Talk:Before Adam

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James Gunn in Road to Science Fiction: Vol. 2 refers to Before Adam as a novel and gives a 1906 publication date. I don't know if he is just referring to the work as a novel in a conceptual sense, or if the work was in fact published as a stand-alone book. It does seem to be written like a novel (though I've only glanced at it). The next to last paragraph of the final chapter: "There is one other thing of which I must speak before I close." If it's not a novel, then it should at least be referred to as a grouping of short stories, or something like that. NinetyNineFennelSeeds (talk) 21:06, 12 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is it appropriate to use this specific term when the novel was published some 2 decades before the first such fossils were discovered and the term coined (I believe in 1925)? If such a comparison has been made in the critical literature, it should be referenced: otherwise, it smacks of WP:Synthesis, applying an unsupported interpretation to something London (who does not use the word in the novel) could not have explicitly known about, much like speculating whether Edgar Rice Burroughs' language-using apes who raised Tarzan were Homo naledi. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.12.78.91 (talk) 17:33, 17 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

To avoid future confusion: as part of a discussion of this point on the Science Ref Desk, User:Henry Flower|^Flower removed the term, with no subsequent dissent. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.202.209.109 (talk) 13:57, 18 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]