THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
03/13/15 -- Vol. 33, No. 37, Whole Number 1849
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Super Pi Day
R.I.P. Sir Terry Pratchett (28 April 1948-12 March 2015)
Verification (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Mote in Kirk's Eye (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Nut on the Sphere Above the Ring (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
WALTER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir (audiobook review by Joe Karpierz)
MATHEMATICS AND THE IMAGINATION by Edward Kasner and
James R. Newman (book review by Greg Frederick)
SHERLOCK (letter of comment by Robert Mitchell)
Hugo Nominations (letters of comment by Philip Chee,
Kevin R., Steve Coltrin, and Paul Dormer)
This Week's Reading (JEFFERSON THE VIRGINIAN; JEFFERSON;
and NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, WITH RELATED
DOCUMENTS) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Super Pi Day
Celebrate Super Pi Day tomorrow at 9:26:53.
That is, the time will be 3/14/15 9:26:53, the first ten digits of
pi.
===================================================================
TOPIC: R.I.P. Sir Terry Pratchett (28 April 1948-12 March 2015)
Announced on his Twitter account @terryandrob with three Tweets by
his assistant, Rob Wilkins:
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on
to the black desert under the endless night.
The End.
===================================================================
TOPIC: Verification (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
A readout from my doctor said my surface area is 2.07 square
meters. I wonder how they figure that and if I could verify that.
P.S. For honesty's sake I should add that I know that that it
actually cannot be true. My knowledge of fractals tells me I have
infinite surface area. And you do too. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Mote in Kirk's Eye (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Am I the only one who is irritated by the original "Star Trek"'s
attitude about racism? The series takes place in the 23rd century
when racism has mostly been expunged from the human race. In "Let
That Be Your Last Battlefield" Kirk lectures the Cheron native on
their racism. What bothers me about this? Right under his nose
Leonard McCoy is always making racial insults, calling Spock
"green-blooded, "pointy-eared" and "inhuman." Kirk knows about it
and never gives any sign that it might be inappropriate.
Apparently if Spock is not fully human or if McCoy is a close
friend, Kirk does not want to get involved. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Nut on the Sphere Above the Ring (comments by Mark R.
Leeper)
As I have mentioned in the past, as much as I like being retired
there are two giant disadvantages to retirement. One is that I
have gotten really, *really* out of touch with technology. Oh, I
have a nice Mac computer on my desk. I suppose I am in touch with
some technology. But I have fallen way behind the technology that
most ten-year-olds are carrying in their pockets. I don't own a
telephone that does not have a cord into a wall.
The other disadvantage is that when I was working there was always
somebody who was paid to make certain that I was making the best
use of my time. I suppose that how much this bothers somebody will
vary from person to person. I never gave it much thought until I
retired but I really want my usage of time to be validated. I
review films so I may occasionally see a movie while the sun is
still over the yardarm, but I always feel a little guilty to doing.
I guess that would be called Wasted Time Syndrome.
What I find is that a good way to fight off Wasted Time Syndrome is
to be constantly taking courses. If you don't need to get
certified that you know some information you can learn a lot
cheaply or free of charge, which is even better. Our library
system has hundreds of Teaching Company courses and we can borrow
them cheaply.
I recently finished Michael Wysession's course THE WORLD'S GREATEST
GEOLOGICAL WONDERS. The professor finishes the course with one
(half-hour) class on extra-terrestrial geological wonders from our
solar system. The planet that has some of the most mathematical
sites--the ones that appeal to me--is probably Saturn.
Galileo discovered the rings of Saturn, of course. These rings
made that planet most unique of all planets as far as Galileo could
see from his primitive telescope. But most people who know a
little astronomy know about the rings and they are made of debris
or rock and ice. But perhaps the most interesting feature is what
looks like a giant hex-nut at the north pole of the planet. Not
that many people know about that one.
