“As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe.”
So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr g, the story of Creation as told by God. Barraged by the constant advisements and bickerings of Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, who live with their nephew in the shimmering Void, Mr g proceeds to create time, space, and matter. Then come stars, planets, animate matter, consciousness, and, finally, intelligent beings with moral dilemmas. Mr g is all powerful but not all knowing and does much of his invention by trial and error.
Even the best-laid plans can go awry, and Mr g discovers that with his creation of space and time come some unforeseen consequences—especially in the form of the mysterious Belhor, a clever and devious rival. An intellectual equal to Mr g, Belhor delights in provoking him: Belhor demands an explanation for the inexplicable, requests that the newly created intelligent creatures not be subject to rational laws, and maintains the necessity of evil. As Mr g watches his favorite universe grow into maturity, he begins to understand how the act of creation can change himself, the Creator.
With echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago, combining science, theology, and moral philosophy, Mr g is a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale.
Mr g: A Novel About the Creation
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“A soulful riff on the birth and eventual demise of our universe…Lightman the humanist allows room for the compatibility of rationality with spirituality and mystery, while Lightman the scientist plays devil’s advocate with the partisans of Genesis, blinding them with logic.” –The New York Times Book Review
“Though Lightman’s clever irreverence recalls Salman Rushdie and Kevin Brockmeier, his plainspoken style lends the book a fitting earnestness…Readers who don’t mind the liberties the author takes with the sacred might enjoy this scienced fiction.” –Library Journal
“A scientific vision laced with the mirthful aura of divinity…aglow with wonder.” –Washington Post
“Just as he did with his incomparable Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman again surprises us with a work that is utterly original in both form and content. Mr g is a philosophical fable which is at turns hilarious and moving, rendered with a literary hand so deft that the weightiest metaphysical topics levitate into pure delight.” –Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
"It would not seem possible for Alan Lightman to match his earlier tour de force, Einstein's Dreams, but in Mr g he has done so—with wit, imagination, and transcendent beauty." –Anita Desai
"Here is the creation of the Universe and the young Creator who grapples with what he has made—and ultimately with responsibility and loss…a gem of a novel that is strange witty erudite and alive with Lightman's playful genius." –Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“The beautiful writing throughout this little gem of a book is an Alan Lightman trademark…delightful.” –Washington Times
"This delightful novel takes the reader on a light hearted romp through the development of the universe from the Big Bang to its cold dark end, addressing along the way some of the big questions that inevitably arise from the development of intelligent life." –Jerome Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
“It is a delightful, sensual mixture of the mundane and—and sometimes it's not clear which is which. It conveys the spirit, the ethos of modern physical thought, without saying explicitly that it is doing so (until the very end). It deals powerfully with some of the deepest issues of existence, ethics, and the human condition. I think I've never read a more compelling description of the beauty of the universe. Its irreverent awe is powerful. I loved it!” –Kip Thorne, author of Black Holes and Time Warps
“A touching, imaginative rendition of God’s creation of the universe…the immortal characters are changed by their brush with the enterprising, however doomed, mortals, bringing this elucidating treatment of quantum physics to an affecting, hopeful conclusion.” –Publishers Weekly
“With iridescent precision, fairy-tale wonder, and brainy humor, Lightman crafts an enthralling and provocative cosmic parable that offers a startlingly fresh perspective on the mysteries of the universe and the paradoxical human condition.” –Booklist, starred review
“Lightman is able to write with the keen insight of a scientist and the lyricism of a poet…he brilliantly conveys a sense of the awesome power and mystery of the universe's origins. Whether you are a believer, an atheist or occupy some position in between, if you approach it with an open mind you are certain to find something worth pondering in this delightfully original novel. Who knew cosmology could be such a blast?” –Shelf Awareness
“Concise but ambitious…unusual but often charming.” –New Yorker
“A charming, comic explanation of how The Maker might have created the cosmos…if your philosophy allows for the possibility that science and faith in a creator can coexist, you’ll enjoy this clever and witty creation.” –Boston Globe
“A playful but reverent story…The divine magic of this creation is science itself.” –The Daily Beast Must Read
