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> A Brief History of Time secured his celebrity. That it famously went unread, or unfinished, by many of its purchasers would for any other science communicator
by asymptosis 6y ago
> A Brief History of Time secured his celebrity. That it famously went unread, or unfinished, by many of its purchasers would for any other science communicator be a sign of failure. The book was like a Latin liturgy, filled with terms like the readership only half-understood. It played into the unhelpful notion that science is really hard and only for super-humans like him.
Lol, I must have been such a freak of a kid. I found this book in the library when I was 11yo and read it in a couple of weeks.
Couldn't do it these days. We didn't have internet back then.
- coldtea 6y ago>The book was like a Latin liturgy, filled with terms like the readership only half-understood. Neither more nor less that 99% of other science books for the general public (aside from the ones aimed at kids).
- jakecopp 6y agoMe too! I convinced the librarian to fetch it from the high school library when I was in primary school. From memory it wasn't too hard of a read.
- asymptosis 6y ago> From memory it wasn't too hard of a read. Yeah, I'm surprised to hear now that the book is notorious for sitting on shelves while never being read. It didn't need a degree, it just needed some patience and imagination.
- Maursault 6y ago> From memory it wasn't too hard of a read. When considered among others in its genre, neither did it stand out. With rare exception, all of the "science for the public" books seem to be written at a 12 year old reading level (exceptions I know of are The Tao of Physics (requiring a slighting higher reading level) and especially Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (does anyone understand this!?))
- wrycoder 6y agoI bought a copy at Borders, took it home, read two chapters and returned it. Hype and tripe IMO.
- asymptosis 6y agoIt's weird how much more mature you were at 11yo compared to me.