Yevgenia Nikolaevna Krasnova
Actual historical personages densely populate this text throughout reference and anecdote. Few are as interesting as Yevgenia: introduced as an obscure novelist yet to actually publish a novel who is also a philosophically-inclined neuroscientist married at least three times. Alas, unfortunately, about twenty-five pages, an asterisk is attached to Yevgenia’s biography: “To those readers who Google Yevgnenia Krasnova, I am sorry to say that she is (officially) a fictional character.”
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur is, of course, the great French scientist without whom the term “pasteurization” would really make no sense at all. In addition to figuring out how to make milk safer for consumption, Pasteur’s experiments would eventually earn him the unofficial title of “father of microbiology.” For the purposes of this text, however, Pasteur is significant primarily for the proverbial wisdom which guided his life: “chance favors the prepare.”
Jean-Olivier Tedesco
A minor character—a walk-on within the context of the grand drama, really—Tedesco plays a much more significant role within the psychological theme of the book. Interesting, Tedesco is also—like Yevgenia—described as a friend who is a novelist who has yet to actually publish a novel when the author relates the anecdote of being on the verge of running to catch a subway train only to be physically obstructed by his friend. “I don’t run for trains” is advice that the author takes to heart to become a dominant aspect of his philosophy of life.
St. Matthew
The very same Matthew to whom is attributed the writing of the Gospel of St. Matthew is also the personage to whom is attributed a concept called the “Matthew Effect.” The idea stems from a passage in the gospel on the subject of, essentially, the haves keep getting and have-nots keep losing. What is known as the Matthew Effect actually has a technical name within sociological studies: cumulative advantage. The rest of us know it more familiarly as either having good luck or bad luck which makes naming it after a major figure in Christianity rather ironic.