Not only is there at the South Pole a hurricane with an eye 8000
miles in diameter, the other pole also has a hurricane in the shape
of a giant hexagonal storm, about 15,000 miles on a side and twice
that diagonally (if I know my hexagons, But it is speculated that
it is not rotating with respect to the planet. It is not known how
fast Saturn rotates--and it is the only one of the (traditional
nine) planets for which the rate of rotation has never been
established. So the axis of the planet goes through a round storm
at the South Pole and a hexagonal storm at the North Pole. And, of
course, around the axis are the equatorial rings.
The hexagon was first discovered by Voyager 1 and 2 in 1980 and
1981, but still most people do not know about the phenomenon. For
most of the time since the discovery the hexagon has been in shade
due to the tilt of Saturn's axis. It has been in Saturn's
equivalent of our Arctic Circle.
The question to ask, however, is why does it form so nearly perfect
a hexagon. Apparently there are six rotating jet streams, each
holding a wall of the hexagon. But it seems to me that the real
mystery would be the perfect regularity of the figure. Why are the
sides so close to being the same length? And it would not be so
nice a figure if it were an octagon or a heptagon. As I said above
the long diameter of a hexagon is just twice the length of one
side. Why is the shape so stable? Some crystals have very regular
geometric shapes. Storms have very chaotic shapes. I would have
thought it would be very unlikely that storms would form into so
perfect a geometric figure. But if an advanced civilization wanted
to leave a message for our solar system saying "You are not alone"
it would be hard for them to pick a more flamboyant billboard than
the one they have.
See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release 13-350.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: WALTER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: In what is more an extended situation than an actual story
we meet Walter, a ticket taker at the local multiplex who happens
to be the Son of God--not Jesus, but another son who has been given
the responsibility to judge all people and for each decide if they
art to be consigned to Heaven or Hell. Walter runs into problems
when he is asked by one of the already dead to be judged for Heaven
or Hell. While the story develops only very slowly we see several
strange people in Walter's life. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or
6/10
Walter (played by Andrew J. West of "The Walking Dead") is one of
those people who rarely get noticed. He just is a very
conscientious minor employee at the local movie theater, always
fastidiously dressed in a bright red vest. But what few people
know is that as one of the sons of God he has been given the task
of judging the people he comes in contact with. One look and he
can decide either "Heaven" or "Hell." Walter does what he can to
hide any personality he might have hiding behind his vest and
following every rule of the management. We first see him waking up
to three alarm clocks so he is triply sure to wake up on time. And
every morning Walter's mother (Virginia Madsen) has written a note
saying his white shirt has been pressed and asking him how many
eggs he wants for breakfast. She hovers over Walter, being
smotheringly protective and determined to feed Walter eggs. She is
just one of several weird people in Walter's life including
Dr. Corman (William H. Macy). Corman is a psychiatrist with rather
unusual procedures. He seems to be doing very little for Walter.
One hopes he can pull a person out of the repressed being that is
Walter. New to Walter's life is Greg (Justin Kirk) a ghost who
needs a judgment (either up or down) from Walter before he can move
on. Walter who usually decides eternal fates at a glance is
surprisingly reticent to judge Greg.
There are some peculiar touches in the screenplay. The narrative
seems to be shaped like a wagon wheel with Walter at the center.
Walter is rarely off-stage, but is in nearly every scene of the
film. And with the exception of the staff of the multiplex, few
people that Walter knows interact with each other. Walter just
keeps having scenes one-on-one with the other people in his life.
One wonders a little at the premise of the film. How does Walter
remember not to judge the same person twice? What happens to the
billions of people with whom Walter never comes in contact? Who
judges them? Why would Walter treat so important a task so
randomly and callously? It calls up memories from the Nazi death
camps of WWII. There is also some wit, very little that is laugh-
out-loud funny but some nice little jabs. One is an image surely
inspired by the film AMERICAN BEAUTY.
