1 Front Matter; 2 Prologue; 3 Chapter One: A Walk Down Mercer Street; 4 Chapter Two: Teatime at the IAS; 5 Chapter Three: Goodtime Johnny; 6 Chapter Four: Godel at the Blackboard; 7 Chapter Five: The Boardroom; 8 Chapter Six: Late-Night Thoughts of the Greatest Physicist; 9 Chapter Seven: An Evening at Olden Manor; 10 Chapter Eight: The Verdicts; 11 Epilogue
John Casti
Mathematician Kurt Godel, atomic physicist Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein are among the cast of Casti's new novel (after The Cambridge Quintet), a speculative recreation of the debates that took place in the late 1940s at the Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study. The book, which Casti describes as "scientific fiction," is composed mainly of dialogues between the scientists and mathematicians as they ponder the limits of human logic. These discussions aren't entirely abstract; the professors consider the philosophical and psychological implications of nascent computer technology and the atom bomb, among other inventions. Casti laces the book with descriptions of the IAS, the "platonic heaven" of the title, where the best thinkers of their day are able to do their research and talk to one another free from the other responsibilities of academia. T.S. Eliot, the lone poet spending "a term in Princeton" with the scientists, makes a cameo appearance during one of the afternoon teas at which the researchers gather daily. Casti knows his subject and explains it lucidly; the discussions of physics and math are reasonably accessible and quite engaging. But his attempts to make the scientists into characters rely on stiff, cliched descriptions ("Eliot's poetic soul cringed at this interchange"), and the conversational framework is stilted: "Oppenheimer turned to Eliot and asked in a resonant directorial voice, `Well, Tom, I see that Pauli and Weyl haven't yet managed to reconcile themselves in the realm of physics. What do you think about the aesthetic differences between the poet and the physicist?'" The book doesn't quite succeed as fiction, but readers eager to explore the principles of theoretical physics and math may appreciate Casti's reconstruction of the great debates. 3-city author tour. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
What do geniuses talk about when they get together socially? Effective science writing can convey the personalities of scientists, revealing their humanity. In this work of "scientific fiction," Casti takes that technique a step further by inventing situations and supposing dialogs between some of the heroes of 20th-century science. Based upon fact, the scenario is set at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study in the late 1940s, and the dramatis personae include the likes of Albert Einstein, Kurt Godel, John von Nuemann, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and other elite intellectuals. Their fictionalized conversations, which take place in settings from the corner diner to the university board room, represent the actual beliefs, theories, and philosophies of the various protagonists on the nature of science. As would be expected among a gathering of super brains, the ideas cover the gamut, the intellectual dynamic is lively, and, above all, the conversation honestly reflects the positions of each individual. Still, the situations can seem staged, the dialog scripted, and the personalities one-dimensional. As a pedagogical work, this book succeeds in presenting the viewpoints of important historical scientists. As a speculative work, it succeeds in raising valid questions about the scope and limits of scientific endeavor. The fictionalization, though, is entirely a technique for achieving those purposes and succeeds only to the degree that its contrivances do not create distractions.-Gregg Sapp, Science Lib., SUNY at Albany Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
