Stephen Jay Gould on Jim Bowie, Bill Buckner, and Storytelling
Stephen Jay Gould, the eminent scientist and Harvard professor, was interested in human pattern recognition in stories. He referred to the patterns that human minds want to create as “canonical stories.” His essay entitled “Jim Bowie’s Letter and Bill Buckner’s Legs”, which appears in I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History, describes two famous stories — one of Jim Bowie at the Alamo and the other of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner.
Gould explains how both of these stories have often been patterned into the form of a canonical story. In the Alamo story, the canon focuses on the Alamo defenders’ valor and honorable death. William B. Travis, a young commander at the Alamo, wrote a letter describing the siege, which ends with the phrase “VICTORY OR DEATH.” (60) This famous letter is often cited in Alamo legend, but Gould points out that Bowie also wrote a letter, which fails to get mentioned because it does not fit with the canon. (60) He goes so far as to say Bowie’s letter is “hidden in plain” sight, ignored in a glass case at the Alamo museum. (60-61) Bowie thought that Santa Anna was willing to negotiate, and he wrote in Spanish to Santa Anna asking whether Santa Anna had called for a parley. (61-62) Santa Anna responded that he would have no mercy without unconditional surrender. (62)
Gould then surmises that even with this response, had Bowie been less ill, “some honorable solution would eventually have emerged through private negotiations” because Santa Anna and Bowie were seasoned battle veterans. (62-63)
In his remarks at the hooding ceremony this spring, Dean Kearney encouraged our law graduates to remain active readers. And during a recent presentation to the Marquette law faculty, Professor Julie Oseid asked us how many books we have on our nightstands. 
This past year I came across a terrific article by Professor Ruth Anne Robbins on using archetypes to develop a client’s story. (Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers and Merlin: Telling the Client’s Story Using the Characters and Paradigm of the Archetypal Hero’s Journey, 29 Seattle U. L. Rev. 767 (2006)). An archetype is an innate prototype, or epitome, of a personality. The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung advanced the theory that some personality types or characteristics are universally recognized. The American mythologist Joseph Campbell was influenced by Carl Jung’s work on archetypes and considered how archetypes manifest in mythology. Professor Robbins examines how Jung’s and Campbell’s theories can be used in a practical litigation and courtroom setting.