Alan Lightman
What an absolute classic Einstein’s Dreams is. I began reading, got lost, and then wanted to somehow stretch it to at least another day, and completely failed!
The book is a collection of 30 stories, set as dreams in the (fictional) mind of a young Albert Einstein as he works in the patent office in 1905, and in parallel, pursues the theory of relativity. The book also has a prelude, interludes and an epilogue featuring his friend Michele Besso.
Each story is a theme, an array of what-ifs built around the concept of time. Some of them are definitely connected to relativity but most of them are speculative fantasy. But all of them are concepts one could spend hours thinking over, exploring the nature of time and our individual and collective relationships with it.
I don’t really want to spoil the reading but some of my favourites were body time vs mechanical time, the world where cause and effect is erratic, the texture of time, the world in which some get fitful glimpses of the future, the one in which people live forever, and the world in which no one can imagine the future.
The joy is as much in the prose as it is in the concepts. It reminded me of the many ways we take time for granted. And got me thinking of the many different ways in which it could have played out. The book is art and science, and as profound as it is relatable. An instant favourite, and in my Bibliofiles 2023 list.
P.S. It also somehow reminded me of Tales from the Loop.
Some favourites
A world in which time is absolute is a world of consolation. For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable.
Consider a world in which cause and effect are erratic…. It is a world of impulse. It is a world of sincerity. It is a world in which every word spoken speaks just to that moment, every glance given has only one meaning, each touch has no past or future, each kiss is a kiss of immediacy.
If a person holds no ambition in this world, he suffers unknowingly. If a person holds ambitions, he suffers knowingly, but very slowly.
The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or joy. The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.
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