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Don't You Have Time to Think?
Book review by
Eastman Cheong (BSc Mathematics &
Economics) |
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About the book:
Don't You Have Time to Think?
By Richard P. Feynman
Penguin Book, 2006, 467 pp.
Richard Feynman
won the Nobel prize in Physics in 1965 for his
contributions in the theory of quantum
electrodynamics. The New York Times described
him as "the most brilliant, iconoclastic and
influential of the postwar generation of
theoretical physicists."
The book, edited
by Feynman's daughter Michelle, is a collection
of hundreds of letters that he wrote to his
family, friends, students, critics, colleagues
and fans. These letters are interesting,
touching and witty.
The letters are
arranged in chronological order, starting with
Feynman's correspondence with his mother and his
first wife Arline when he was studying a
postgraduate degree at the Princeton University.
In a letter to his mother, Feynman told her that
he had decided to marry Arline, who was
suffering from tuberculosis. He wrote, "...I
want to marry Arline because I love her ¡V which
means I want to take care of her. That is all
there is to it. I want to take care of her."
Three years passed after their marriage. Arline
had been hospitalized in a sanatorium during her
last months while he worked on the Manhattan
Project to build the first atomic bomb. He kept
on writing to her every day and managed to see
her at weekends. A year after Arline died,
Feynman wrote to his dead wife, "...I adore you,
sweetheart. I know how much you like to hear
that ¡V but I don't only write it because you
like it ¡V I write it because it makes me warm
all over inside to write to you...." At the end
of the letter, he added, "P.S. Please excuse my
not mailing this ¡V but I don't know your new
address." According to Michelle, the letter is
"well worn, and it appears as though Feynman
reread it often."
In another letter,
Feynman wrote back to the University of Chicago
for not accepting the honorary doctorate that
the university offered him, explaining that "an
'honorary degree' was a debasement of the idea
of a degree that confirms certain work has been
accomplished." A year later, he rejected the
honorary degree offered by Princeton University
for the same reason.
Closing note
These are tidbits. The book records
numerous highly readable letters.
Reading through the book, you will
understand more of the personality of
"The Smartest Man in the World."
Moreover, this is a book of reading with
pleasure. The title of the book is
adopted from a sentence of a letter that
Feynman responded to one of his fans. I
will let you find out what the letter
was about. |
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