Hey all,
I’ve got a couple of pieces out in what we might call the mainstream media that might reward your attention.
The first closes the loop on that lovely Royal Society award shortlist we talked about a while back. The winner was announced a couple of Mondays ago and, alas, it didn’t go to The Hunt for Vulcan (which you should still totally read).
Instead the prize went to Andrea Wulf for her intellectual biography of Alexander von Humboldt, The Invention of Nature. It’s a very strong book, as were each of the others on the shortlist. I commend all of them to you.
The event itself was great, and the organizers made sure that each of the titles in the finals had a chance to shine, and while I was certainly disappointed, I was also greatly chuffed — and why not? My work had been recognized as among the class of the year, I got to rub shoulders with some wonderful writers, (including a personal hero, the head judge Bill Bryson), and hey — London! What could be bad.
Nothing — until, as I was getting ready to leave that green and sceptered isle, I came across a piece at The Guardian in which the writer argued that there was something dodgy about Wulf’s win — that she had garnered a feminized prize, one that sought to reward a woman’s interest in people instead of a man’s pursuit of “problem, a mystery or an underexplored scientific field.”
I couldn’t let such arrant nonsense fly unanswered, so I wrote up a response for The Atlantic. In it I drew both on my experience as one of the competitors in the contest Wulf won, and my prior encounter with prize judging as a Pulitzer juror in 2012. Check it out, if you’ve a mind.
The other article you might find fun is a book review that I wrote a little while ago that went live yesterday at The Boston Globe — my take on James Gleick’s new book, Time Travel. The shorter is that the book is great, really fine work, and I commend it to you all. Here’s a sample:
Mostly, though, Gleick leads us on a thrilling journey of ideas. Augustine talks to Robert Heinlein who talks to Kurt Gödel, all the while someone is trying to connect a call between Marcel Proust and the ever patient Sam Beckett. Alongside the big ideas come the odd facts too delicious to leave out, as when we learn that among the audio selections placed on the Voyager spacecraft is the Bulgarian folk song “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin’’ or “Delyo the Hajduk Has Gone Outside.” Pity the alien trying to decipher that code!
So, yeah. I’ve been delinquent in my blogging here. Think of these as peace offerings.
Have a great weekend, all. I’m going to continue nursing my dread catarrh; nothing like a full 747 to offer a smörgåsbord of viral delights. Honey-lemon tea (possibly helped by some bourbon) in my future.
Image: William Harnett, Job Lot Cheap, 1878.
Baud
Next in my queue (audiobook).
scav
Cheers! I’ll heat some hot water on my end in your honor.
(And thank you for more book leads.)
Omnes Omnibus
So this was about ethics in science writing?
Seriously though, good on you for responding publicly and congratulations again on the honor of making the short list.
Amir Khalid
For that matter, what would that same alien make of Johnny B. Goode? Or, more generally, of that strange yet so precisely ordered cacophony we Earthlings call “music”?
Greenergood
Thank you Tom – I’ve not read the other entries but Wulf’s was reviewed on BBC Radio 4, and I’ve ordered the book and can’t wait to read it. I’m not going to look at the Guardian’s ‘feminized prize’ comments – it’ll make me too angry. Hope your catarrh clears up and let’s hear it for amazing scientific biographies no matter what gender writes them – if they’re good, they’re good. Which is completely separate from ‘Brexit means Brexit’, which is just too much to bear …
rikyrah
Thanks for the suggestions
Tom Levenson
@Amir Khalid: Indeed. Though I do love the old Leonard Bernstein series of essays (I’m blanking on the title) culled from his Norton Lectures at Harvard aeons ago. There he made a case for the pentatonic scale as a kind of physical universality. So maybe, given the physics of acoustic waves, music might just be a mode of communication quite diverse species might share.
Amir Khalid
I suspect there’s been a lot of outstanding science and other nonfiction books that could have been, that were overlooked for publication, never mind for awards, simply because a woman writer was involved.
Amir Khalid
@Tom Levenson:
I am reminded of the duet with the mother ship scene from Close Encounters of The Third Kind.
Tom Levenson
@Amir Khalid: ;-)
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Send More Chuck Berry
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@Tom Levenson:
The Unanswered Question.
