A recent play by Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the oral contraceptive, receives its U.S. debut next week at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village. Phallacy tells the story of an art historian who has bet her career on the authenticity of a statue believed to be crafted during the classical era, and explores her reactions when a chemist proves that it is a 16th-century copy.
In addition to being a tale of academic infighting and the prejudices of C.P. Snow's two cultures, Phallacy raises some interesting questions about the value we attach to artistic objects. How much does an artwork depend on its history and social context for its aesthetic value? And what does it mean when that context is the result of the narratives we've composed for ourselves, hobbled as they are with limitations in knowledge, unprovable approximations of truth, and the influences of our hopes and ambitions?
At times the play suggests that the humanities are particularly at fault for playing fast and loose with reality (cf. Alan Sokal), while the rigors of the scientific method give it a better claim to authority. But science is driven by its own hypotheses, and it, too, can be led astray. How, for example, might Djerassi's play shed light on recent scientific scandals like the case of Hwang Woo-Suk and his fabrication of claims to have created human embryonic stem cells by cloning? Or much-publicized hopes that string theory's efforts to reveal an elegant universe will turn out to be an accurate representation of reality, despite the lack of a single experimental test of its claims? Could these be cases in which aesthetics trumps objectivity, blinding researchers to a messier and more complicated truth? Hope is a powerful force, the play argues, and separating the world as it is from the world we desire can be can be a difficult task.
I've been drafted to moderate a panel discussion titled Falling in Love with Hypotheses following the matinee performance on Wednesday May 16, and I'm sure such matters will be among those on the table. The playwright will also be participating, along with Brian Schwartz, codirector of the CUNY Graduate Center's Science and the Arts program, and Roger Payne, an expert on whales and founder of the the Ocean Alliance. So come on down.
Update (5/18): Science Friday has posted a video clip of the play and footage of Carl Djerassi during the panel discussion.
