Readers who struggle through Sokal’s essay will be relieved to find the rest of the book lucid, readable, and positively...
An academic trade hournal’s account of a publishing hoax that shook the academy.
Hoaxes are fun to read about, especially those that harm no one. It’s a bonus if they embarrass pompous institutions whose opinions we dislike. The Sokal hoax seems to have these qualities. Physicist Alan Sokal had grown increasingly annoyed at critiques of science emanating from postmodern scholars working in multicultural studies (i.e., in fields that view reality as something “constructed” by an observer’s class, culture, politics, and gender). Many scholars maintain that observer bias is not only significant to our perceptions of reality but even more significant than the reality itself. Applied to literary texts, this “deconstructionist” analysis has produced heated controversies—though not ones likely to make the evening news. Applied to science, it has led to odd interpretations of natural laws. Thus, some claim that Einstein’s theory of relativity describes space and time accurately, but only from the point of view of a Eurocentric, male-dominated, post-Enlightenment, capitalist culture. They are quick to add that Navaho cosmology (which explains that objects move and time passes because the universe forms a single living spirit) is equally accurate. Upset at what he considered absurd relativism, Sokal composed a long essay written in turgid academic prose, full of politically correct nonsense backed by pages of quotes from heroes of postmodernism—and the trendy journal Social Text found it valuable enough to publish. The editors of Lingua Franca, which first revealed the hoax, here reprint Sokal’s essay and assemble the responses. There are sections devoted to the popular press, academic press, and foreign contributions, and, as with all good intellectual controversies, the issues are more complicated than they seem at first. Although plenty of wacky multicultural and feminist academics exist, most of Sokal’s targets take less extreme positions and complain that he caricatures them. Worse, the glee with which the popular media took up the controversy reveals an unpleasant, anti-intellectual side of American culture.
Readers who struggle through Sokal’s essay will be relieved to find the rest of the book lucid, readable, and positively stimulating.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2000
ISBN: 0-8032-7995-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
The Johnstown Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time (actually manmade, since it was precipitated by a wealthy country club dam which had long been the source of justified misgivings). This then is a routine rundown of the catastrophe of May 31st, 1889, the biggest news story since Lincoln's murder in which thousands died. The most interesting incidental: a baby floated unharmed in its cradle for eighty miles.... Perhaps of local interest-but it lacks the Lord-ly touch.
Pub Date: March 18, 1968
ISBN: 0671207148
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968
IN THE NEWS
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.
Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, 2017, etc.) receives a great deal of mail, and this slim volume collects his responses and other scraps of writing.
The prolific science commentator and bestselling author, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, delivers few surprises and much admirable commentary. Readers may suspect that most of these letters date from the author’s earlier years when, a newly minted celebrity, he still thrilled that many of his audience were pouring out their hearts. Consequently, unlike more hardened colleagues, he sought to address their concerns. As years passed, suspecting that many had no interest in tapping his expertise or entering into an intelligent give and take, he undoubtedly made greater use of the waste basket. Tyson eschews pure fan letters, but many of these selections are full of compliments as a prelude to asking advice, pointing out mistakes, proclaiming opposing beliefs, or denouncing him. Readers will also encounter some earnest op-ed pieces and his eyewitness account of 9/11. “I consider myself emotionally strong,” he writes. “What I bore witness to, however, was especially upsetting, with indelible images of horror that will not soon leave my mind.” To crackpots, he gently repeats facts that almost everyone except crackpots accept. Those who have seen ghosts, dead relatives, and Bigfoot learn that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. Tyson points out that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so confirmation that a light in the sky represents an alien spacecraft requires more than a photograph. Again and again he defends “science,” and his criteria—observation, repeatable experiments, honest discourse, peer review—are not controversial but will remain easy for zealots to dismiss. Among the instances of “hate mail” and “science deniers,” the author also discusses philosophy, parenting, and schooling.
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-324-00331-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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