Why Fish Don't Exist

Miller writes that by letting go of categories, we see the world differently: “Perhaps there will be a mother waiting inside a person deemed unfit. Perhaps there will be medicine hiding inside a weed. Salvation inside the kind of person you had discounted.” Identify three instances in the book where this changed perspective might apply and explain why.

Persistence was key to David Starr Jordan’s success, but it had a dark side as well. Explore where persistence comes from, according to Miller, and explain why, for Miller, this foundation had negative consequences in the world.

Charles Darwin had a significant influence on David Starr Jordan’s thinking, but he didn’t follow Darwin’s theories completely. Explain how Jordan’s eugenicist beliefs distorted the theory of natural selection, according to Miller.

In Chapter 5, Miller describes the existence of holotypes, and concludes that “even scientists like ritual.” What does the naming of species show about the importance of ritual and belief in science? Explain, citing examples from the text.

Lulu Miller starts the book by describing an encounter with her father, where he explained the meaningless of existence. Explain how that assertion motivates Miller’s investigation in the book, including how it leads to her conclusion that chaos should be embraced as part of life.

David Starr Jordan was among the early pioneers of eugenics. Explain how Jordan’s earlier work on fish relates to his adoption of eugenicist ideas.

The title of Why Fish Don’t Exist references an idea put forward by a group of scientists called the cladists who proposed that an evolutionary group called ‘fish’ doesn’t exist. Explain why this principle, and what it might say about life for broadly, was a source of liberation for Miller.

At the beginning of the book, Lulu Miller describes David Starr Jordan as a “fool,” then comes to see him as a source of inspiration, then ultimately rejects his ideas. Chart the changes in Miller’s relationship to Jordan, over the course of the book, comparing this to the changes Miller described as taking place in her own thinking.