The film was helmed by first-time director Anna Mastro from a
script by Paul Shoulberg. In spite of a somewhat static plot, this
film has ideas enough to keep the film intriguing. I rate WALTER
high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. WALTER will be released to
VOD on March 13, 2015, as well as playing on screens in New York
and Los Angeles.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2016335/combined
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/walter_2015/
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir (copyright 2011 Andy Weir, 2014
Random House, 2013 Podium Publishing, 10 hours 53 minutes, narrated
by R.C. Bray) (excerpt from the Duel Fish Codices: an audiobook
review by Joe Karpierz)
I'd been hearing quite a bit about THE MARTIAN, but for some reason
was reluctant to dive into it. I'd never heard of Andy Weir, and
while I don't mind jumping into works by an author I don't know,
this time I hesitated. Then, Amazon was offering the e-book for
cheap, and as a bonus they were also offering, through Audible, the
audiobook with the Whispersync capability (more about that later).
I took that as a sign, made the purchases, and dug in.
And, like my hip replacement surgery back in 2013, wished I'd done
so a lot sooner.
Mark Watney is an astronaut on the Ares 3 Mars mission. It is Sol
6--the sixth day the crew was on the planet's surface, when a
fierce sandstorm hit. The crew is given the word to scrub the
mission and evacuate the planet. If they stayed through the
sandstorm, their ascent vehicle would be wrecked and they would be
unable to leave. In the process of getting back to the ascent
vehicle, Watney is struck by a flying piece of equipment. His
spacesuit is pierced and he can't get to the vehicle. An attempt
is made to retrieve his body, but the crew has to leave before they
can get to him. They leave his corpse on the Martian surface.
Except, as you might guess, Watney wasn't dead. His suit was
breached in such a way that the hole was plugged just right by the
equipment that pierced it. He got back to the hab, and the story
takes off from there.
Watney is a botanist and an engineer--a convenient combination if
you're going to be stranded on the surface of a planet all by
yourself and you're trying to figure out how to survive until the
next manned mission to Mars more than a year later. As a botanist
you have a shot at figuring out how to feed yourself for over a
year, and as an engineer you have a shot at figuring out all the
rest of the problems that you would encounter along the way. Where
is the air going to come from? Where's the water going to come
from? How am I going to make do with what I have? How am I going
to get to the landing site of the next mission? And just how am I
going to survive everything that Mars throws at me?
What follows is the story of one man against a planet. One man
trying to survive anyway he can to get to go home--even when no one
else knows he's alive. It's a fascinating look at what one
ingenious person can do when the odds are against him. But lest
you think that the entirety of this story follows Watney around on
the surface of Mars trying to survive--well, it doesn't. I will
have to admit that I thought that was going to be the case, and
that it would be pretty boring. Then, when I was least expecting
it, Weir does take us to Earth, to follow the exploits of the
people who are involved in trying to get Watney back home--once
they find out that he's alive. The third leg of the barstool is
the crew of Ares 3--those folks who left Watney behind.
This really is the story of how humanity can work together when it
is targeted on a common goal. It's a celebration of how we really
can accomplish things if we put away our petty differences and get
down to the task at hand. Each leg on the aforementioned barstool
has a role to play, and each leg plays it well, although as you
might guess not without some difficulty.
Watney is the picture of perseverance, tackling anything and
everything Mars throws at him. He does so with humor and sarcasm;
I frequently found myself laughing out loud when Watney went into
humor mode--and it was often. But he was strong, always strong,
even when he made a mistake that could have cost him dearly. The
ground personnel on Earth worked like the personnel in those Apollo
missions--sometimes flying by the seat of their pants, with no clue
how things were going to work out. And finally, the Ares 3 crew,
voting to spend another year of their lives to go back and get
their teammate, fighting their own problems to get there and get
the work done. Yes, it does seem like Apollo 13 all over again.
This is very much a "hard" science fiction story. There's lots of
science here. Weir did his research, and uses it to explain,
through the logs entries that Watney makes, just how Watney gets
through every situation he finds himself in. Yep, the grand
tradition of the infodump is in full swing here, and that may turn
some people off. But this is "science" fiction in the original
sense of the term. It's problem-solving science fiction, and darn
it, even with all that, it's one compelling, gripping story. I
found myself caring very deeply about what was happening to Watney,
and I looked forward to how he was going to get out of each and
every problem he found himself in. I read one quote that used the
term "MacGuyver on Mars". Yep, that was it alright.
