Clockwork 3

In the most recent chapters, the author described the invention of calculus, including an explanation of why it works. If I hadn’t studied calculus myself, I would probably be completely lost, but as I have, the explanation helped me understand it even better than before. The book also talked about Zeno’s paradox, which is a paradox about infinity. My calculus teacher, Dr. Thompson, memorably told us this paradox after a calculus exam review session but didn’t explain why or what connection it had to calculus. At least some of the other students and I were baffled and a bit indignant at having our precious time wasted like that, but now I understand the relationship to calculus. It doesn’t make Dr. Thompson much less of an eccentric math professor, though.

It was inspiring to read about how Leibniz and Newton learned the mathematics that led to calculus. Newton used his force of will to press through and understand geometry and trigonometry, while Leibniz, who had no mathematical background, decided to pick it up one day (in his late twenties?) and read mathematical treatises as if they were novels. I also wanted to study mathematics after reading about them.

I don’t think the author likes Newton very much, though he certainly respects him. I do concur with the author’s opinion that Newton valued his pride entirely too much, and used his slightly higher prestige to devastate Leibniz’s reputation. Of course, by this time both men must have been in their sixties at least, so I find it quite childish that they continued their feud for decades.

Clockwork 2

After reading so much fantasy, I expected that returning to history would be dull, and I almost started a new book to add a little more excitement. But actually, “the Clockwork Universe” was very entertaining. Rather than writing chronologically, the author picks a theme and shares several vignettes about the Royal Society and its members. I learned about Leibniz, who I really only knew from Voltaire’s work of satire Candide. Leibniz was a genius who knew a lot about everything, and constantly flew from one pursuit and place to another. He invented calculus independently of Newton at about the same time, but in the middle of doing so he traveled to see an invention that supposedly allowed people to walk in water (it didn’t really work). I want to read more about Leibniz. While Leibniz was all over the place, Newton stayed in a very small area in England. Even though he explained the tides, he never saw the sea.

There were a lot of gruesome and sensational experiments done in the Royal Society. Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke invented the vacuum pump, the effects of which were demonstrated on various subjects with great enthusiasm. The members were fascinated at how a chicken immediately spasmed and died in a vacuum, but a snake did not. Robert Hooke even volunteered to enter a vacuum himself. The pump malfunctioned before killing the zealous scientist, but Hooke was given dizziness and temporary deafness for his failed attempt. The most gruesome to me was when a madman was given a blood transfusion from a sheep in the attempt to cure him of his madness. Somehow the madman suffered no ill effects, but neither was he cured of his madness.

The society had varying views about the new position of science. While in the past the secrets of science had been closely guarded and perhaps never passed on, the Robert Boyle said that it was a crime not to spread the light of ideas. He even wanted laymen to be able to understand science. Robert Hooke wanted to keep some secrets for the sake of patents, and Newton had no desire to simplify science, but in the end they both furthered Boyle’s cause despite their intentions.

It was also interesting that these scientists were so willing to believe other claims that would be dismissed without consideration today. For example, one presentation in the Royal Society concerned “weapon salve”, made in part from something that grows on a human corpse after a few days, and applied to a weapon so that the wound that the weapon has made would heal. Gruesome stuff indeed.

The Silmarillion 2

I finished the Silmarillion last night. It surprised me that almost all of the characters died (or sailed to Valinar and out of the story), and yet I still wanted to read more. But I wouldn’t be able to, because the Silmarillion is more about elves than men and there are no elves left. At the end of the third age, Arwen is the only elf still alive in middle earth, and she marries Aragorn and becomes human. At the beginning of the third age, only one descendent of Elros remains. Furthermore, of all the Noldor who went to Valinor and returned to Beleriand, only Galadriel remains. Also, I found it interesting that Aragorn, who is a descendent of Elros of the 32^nd(?) generation, ends up marrying Elros’s niece Arwen. Another thing about this marriage--it is the third (and last) union between elves and men. I found that quite poignant.

Why do I enjoy reading it so much if it is mainly about people dying and great works being built and destroyed? Incidentally, the most difficult chapters were the stories of Hurin and Turin, who, though they did great deeds, for the most part they lived in agony causing destruction rather than dying heroically. Beren and Luthien's story is probably my favorite, but at the end Luthien goes to Mandos and brings Beren back from the dead, and I wasn't quite happy with that part--it was too much of a happy ending. I suppose though, that they needed to have offspring somehow. Their only son had two sons and a daughter. The sons were lost, but the daughter married the son of Tuor and Idril, the daughter of Turgon, the son of Fingolfin. In this way the Noldor, Teleri, Maiar, and humans were all joined as a family. From this union came Elrond and Elros.