Hal
I’m saving Luke Cage for later today and probably tomorrow. If I really like it, I’ll purposely drag it out for days like I do with books I really like. I’m think I’ll start out with the Amanda Knox documentary. I heard a reporter on On The Media last year and it seems like a fascinating story.
David Evans
Your book and Wulf’s are the only ones I’ve read on the shortlist. I enjoyed them both greatly, and shall now be seeking out your earlier books. And your response in The Atlantic was excellent.
Tom Levenson
@David Evans: Thank you.
Mnemosyne
Just finished me first shift of voter registration in NV and I got exactly one (1) person registered. We got stuck at a pretty bogus place, though.
MattF
OK, OK, I’ll read the Gleick book.
If we’re doin’ book recs, I’ll recommend Mark Lilla’s new book ”The Shipwrecked Mind; On Political Reaction”. Mostly reprints of his NYRB essays; clear and illuminating.
ETA: Yeah, I know that David Brooks mentioned it. But it really is a good book.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: Thank you for doing it.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: I wondered how it was going. I’m sure you hoped for more, but each one registered is a person who may make a difference for years. Go you!
Phylllis
@Mnemosyne: Are we suddenly from Yorkshire ;-)?
dr. luba
I requested the von Humbolt book for Christmas, and got it. I’d read bits about him in other sources, and he seemed like quite an interesting character. I read a bit, then took off to India for a month, and just didn’t get back to it. It’s now next on my reading list……
Mary G
Both the winning book and Tom’s were on sale at Audible, and they were both great. I requested both be added to the library’s Overtime selection. They get so much dreck it can be frustrating. All of Trump’s atrocious books and RW nonsense.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mnemosyne:
How’s the heat and hydration?
Iowa Old Lady
@Mary G: I get audible books from my library too, though almost exclusively fiction, and it’s the same situation.
Mnemosyne
@Phylllis:
My typing fingers are tired! ?
@Steeplejack (phone):
We were able to be in the shade, so heat wasn’t too bad. I ran out of water, but we were outside of a Vons, so I just bought more. This time, I know to grab 2 extra bottles, not just 1.
The main problem was that there were 5 of us at a single strip mall, so we reached a saturation point pretty quickly.
HinTN
@efgoldman: yep
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mnemosyne:
Enjoy dinner tonight. I want to know about the sides. Steak is steak.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: Five volunteers? That doesn’t sound like an enthusiasm gap to me.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
My absentee ballot arrived today. Will be filling it out in front of a notary on Monday. Take down Trump, take down McCrory, take down Burr.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@efgoldman:
GFY
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I use a Camelbak, beats water bottles hands down.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: You’re really working on that hostility rating.?
Mary G
@Iowa Old Lady: Yes, the fiction is the same here. I checked and they did just add the Humboldt book, probably because it won the prize.
SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I was thinking of trying to get things in balance. But the Quadruple Major tells me that efg is so far out in front of everyone else on the “Go fuck yourself” front that I shouldn’t even bother.
So it’s back to sweetness and light for me.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch:
Man, retirement has really loosened your corset stays.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
Maybe they will give you some turf to walk tomorrow.
Thanks for doing this.
MattF
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: You can soften it a bit. ‘Go fertilize a nearby orifice’.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: Since you’re a mob enforcer, I’m sure you have ‘methods’ for taking care of efg.
Mobil RoonieRoo
Haha! Grumpy and I are in the middle of our Luke Cage binge right now.
Poopyman
@SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: Goldman? I would have thought Raven had the gfy category wrapped up.
Baud
@MattF:
I’m not sure that fully captures the “yourself” part of the original. Could lead to same awkward situations.
Omnes Omnibus
@Poopyman: He is more of a “Fuck LBJ” guy.
Baud
@Poopyman: He did, but then LBJ stopped commenting here.
pat
Hi Tom, I read and enjoyed Vulcan, then found Einstein in Berlin in our library. Well I want to buy it but it is out of print! Finally found it at one of the used booksellers at Barnes and Noble. I’ve read through WW1 but I want to take it on vacation to finish it in peace. And I’d love to find Wulf’s book about von Humboldt since I will be vacationing in Austria, which I believe has some ties to Alexander.
