Welcome to the first ever meeting of The Stephen T. Colbert Book Club for the Literary Excellence! We are going to continue the discussion of Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries as we move on to the next sections.
Section Four: The Meaning of Life
- My favorite phrase of the entire book may have been, “if you own a live-in mammal” on page 186. I think that is the funniest way to describe a pet. Were there any parts of this section that made you laugh out loud?
- Many of the theories and ideas are hard to grasp in this book. Do you think that we, as humans, are supposed to be able to understand the “bigger things,” or is it beyond our comprehension?
- In the chapter, “Life in the Universe,” Tyson goes on a little, but hilarious rant about aliens portrayed in movies. Are there any movies, books, or other things that shaped your view on aliens? Do you think that our human vision of aliens is completely skewed?
Section Five: When the Universe Turns Bad
- I was fairly young when the movie Apollo 13 was released, but even then, I had a weird fascination with the idea of space that hasn’t gone away yet. As a kid, how did you perceive the universe?
- Tyson quotes the physicist Dennis Sciama on page 274 as saying, “Nature may be cleverer than we are.” Do you think there is any truth to this?
- In chapter 32, “Knock ‘Em Dead,” Tyson says that scientific inquiry cannot rest just because we think we’ve found an explanation. Do you think this statement is common sense, or is Tyson trying to make a point?
Please keep in mind the rules of the club.
OK, so I haven’t read the book because it’s not yet available here but I’ve been following the discussion. Now the Dennis Sciama quote just jumped out at me and I had to share my thoughts. Apologies in advance if I don’t make any sense.
“Nature may be cleverer than we are.”
I think Nature is in fact cleverer than we are. I don’t think we can ever outsmart Nature or figure her out. She only chooses to reveal what she thinks we are ready to know. Like the ideas that the earth isn’t flat, or that we aren’t the only presence in the universe. Sometimes, though, we get impatient for the unveiling that we create categories or labels for the great mysteries of life and force them to fit so that we can say they make sense. But doing that never guarantees that we can say with confidence that we understand; the definitions or the labels will always leave something out.
We’ve always been hungry for answers, but lately we always seem to be in a hurry that we forget to revel in the mysteries; when the answers are finally revealed, we are disappointed or oblivious, when it shouldn’t be that way.
Happy Sunday. :)
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