“Highly original and thought-provoking…de Botton is a lively, engaging writer.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Lightman is fundamentally serious, not satirical, and his awed amazement at the universe is contagious…those who find science, poetry and religion a palatable mix will be delighted.” –Columbus Dispatch
“Mr g bridges the gap between the things we know and the things we cannot know…Lightman has always had a crystalline prose style, and it’s very much on display in Mr g. The passages devoted to existence in the Void and to the beauty of the developing universe are delightfully lyrical…Lightman takes on the big metaphysical questions in his book with economy and clarity…Mr g is a brilliant, entertaining allegory, a book that creationists and atheists would find equally thought-provoking. Lightman has created a novel that is erudite and fun to read, and more likely to inspire discussion than dispute.” –Chapter 16 review
“Fans of Lightman’s popular previous novel, Einstein’s Dreams, will recognize the playful imagination behind [Mr g]…if you’re open-minded enough to consider the possibility that science and faith can coexist, you’ll enjoy ‘this clever and witty creation.’” –The Week
“Profoundly inventive.” –About.com
“Lightman is a physicist, and the pyrotechnics involved in the creation of said universe are as dazzling as they are fascinating…The thing that makes it work is its refusal to take itself or its topics too seriously. It makes us think, yes but it also makes us laugh—and what’s more enlightening than a book that can make us laugh in mid-winter?” –KUER, Salt Lake City NPR
“Entertaining, clever, and well-written…Mr g is a delightful interplay of faith and science that ultimately renders science absolute but without reducing the human experience to only the material.” –Catholic Books Review
“This is a marvellous counterpoint to all of the other nonsense out there on creation. Lightman writes exquisitely, so this fable on the origin of space, time, matter and life is a wordfest that is securely pinned to the rational — making him a ‘magic realist’ of a refreshingly different stripe.” –Nature
”A beautiful and philosophical fable that weaves the laws of quantum physics into a modern Genesis myth that will stick with a reader long after the book is put away.” –New York Journal of Books
“A fluent description of the cosmos based on the principles of quantum physics—a stunning, symmetrical light show of subatomic particles.” –The Wall Street Journal
“Lightman once again showcases his training as a theoretical physicist as well as his skill as a writer…What at first appears to be a whimsical story of the creation of the universe winds its way through thought-provoking questions with humor and sound science principles.” –NPR Morning edition
“Terrific. Lightman manages the impossible—writing a riveting story, with odd and intriguing characters, that also slips a stunning amount of physics and cosmology into the reader while he or she is absorbed by what will happen next.” –Orion
“Food for thought…and discussion.” –Hudson Valley News
“Thought-provoking fiction…With echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago, combining science, theology, and moral philosophy, Mr g is a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale.” –B&N Tuesday Nook Blog
“I must say, I am a huge fan of his work, God and Lightman…this novel is very clever. Although it is small, it packs in a lot of thought and imagination.” –KickAssBookReviews.com
“Bold… Lightman suavely weaves theology grounded in science and moral philosophy and alights on evolution of matter, consciousness, spirituality and existential crises.” –Miami Herald
“Delightfully intriguing…a small novel with immensely imaginative ideas.” –Arcadiana
“Though Lightman’s clever irreverence recalls Salman Rushdie and Kevin Brockmeier, his plainspoken style lends the book a fitting earnestness…Readers who don’t mind the liberties the author takes with the sacred might enjoy this scienced fiction.” –Library Journal
“A scientific vision laced with the mirthful aura of divinity…aglow with wonder.” –Washington Post
“Just as he did with his incomparable Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman again surprises us with a work that is utterly original in both form and content. Mr g is a philosophical fable which is at turns hilarious and moving, rendered with a literary hand so deft that the weightiest metaphysical topics levitate into pure delight.” –Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
"It would not seem possible for Alan Lightman to match his earlier tour de force, Einstein's Dreams, but in Mr g he has done so—with wit, imagination, and transcendent beauty." –Anita Desai
"Here is the creation of the Universe and the young Creator who grapples with what he has made—and ultimately with responsibility and loss…a gem of a novel that is strange witty erudite and alive with Lightman's playful genius." –Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“The beautiful writing throughout this little gem of a book is an Alan Lightman trademark…delightful.” –Washington Times
"This delightful novel takes the reader on a light hearted romp through the development of the universe from the Big Bang to its cold dark end, addressing along the way some of the big questions that inevitably arise from the development of intelligent life." –Jerome Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
