spuytenduyvil

THEORETICAL PHYSICIST PETER FREUND LAUNCHES INTO A SERIES OF ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE FICTIONS WHICH SEEK NOT JUST THE EMOTIONAL DOWN-SWING OF HUMAN RELATIONS FOR IMPACT BUT THEIR FUNDAMENTAL IMPOSITION AS REALITIES CONTAINING OBJECTIVE LOVES AND HATES. FATE, HERE, WRIT LARGE, DEMANDS OUR ATTENTION IN THE UNFOLDING OF SOCIAL CONVENTION.

 

FRIENDS WILL SOMETIMES SAY, “You have to meet X, you’ll love each other!” You meet X and you don’t love each other. Actually, you dislike each other at fi rst sight. A good friend will be philosophical about it, shrug his shoulders and say, in the local parlance, “c’est la vie.” The trouble is, you’re all poets, working the same turf.Then there is the thorny question of gossip, which is the Number One pastime of human beings. Only people without any friends discuss politics and philosophy without contextual gossip. An idea seems so barren and bor-ing if unattached to a person! The best idea, even quantum mechanics, is so much more interesting when considered in the light of Heisenberg’s collabora-tion with the Nazis. Which brings up a question: Can there be a common endeavor, whether physics or poetry, that can remain objective when the researchers involved are also people? According to Peter Freund, one of the founding physicists of String Theory ... the answer is Yes and No.

                                                         Andrei Codrescu