Dance for Two: Essays

A collection of short (sometimes very short) essays from the 1980s and 90s by physicist Alan Lightman. These are mostly about science, the experience of doing science, or the world viewed through the eyes of a scientist. Some are pretty straightforward, some are poetic, some are fanciful or whimsical or just kind of odd. Many of them, I suppose, are several of those things at once. Often Lightman is explaining or describing scientific concepts in simple, metaphorical ways aimed very much at the layman, but I can't help thinking that at least some small concept of what it means to think scientifically must be useful going in, in order to be able to distinguish when he's being fanciful or metaphorical. I can only imagine the show more possibilities, for example, of confused or bad-faith readings of the essay "Is The Earth Round or Flat?" in which Lightman talks about never having personally seen the evidence that the Earth is round and uses that as a way to reflect a bit on the value of personal experience.

Thoughtful, poetic essays by scientists are generally very much my sort of thing, but I have to say that I don't really vibe with Lightman's nearly as much as I'd like to. They're interesting, the writing can be kind of pretty, and I appreciate what he's trying to do with them and the honesty with which he shares his own experiences. So I did find this worth reading. But I can't help feeling that most of these are... I don't know, a little too unfocused, maybe? Lacking in some sharp insight or central substance that I keep expecting to be there? Something like that, anyway. show less