Have any of you read Greg Bear’s short story “Schrodinger’s Plague”?
If so, what was your first impression of it? And what category of story did you think it was?
Posted by Destineer (Member # 821) on :
Haven't, no. But I like him. What's the story about?
Posted by iglee (Member # 12455) on :
If you like physics you will probably like this story.
The story is about an experiment carried out by a physicist which will determine once and for all “whether our theory of quantum events is correct.” Just one tiny problem, though, the experiment could kill every person on earth.
The reason I’m curious about other people’s reaction to the story is that my son a few years ago handed me a text book from his college Sci Fi class and told me to read the story and then tell him what I thought. He wouldn’t say any more about it until I had read the story. (It was in “The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990” Editors: Ursula K. Le Guin , Brian Attebery)
I told him that I thought is was one of the most hilarious sf short stories I had ever read. He said that was his reaction too. But when we read the intro to the anthology, Ms. Le Guin did not list it as one of the humorous stories in the book. So I got curious and had a couple of my other children read the story. They too thought it was funny. I then did a little searching on the internet and found a couple of places where the story was called a cautionary tale.
Then I found what Greg Bear said about it in his intro to his anthology “Tangents” (BTW Tangents and Blood Music are a couple other really good stories of his) He wrote, “ ‘Schrodinger’s Plague’ is a jape on physics, something of an in-joke.”
So my son and I were right. We got the joke. Which was kind of gratifying to my ego since Ms. Le Guin and some others didn’t seem to get it.
One of my favorite lines form the story is from the crazy scientist who does the experiment. Says he, “Because if the best mankind can do is come up with an infuriation theory like this to explain the universe, then we should be willing to live or die by our belief in the theory.”
At any rate, here is a link to a list of anthologies that include the story.
You have to have an Alice-in-Wonderland sort of mind to appreciate quantum physics. A sense of humor (not to mention whimsy) has to be built in to accept the reality of things like quarks and probability waves. I'm surprised Le Guin didn't get it. I'm sure Andre Norton (Alice Mary Norton) would have.
I love that poster.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: You have to have an Alice-in-Wonderland sort of mind to appreciate quantum physics.
You mean you have to be able to believe impossible things before breakfast?
Posted by iglee (Member # 12455) on :
You also have to have a lot of heavy duty math. Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Maybe it's all that heavy duty math that sprangs your brain. Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by rivka:
quote:Originally posted by Ron Lambert: You have to have an Alice-in-Wonderland sort of mind to appreciate quantum physics.
You mean you have to be able to believe impossible things before breakfast?
I think that's just a nice say of saying "you need to be on some serious drugs"...
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Nah. Life is a serious enough drug for me. And it lasts longer. Might even last forever.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:But when we read the intro to the anthology, Ms. Le Guin did not list it as one of the humorous stories in the book.
This may well have been an oversight; it's hard to believe that she intended to produce a comprehensive list in the foreword. Posted by iglee (Member # 12455) on :
Yup, you may well be right about that, Tom. I have considered that as a plausible possibly of why she didn’t mention it.
At any rate, have you, by any chance, read that story? I’d really like to know what your reaction to it was if you have.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I haven't, I'm afraid.
Posted by Jake (Member # 206) on :
I have, and remember finding it funny. I haven't read that anthology since the early 90s, though; I should dust it off and reread it one of these days.
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