A temporary title

The lack of a proper title for my book (latest update here) has continued to vex me, even as I have made quite a bit of progress in fleshing out the chapters. A title is not necessary to my work at this stage, of course, but I feel that having a title helps keeps the voice of the book coherent. I also know that when everything is finished the title is going to be important in generating interest in what I have written (for, contrary to the old admonition, people do judge books by their covers), and I did not want to pick something boring (i.e. Evolution) or especially cliched (i.e. anything with "endless forms" or "the fittest" in the title).

Perhaps I will think of something better before I am finished, but as I read R.S. Lull's book Organic Evolution I came across a metaphor that may serve as a good title. For the moment, I am going to call the book The Pulse of Life. Here is the concluding paragraph from which the phrase is derived;

The great heart of nature beats, its throbbing stimulates the pulse of life, and not until that heart is stilled forever will the rhythmic tide of evolution cease to flow.

There are some conceptual problems with the title, though. When I think of the word "pulse" I think of something rhythmic, much like the pulse of the arteries in our body as blood passes through them. The explanation of evolution I present, however, is not slow and steady (even though it is still gradual), and I do not want to create a misunderstanding through poor word choice.

There also seems to be something vitalistic about the phrase, like there is an internal mechanism pushing creatures to evolve, a concept that certainly stands in contrast with everything I have written! I want to make sure that the title makes sense in terms of the general themes that tie the book together (like contingency and the branching pattern of evolution). [I am also aware that Niles Eldredge wrote a book called Life Pulse, which I imagine is also derived from Lull's phrase. It is no longer being published, and so similarity of the title doesn't concern me as much as my own lack of originality.]

Even so, most of what I have written about involves the fossil record, or the evidence of the off-beat rhythm of life, which does fit the title. Likewise, ever since the first life arose it has been evolving, and it will continue to do so, so I like the implication that evolution reveals the "pulse of life." I may eventually abandon the title, but for now I think it is a fairly comfortable fit. Now I just have to finish writing it!