“It is a delightful, sensual mixture of the mundane and—and sometimes it's not clear which is which. It conveys the spirit, the ethos of modern physical thought, without saying explicitly that it is doing so (until the very end). It deals powerfully with some of the deepest issues of existence, ethics, and the human condition. I think I've never read a more compelling description of the beauty of the universe. Its irreverent awe is powerful. I loved it!” –Kip Thorne, author of Black Holes and Time Warps
“A touching, imaginative rendition of God’s creation of the universe…the immortal characters are changed by their brush with the enterprising, however doomed, mortals, bringing this elucidating treatment of quantum physics to an affecting, hopeful conclusion.” –Publishers Weekly
“With iridescent precision, fairy-tale wonder, and brainy humor, Lightman crafts an enthralling and provocative cosmic parable that offers a startlingly fresh perspective on the mysteries of the universe and the paradoxical human condition.” –Booklist, starred review
“Lightman is able to write with the keen insight of a scientist and the lyricism of a poet…he brilliantly conveys a sense of the awesome power and mystery of the universe's origins. Whether you are a believer, an atheist or occupy some position in between, if you approach it with an open mind you are certain to find something worth pondering in this delightfully original novel. Who knew cosmology could be such a blast?” –Shelf Awareness
“Concise but ambitious…unusual but often charming.” –New Yorker
“A charming, comic explanation of how The Maker might have created the cosmos…if your philosophy allows for the possibility that science and faith in a creator can coexist, you’ll enjoy this clever and witty creation.” –Boston Globe
“A playful but reverent story…The divine magic of this creation is science itself.” –The Daily Beast Must Read
“Highly original and thought-provoking…de Botton is a lively, engaging writer.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Lightman is fundamentally serious, not satirical, and his awed amazement at the universe is contagious…those who find science, poetry and religion a palatable mix will be delighted.” –Columbus Dispatch
“Mr g bridges the gap between the things we know and the things we cannot know…Lightman has always had a crystalline prose style, and it’s very much on display in Mr g. The passages devoted to existence in the Void and to the beauty of the developing universe are delightfully lyrical…Lightman takes on the big metaphysical questions in his book with economy and clarity…Mr g is a brilliant, entertaining allegory, a book that creationists and atheists would find equally thought-provoking. Lightman has created a novel that is erudite and fun to read, and more likely to inspire discussion than dispute.” –Chapter 16 review
“Fans of Lightman’s popular previous novel, Einstein’s Dreams, will recognize the playful imagination behind [Mr g]…if you’re open-minded enough to consider the possibility that science and faith can coexist, you’ll enjoy ‘this clever and witty creation.’” –The Week
“Profoundly inventive.” –About.com
“Lightman is a physicist, and the pyrotechnics involved in the creation of said universe are as dazzling as they are fascinating…The thing that makes it work is its refusal to take itself or its topics too seriously. It makes us think, yes but it also makes us laugh—and what’s more enlightening than a book that can make us laugh in mid-winter?” –KUER, Salt Lake City NPR
“Entertaining, clever, and well-written…Mr g is a delightful interplay of faith and science that ultimately renders science absolute but without reducing the human experience to only the material.” –Catholic Books Review
“This is a marvellous counterpoint to all of the other nonsense out there on creation. Lightman writes exquisitely, so this fable on the origin of space, time, matter and life is a wordfest that is securely pinned to the rational — making him a ‘magic realist’ of a refreshingly different stripe.” –Nature
”A beautiful and philosophical fable that weaves the laws of quantum physics into a modern Genesis myth that will stick with a reader long after the book is put away.” –New York Journal of Books
“A fluent description of the cosmos based on the principles of quantum physics—a stunning, symmetrical light show of subatomic particles.” –The Wall Street Journal
“Lightman once again showcases his training as a theoretical physicist as well as his skill as a writer…What at first appears to be a whimsical story of the creation of the universe winds its way through thought-provoking questions with humor and sound science principles.” –NPR Morning edition
“Terrific. Lightman manages the impossible—writing a riveting story, with odd and intriguing characters, that also slips a stunning amount of physics and cosmology into the reader while he or she is absorbed by what will happen next.” –Orion
“Food for thought…and discussion.” –Hudson Valley News
“Thought-provoking fiction…With echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago, combining science, theology, and moral philosophy, Mr g is a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale.” –B&N Tuesday Nook Blog
“I must say, I am a huge fan of his work, God and Lightman…this novel is very clever. Although it is small, it packs in a lot of thought and imagination.” –KickAssBookReviews.com
“Bold… Lightman suavely weaves theology grounded in science and moral philosophy and alights on evolution of matter, consciousness, spirituality and existential crises.” –Miami Herald
“Delightfully intriguing…a small novel with immensely imaginative ideas.” –Arcadiana
About the Author
Alan Lightman is the author of five previous novels, a book-length narrative poem, two collections of essays, and several books on science. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Nature, among other publications. A theoretical physicist as well as a novelist, he has served on the faculties of Harvard and MIT, and was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment at MIT in science and in the humanities.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By weeziebear
Format:Hardcover
Well I found it very entertaining, tickling the mind with mysteries, evocative of the compassion of a loving creator, and very humorous. There is theology, physics, philosophy, and just plain fun. I loved it that he was so fond of the music, and put it in everywhere, suggesting the humming of string theory, the 'music of the spheres.' Mr. g's delight in the creation was a delight to me. I recommend it as an imaginative and thought-provoking read.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Fred771
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It did not find this book to be inspiring in the sense that it did not provide any new insights into the questions about creation or divinity. I found myself asking things like "where did that character come from?" rather than thinking "gee, that's an interesting concept". The story was quite linear and did not bring up any new issues or ideas, scientific or religeous, that haven't already been dealt with in a far more compelling way in other science fiction novels. I found many parts of the story illogical. All-in-all it was disappointing.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars
70 reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Concept!
Jan 5 2012
By Julie Merilatt
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
I found this to be a profound and conceptually well thought out book. It addresses both the fundamental physics of creation and the philosophical implications of a creator. Mr. g has lingered in The Void with his aunt and uncle for eternity and decides to create the universe. This concept is a simple and enduring one, but his own attitude towards his creation is initially ambivalent. He starts with some basic organizational principals, then produces time, space, quantum physics and matter. From there the universe develops on its own within the premise of cause and effect. What Mr. g doesn't realize is that a product of his design is Belhor, an entity within The Void that can interfere in the universe but is also immortal and powerful in his own right. Not the devil per se, but an intellectual sparring partner who questions Mr. g's motives and his grand design. As Mr. g contemplates his creation and the ideas that Belhor presents to him, he becomes more sympathetic to his animate matter and its suffering.
The writing is wonderful and allows the enormity of the universe to be accessible. Lightman depicts various worlds that have developed throughout the universe and how diverse conditions allow for countless species to evolve. He also does a fantastic job describing the vastly infinite nothingness of The Void.
For such a small book, it gave me a lot to think about. The notion of eternity, the physicality of myself, and the duality of good and evil are all heavy concepts, but Lightman's effective use of physics makes these ideas manageable. It is not mind blowing, but definitely thought provoking.
The writing is wonderful and allows the enormity of the universe to be accessible. Lightman depicts various worlds that have developed throughout the universe and how diverse conditions allow for countless species to evolve. He also does a fantastic job describing the vastly infinite nothingness of The Void.
For such a small book, it gave me a lot to think about. The notion of eternity, the physicality of myself, and the duality of good and evil are all heavy concepts, but Lightman's effective use of physics makes these ideas manageable. It is not mind blowing, but definitely thought provoking.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
For whom?
Feb 4 2012
By Thomas F. Dillingham
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
With all due respect for Alan Lightman, whose earlier works I have admired and enjoyed, I have to say that at about 30 pages into Mr g, I began to wonder who in the world he supposed might be the audience for this work? As I progressed, that feeling only deepened. Yes, there are passages of very beautiful, lyrical writing, points at which Mr g seems overtaken by something like "rapture of the deep" as he contemplates the wondrous beauty and complexity, and especially the orderliness, of his creation. In those passages, one experiences the kind of passion that a scientist must feel when exploration opens into a new and profound perception and understanding, the kind of beauty that a mathematician appreciates in a really elegant proof or that a biologist or physicist must experience when a formerly messy conglomeration suddenly reveals (through the complex interaction of human brain and things perceived) its inherent order.
This novel is obviously ambitious and, at the same time, intellectually playful in ways that would seem to make it a real delight for a reader looking for the pleasure of a genuine merging of science and poetry. I was quickly reminded of Italo Calvino's great Cosmicomics (especially during the first conversations among Mr g and his aunt, Penelope (classical tradition?) and uncle, Deva (Sanskrit tradition?), but the surface similarities with Calvino's work quickly dissipate as the weaknesses in this work are repeated. Whole sections of the novel read and sound like the kind of prose narrative one might have encountered when I was in high school--film strips about the wonders of the universe, about our friends, the atoms, about the thrilling varieties of life forms and inanimate forms. There is a section on atoms, a section on chemical processes, and so on, and even though one sees easily why Mr g would run these elementary lessons through his mind (and why Mr. Lightman might suppose that some readers might need these refreshers many years after their high school natural science courses) the flatness and seeming simplicity of the exposition undermines the novel.
[Postscript addendum: Since I originally wrote and posted this review, I have run across an article about Alan Lightman that mentions that he acknowledges Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics as a partial inspiration for Mr g. I did not know that when I wrote, but I am pleased to see confirmation of my thought.]
There is, of course, a kind of family drama--the interactions of Mr g with Aunt and Uncle--and there is the intrusion of the character named Belhor (possibly Belial, as a note explains) and his followers, Baphomet (large), and Baphomet (small). Belhor is a witty contrarian, something of a cross between the Mephisto of Goethe's Faust (es ist sehr gut von der Alte so menschlich mit dem Teufel zu sprechen) and Shaw's demonic figure of the third act of Man and Superman. Belhor admires Mr g's creation, but insists on making him aware of aspects of it that g might want to "fix," but should not, according to Belhor. Mr g assures Belhor that at no point since his initial creation of the universes has he intervened in any way, except to establish certain developmental parameters--which lead to the laws of cause and effect, and subsequently to have created Time (so that things would stop happening all at once), so that much of the pleasure both Mr g and Belhor gain from observing the universes is their awareness of the multiple ways cause and effect can drive the evolution of infinitely varied forms of matter, both inanimate and animate. Toward the end, Belhor demonstrates to Mr g that it is not possible to have beauty and goodness in the universe without ugliness and evil--a familiar argument nicely framed but something of a disappointment or anticlimax, coming as it does at the end of the narrative.
In other words, along with some interesting and neatly exposed science, Lightman offers us an anti-theological theology, since Mr g very pointedly is not God in any of the conventional senses by which humans suppose they may define that entity. And though Mr g allows conscious entities in his created universes to know of his own existence and to evolve "religion" as part of their existences, there is no sense that Lightman would want us to suppose Mr g is the God of traditional religions. Further, both Mr g and his Aunt and Uncle and Belhor agree that no animate entity in creation could ever understand or encompass "the Void" which is where Mr g and crew exist. So we have a nice exposition of what the human brain can expect to understand, analyze, classify, explain, and then a certain point beyond which that brain might not usefully hope to progress at all.
Basically I like this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I kept wondering, as stated above--for whom is this book written? It does not seem to be marketed as a young adult novel, nor as science fiction, nor certainly as a religious or scientific treatise. It is not a surreal sendup of human delusions, like Calvino's, nor is it exactly an allegory of the limits of human understanding, like some works by Stanislaw Lem (among many), or perhaps Flatland. I may be asking for kinds of certainty (which are often the product of narratives that conform to recognizable genres, with clearly implied audiences) that Lightman cares not to offer. But the lightness of this work is not "the unbearable lightness of being," though Mr g seems at one point to try to experience the meaning of that, nor is the weight of the work sufficient to press toward some point of agreement or rejection. It's a nice book, but finally disappointing.
This novel is obviously ambitious and, at the same time, intellectually playful in ways that would seem to make it a real delight for a reader looking for the pleasure of a genuine merging of science and poetry. I was quickly reminded of Italo Calvino's great Cosmicomics (especially during the first conversations among Mr g and his aunt, Penelope (classical tradition?) and uncle, Deva (Sanskrit tradition?), but the surface similarities with Calvino's work quickly dissipate as the weaknesses in this work are repeated. Whole sections of the novel read and sound like the kind of prose narrative one might have encountered when I was in high school--film strips about the wonders of the universe, about our friends, the atoms, about the thrilling varieties of life forms and inanimate forms. There is a section on atoms, a section on chemical processes, and so on, and even though one sees easily why Mr g would run these elementary lessons through his mind (and why Mr. Lightman might suppose that some readers might need these refreshers many years after their high school natural science courses) the flatness and seeming simplicity of the exposition undermines the novel.