MattF
@Baud: True enough, I suppose.
aimai
Congratulations Tom! And so well deserved! I’m sorry I have not been around much. I started my MSW a few weeks ago and have been blindsided with the work! But I’m loving it and I spend long Mondays and Tuesdays–until 9:00 pm–on your side of the river not too far from you. The rest of the time with my head buried in books or at my internship at a local elementary school. Hope to catch up with you guys in a few years, when I finish!
Baud
@aimai: Oh no. That’s too long a hiatus.
Pogonip
Congrats on your nomination!
My current science-y reading is “Venomous,” by Christie Wilcox, about–duh–venomous critters. If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you’ll like. She writes well and packs lots of interesting natural history into her book.
My current fluff reading is “The Child Thief,” by [Gerald] Brom, a rehash of “Peter Pan.”. Brom says that line about Peter thinning out the Lost Boys scared the bejeebers out of him as a kid, and after many years of musing on how exactly Peter Pan might cull the herd, this is the result. Other than a bit of grrrl power it’s not cliched. (I have resigned myself to grrrl power in all fiction, whether it suits the plot or not, until the next tiresome literary fad replaces it.)
Anoniminous
@Mnemosyne:
Thank you.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Someone should make a health check on Raven.
MattF
If Trump ever had it, he’s now losing it.
Gelfling 545
@MattF: or as, I believe, David Frost once said: Go ye forth and multiply, but not in so many words.
Steeplejack (phone)
@efgoldman:
He had some complicated plan where he drove his car down to an undisclosed location earlier and had the wife drop him off for the game, so apparently he could leg it a short way out of downtown, get his car and beat the traffic snarl.
He knew the Vols were favored, but that was a tough way for it to go down—for him. I’m sure Vol eclare is elated.
scav
@Mnemosyne: May your feet be pampered, the meals good, the company interesting and the knitting smooth. You deserve it.
Cassandra
Thank you for such a refreshing post.
Pogonip
@aimai: What all does it involve?
raven
I’m pretty proud of the team. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years and this was the most exciting game I’ve ever been to.
Ryan
That is what the chilled red wine on the plane is for, to inoculate you against contagion.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@raven:
Coulda gone either way, but time ran out.
Louisville-Clemson about to start.
raven
@Steeplejack (tablet): Yep, I exhausted but I’m on it.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@raven:
Jeez, I forgot there was so much pregame bullshit. I should just automatically add 20-30 minutes to the “start” time.
Gravenstone
@MattF: Sounds like this was some previous episode of abuse. Not excusable, but not an indication of a current, expanding meltdown either.
Davebo
Starting to look interesting for Big Game Bob. Sucks having to root for the Sooners.
On a brighter note. I was fishing this morning baiting my hook when I heard a really loud splash. I assumed it was a gator and looked up to see a large Doe had jumped in the creek and was swimming across just 15 or 20 yards from the boat. Later around 4:00 3 deer came walking out of the woods onto the yard.
Could be a productive deer season. Still, no way I’m sitting in a tree at 6:00AM freezing my ass off.
germy
@MattF: Well, that happened in 1988. I’m sure he’s grown since then (ha ha)
redshirt
SWEET CHRISTMAS!
I’m enjoying Luke Cage alot. Half way through. But then, I love everything MCU.
The weird/tough/neat thing about shows on Netflix is they come out all at once. Thus, we as a society do not have an implicit time frame to discuss them – unlike traditional shows that air every Tuesday, for example.
Binge watching itself is a different experience. Better in some ways, worse in others.
raven
@Steeplejack (tablet): Oh this crap about “the greatest entrance is sports” is such bullshit.
germy
the cat man of Aleppo
As people flee Syria, they leave their cats behind. This man has created a sanctuary for them. One little girl left her cat with him and cried. He sends her pictures of her cat. She hopes to return home someday for a reunion.
germy
@Gravenstone:
Maybe his 2016 campaign team is having a meltdown.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@raven:
Srsly. Guys getting off a bus.
TCU coming back on Oklahoma with 2:15 to go.
Poopyman
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Ouch! I was vacuuming for a while and just checked the GA-TN score. Secure all sharp objects in the Raven household.
(ETA – Yeah, yeah, hadn’t read intervening comments. So I’m once again behind the times.)
Suzanne
Congrats on making the shortlist, Tom, and WTG with your response in the Atlantic.
