Philip Judge

The author of this introduction, indeed this Very Short Introduction, is nevertheless not overly concerned to connect the Sun and solar physics/science to anything an ordinary person would know. I guess to connect that the business of health, money, and relationships, you’d have to be a weirdo like me; it’s not at all surprising to see a scientist be far more normal than is usual—indeed the most normal of men. Still, this book is modestly interesting, though I can’t imagine this review growing much longer.

…. I guess I should clarify and say that I’m not arguing that there’s no natural science apart from its flow into the sea of psychology; of course there is. But it’s like with history; history isn’t necessarily the history of religion or thought or whatever, but a good history (which is pretty unusual, though, since historians are influenced by common immature ideas about the philosophy of science/theory of knowledge—but my feel for history is much better than my feel for science), with a good history you can easily see for yourself what things are implied about the non-political or whatever. Indeed, some historians are sanguine about this and offer this as their reason for including no musings of their own upon non-technical lines. (Although why they can’t offer their own theories and leave us to make what we will of them or no, I don’t know.) But the average scientist often just uses their own funny language and doesn’t translate—uses a bunch of crazy words and doesn’t tell you what they mean. Surely some people would be better at this than others, ‘translating’, and languages aren’t my own thing, lol; I do not translate into Italian by any means, and in fact when I used to try to talk in Spanish or French I would often confuse the two, but I think I can communicate well enough in the galactic standard language of the American Empire, and maybe there are scientists who are better in their fluency of science, right. But really, if you’re going to write a volume in [BLANK]: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION, and you’re writing for the specialist, I mean, seriously—are specialists the only people? But I guess I’ll be glad it’s not one of those “science books” solely about mocking the public, either because they failed at math, or because they read a book about a kahuna once, you know. Most scientists don’t really emote on quite that frenzied-attack-vibe, you know. Not usually. But they are usually quite isolated, and normalize isolation until it becomes something of a goal, really.

…. Although it could be worse, obviously. Butt, you know.

(British person voice) But remember, boys—do not forget! The woman is one of the aristocrats!
—What does she teach us, Father?
(British father) Ah, boys—such things of wonder and of marvel, such as are only known to Aristotle and men of the Greek tongue….

…. And perhaps physics in particular is difficult to divest of its mystery. They say that in basketball that that trey is the harder shot, you know.

…. But!— Sun spots and ‘faculae’ (‘little torches’—brighter areas around sun spots) remind me of the Taoism symbol, you know.

…. I realize this isn’t technically an astronomy/physics story, but I asked my boss today what the difference is between apple juice and apple cider and he basically said apple cider tastes better because it comes from fresh apples; and then he apologized for not being a scientist. It’s like, Why do you have to assume that the biochemistry explanation is the only good one? Science (the third culture) can do things that humanities (the second) can’t, but what is life without the applications of the first, or popular, culture? But people are trained to think they’re stupid if they’re not totally divorced from their own experience. It’s a problem.

…. But it’s not just physical sciences, you know. (A term I do not use to mean physics-y sciences.) I remember once I read the Very Short Introduction for Sociology, I think it was, and the book was like, “Brief Reasons Why I Refuse To Explain to You Anything I Know About Society (with detours into making fun of athletes for believing in God, and possibly equating them with religious terrorists—fun fun! Down with the natives! Down with the natives! (maniacal laugh) ).

But SOME, VSI books are okay, lol.

…. “The Sun was born out of the debris of stars that formed and exploded….”

This is actually pretty cool; this is what they should have led in with. Sex and birth and death and stars, you know—the birth of cosmic matter….

…. AND, we’re back to Professor Binns’ History of Magic, lol….

…. —In this sense, our entire existence seems to rely not only on the early history of the Universe, but also on star stuff and invisible forces.
(Professor Binns) No no no. I can’t let you say, “star stuff and invisible forces”. Let’s see…. (Starts thumbing through Black’s Law Dictionary….)

…. Sometimes when somebody starts to get all Negative Nigel, quoting Negative Nigel—and I’m NOT talking about climate change (ie not carping about climate change science); and I’m also not going to name Negative Nigel so you can look him up, read his books, and (wittingly or unwittingly) support him, especially since he’s kinda a type, you know; like if he were a doctor, he’d probably write a book about how apples are bad, you know: “Apples Are Bad” (X is Bad series), and then you talk to that guy about theory of knowledge; it’s all over—yeah when you start talking to the Hermit or the Hierophant or whatever it is (both very Earth-ed symbols, very grounded, you know), in their phase as the descent into Negative Nigel, you almost start to forget that the man of science, like the man of knowledge generally, is a useful ally….

…. I guess I like to measure things sometimes too.

Anyway, I guess it was marginally instructive in my weird little life, you know. I guess I’ll go back to the crypt now with my other coven-mates, you know. (Just kidding. I’m not a vampire. I’m not even a teenager.) Although I won’t come out to buy $30-$50 science books; maybe when the sun of wealth shines on me, you know…. (addressing an imaginary conversation partner) The Sun is associated with the element of Fire, naturally. I also read something about the sun once, the ball-of-fire sun; the very normal people say that there’s this—I forget what it’s called…. Well, it’s like this~Hey, are you listening to me? I should draw a card for your mental state right now…. My time is important you know…. The children and fairies: they need me; they listen to me….

😉… (mehr)