R. C. Bray was probably the best narrator I've heard to date in any
audiobook I've listened to, with the possible exception of Wil
Wheaton narrating a John Scalzi novel. He was emotional, vibrant,
and was *never* boring to listen to. He made Watney's jokes come
alive. He was simply outstanding. I'm sure some of that was the
source material, but the narrator still has to put his/her stamp on
the book. Bray did an outstanding job.
Whether you listen to or read this book in the traditional manner,
I think you'll enjoy it. I know I did. And I think I may just
pick up the next Weir novel when it comes out. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: MATHEMATICS AND THE IMAGINATION by Edward Kasner and James
R. Newman (book review by Greg Frederick)
This is an older book that was originally published in 1940. So
there are no references to digital electronic computers in it, for
example. But since its subject is mathematics it still holds real
value even to a modern day reader. The topics covered include: the
concept of infinity, transfinite numbers, pi, Euclidian geometry,
math puzzles, chance and probability, rubber sheet geometry (non-
Euclidian geometry), topology, limits, series, analytic geometry,
complex numbers, and the calculus. Mathematics has some ideas in
it that come from ancient times and it has been growing and
developing throughout human history. What grade school and high
school students learn about math today can be hundreds to thousands
of years old depending on the area of mathematics. The authors
describe the historical development of the topics covered. The
book has excellent graphics that illustrate math concepts such as
in differential calculus, that a derivative is really the slope
(rate of change) of a function curve at a point of tangency.
Another good illustration shows how complex numbers are represented
on the complex plane. Also, a topology illustration shows how a
non-simply connected manifold can be converted into a simply
connected manifold by cutting. And for the layman, detailed step-
by-step processes demonstrate the solution and simplification of
many math equations. This book provides good insight into these
interesting fields of math. [-gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SHERLOCK (letter of comment by Robert Mitchell)
In response to Evelyn's comments on SHERLOCK in the 03/06/15 issue
of the MT VOID, Rob Mitchell writes:
[You wrote: "Sherlock" was fine fare the first two seasons, but
then completely fell apart (IMHO).]
In my humble opinion, too. The first episode of the third season
(the wedding) was marginally acceptable but a bit discomforting for
the odd characterization of Holmes and the impossible
crime/solution. The series went way downhill with the subplot of
Mary's background, and I almost threw my shoe at the TV when Holmes
dealt with the villain at the end of the third episode--"That's
something Holmes would *never* do!" I ranted.
I later described my feelings about the third series as, "SHERLOCK
spent the first two seasons amassing a lot of credibility, respect,
and good feeling for the clever way it brought the Holmes canon
into present day. It then squandered all that credibility,
respect, and good feeling in the third season, presenting a
character that was barely recognizable as Sherlock Holmes and in
some cases, diametrically opposite of what Holmes stands for. I
will start watching the 4th season, but with the same suspicion and
doubt with which I started the 1st season. Let's hope that
fourth season returns to the excellence of the first two."
[-rlm]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo Nominations (letters of comment by Philip Chee, Kevin
R., Steve Coltrin, and Paul Dormer)
In response to Dale Skran's comments on the Hugo nominations in the
03/06/15 issue of the MT VOID, Philip Chee writes:
[Dale said, "My nominations for Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation
(Long Form) are ... CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER directed by
Anthony and Joe Russo).]
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER has three, three!!! SHIELD Heli-
carriers, and Cap has a shield made of unobtainium, and Falcon has
his spiffy jet wings, but calling this science-fiction is really
stretching it.
