SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN
m.r.leeper
SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman
Bantam, 1986, $4.50.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
First let me say what this book is not. It is neither a biography nor
an autobiography of Richard Feynman. It is more like a biography in which
all the facts that would go into his eventual obituary have been removed.
reading this book you get very little idea of why Feynman is considered an
important physicist. You get very little of his work. You even miss most
of his personal life. The events are in chronological order and suddenly
part way into the book you discover he is married. This comes as a surprise
because up to that point there is little to indicate that the ungainly
student would ever find someone to marry. Then shortly after that his wife
is dying. In one scene he cries for her, then she is never mentioned again.
At other points in the book he mentions two other wives without ever
mentioning how he carry to marry them.
What this book is, then, is a collection of unrelated anecdotes,
arranged very roughly in the order that they occurred. Most of them carry a
subtext of what a great and versatile mind Feynman has. If in fact this is
the way Feynman really talks (the stories have been collected by Ralph
Leighton, who shows up several times toward the end of the book), he is
considerably more vain than I would have expected.
Nevertheless, if even a fraction of the stories are true Feynman has a
considerable amount to be vain about. Memorable are the stories of how he
became the safecracker of the Manhattan Project, his arguments with Talmudic
scholars (memorable because he admits to having been bested by someone
else), his art lessons, and his experiences rating textbooks. Many of the
stories seem like just filler. The title comes from the first tea he
attended at Princeton. he didn't know anything about tea so he asked for
both lemon and milk. His hostess's exclamation provided him with a title
for his book. The only thing amazing about the incident is that anyone
bothered to remember it.
The stories in this book are of widely varying interest value, but a
few good stories counterbalance a multitude of "Why are you telling me
this?" tales, like how he got artists' models to pose nude for him. Overall
not a bad read.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper
Tom Tedrick
> Bantam, 1986, $4.50.
>
>few good stories counterbalance a multitude of "Why are you telling me
>this?" tales, like how he got artists' models to pose nude for him. Overall
>not a bad read.
Personally, I found Feynman's book to be the funniest book I have
ever read. However everyone else I know dislikes it for one reason
or another. Some find it extremely offensive.
I recommend it *HIGHLY* to anyone with the right mind-set: however
I have no way of knowing who that would be. Perhaps slightly devious
intellectual types might be the ones who appreciate it. If you have
the wrong mind-set: ie you are very moralistic or committed to
some political cause, I suggest not reading it, unless you
want to get angry.
t...@kestrel.uucp
> > SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman
> > Bantam, 1986, $4.50.
>
> I recommend it *HIGHLY* to anyone with the right mind-set: however
> [if] you are very moralistic or committed to
> some political cause, I suggest not reading it, unless you
> want to get angry.
I don't understand why either of these things would matter very much
in one's reaction to the book. There was a mention about a seemingly
disturbing philosophy of life he learned from Von Neumann, but as it
was not discussed (unfortunately) there's not much to go on.
I liked the book immensely--especially his refreshing impersonal
iconoclasm, sort of an independent American type, never kow-towing to
tradition or class. I also thought it remarkable that he recounted
the tricks he pulled behind the times when he appeared brilliant to
his colleagues. What some people have perceived as vanity seems more
like to be a game, where he freely admitted that he lost occasionally.
One thing I heard someone say about the book was that when she got
part way through the book, she wondered, "What's the POINT?". Perhaps
one would like to arrive at some grand catharsis in the author's life.
After awhile, she said she stopped worrying about the endpoint and
enjoyed the ride.
Matthew P. Wiener
>In article <13...@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Tom Tedrick writes:
>> > SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman
>>
>> some political cause, I suggest not reading it, unless you
>> want to get angry.
>
>I don't understand why either of these things would matter very much
>in one's reaction to the book.
One of the chapters on WWII at Los Alamos appeared in a popular science
magazine, and among the letters to the editor that were printed later
was one heavily condemning Feynman for not taking nuclear war seriously.
ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
Doug Gwyn
>PS. I hope that people out there take Feynman's remarks on high school
> textbooks to heart, and if they have the chance, do something to improve
> the books because far too many of them really are abismal.
Um, "abysmal", which isn't appropriate for non-gaplike objects..
Anyway, the problem when I was a Texas public school student,
which is very likely still the problem today, seems to be that
public school textbooks have to be selected from a small list
of "approved" candidates that is determined by a VERY political
state textbook committee. Naturally, textbook publishers offer
what they perceive the textbook committees will approve. This
principle can be seen in operation with the introduction of
Creationism into biology texts, despite educators, textbook
authors, and publishers knowing better.
The only solution I see is to reduce politics in education,
which in practice probably means supporting a transition to
private schools. This could be done by a rebate of the public-
school portion of a family's taxes when they send their child
to a private school. (The idea is usually called "tax credits
for education".) Given the government's tendency to operate
in areas where it has no legitimate business, it would take a
substantial "grass-roots" movement to get this idea adopted.
e.c.leeper
> textbooks to heart, and if they have the chance, do something to improve
> the books because far too many of them really are abismal.
Especially the spelling books! :-)
Evelyn C. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl
(or ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl)
Tom Tedrick
>The only solution I see is to reduce politics in education,
>which in practice probably means supporting a transition to
>private schools. This could be done by a rebate of the public-
>school portion of a family's taxes when they send their child
>to a private school. (The idea is usually called "tax credits
>for education".) Given the government's tendency to operate
>in areas where it has no legitimate business, it would take a
>substantial "grass-roots" movement to get this idea adopted.
Hear, hear! At last Gwyn and I have some common ground of
agreement.
ba...@oliveb.uucp
quality ...
An interesting read is a writer's point of view on the textbook process. Go to
your library (or your bookshelves) and find the April 1986 edition of
WRITER'S DIGEST. The last article is "A Perfect Day for Broccoli
Spears -or- Learning the Way Through the Never-Never Land of Textbook Taboos"
by Pat Zettner. On the one hand it's hilarious. On the other it's highly
disturbing. To quote a disremembered person: "Vanilla is fine -- if you
haven't tasted chocolate, or strawberry..." The problem here, they are
so afraid of offending someone, you're lucky if you get vanilla. [Oh,
sorry, I'm not supposed to mention ice cream at all -- unapproved junk food,
you know.]
Solutions? Encourage your children to read at home. Don't limit them
to the textbook environment. I would say that most of my education came
from extracurricular inhaling of the printed word. The classroom is not
the only realm of learning -- indeed, it SHOULD be a minor realm.
There _is_ room for improvement. But the current situation is cataclysmic
only if we let it be. [And this from a BA with Honors, UCD -- who had
an eigth-grade math class with so _few_ textbooks we weren't allowed to
take them home! It didn't help -- but, with the support of my _high
school_ educated parents, I didn't _let_ it hinder.]
Barb