‘Schroedinger’s Ball’ by Adam Felber – The New York Times – New York Times
I have to admit, I’m a Fanatical Apathist, so I’m looking forward to reading Adam Felber’s new novel. I’m a little puzzled by this review in the Grey Lady, though – did the reviewer like the book, were they charmed enough to imitate the style, or just showing off that they “get” all the romantic metaphors possible with a solid background in quantum physics?
Anyway, it sounds pretty darn good for a WWDTM denizen, so well done Adam.
Take 20th-century physics, add Johann Strauss, the Waltz King, and you have
the first quantum operetta.
Or in this case, “Schrödinger’s Ball.†Adam Felber, a comedian, blogger and
silk-spun satirist (on National
Public Radio and elsewhere), has written a romantic fantasy in three-quarter
time, as brainy as it is airy, and unhinged either way.
It is a jangle of provocative absurdities playing off a pair of lovers so
winning that readers, like the audiences at the old Hollywood romantic comedies,
will all but rent ladders to uncross the stars that guide and misguide their
affairs.
Just as other romances are strung from the vagaries of fortune,
misunderstanding, rift and reconciliation, this one clings precariously by its
fingernails to the Uncertainty Principle. A counterintuitive mainstay of modern
physics, this asserts that in the subatomic realm of waves and particles, to
observe a phenomenon is to alter it. “Schrödinger’s Ball†extends it, impudently
enough, to our own postmodern uncertainties.
Aha! True to your word at Adam’s place, you have blogged about the book. Now I’m on the hook, huh? 😆
Mooo-ah-ha-ha-ha!!! And now, to eveel! 😈
(and now, to fix the stupid macro that blew up that’s supposed to put a nice link and make a nice acronym when I type the words “National Public Radio”).