by Kim Stanley Robinson
There is science fiction then there is SCIENCE FICTION. I have been a fan of the genre for near as long as I can remember; starting with the “Buck Rogers is the 25th Century” and “Flash Gordon” comic strips, then on to the pulps of the ‘40’s – “Amazing Stories”, etc.
As I matured I recognized differences in quality; there were ‘Space Operas’ (cowboy shoot-‘em-ups with different villains such as bug-eyed alien monsters, rocket ship heroics, and such) and more thought provoking speculative fiction involving the projection of scientific/technology and cultural advances. The latter category is demonstrated by such writers as Frederick Pohl, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.
I was pleased to see that the book under review certainly fits in the higher quality realm, and beyond its science fiction basis it adds another dimension, that of factual biography.
It is a long book, over 500 pages, and much of its content is a detailed description of the life style, personality quirks, personal associations (both friendly and contentious), and the emotional/physical crises and conflicts of Galileo Galilee. As one would expect, there is the major issue of Galileo’s Copernican views and the resulting condemnation by the power structure of the Roman Catholic Church. This biographical material seems to be on the mark in terms of historical accuracy, although I admit to only one fact-checking exercise; a Google search revealed that the maestro’s beleaguered craftsman/assistant, Mazzolini, did actually work in that capacity.
The novel emphasizes Galileo’s allegiance and emphatic adherence to empiricism in contradiction to the prevailing philosophical reliance upon church dogma and scriptural ‘truth’. Even further, he was a pioneer in the use of mathematics (scrupulous, repetitive measurement and derivation of formulaic calculation) in providing unassailable support for his empirical findings. His meticulously recorded astronomical observations of solar system objects demonstrated to him (and any others who might argue) that the earth is an object moving about the sun rather than as the perfectly immovable center of God’s universe; this, of course, led to his heresy indictment and Vatican trial. In these regards he deserves accolades for being an original, experimental scientist.
It is within this framework that the science fiction element comes into Robinson’s book.
Some of us old geezers can remember our childhood readings of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s yarns about John Carter being magically transported to the planet Mars, and his subsequent adventures on that world. There is a similar, albeit more technologically feasible activity, in this book.
Many years in our future the human inhabitants of Jupiter’s moons (the “Galilean moons” – a ha!) have developed elaborate means of manipulating the multidimensional features of quantum/’brane reality in such a way as to delve into and alter times and space. Through this methodology they bring the living Galileo to their neighborhood and return him home again on several occasions. While he is with them there is an attempt to manipulate him into adopting a course of action in his heresy trial which would certainly lead to him being burned at the stake. He would thus become a martyr, and, like that hapless butterfly in the Amazon, his actions would lead to a future in which science becomes the dominant religion, and human progress would be advanced immeasurably (or, conversely, become catastrophic).
We know, of course, the course which Galileo took, but it is fascinating to speculate what would have happened if he hadn’t been such a spineless wimp by caving into the pressure of the inquisition. That speculation makes up the novel’s philosophical conclusion.
For the most part I enjoyed this book, especially the details of Galileo’s life, the descriptions of his empirical methodology and insistence upon rigorous measurement and derivation of mathematical functions, the delving into the intricacies of modern theoretical physics, and the superb characterization skill of the author. It does tend to get wordy at times, and I could have done without some of the needlessly repetitive sojourns into Galileo’s sexual conquests (he apparently even here used mathematics by compulsively keeping a total – 248 I believe – quite a guy), his frequent rages, and his constant hypochondriachal complaints. I also became a bit confused keeping the large number of patrons, noblemen, and Vatican figures straight; they all had difficult-to-pronounce Italian names; too bad Galileo wasn’t an Englishman..
If you have an interest in these subjects, you’d probably find this to be a good read.
Reviewed by Ken West
As I matured I recognized differences in quality; there were ‘Space Operas’ (cowboy shoot-‘em-ups with different villains such as bug-eyed alien monsters, rocket ship heroics, and such) and more thought provoking speculative fiction involving the projection of scientific/technology and cultural advances. The latter category is demonstrated by such writers as Frederick Pohl, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.
I was pleased to see that the book under review certainly fits in the higher quality realm, and beyond its science fiction basis it adds another dimension, that of factual biography.
It is a long book, over 500 pages, and much of its content is a detailed description of the life style, personality quirks, personal associations (both friendly and contentious), and the emotional/physical crises and conflicts of Galileo Galilee. As one would expect, there is the major issue of Galileo’s Copernican views and the resulting condemnation by the power structure of the Roman Catholic Church. This biographical material seems to be on the mark in terms of historical accuracy, although I admit to only one fact-checking exercise; a Google search revealed that the maestro’s beleaguered craftsman/assistant, Mazzolini, did actually work in that capacity.
The novel emphasizes Galileo’s allegiance and emphatic adherence to empiricism in contradiction to the prevailing philosophical reliance upon church dogma and scriptural ‘truth’. Even further, he was a pioneer in the use of mathematics (scrupulous, repetitive measurement and derivation of formulaic calculation) in providing unassailable support for his empirical findings. His meticulously recorded astronomical observations of solar system objects demonstrated to him (and any others who might argue) that the earth is an object moving about the sun rather than as the perfectly immovable center of God’s universe; this, of course, led to his heresy indictment and Vatican trial. In these regards he deserves accolades for being an original, experimental scientist.
It is within this framework that the science fiction element comes into Robinson’s book.
Some of us old geezers can remember our childhood readings of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s yarns about John Carter being magically transported to the planet Mars, and his subsequent adventures on that world. There is a similar, albeit more technologically feasible activity, in this book.
Many years in our future the human inhabitants of Jupiter’s moons (the “Galilean moons” – a ha!) have developed elaborate means of manipulating the multidimensional features of quantum/’brane reality in such a way as to delve into and alter times and space. Through this methodology they bring the living Galileo to their neighborhood and return him home again on several occasions. While he is with them there is an attempt to manipulate him into adopting a course of action in his heresy trial which would certainly lead to him being burned at the stake. He would thus become a martyr, and, like that hapless butterfly in the Amazon, his actions would lead to a future in which science becomes the dominant religion, and human progress would be advanced immeasurably (or, conversely, become catastrophic).
We know, of course, the course which Galileo took, but it is fascinating to speculate what would have happened if he hadn’t been such a spineless wimp by caving into the pressure of the inquisition. That speculation makes up the novel’s philosophical conclusion.
For the most part I enjoyed this book, especially the details of Galileo’s life, the descriptions of his empirical methodology and insistence upon rigorous measurement and derivation of mathematical functions, the delving into the intricacies of modern theoretical physics, and the superb characterization skill of the author. It does tend to get wordy at times, and I could have done without some of the needlessly repetitive sojourns into Galileo’s sexual conquests (he apparently even here used mathematics by compulsively keeping a total – 248 I believe – quite a guy), his frequent rages, and his constant hypochondriachal complaints. I also became a bit confused keeping the large number of patrons, noblemen, and Vatican figures straight; they all had difficult-to-pronounce Italian names; too bad Galileo wasn’t an Englishman..
If you have an interest in these subjects, you’d probably find this to be a good read.
Reviewed by Ken West
No comments:
Post a Comment