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The Nuclear Muse: Literature, Physics, and the First Atomic Bombs (Science and Literature)
Book Description "The existence of 'the bomb' as a literary device is, Canaday demonstrates, as significant as its military and political reality. A fascinating and literate glimpse at the words, metaphors, texts, and subtexts that have shaped our nuclear age."-Richard Wolfson, author of Nuclear Choices John Canaday analyzes a variety of texts produced by physicists before, during, and after the Second World War, including Niels Bohr's "The Quantum Postulate"; the Blegdamsvej Faust, a parody of Goethe's Faust that cast physicists as its principle characters; The Los Alamos Primer, the technical lectures used for training at Los Alamos; scientists' descriptions of their work and of the Trinity test; and Leo Szilard's post-war novella, The Voice of the Dolphins. "Physicists in the first half of this century became caught up in knowledge, ways of doing science, military projects, and social consequences that pushed their means of representation and understanding to the limit. This important study reveals how the Los Alamos physicists adopted literary modes of expression to come to terms with the worlds they were making and transforming."-Charles Bazerman, author of Shaping Written Knowledge "A revelatory exploration of the relation between literary and scientific languages, which John Canaday analyzes with an exceptional sophistication that combines analytical rigor and a wonderful aesthetic and moral sensibility."-Myra Jehlen, Rutgers University "A stunning examination of how nuclear physicists of the early twentieth century used literary conventions to translate their discoveries about nature into human language, and used that same language to deal with the human and moral consequences of their development of the bomb."-Nicholas Clifford, Middlebury College "Canaday's insightful study has added a fourth dimension to our understanding of how we 'learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.'"-Martin J. Sherwin, author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and its Legacies John Canaday is a prize-winning poet and playwright who has been a Watson Fellow and the Starbuck Fellow in Poetry at Boston University. He tutors students in literature, writing, history, mathematics, and physics. Publisher Description This book is a part the series, Science and Literature, George Levine, Series Editor Reader Reviews I have been interested in both literature and science for many years, so this book seemed like a natural for me. My own educational and professional background is more on the scientific side of the house, with chemistry and physics particular areas of interest, despite a degree in biology. From that vantage point I examined "The Nuclear Muse." I came away conflicted about the book. There are moments of true brilliance and insight in Canaday's work, but there are moments of weakness and non sequitur as well. After pondering this review for a few days, I tend to think a better title for the work would have been "Stretching the Premise." In most areas of the book Canaday starts off with an interesting premise, but frequently over-analyzes the material to the point of absurdity, a trait all too common in contemporary literary criticism. From a historical point of view, there is some interesting information to be gleaned here that would normally remain unknown to the scientists among us. W.H. Auden in particular comes across differently than I would have expected: he seems to have been an eminently practical man with a good conceptualization of the fundamental differences of the social value of science versus the literary world. In addition to discussions of Auden, Blake, and Mary Shelley, a good introduction to some of the important concepts of quantum mechanics are detailed. I thought the disagreement of Newton and Huygens (vis-à-vis the particle versus wave theories of light) was well explained, as was Bohr's complementarity principle, and the general difficulty of rationalizing classical and quantum mechanics. While Bohr tried to politely bridge the gap between the two (the reference from "Blegdamsvej Faust" about Bohr preferring to "argue without arguing" cuts to the core of the man both humorously and respectfully), Pauli contrasts in demeanor as a harsh and uncompromising man. These types of observations are what this book does best. I found the Faust conflict entertaining and enlightening (if a little lengthy). The parallels between Goethe's Faust in which Mephistopheles and Faust are in conflict are obvious: here Pauli is clearly the Mephistopheles analog, in conflict with Bohr in the great neutron-neutrino debate. Interestingly in this version the role of Gretchen from Goethe's version is played by the neutron, who sings "Once upon a time, [there was a King] who had an enormous flea. He loved it quite a bit, Just like gravitation." Before concluding, this same song ends up lightly prodding Einstein's Unified Field Theory. The part of the book I thought I would enjoy most, covering the "Los Alamos Primer" actually turned out to be my least favorite. Here is where Canaday elevates premise stretching to a new level. He uses extensive flowery language throughout to explain what the Los Alamos scientists meant by simple word choice without really understanding the way scientists speak to each other and use conceptual models as referents during theoretical development. These men were scientists. They spoke and wrote like scientists. Despite their scientific brilliance they were not James Joyce, nor did they want to be. Canaday even admits on page 116 that "scientists and sociologists may object that I am 'reading too much into' the language of the 'Primer'- that its authors never intended the sort of implications I am finding in it....readers with a background in literary studies are more likely to understand that the meaning of a text is not dependent on its author's conscious intentions." Here is where Canaday totally overreaches: he takes an internal, classified handout that was written by theoretical physicists for theoretical physicists about nuclear physics and draws conclusions that absolutely cannot be accurately drawn from the material present. Apparently Canaday realizes this is a precarious area, yet attempts to exploit it nonetheless. He does the same thing on page 151 when he discusses an offhand humorous quip by Los Alamos physicist Hugh Richards that "usually there was negligible precipitation until the Indians did their rain dances in June." Canaday asserts that there are "several layers of meaning embedded in this code." He, in fact, counts six levels of meaning in that sentence and goes on to say that "I have, obviously, oversimplified here...." For me the credibility of the entire book was compromised by assertions such as these. For Canaday to ascribe six layers of hidden meaning in what was in context a humorous quip by a physical scientist renders the remainder of his conclusions specious. For all the faults of the book, though, there are worthwhile thoughts sprinkled throughout. I love the analysis, for instance, of the remark by Otto Frisch that a nuclear explosion is "a red-hot elephant standing balanced on its trunk incongruously." In this example on page 210 Canaday grasps the essence of scientific prose and metaphor and provides genuine literary insight. The book is partially redeemed by the conclusion where Canaday explains his views of the differences between literature and physics. The most accurate statement he makes here is "physics strives for objectivity, literature for subjectivity." I agree completely. Unfortunately that sentence comes on page 248 of a 249 page book. If Canaday had embraced his concluding points throughout this book, it would have been a much more solid work. Comment | | (Report this)
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