leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (04/18/86)
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!leepertedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu (Tom Tedrick) (04/19/86)
> SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman > Bantam, 1986, $4.50. > > [ ... ] 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. 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.
ttp@kestrel.UUCP (04/22/86)
In article <13254@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu (Tom Tedrick) writes: > > SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman > > Bantam, 1986, $4.50. > 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. ... > [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.
weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) (04/26/86)
In article <7146@kestrel.ARPA> Tom Pressburger writes: >In article <13254@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Tom Tedrick writes: >> > SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman >> >> [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. 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
olson@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (olson) (04/28/86)
In article <244@uw-vlsi.ARPA> li@uw-vlsi.UUCP (Phyllis Li) writes: >_Surely_You're_Joking,_Mr._Feynman_ is the story of an inquisitive mind set >loose in the world of science and wonder. > > [... excellent remarks but removed for brevity ...] > >His book isn't Art or Science, it's Fun and Living. > > Liralen Li Well said! (and I'm glad you said it because I couldn't have said it half so well) 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. Todd Olson (also from Caltech) ARPA: olson@lasspvax -- or -- olson%lasspvax.tn.cornell.edu@cu-arpa UUCP: {ihnp4,allegra,...}!cornell!lasspvax!olson US Mail: Dept Physics, Clark Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-2501 -- Todd Olson ARPA: olson@lasspvax -- or -- olson%lasspvax.tn.cornell.edu@cu-arpa UUCP: {ihnp4,allegra,...}!cornell!lasspvax!olson US Mail: Dept Physics, Clark Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-2501
ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (05/02/86)
> 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. ^^^^^^^ Especially the spelling books! :-) Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl (or ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl)