Falling Awake

Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry - by Ian Stewart

I felt so bad about the stupid mistake I made–mixing up two books on the mathematical concept of symmetry, its history, and its usefulness in modern physics–that I had to read the other one, too.

In short, it’s a terrific book.  It covers more territory than the book I originally read–venturing deeper into the physics of the 20th and 21st centuries than Mario Livio’s “The Equation that Couldn’t Be Solved,” with more biographies of the pivotal figures involved.  “The Equation that Couldn’t Be Solved” also took a rather lengthy detour into the life of a French mathematician, Evariste Galois, which was fascinating but seemed to belong in a different book.  Galois’s final days (he was killed in a mysterious duel) are intriguing but have nothing to do with mathematics.

In my original review (where it turned out I was talking about the book by Mario Livio), I started by saying, “This is the kind of math book I like: no pages full of equations I can’t follow.”  I feel that Stewart’s book takes this too far.  I think there were not enough equations for the complexity of the math presented.  Analogies and illustrations can only take the reader so far, and I think it’s better to present some equations in the hope that they will help and with the knowledge that they may be skimmed or skipped.  Instead, I had to skim or skip some of the text when the concepts were just too difficult.

All in all though, a worthwhile book.

Harry Potter magic spells losses for booksellers | U.S. | Reuters

Harry Potter has no spell for bookstore profits.

Millions of people will descend on stores for a copy of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” in July, but deep discounts mean many will struggle to turn a profit from the jamboree.

“Everywhere you go there is huge, ridiculous discounting by the chains,” said Graham Marks, children’s editor at the British-based trade magazine Publishing News.

“They are literally not going to make one penny out of the book. It is stupid — just throwing money away … The world has gone mad.”

The world hasn’t gone mad, but when the release of a major title means trouble for booksellers, there’s clearly something wrong with the business model.

Brick-and-mortar bookstores cannot compete with Amazon on price.  They also can’t compete with Costco, Wal-mart, or your local supermarket on bestseller prices.  Customers feel cheated if they don’t get the same markdown on bestsellers at their local bookstore as they do in a supermarket.  So, the very books that should be paying the rent are being sold at a deep discount.  The supermarket pays the rent by selling milk–the few cents they make on every book is just gravy.

You’d think booksellers could make it up by providing good customer service–but Amazon beats them there, too.  No clerk can have read every book in the store, but just about every book Amazon carries has been reviewed by an Amazon customer.  And ask yourself this: has a bookstore employee ever done a great job finding you the perfect book, which you then proceeded to buy on Amazon to get a better price?

I see a day coming when there will be two types of bookstore: self-service megastores and small “boutique” stores in areas where customers are not price-conscious.  Or you can always go to Amazon.

Next up on The Lifetime Reading Plan is The Iliad.

[This was written on 6/8/00, after I had read the next several books on the list.  I refer to a couple of them here, but I'll post their entries later.] 

I probably would enjoy the Iliad even more now that I have read Thucydides.  Its geographical references went over my head and tended to make my eyes glaze over.  That being said, I still enjoyed it, and reading it first aided my appreciation of Herodotus.

The battle scenes are gripping, but the real genius of Homer is in the portrayals of Achilles and Hector.  What surprised me most is that Homer, a Greek poet writing for a Greek audience about the most glorious war in Greek history (to that point), chose to show Hector to be the noblest of all.  And here I thought criticism of one’s own country’s history was confined to twentieth century Americans.  [I wrote this while President Clinton was still in office!]

I just finished Joseph Heller’s Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, in which he satirizes the Iliad.  I would have understood it before having read it, of course: the story is embedded in our collective unconscious.  But having finally read it increased my enjoyment.  It is my hope that as I read more and more of the “canon,” this feeling of deeper comprehension will increase, and it is to this end that I will continue to “fill in the gaps” in my education, so that I may have a fuller appreciation of how each of the tiles help to complete the grand mosaic.

[No insights here, but then I enjoyed having read it more than I enjoyed actually reading it.  I also was working from memory, having written this months after reading the book.  An aside: as I'm typing this, I have no memory of ever having read that book by Joseph Heller.  I remember the Iliad.]

Robert Spencer, whose books The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion and  The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Islam (and the Crusades) I mentioned here will be analyzing the Koran every Sunday at the Hot Air blog.

Here’s the link:

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Blogging the Qur’an

Mr. Spencer describes his plan this way:

So over the course of the next few months, I’m going to read it, and discuss it in a series of columns. All of it. Not “cherry-picked” or “out of context.” The whole thing, beginning to end. Some of you may be familiar with David Plotz’s series on Slate, “Blogging the Bible.” This series will be similar to that one, but rather than just write about what I think or feel about a certain passage, I will, unlike Plotz, refer to commentaries – all Muslim ones – on the Qur’an. I’ll try to explain how mainstream Muslims who study the Qur’an will understand any given passage, and what its import might be for non-Muslims.

His first post explains what he’s going to do, and why it’s especially important to be familiar with the Koran.

At last, the final category in Time’s list of The People Who Shape Our World: “Builders & Titans.”  These are primarily businessmen, and I won’t quibble about their selection.

Except for one.  This person’s inclusion on this list is simply laughable.

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Why Beauty Is Truth: A History of Symmetry - by Ian Stewart

This is the kind of math book I like: no pages full of equations I can’t follow.  Clear writing and simple, logical steps take you from the observation that a butterfly possesses lateral symmetry, through a history and explanation of group theory, to the realization that the symmetry inherent in particle physics is the same phenomenon.  I like the Keats reference in the title, but Stewart doesn’t actually explain why beauty is truth.  He assumes that symmetry=beauty.  I’ve never found a chessboard that beautiful, though.

[UPDATE: Boy, is my face red!  I didn't read this book.  I read The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry, by Mario Livio.  The books both deal with the topic of mathematical symmetry, and they each have a pretty butterfly on the cover:

 ..."Why Beauty is Truth"

 ..."The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved"

See?  See?

This is so embarrassing.  Actually this isn't Mario Livio's first popularization of math that I've enjoyed.  While figuring out what I'd done wrong I realized he also wrote The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number, which I also recommend.  (I actually did read it!)

I'm so sorry.

END UPDATE]

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South Park and Philosophy: You Know, I Learned Something Today (The Blackwell Philosophy & Pop Culture Series) - Robert Arp, editor

I had read The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer and enjoyed it, and expected more of the same in this book.  In the “Simpsons” volume of this series, basic tenets of philosophy are explained through examples culled from America’s favorite

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The Old Testament

(Entry dated 6/8/00) 

This took up the bulk of my time over the past year.  I would set it down for months at a time, not daring to move on to the other works for fear that I would never return to it.

It is not listed in the The New Lifetime Reading Plan, at least not in the body of the book, but the introdction states: “We asssume that nearly every reader of this book will own a Bible and be at least somewhat accustomed to reading it.”  Also, how can one read St. Augustine’s Confessions, Dante’s Divine Comedy, or Paradise Lost without familiarity with the Good Book? Read the rest of this entry »

• A disgusting response to a soldier’s simple inquiry.  The employee was fired. The name of the owner of the business is Faisal Khetani (not that that means anything.)
• “Hollywood star Clint Eastwood said his acclaimed picture ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ aimed to show the futility of war.” The futility of World War II? In what possible sense could you call WWII “futile?” Is he cracking up?  Before you protest, the article makes clear that he’s not calling Japan’s decision to go to war futile.  He’s saying World War II itself was futile: “I think every war has a certain parallel in the futility of it and that’s one of the reasons for telling these stories — they are not pro-war stories.”
• Kathryn Jean Lopez says, “I knew I liked Joe Lieberman.  He reads Mark Steyn.”  Me, too.  And, me, too.
• Libertas (a fun Hollywood/politics site) is now going to review movies as a regular feature.  ’Dirty Harry’ pledges that “you can finally look forward to being forewarned of political agendas snuck into films that promise only to entertain. The era of Hollywood getting away with this crap has just come to an end. I intend to holler, kick, scream, and make a huge stink over the left-wing sucker punches we’re all sick of. And yes, it will have an effect on my overall review because the worst sin a filmmaker can make is to take the viewer out of the film, and nothing does that faster than slipping in a political agenda.”  I’m looking forward to it.

I’ve been in an introspective mood the last month.  I’ve been dealing with death, money and taxes.  (I didn’t post about the taxes, but if the IRS doesn’t see things my way, I will.)  I’ve tried to post on current events, but I’m just not feeling the passion to do it right.

 So, instead I’ll try to make a little money.  Remember, if you click on any of my links to Amazon, no matter what you end up buying I’ll get a percentage.  It’s called a “kickback.” 

Years ago, I picked up a copy of The New Lifetime Reading Plan, and decided to give it a go.  It lists what the authors (Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major) believe to be the greatest works of literature ever written.  It’s actually a joy to read on its own: one to two page beautifully written essays that actually make you want to read the books.  Reading about reading is almost as fun as reading!

I picked it up eight years ago, and decided to go through it, and keep a journal about my reaction to each book.  Here’s what I wrote: Read the rest of this entry »

One thing I’ve wanted to do here is review books that I’ve read and enjoyed.  I haven’t done it yet and I don’t think I will, for the simple reason that it’s too much like work.  You have two options when reviewing a book.  You can take notes as you’re reading, which ruins the enjoyment.  Or you can read the book once for pleasure and then turn around and read it again to find the passages you need for the review.  Neither choice appeals to me, so occasionally (aiming for once per month) I’ll just cite a few books that I’ve recently read, enjoyed, and would recommend.

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