Dec 4, 2008

Wolpertian Elegance

In this article, the online magazine Salon describes Lewis Wolpert thus:
Like fellow British scientist Richard Dawkins, he's an outspoken atheist with a knack for saying outrageous things.
Like Dawkins, Wolpertis one of the leading biologists of the 21st century (not bad for a man who first studied civil engineering). But unlike the hawkish Dawkins, Wolpert seems to look more kindly at the nature of 'belief', which is summarised in a very interesting book that I'm reading right now.

This post is not about the contents of that book, but how its author's books have great titles. This book has a wonderful name: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, referring to the exchange in Alice in Wonderland where the White Queen reveals that to be her secret regimen in order to believe in impossible things.

Wolpert's previous book studied depression, of which Wolpert was himself a sufferer. Its title, in astonishing crispness, captures the essence of the ailment. It's called Malignant Sadness.

2 comments:

daemon said...

Dude, loan me the books and more titles please. Since, you are such an avid reader, I'd suggest you put out a blog/short listing of books that you have been reading/read periodically and might be of general interest. It will serve people like me who don't know where to look or are lazy to dig for themselves. May be a genre based list (Can I get more "Maanica" than this, friend??).

J Ramanand said...

D: two words - "British Library" :-)
I can provide the short listing of current books!