[also LUCY directed by Luc Besson]
Did Nick Fury appear in the mid end-credits scene to offer her a
job at SHEILD? [-pc]
Kevin R. replies:
Haven't seen WINTER SOLDIER yet. I plan to rent it from Redbox Real
Soon Now. My inner comics fanboy squirms uncomfortably whenever I
see S.H.I.E.L.D. typed w/o the periods. They were always there on
the STRANGE TALES* covers, and the Steranko issues of the 1968
title**.
Don't Yield! Back S.H.I.E.L.D..!
* http://www.comics.org/series/824/covers/?page=4
** http://www.comics.org/series/1871/covers/
[-kr]
With regard to novels, Steve Coltrin writes:
[THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir] may or may not be eligible depending on
how much it was modified from its original publication. Screw it,
I'm nominating it too.
[ON THE STEEL BREEZE by Alastair Reynolds from Ace was] first
published in the UK in 2013, so not eligible for this year. [-sc]
But re ON THE STEEL BREEZE Paul Dormer notes:
Under the new extended eligibility rules passed last year, if it
was published in the US in 2014, and as it didn't appear on the
ballot last year, it should still be eligible this year.
See 3.4.2: http://www.wsfs.org/bm/const-2014.html. [-pd]
Evelyn adds:
The relevant section (apparently with changes passed on LonCon 3
last year) now reads:
3.4.2: Works originally published outside the United States of
America and first published in the United States of America in the
current previous calendar year shall also be eligible for Hugo
Awards.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
JEFFERSON THE VIRGINIAN by Dumas Malone (ISBN 0-316-54472-8) is the
first volume of a six-volume work, "Jefferson and His Time", for
which he won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1975 (after
publication of the fifth volume). This volume, though, was
published in 1948 and (perhaps) combined with the fact that Malone
was born and raised in Mississippi and Georgia probably explains
some of the infelicitous terminology he used at times. For
example, Malone speaks of the Indian school at the College of
William and Mary, which he says "a few redskins still attended."
In describing the printing office of the local newspaper, he says,
"People often went there to insert notices about runaways, to
advertise the sale of 'parcels of likely Virginia-born wenches,' or
to offer to the horse-breeding public the service of stallions in
their prime." While Malone's quotation marks around the "parcels"
phrase might indicate that he is merely giving a sense of
Jefferson's time, he later writes about the Exchange, "where
planters ... arranged to purchase Negro fellows or some of those
likely wenches." Malone lack of quotation marks here seems to
indicate a certain insensitivity to how this would sound to at
least some modern readers.
Malone's language suffers from changing meanings as well. When he
writes that Jefferson kept horses, "as his gay friend Willis did,"
he merely means that Willis was what we might call a "party
animal," not that Willis was homosexual, and similarly for
references to "others of their gay friends."
Jefferson, though very intelligent, could be taken in: he thought
Ossian ("this rude bard of the North") "the great poet that has
ever existed." But Ossian was a literary hoax by James McPherson.
[As for Sally Hemings, there is merely a brief mention of how
Jefferson acquired "the noted Hemings family, who were mostly
'bright' mulattoes" from his wife's family's estate. In this case,
again, words have changed or lost meaning--"bright" did not mean
intelligent, but light-colored. And in an appendix discussing "the
Walker Affair," Malone writes, "In [1802] the notorious
scandalmonger, James Thomson Callender, gave wide currency to the
story about Mrs. Walker, along with a much more unsavory one about
one of Jefferson's slaves." The latter was the story of Jefferson
and Hemings. Although it took place after the timespan covered in
this book, we would find it odd today if there were not at least
some reference, particularly as there are many other "forward
references."]
JEFFERSON by Saul K. Padover (ISBN 978-0-451-62797-1) was
originally written in 1942 and published in this abridged form in
1952. It has many of the same issues that Malone's biography has;
for example, early on it talks about "gay Hanover," "even gayer
Williamsburg," and how "life was gay," all in three paragraphs. It
also skips Sally Hemings entirely (there is a passing reference to
John Hemings, half-brother to Sally).