“Feminized”. Harrumph.
raven
@Steeplejack (tablet): Oh, I went to the head right before kickoff and they were playing the Georgia Alma Mater. Some old lady was standing at the front of the tunnel with her hand over her heart and she grabbed me by the arm and told me to turn around and put y hand over my heart! I said “Lady that’s not the national anthem and I don’t need you to tell me what to do even if it is”!
raven
@Poopyman: It wasn’t just the score. We threw a 45 yard TD with 10 second to got. We got a “taking you helmet off ” 15 yarder and a 5 year delay of game. Our kick was short ad they threw a 50 bomb with 4 seconds and won.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@raven:
Superfans gotta fan.
Poopyman
@raven: I have no words that can help ya, other than been there, done that. And I no longer watch my alma mater, since they seemed to have made a tradition of finishes like that.
raven
@Poopyman: I’m cool, I love this shit and I feel lucky every time I go. When I retire I don’t get these $18 tickets so I have to enjoy it while I can.
JMG
So glad I went to a Division III school.
raven
@JMG: I have a friend whose kid was a linebacker at Wisc-Whitewater and I went to their National Championship game at the Stagg Bowl in Roanoke.
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Thank you for your efforts. Don’t be discouraged. You don’t know who else you have indirectly helped in the process. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@JMG: Me too. Cheap (if not free) tickets. Easy access. And, for the most part, few besides the players care all that much.
Andy
@Mnemosyne: Put up a Bernie sign, you would do well.
The Dangerman
WTFFFF Georgia?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…. I had a great week going.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: The D 3 national championship was $10. Go Warhawks!
raven
@The Dangerman: It was as nuts of a game as I have ever seen here in 32 years.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: UW-W is almost 10x the size of my alma mater.
Howard Beale IV
Hair Furor was over an hour and a half late to his rally, and didn’t apologize. Deplorable!
raven
@efgoldman: There were probably 10,000 Vols there. It’s a couple mile walk back thorough downtown and I saw mostly quiet Dawgs and loud Vols. Most people expected us to get our asses kicked and the team played pretty well. It’s about the future right now.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Lot’s of folks from my high school went UW schools. Stout was a big favorite.
germy
@Howard Beale IV: He’s Mick Jagger!
Major Major Major Major
Oh I love Gleick! Thanks for the heads up!
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Thanks for everything you are doing. Looking forward to anything you might describe.
planetjanet
@David Evans: Let me second that sentiment. I really appreciate your article in the Atlantic, especially pointing out how demeaning it was to question why a woman would win. Deftly noting your own biographies as a form of artistry was perfect.
lollipopguild
@germy: No, He Thinks he is Mick when he not even a member of the Monkees.
scav
Heads up. NYT claims to have Trump’s 1995 tax records and he might not have paid taxes for up to 20 years. So, loads of may be to fill the no info for further fun and wild times. Hello October. (mea culpa, it’s a piggy-backed access for me.)
MattF
@germy: @Gravenstone: Jeez. Good bye, twitter and good night, everyone..
Another Scott
@scav: Unpossible!!1
“That makes me smart!”
Cheers,
Scott.
Aleta
On top of all his other preposterousnesses, imagine Trump’s paranoia taking charge of the WH and the armed forces. He watches his staff with surveillance systems, listens in on guests, doesn’t trust anyone except family and a few others. He puts too much trust in too few people he may not know well, and then turns on them and replaces them. Plays employees off against each other to keep the atmosphere paranoid so he will keep all the power. Discloses and defames as needed for the short term. Compulsive about getting revenge no matter how much work it destroys.
JR in WV
@Mnemosyne:
That one person might make the difference in NV, so don’t let it get you down!
Phone banking is like that some days. I once did 4 hours, and every person I talked to said they were strong Hillary supporters.
The next day I phone banked, many of the people I spoke with, when I asked that first question “Can we count on your support for Hillary in the Novenber Election?” said “No.” and hung up.
workworkwork
@Hal: Still stuck in the hospital while they figure out what’s going on. I’m saving Luke Cage until I can watch it with my wife so it’ll be at least a day or two or maybe next weekend.
In the meantime, I’ve got my laptop, good wifi and last night got more solid sleep than I’ve had in decades.
Still want to get out of here soonest, though.