nature in literature KW - History Of Science KW - Literary Studies KW - LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh KW - bisacsh KW - nonchalance, affect theory, experimental science, Michel de Montaigne, renaissance literature N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; Introduction. Atmospheres of Understanding Scientific Emotion and Literary Criticism --; “Nonchalance” and the Making of Knowledge: Francis Bacon after Michel de Montaigne --; The Angle of Thought: Robert Boyle, Izaak Walton, and the Scientific Imagination --; The Microscope Made Easy: Andrew Marvell with Henry Power --; The Paradise Without: John Milton in the Garden --; Postscript --; Notes --; Works Cited --; Index; restricted access N2 - In Light without Heat, David Carroll Simon argues for the importance of carelessness to the literary and scientific experiments of the seventeenth century. While scholars have often looked to this period in order to narrate the triumph of methodical rigor as a quintessentially modern intellectual value, Simon describes the appeal of open-ended receptivity to the protagonists of the New Science. In straying from the work of self-possession and the duty to sift fact from fiction, early modern intellectuals discovered the cognitive advantages of the undisciplined mind.Exploring the influence of what he calls the "observational mood" on both poetry and prose, Simon offers new readings of Michel de Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Izaak Walton, Henry Power, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton. He also extends his inquiry beyond the boundaries of early modernity, arguing for a literary theory that trades strict methodological commitment for an openness to lawless drift UR - https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501723421 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781501723421 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781501723421/original ER -