I don't know whether it was the times, but it seems unlikely that
today Padover would refer to "dry-humored little Madison," "wise
little James Madison," or "the homely little Secretary of State."
It's almost as bad as if he were calling Madison "Jefferson's
little friend." (It is not helped later when Padover, talking
about someone else, says, "Moore [was] hyper-sensitive as very
short men are apt to be...")
Padover also mentions Jefferson's love for Ossian's poetry. It was
not until 1952 (when this abridgement was first published) that
there seemed to be general agreement that Ossian was a hoax.
Writing in 1942. Padover said, "Since 1792, the South and Tammany
Hall, regardless of differences and despite occasional separations,
have been the two mainstays of the Democratic party." When he was
abridging it in 1952 this may still have been true, but the South
left the Democratic party fold in the 1960s and has not been back
since. Coincidentally, this is also about the time that Tammany
Hall disappeared as well. One might almost wonder if Padover
jinxed these...
Padover talks about Justice Samuel Chase's impeachment, where the
House impeached him 73-32, but the Senate failed to convict him.
However, he describes this as "the failure of the Senate to impeach
Chase"--a common error, but one depressing to find in an
historian's writings.
I find it interesting that in the Federalist-Democrat battle, one
side had a major player name Frenno and the other had one named
Freneau. (Maybe it's also that Freneau supposedly lived about a
mile from where we live now.)
Jefferson quoted Benjamin Franklin as having said that "when he was
young and had time to read he had not books; and now that he had
become old and had books, he had no time." Maybe the memory of his
youth is why Franklin founded the first public lending library in
the United States.
I give the full title of NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA by Thomas
Jefferson, WITH RELATED DOCUMENTS (edited, with an introduction by
David Waldstreicher) (ISBN 978-0-312-25713-2) because it turns out
to reveal a lot. First, the introduction takes 40 pages of this
230-page book. Second, the "Related Documents" take another 45
pages and include (for example) his draft of the Declaration of
Independence, which does not strike me as related to NOTES ON THE
STATE OF VIRGINIA at all. Then, after devoting all that space to
other documents, Waldstreicher abridges NOTES ON THE STATE OF
VIRGINIA, in particular the catalogs of flora and fauna, which is a
large part of what I was interested in!
At least Waldtsreicher has left in a lot of Jefferson's
speculations that later proved to be false, which is valuable in
reminding us that even brilliant people make mistakes. For
example, he says that the Peaks of Otter of the Blue Ridge
Mountains "are thought to be of a greater height, measured from
their base, than any others in our country [Virginia], and perhaps
in North America." The tallest of these is about 4,000 high (or
about 3,100 feet above its base), while Mount McKinley is 20,237
feet (about 18,000 feet above its base). Even considering the
higher base, the Rocky Mountains provide many counter-examples--for
example, Pikes Peak at 14,115 feet, or about 7,000 above its base.
(It is surprisingly difficult to find a table showing elevation
above base for tall mountains.)
Jefferson mentions three caves. By now, of course, there are at
least a dozen commercial caves, and lots more that are not open to
the public. The ones he mentions include Gap Cave (a.k.a. Cudjo's
Cave) (open on a limited basis), Madison's Cave (a.k.a. Madison
Saltpetre Cave) (closed), and Blowing Cave (open on a limited
basis).
In attempting to explain fossil seashells in rocks at the tops of
mountains, Jefferson correctly deduces that even if the atmosphere
turned to water of the same mass, there is not enough water to
cover all the earth to that height (sorry, WATERWORLD). But he
also pretty much dismisses the uplifting of mountains from a lower
height, although only to the extent of saying that in all of
recorded history, we have never seen any force that could do that.
Regarding the origins of the "Aborigines" (a.k.a. Indians, a.k.a.
Native Americans), Jefferson observes that they could have come
from either Europe or Asia, but their resemblance to the East
Asians would make the latter more likely--except for the "Eskimaux"
(a.k.a. Eskimos, a.k.a. Inuit), whom he thinks descended from
Greenlanders, and hence from Scandinavians. In all this he says
that language would provide good evidence of tribal descent, but so
many tribes had their languages obliterated before any records were
made of them.
