Here are some things to think about when reading this book, and to Banoosh about right here... This is some questions suggested by a teacher named D. Gende and some from me:
1. Why do you think Lightman wrote his novel in the present tense?
What effect does it have on the reader?
2. What was your favorite vignette and why?
3. Which scenario do you think is most different from the version of time that you are used to and why?
4. How do you think being a Physics professor at MIT shaped the feeling of "real science" in this book?
5. Finally, write some conclusions about the questions or experiences given in your favorite vignette of Einstein's Dreams.
3 comments:
i loved how this book unfolds the complexity of the concept of time while at the same time its most prominent theme is revealing how simple time is. that's evident from the dating the happens on top of each chapter, usage of the present tense, and occasional appointment to the fact the time is a constructed ideal that now can't be stopped or controlled. my favorite vignette however is the cause and effect argument in "3 may 1905". Lightman introduces his usual hypothetical situation in which cause now lies in the past and effect lies in the future; while the past and the future are entwined. this scenario is somewhat scary and equally interesting.
This is a book that I'll have to read over and over to appreciate all the nuance. I really liked the format - the flow made me feel like I was coasting through the book, almost like a disneyland ride even. I think it is interesting that the author sticks to one format and arranges the book chronologically to explore different perceptions of chronology - there's a bit of a paradox there. I thought the vignette in which people have no perception of the future was very interesting - it takes the idea of being present in the moment to an extreme.
My overall favorite aspect of this book was how Lightman introduces no artificial controls on time into the vignettes. Nobody in any of the stories is truly in control of his/her own time, despite all efforts to the contrary. Lightman instructs us that the only true manner of controlling time is to abandon all hope of control and live life to the fullest. This is best shown in the final vignette with the nightengales (sp?). There have been many times in my life when i feel that I only have to reach out and grasp what i want, and that if i get it I will be instantly transformed.
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