I really should have written about this every day because there was plenty that I thought about it and no longer remember. Oh well, I'm sure I'll read it again and rediscover some of that which was lost in oblivion.

The Silmarillion 1

I’ve been reading the Silmarillion for nearly a week already, but I’ve been negligent in updating this blog. This book is wonderful in a variety of ways. It’s not suspenseful (perhaps because I’ve read it so many times) but I enjoy it richly. It’s like savoring a chocolate cake, whereas reading suspenseful books is more like devouring addictive candy. I learned a couple of new words, though the only one I remember right now is firth, which means coastal waters, a strait, or a smaller inlet.

Mom asked me why I enjoyed reading this book. I told her that it was like being able to read a long-term history in which you can see many of the motives that end up influencing the events. You can also see how the choices of individuals can make a large difference. That’s what I told her, but I left out a lot. I also really enjoy the epic feel of it—the famous places, the legendary artifacts, the heroic characters. I can imagine how it would be to live in this world and hear about these things.

One aspect of plots that I really enjoy is when there is a tragic fate that is doomed to happen. In the Silmarillion, the elves are doomed to wane in power as a result of their choices regarding the silmarils and the way they left the halls of Valinor. And yet their fate isn’t ultimately tragic. If it were, I wouldn’t enjoy the plot nearly as much. Perhaps I enjoy this because of the way that it parallels reality. The sin of our first parents in the garden of Eden doomed humanity to many evils, and yet I believe that ultimately it is for the glory of God, and we can rejoice in being used to correct these evils.

Another aspect I like is the nostalgia of the elves. Unlike men who have short lives, the elves have a long memory and thus they seem to spend the majority of their time fondly recalling times past. In Valinor, they are nostalgic about their awakening under the stars and their initial wonder at the world. In Beleriand, they recall the halls of Valinor with fondness. Later, they remember the peak of elven power in Beleriand and the many great wonders that were destroyed by Morgoth. I don’t consider their nostalgia to be admirable, but as I myself am prone to it, I am moved when I read about it.

Arcane (The Arinthian Line 1)

The beginning of this book was much more palatable than that of the others. The main character is an orphan who has been treated badly, but has been taken in by a knight who taught him to read as well as many other things. The boy is bullied and has no friends, but the knight invests in him so he has a purpose in life. Then a terrible army comes to his village and destroys it, and the boy escapes. A woman finds him and tells him she can teach him magic. Up to this point I felt like it was a good story that could develop into an epic, but from here the boy's behavior and thoughts become more juvenile, and he soon meets some other children who are even more juvenile. The boy is supposedly 14 (maybe 13?), and he meets another boy who is older than him. The other boy constantly teases him from the start, and some of the teasing takes the form of parroting. Are they first-graders? That's hardly teenage behavior. Given this is early in the books, I would normally stick it out, but I realized that this is supposed to be a YA series, meaning the characters probably won't grow up very soon. I haven't returned the book yet, but I'm doubtful that I can read much farther if I give it another chance.

The Dark Citadel

I read this last night and yet I hardly can remember it. In half an hour's reading I went through the perspectives of three characters who were far removed from one another. None of them were interesting, although I do remember rolling my eyes at the stupidity of the young boy I believed would become the main character. His baby sister was adopted by a merchant family to whom he belonged as a slave. When he is given the chance to escape, he tries to take his sister with her, even though she is clearly loved and cared for, while he will become a fugitive. This sort of reasoning might be expected from a younger child, but the boy is a teenager. He himself comes to the realization that he should leave his sister, but only as he is caught trying to take her.

This book used many terms from the Islamic world--pasha, khalif, dinar, etc. They bothered me because they were so wholesale-imported from our world. Perhaps if I had continued the books I would have gotten used to it, but the characters were uninteresting, and I had no curiosity to discover how the plot would develop, so I dropped this series too.

The Keeper Chronicles

The Keeper Chronicles starts out somewhat mysteriously as the main character encounters many ghosts as he returns to where the keepers live. Curiosity drove my reading, to find out what he had done, why he was haunted, why he had unwillingly returned. He was looking for an antidote but he can't seem to find it. At every step he reflects on his overwhelming guilt, regret, and longing to return to his life of a year ago when his beloved was alive and healthy. About half an hour in, I barely knew anything about this character except that he was a keeper and that he was deeply attached to his wife, so deeply that he committed great atrocities (which were skimmed over, but definitely did not endear him to me) so that she would not die of a snake's poison. My disgust and detachment overcame my curiosity and returned the book.