Author Description

Victorian Microscopists Saw Observation As Deeply Embodied, The Images Emerging Through A Material Entanglement Of Bodies (of The Observer, Instrument, Apparatus, And Object) In A Dynamic, Unstable System. These Ideas Echo Mid-century Work By Physiological Psychologists, Who Saw Mind (perception, Thinking, Feeling) As Embodied, Distributed, And Dynamic Processes, Enacted And Affected By Automatic Or Unconscious Reflex Action, Attention, Mental Training, And Fatigue. Microscopists Circulated Metaphorical And Narrative Tropes Of Embodiment Through The Varied Forms Of Nineteenth-century Print Culture, To Regulate The Entanglement Of These Diverse Bodies, And To Enculturate Microscopy As A Difficult But Valuable Pursuit. They Adapted Existing Concepts (such As Beauty, The Sublime, Natural Theology, And Fairylands), Or Invented New Ones (such As Many-sided Comprehension), To Promote Favored Forms Of Embodiment And Build Community. Victorians Understood Wonder And Skepticism Not As Incommensurate Approaches To Microscopical Observation But Rather As Complementary Forms Of Embodiment. Romantic Tropes Of Wonder (to Be Distinguished From The Intellectual Work Of Imagination) Model And Solicit Particular Affective Flows. A Skeptical, Realist Approach Seeks To Train The Reader's Eye, Hand, Body, And Judgment, And To Formalize The Optical, Mechanical, And Cognitive Interchanges Of Microscopical Practice. Some Texts Offer Virtual Storyspaces Where Readers May Join The Speaker In Minute Description Of An Image, In Articulated Practice, At A Soirée, Or In Exploring An Imagined Microscopical World. These Tropes Shape Every Level Of Microscopical Interest And Proficiency, And They Illuminate Wider Patterns Of Victorian Embodiment, Affect, And Scientific Practice-- Provided By Publisher.