Distress, by Greg Egan

Greg Egan is my favorite author this year. Diaspora and Permutation City were fantastic books with brilliant writing and mind-bending concepts to ponder. His short stories are sublime.

Which makes Distress all the more of a puzzle to me. The read was nearly entirely unpleasant and went nowhere, slowly. I suffered through the endless discussion of political intrigue, waiting for the good stuff to emerge, and it never did. Worst of all is that the story concept at the center of the book was beyond ridiculous. I'm still shaking my head at it.

At its essence, this book is about the search for A Theory of Everything -- a single equation or set of equations that can explain all of the fundamental interactions of matter and energy. Such a theory would explain gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, the electromagnetic force, and provide clarity into all sorts of elementary particles, how they transform themselves, and how all of this relates to dark matter and dark energy – assuming that they exist.

Apparently, Stephen Hawking used to believe that a Theory of Everything was attainable but later changed his mind, saying, "Some people will be very disappointed if there is not an ultimate theory, that can be formulated as a finite number of principles. I used to belong to that camp, but I have changed my mind." (Stephen Hawking, Gödel and the end of physics, July 20, 2002.)

I was hoping to read about the search for this theory, and one possible resolution of the issue. I was sorely disappointed to find the core concept of the book to be the most bizarre and unreasonable bastardization of The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle I have ever heard of. Namely, that the event which causes the universe to be created has not happened yet. It happens in the future and the event radiates instantly throughout time and space. That I could buy, for reasons too complex to discuss here. What I can't buy is the idea that the event that causes the creation of the universe is a single conscious human "thinking" and understand the Theory of Everything in his or her brain.

Put another way, Egan suggests that the moment Stephen Hawking or Antony Garrett Lisi (or you) comes to understand the Theory of Everything, that clarity of understanding – that "aha moment" -- somehow causes the universe to spring into existence, in a manner similar to how a single electron seems to "appear" from a foam of quantum uncertainty when its speed and location is measured.

What puzzles me most about this book is not Egan's flight of fancy beyond, what seems to me, the boundaries of science fiction. Rather, it is the relatively large number of people who have posted glowing reviews for this book at Amazon.com. Perhaps these folks enjoyed the lengthy discussions of philosophy. Or they understood Egan's idea much more (or much less) than I did.

Regardless, I am glad that this book made them all happy but it certainly did not make me happy. I would much rather Egan have expanded on the concepts he explored in the early chapters such as future technology that can temporarily bring a murder victim back to consciousness for a few minutes, for the purpose of identifying their killer.

On the other hand, Egan has lots more stuff that I've yet to read and I remain a huge fan of his work. Off to the bookstore…

A Prayer for Owen Meany

I picked this book up on the advice of a friend and found it to be one of the most enjoyable, funny, and thought-provoking novels I’ve ever read.

Sitting here now, having just finished the book, I find it hard to put into words my feelings. Over these last weeks I feel as if I’ve come to know Owen and respect and admire him. What would he say about my hesitation to write about what is essentially his life’s story?

“START AT THE BEGINNING AND GO FROM THERE,” he would probably say. “DON’T OVERTHINK IT.”

Of course saying that suggests incorrectly to the reader that I view myself as having more in common with Johnny Wheelright. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I found myself loathing and resenting the narrator right from the start, for so many reasons.

To begin with, he was cruel to Owen when they were children. I have no patience for bullies.

Next, he was spoiled and spineless and lazy. He was given everything and he made nothing of it. In my opinion the essence of what it means to be an American is to better oneself. If you are born into wealth, find yourself some adversity, grow some guts, and find a way to improve yourself and help others.

Third, he was a jerk of an English teacher. The worst kind of snob who assigned his tenth grade students obscure books and then looked down on them when they failed to get the insider jokes that, quite frankly, aren’t very funny. Such teachers do a masterful job of turning kids off to the joys of reading and that should be a crime. Few things are as enjoyable to me as reading a wonderful book and feeling for a time as if the characters and their world is within my grasp – a place I could go as soon as I could go to my own backyard.

There are more reasons but they aren’t worth listing. Instead, I prefer to remember what it was about Owen that made me laugh and admire him. In many ways he was a similar hero to Orson Scott Card’s Ender character. And, looking around the Internets, I see that a good number of people who enjoyed Owen Meany also enjoyed Ender’s Game. I wonder how many of them see the connection, and whether there is something in their psychological makeup that makes them root for the little guy and dream of being a hero.

There was so much to like and respect about Owen. His hard work, his reliability, his loyalty, his recognition of his own limitations.

In retrospect, I wish I’d stopped reading the book about halfway through. Once the boys entered high school and the war loomed in their future and the author’s rantings about Vietnam began, the book began to sour for me. And worse, it started to become apparent to me where the story was heading, and that was a place I didn’t want to go. I would rather have stopped mid-way, not knowing what was to become of Owen and Hester and the rest.

Still, an outstanding read.