However, Jefferson also thinks the wide disparity of languages in
North America indicates that this took place over "an immense
course of time; perhaps not less than many people give to the age
of the earth." (This is before there was any accurate estimate of
the age of the earth.) And the greater disparity of languages in
North America, compared with the lesser disparity in Asia, "proves
them of greater antiquity of those in Asia." This does not take
into account (among other things )the relative amounts of contact
between groups in Asia versus those in North America.
Jefferson takes issue with the Abbe Rayanal's statement (in 1770)
where he says (apparently in a demeaning fashion), "It is
astonishing that America has not produced a good poet, one able
mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single
science." Jefferson makes two arguments against Rayanal. First,
America had not existed long enough to be compared with the Greeks,
the Romans, the French, or the English. Second, America had
produced Washington, Franklin, and Rittenhouse. The first sounds
more convincing now than the second--Rittenhouse is best known
today for the square in Philadelphia named for him, but time has
indeed produced great poets, authors, artists, mathematicians,
chemists, physicists, and so on. (Just look at the list of Nobel
Prize winners.)
Jefferson spends a lot of time explaining the laws of Virginia
(this book was written in 1787), including why Virginia broke from
England, and a half dozen ways in which the current state
Constitution is flawed (limitation of voting rights, uneven
representation, too much similarity between the two legislative
houses, too much power in the legislative branch, the ability of
the legislature itself to amend the state Constitution, and the
ability of the legislature to define its own quorum).
Apparently in early Virginia marriages may be "solemnized ... by
the minister of any society of Christians, who shall have been
previously licensed for this purpose by the court of the county.
Quakers and Menonists, however, are exempted from all these
conditions, and marriage among them is to be solemnized by the
society itself." I guess Jews or other non-Christians just
couldn't get married in Virginia. Also, heresy was still a crime
in Virginia, though apparently no longer a capital crime. In his
favor, Jefferson felt this law should be abolished--he calls it
"religious slavery."
"A foreigner of any nation, not in open war with us, becomes
naturalized by removing to the state to reside, and taking an oath
of fidelity; and, thereupon, acquires every right of a native
citizen..." (This was before the United States Constitution
limited the Presidency of the United States to native-born
citizens.) Apparently the Founding Fathers had a much more liberal
view of immigration than most people today. (Yes, I know
conditions have changed. But if people are willing to change these
laws, then citing "the Founding Fathers" as an excuse for other
laws is a bit inconsistent.)
It is true that Jefferson elaborates on a plan to gradually
emancipate all slaves, but this elaboration is so full of appalling
racism that one can only conclude that a plea to the desires of
wishes of the Founding Fathers should not carry much weight today.
He seems to think it self-evident that whites are more beautiful
than blacks, but it is more proof be assertion: flowing hair is
more beautiful than curly hair, pale skin is more beautiful than
dark skin, and so on.
What is truly amazing is that after he has excused America for not
producing a great poet or artist because of lack of time rather
than lack of innate ability, he then claims that there are no great
black poets or artists is because the race is obviously incapable
of it. He claims, "I think one could scarcely be found capable of
tracing and understanding the investigations of Euclid," while
omitting to mention that none of them that he has met were ever
given any sort of chance or motivation to do so. In some ways,
Jefferson may have been a genius, but in others, he was a horse's
ass.
Also, for someone known as an educated man and a scientist,
Jefferson is remarkably ignorant of the history of science. He
thinks that "Galileo was sent to the inquisition for affirming that
the earth was a sphere; the government had declared it to be flat
as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error." No--
as I presume everyone reading this knows, Galileo got in trouble
for saying the earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa. The
Inquisition, the Church, and everyone with any education knew the
earth was a sphere, particularly since Magellan's crew had
circumnavigated it over a hundred years before Galileo. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
If I am not for myself, who is for me?
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
If not now, when?
--Hillel