Patricia Fara’s new book Science: a four thousand year history was well reviewed in the American Scientist just about the only place you can find lengthy and thoughtful reviews of books about science. The section in the magazine called On the Bookshelf is where you can find these chewy items, and if you haven’t consulted this trove, I recommend strongly that you do. Anyway, back to business. Professor Fara has undertaken what many would consider a superfluous or even an impossible task: to write a one-volume history of science. This might be superfluous because we have enough of these to fill a railroad car as it is. And some might judge the job to be impossible, because, well, come on! ALL of Science, in one book, at less than 500 pages! No can do. Well, the reviewer disagrees, and gives the author good marks for her clear writing and for her willingness to avoid some traps, such as too avid a liking for “great man” approaches when she stresses that nobody works in a vacuum. There had to be an intellectual substrate out of which the new ideas developed. And she is at pains to point out that continuity can be just as important a factor as sudden change. Scientific ideas, in this view, are not immediately displaced by new ones. They can live on in new forms often for a long time. And, crass influences such as the love of profit can influence what happens in science as much as love of discovery for its own sake. The author is mildy criticized for talking (a little) too much about physics (her specialty) and using a few too many British examples. Wester science was born out of a desire to understand and predicit what goes on in the world. And this book does a good job of telling how that came about.

Science

Hugo Gernsback was born on this day in 1888. That may not mean much to you when you see it just like that, but when you realize that Hugo was one of the big deals in early SciFi publishing, in fact, THE big deal, the perspective changes a bit. In fact, he was the guy who came up with the term “science fiction”. We dip into this genre every once in a while, because a lot of people in our readership are SciFi fans, nuts even. And, that type of storytelling has become a very important segment of the publishing industry, and we like to keep an eye on publishing, so it all fits. Or, at least I tell myself that it does. HG came to the “land of opportunity” in 1905, but was already a convert to highly imaginative writing with a scientific atmosphere. As kid, he came across Percival Lowell’s descriptions of “canals” on Mars, so his imagination took off. Here in the States, he edited a mag for radio enthusiasts, and remember, this was at the infancy of that technology. HG moved into magazine publishing, which was at the time, a growth industry, and in 1926 he kicked off AMAZING STORIES, the premier issue of which had tales by worthies such as H. G. Wells, Tolkien and nobodies such as H.P. Lovecraft. But, Hugh added the authors’ addresses to their by lines, as a marketing gimmick. Lovecraft felt that Hugo had cheated him on his payments, but, on the other hand, Amazing Stories readers were soon contacting the writers directly, in a kind of postal fan club. So, maybe the exposure balanced out the low pay. Maybe. HG was around for a long while, one of the scrappiest in a very tough business, winning this one and losing that one. He died in 1967. His name lives on in the Hugo Award, given annually to worthy authors.

Hugo

“Cheez it! The cops!” or its Korean equivalent rang out in Google’s office in Seoul as the constabulary raided the place in an effort, somewhat heavy-handed it seems to me, to find out whether Google had captured and stored personal information during the work-up of its StreetView feature for Maps. A police raid would seem to be well down on the list of available options, but for some reason, it was booted to the top. Maybe the Koreans don’t trust Google to level with them, despite the “don’t be evil” motto. Dunno. But the company said it would cooperate with the investigation. StreetView was what got Google in wrong with authorities in Germany, as you may recall. Google is planning to launch the service there, limiting it to the twenty largest cities in the country. In both countries, the problem seems to be that, while cruising around in their little cars and bicycles, the Googlers are picking up all kinds of transmissions from the buildings they pass, including passwords, email addresses, bank information and other things that are not germane to the task of making maps. Maybe the picking-up isn’t so bad but hanging on to it for no obvious reason raises suspicions. Google keeps getting burnt on this point, so, maybe it’s time for them to have a staff meeting or something.

Korea

The honorable detective is Charlie Chan. And the scrutiny comes from an academic who has devoted a good part of his life and career to the study of the character created by novelist Earl Derr Biggers back in the 1920s. Hollywood, always on the lookout for a good story, got hold of CC and launched the character onto a movie career resulting in the 47 films, many of them starring a heavy drinking Swedish actor named Warner Oland. But the role was filled by two others after Oland died from his excessive interest in the bottle. Charlie Chan was supposed to be a lieutenant on the Honolulu police force, who solved cases, in the movies at least, with a combination of Holmesian powers of observation and keen analytical logic. The character spoke slowly, in measured pidgin-English, omitting articles and prepositions, and laced with semi-Confucian oracular pronouncements. The plots were often ridiculous, and got more so as the series progressed and writers strained for ideas. Today, many view the whole Chan corpus as hopelessly insulting to Americans of Oriental descent, and not too thinly veiled racism. An attempt a few years ago to revive the character foundered quickly. In my time, the series was enormously popular, especially with us kids. It was big news in Kid-dom to find out that a new Charlie Chan movie was playing, almost as big news as a new Bowery-boys movie. The Chan movies were certainly not authentic depictions of Chinese-Americans, but, when I think about it, nobody, kids or grown-ups, was laughing at Charlie Chan. His reputation was world-wide. When he traveled to New York, London, Paris or wherever, and encountered the inevitable dead body, people of all nationalities deferred to his authority, accepted his conclusions, smacked themselves on the head for not having seen what CC caught right away, and followed his advice. He was a venerable figure, sage and dignified. Comic relief came from the antics of his thoroughly Americanized sons, at least one of whom was on hand to “help” Pop and, who got into scrapes trying to solve the crime on their own, forcing a rescue by their exasperated father. And that itself provides an interesting sub-text, as the cultural critics say nowadays: Respect authority, obey, going off on your own can be dangerous and causes problems for others, prepare yourself by discipline and study, wait till you’re ready. None of these ideas would fly very high with producers today although parents might like to see them underlined.

In today’s New York Times, there’s a story about all this and the work of Prof. Yuante Hwang, the self-confessed Chan freak, who has an interesting personal odyssey, and who has dug up all you ever wanted to know about this, including the interesting fact that the character was based at least in part on a real person, Chang Apana, who was in fact a detective on the Honolulu PD. He also tells us that the Chan movies were extremely popular in China, maybe for some of the reasons I mentioned.

The fact that Chan movies were popular with kids probably tells you all you need to know, but if you’re up some night, sleepless or just restless, and there’s a CC on the SuperLate show, you might give it a try.

Detective

The Board of B&N has decided that maybe it’s time for the company to go on sale. You have to be a business type person to get all of this, but there is some concern among investors about the stock, while the Board members are saying the stock is too cheap and that the company has a lot going for it. One of the people supposedly looking at a purchase is the chain’s founder Leonard Riggio. B&N has a lot of very good property, but sales are moving to an online basis, and nobody is really sure about the impact of digital versions that one can secure almost anywhere. Is it possible that the big chain book stores will go under? Sure. Is it possible that there is life (as we know it, Jim) on other worlds? Sure. The big book chains wiped out the community bookstore and now electronics are going to wipe out the big chains? I would miss the B&N. That quiet, and all those people sitting there reading.

b&n