Information re Book & a Quick Email

First, sorry about the gaps in the stories on this website. The idea was to give you a fair feel for the style and analysis that is in Arrival, not to hand out the whole book as a freebee.

On this page I’ll tell you a bit more about the book, in particular what it contains that this website doesn’t. Then I’ll ask you for a quick email to help me find a publisher.

Info re the Book

The Arrival of the Fittest: How The Great Become Great is written for a wide audience, often in informal style – reflecting I suspect my style of lecturing over the years both in and especially outside of university psychology departments. It’s often laced with stories, anecdotes etc. with the aim of having the reader ‘experience’ the development of the ‘great’ in the process of understanding it. At the same time Arrival presents a completely new theory to account for ‘how the great become great’. In fact as far as I know it is the only book in existence which offers a comprehensive account of how everything from genetics to cultural crises influences the development of those who eventually become ‘great’.

The arguments presented in the book are consistent both with reams of academic research (much of it published in statistical form in psychology journals) and with the actualities of the lives of individual ‘greats’. While a model to account for the earlier aspects of such development (the stuff re genetic bias, community of birth, family dynamics, links, etc) could probably be sussed by combining these two sources of information (biographies and academic psych research), the novel aspects of Arrival’s analysis could not. Doing this required bringing together research from numerous disparate areas, often from areas which have never been considered in previous research on genius, creativity, or greatness. For example, the concept of Catalytic Matching is derived from (among other things) research on ‘self-organization’ in microbiology, ‘increasing returns’ in economic systems, family systems therapy, and ‘star phenomenon’ in film studies. This concept as well as those of Catalytic Acceleration to Greatness, Chaotic Matching, Spwins, and the argument that 5 Key Characteristics are required to solve Key Problems of a generation, were all derived in a similar fashion, and are all completely new to Arrival.

The material provided on this website gives an overview of the entire theory from Arrival, and samples from some of the case studies in the book, eg, Mozart & Catalytic Matching, Elvis & Catalytic Acceleration to Greatness, etc, and of course short excerpts from the chapters following Hitchcock, Woody Guthrie, and Norma Jeane/Marilyn through 20+ years of developing their key characteristics.

There is much more in the book than I've included in this website, including Einstein fluking his way from precocious teenager to relativity, Watson & Crick doing much the same with the double helix, Monet getting not one, but two Catalytic Accelerations to Greatness, etc, and of course the full 20+ year accounts of the development of Hitchcock, Woody Guthrie, and Norma Jeane/Marilyn.

In addition the book shows how a massive range of research, both in and outside of psychology, is consistent with Arrival’s theory, including all of the books and articles mentioned on this website re the role of genetic bias and learning in the development of intelligence, personality & self; family dynamics, institutional and societal influences on the development of ‘greatness’.

a Quick Email

When I finished Arrival and sent it around to major researchers in the relevant fields (professors in American and British universities who specialize in researching the likes of genius, greatness, creativity, and child development), I got very positive feedback re its theoretical arguments - one suggested I should 'get an Oscar' - and no one queried the basic overall analysis presented in the book. Despite this I've had no luck in finding a publisher.

Why??

Academic presses say the style isn't right. You can't publish a brand new, comprehensive, theory of greatness, and have it read like a blog. Nobody'll take it seriously.

Popular presses say the style isn't right. Who's gonna buy a book with all these notes in it? So what if they're interesting.. nobody wants all those references

Fair enough.

Me? I say this is exactly the sort of book I love to read - a comprehensive explanation of something that really matters to me. An explanation that's actually readable. An explanation I can test out in my own experience. See how, if it works for me. An explanation laced with stories and ancedotes, but also with tons of notes and references, giving me the info i need to chase it up for myself, google or otherwise.

Then again maybe the publishers didn't like the implicit message of Arrival - the message that greatness, stardom, celebrity - the lot of it - is a load of hogwash. The message that maybe we're sick of being soaked in it, drenched, drowned in it. that maybe some of us might like a way out, a way to let go of it, the whole lot of it.. that maybe some of us would like a way beyond this, a way of letting go of heroes and stars and idols, a way to get on with some real lives, with finding something better to do with our time and money, with our hopes and dreams, with our own lives... not to mention our kids'.

Maybe they don't think they can sell that. I do. I bought a copy myself... although admittedly it took me 15 years. You've had a read of what I found over those years. Maybe this touched you, maybe it interests you re possibilities. Maybe you'd like to have a further look, a further think for yourself. Is greatness (celebrity, stardom and the rest of it) a load of hogwash, best pitched where it belongs? or maybe you still want to hang on to it..

If you'd like at least the chance of having a clear think about it for yourself, of letting others have the same, then I'd ask you to send me a few lines to that effect, telling me why you'd like to see Arrival in print. Why it might be of use/interest to you and/or others.

Who knows, if I get enough of these emails some publisher might spot a market out there afterall.

just click here to send me a few lines and I'll put your comments up on this website (under EndorsementsCommentsQueries). I'll identify you however you like, eg, including job title (eg, Bill Dorris, University Lecturer, Dublin, Ireland) but at a miminum by first name and location (eg, Bill, Dublin, Ireland).

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