The Evolution Man

'Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good And Reversion ever dragging Evolution in the mud.' So Tennyson, in 1886. Roy Lewis, in the 1960s, goes one better. Few will deny that Ernest the Ape-man has substantially added to our knowledge of prehistory by his memoirs of the life and times of his father, who gave evolution the kind of sudden push from which it has never regained its balance. That was in Africa. Father discovered that fire was not too hot to handle. (Hence physics, chemistry, technology, and street lighting.) He pronounced that incest was too easy. (Hence angst, psychology, sociology, some anthropology, and all rape.) Mother stumbled on cooking. (Hence medicine, dentistry, and saucepans.) Then Father went too far. (Hence parricide and cannibalism.) So who's for Uncle Vanya and 'Back to the Trees!' And who's for Father and the Bomb?