The Disappearing Spoon: Chapter 14: Artistic Elements Summary & Analysis

Science has grown expensive over time and this often limits the circumstances under which it can happen and who gets to take part. The fact that many scientists were aristocrats is subtly evident in the periodic table. For example, the Ancient Greek and Latin names of elements can be traced back to the fact that classics was the foundation of humanistic education for the European elite. Even more strangely by today’s standards, for many years science was actually considered more of a hobby than a profession. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—whom many consider to be the be the greatest German writer in history—also dabbled in science despite not being qualified to do so. He even challenged Isaac Newton’s theory about how colors work.

Goethe’s “masterwork” is his telling of the story of Faust, which is filled with unfounded “speculation” about alchemy and geology. Despite his lack of knowledge or credentials, Goethe was involved in selecting a scientist for a professorship in chemistry at the University of Jena in 1809. He picked a man named Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner who hadn’t even studied chemistry, although that didn’t stop Döbereiner spending many hours chatting with Goethe about how they believed various chemical processes worked. Years later, Döbereiner was measuring the weight of a newly-discovered element called strontium and he was intrigued to find that it lay in the middle of two other elements, calcium and barium.

Döbereiner then began to notice more trios of elements like this and proceeded to group them together. Incredibly, this was the beginning of the columns of the periodic table. Not only that, he also invented the world’s first portable lighter, which was called Döbereiner’s lamp and which brought him global fame. In the 1920s, the artists and design theorist László Moholy-Nagy coined the terms “forced obsolescence,” which refers to the natural progress from older to newer technologies, and “artificial obsolescence.” This latter term describes when consumers abandon old products for new ones that aren’t substantially different, but have a fancy, enticing veneer. 

Kenneth Parker was 28 when he persuaded his family business to make a luxury pen, the Duofold pen. A decade later, in the midst of the Depression, Parker debuted a new luxury pen, the Vacumatic. Hoping to use Moholy-Nagy’s insight to get rich, he introduced a third pen in 1941, calling it the Parker 51. Although this pen was not substantially different from any other pen (they all perform the same essential function), it became a status symbol and a hot commodity, nicknamed “the world’s most wanted pen.” Incredibly, at its highest price it sold for $50, the equivalent of $400 today. The Parker 51 eventually fell out fashion due to the rise of typewriters.

Mark Twain bought a typewriter as soon as he saw one despite the fact that it cost $2,400 in today’s dollars. He became the first author to submit a typewritten manuscript to a publishing house. He was also captivated by science and once wrote a story, “Sold to Satan,” about the periodic table. The story is set against the backdrop of a speculative economic crash and features a narrator who sells his soul to the devil, whose body is composed of head-to-toe radium. Moreover, Satan wears a coat made from polonium (which, at the time Twain was writing, had only just been discovered by Marie Curie). The story features a twist of Satan burning from “within,” a nod to the process of radioactivity that fascinated Twain. 

Perhaps the most Faustian of all the “tales of artists and elements” is the poet Robert Lowell’s relationship to lithium. Throughout his life, Lowell experienced hallucinations, delusions, and periods of psychosis. He was also the most celebrated poet in the U.S. Although some romanticized his mental instability as part of his creative genius, in reality he had bipolar disorder, which was caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain. By the time lithium was introduced as a treatment for bipolar, Lowell had just been place in a psychiatric ward. Lithium can’t halt a manic episode when it’s already happening, but it can prevent one from occurring if taken beforehand. It readjusts the circadian rhythm (body clock) of people whose rhythm has otherwise been thrown off by bipolar disorder.  

Lowell’s life drastically stabilized after he started taking lithium. Writing to his publisher, he expressed his astonishment over the fact that all the agony and chaos of his life was caused by “the lack of a little salt in my brain.” Yet while lithium brought Lowell stability, it also tranquilized him to the point that his former vitality was all but completely gone.