The View From Sari's World

Well I have two things off my plate; I finished my Shakespeare final paper and finished a book!

I had to compare John Madden’s 1998 film Shakespeare in Love and his use of gender identity with Shakespeare’s use of the same theme. I wrote it last night in record time (two hours) and edited it tonight. Now it is off to my instructor. If you have not yet seen the film (this week was my first viewing of it) I highly recommend it. It is funny, well acted and tragic. All the things you would expect from the Bard himself.

I finished a light book titled The 101 Most Influential People who Never Lived. This book had been on my wish list for a few years. I had it on my Paperback Swap wish list and a couple of weeks ago it finally arrived. I want my credit back!

This book as the title suggests is a list of influential fictional characters and the whys and hows of their popularity. The book covers myths, film, books, theater, TV, obvious fictional characters like Mickey Mouse and a few other odd categories. The authors do place “interludes” though out the book explaining how they came to their choices and the making of the book. I found this to be self serving and a distraction. They could have just as easily wrote all of this in an intro or afterwards.

The book starts out entertaining enough, there is humor and insight in the section on myths. My favorite story is of Hercules. His story, told in the first person relays the tasks he must undertake for killing his family. He is whining about it but understands his fate. His last line, after being made a god had me laughing out loud: “Free at last, thank Zeus, almighty, I am free at last”. I had high hopes for the rest of the book, unfortunately the rest of the stories fell flat and towards the end, the authors gave up on humor and concentrated on trying to sound scholarly. This did really work either as they offered no stunning insight into why some characters stay with us and some of their picks are dated. I am sure many young college students today would look at us in confusion when told Citizan Kane is the very best of filmmaking and would say “who” when being told about Charlie Chaplin. Over all I felt this book was more of a light look into some classic fictional characters rather than a look into which are most influential. Just for fun here is the list. Which do you think should have been omitted and more importantly who would be on your list?

1. The Marlboro Man
2. Big Brother
3. King Arthur
4. Santa Claus (St. Nick)
5. Hamlet
6. Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster
7. Siegfried
8. Sherlock Holmes
9. Romeo and Juliet
10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
11. Uncle Tom
12. Robin Hood
13. Jim Crow
14. Oedipus
15. Lady Chatterly
16. Ebenezer Scrooge
17. Don Quixote
18. Mickey Mouse
19. The American Cowboy
20. Prince Charming
21. Smokey Bear
22. Robinson Crusoe
23. Apollo and Dionysus
24. Odysseus
25. Nora Helmer
26. Cinderella
27. Shylock
28. Rosie the Riveter
29. Midas
30. Hester Prynne
31. The Little Engine That Could
32. Archie Bunker
33. Dracula
34. Alice in Wonderland
35. Citizen Kane
36. Faust
37. Figaro
38. Godzilla
39. Mary Richards
40. Don Juan
41. Bambi
42. William Tell
43. Barbie
44. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
45. Venus and Cupid
46. Prometheus
47. Pandora
48. G. I. Joe
49. Tarzan
50. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock

51. James Bond

52. Hansel and Gretel

53. Captain Ahab

54. Rick Blaine

55. Ugly Duckling

56. Loch Ness Monster (Nessie)

57. Atticus Finch

58. Valentine (St)

59. Helen (of Troy)

60. Batman

61. Uncle Sam

62. Nancy Drew

63. J. R. Ewing

64. Superman

65. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

66. HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey)

67. Kermit the Frog

68. Sam Spade

So what have you all been up to? As I write this we are having our second thunderstorm this week. This may not seem unusual to most, but here in N. Nevada we do not often have these. Our electricity is going off and on and we may get some flooding. I love rain so I am enjoying the weather but can live without the flickering lights. The storm is supposed to last a few days; hopefully no one is hurt or the flooding harmful. I love that that my trees and plants are getting a lot of water; we are a desert so any rain is to be celebrated.

I have been busy with school and in my new capacity as a copy-editor. I am enjoying my second job but as you may have noticed, it is taking time away from my first loves; reading and blogging.

As long time followers know I am a huge fan of podcasts. I love to listen while I work. Since I have not been reading much lately I decided to catch up on some book related podcasts from NPR. Wow, I had no idea so many good science books have come out in the last few months! I researched a few titles and thought I would share them with you. All of these are on my wish list. Are they on yours? What science books have you read and recommend? Help me grow my science list; the holiday season is just about here and I need some titles for my list.

The God Effect: Quantum Entanglement, Science’s Strangest Phenomenon

by Brian Clegg I enjoyed the review of Clegg’s book. It is written for the layman who wants to understand quantum physics. Here is from a review”

The opening chapters set up the discovery of quantum entanglement, which occurred during the professional debate between Max Bohr and Albert Einstein as they discussed the nature of quantum physics. Clegg then provides historical understanding and the potential applications of entanglement to advance current technologies. Those chapters read like a science-fiction novel–an unbreakable secure communications system, teleportation, and supercomputers that think all become possibilities.

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time

by Sean M. Carroll. I listened to a half hour interview with Carroll who explains what time may really be (Einstein may be wrong) and what this means to our world view.

The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by Jennifer Ouellette. Now I do not usually read math books but this may help me understand why we need math and how it is all around us. Math scares me but Jennifer insisted she wrote the book for people just like me. Oddly enough she is married to Sean Carroll. He is the geeky science husband she talks about in her book.

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

by Sam Kean . I had to laugh when I first heard Kean being interviewed. Writing a book about Periodic Table, seriously? Oh, but he had such great stories all connected to the elements.

From Publisher’s Weekly:

Science magazine reporter Kean views the periodic table as one of the great achievements of humankind, “an anthropological marvel,” full of stories about our connection with the physical world. Funny, even chilling tales are associated with each element, and Kean relates many. The title refers to gallium (Ga, 31), which melts at 84ËšF, prompting a practical joke among “chemical cognoscenti”: shape gallium into spoons, “serve them with tea, and watch as your guests recoil when their Earl Grey ˜eats™ their utensils.” Along with Dmitri Mendeleyev, the father of the periodic table, Kean is in his element as he presents a parade of entertaining anecdotes about scientists (mad and otherwise) while covering such topics as thallium (Tl, 81) poisoning, the invention of the silicon (Si, 14) transistor, and how the ruthenium (Ru, 44) fountain pen point made million for the Parker company. With a constant flow of fun facts bubbling to the surface, Kean writes with wit, flair, and authority in a debut that will delight even general readers.

The total science nerd in me wanted to leave work and rush to buy this book. Sadly, Borders does not carry it, so I will have to order it, if I do not get it as holiday gift. See I am trying to hold off on buying any books before December, but oh this one has me wanting to push the “buy it button”.

The View From Sari's World

The 101 Most Influential People who Never Lived: who would be on your list?

Science books on my wish list.

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