[Postscript addendum: Since I originally wrote and posted this review, I have run across an article about Alan Lightman that mentions that he acknowledges Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics as a partial inspiration for Mr g. I did not know that when I wrote, but I am pleased to see confirmation of my thought.]
There is, of course, a kind of family drama--the interactions of Mr g with Aunt and Uncle--and there is the intrusion of the character named Belhor (possibly Belial, as a note explains) and his followers, Baphomet (large), and Baphomet (small). Belhor is a witty contrarian, something of a cross between the Mephisto of Goethe's Faust (es ist sehr gut von der Alte so menschlich mit dem Teufel zu sprechen) and Shaw's demonic figure of the third act of Man and Superman. Belhor admires Mr g's creation, but insists on making him aware of aspects of it that g might want to "fix," but should not, according to Belhor. Mr g assures Belhor that at no point since his initial creation of the universes has he intervened in any way, except to establish certain developmental parameters--which lead to the laws of cause and effect, and subsequently to have created Time (so that things would stop happening all at once), so that much of the pleasure both Mr g and Belhor gain from observing the universes is their awareness of the multiple ways cause and effect can drive the evolution of infinitely varied forms of matter, both inanimate and animate. Toward the end, Belhor demonstrates to Mr g that it is not possible to have beauty and goodness in the universe without ugliness and evil--a familiar argument nicely framed but something of a disappointment or anticlimax, coming as it does at the end of the narrative.
In other words, along with some interesting and neatly exposed science, Lightman offers us an anti-theological theology, since Mr g very pointedly is not God in any of the conventional senses by which humans suppose they may define that entity. And though Mr g allows conscious entities in his created universes to know of his own existence and to evolve "religion" as part of their existences, there is no sense that Lightman would want us to suppose Mr g is the God of traditional religions. Further, both Mr g and his Aunt and Uncle and Belhor agree that no animate entity in creation could ever understand or encompass "the Void" which is where Mr g and crew exist. So we have a nice exposition of what the human brain can expect to understand, analyze, classify, explain, and then a certain point beyond which that brain might not usefully hope to progress at all.
Basically I like this book. I enjoyed reading it, but I kept wondering, as stated above--for whom is this book written? It does not seem to be marketed as a young adult novel, nor as science fiction, nor certainly as a religious or scientific treatise. It is not a surreal sendup of human delusions, like Calvino's, nor is it exactly an allegory of the limits of human understanding, like some works by Stanislaw Lem (among many), or perhaps Flatland. I may be asking for kinds of certainty (which are often the product of narratives that conform to recognizable genres, with clearly implied audiences) that Lightman cares not to offer. But the lightness of this work is not "the unbearable lightness of being," though Mr g seems at one point to try to experience the meaning of that, nor is the weight of the work sufficient to press toward some point of agreement or rejection. It's a nice book, but finally disappointing.
33 of 41 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unoriginal story of creation
Dec 31 2011
By Aaron C. Brown
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
The first-person account of creation has told by many talented science fiction writers, including Robert Sheckley, Philip Jose Farmer and Arthur C. Clarke, and some literary authors like Archibald MacLeish. Most of these are dark and humorous short stories, filled with thought-provoking unorthodox theological insights and references to traditional religious beliefs.
Mr g is a very very long short story. It is not so much dark as empty, the universe is created by a bored and shallow creator, and has no meaning. It is one of a very large number of universes. It is experimental, and illustrates Arthur C. Clarke's famous line, "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." The creator is surprised by the emergence of consciousness and begins to get a dim sense of morality from watching his creations. He likes to hum tunes the creatures invent and bask in the beauty of their architecture.
This is a pale imitation of the best works in the genre. Four characters are introduced to provide humor, all fall flat. This is a humorless account and throwing in a few zany meaningless incidents doesn't change that. Instead of references to serious works on the subject, Mr g tosses in a few words from Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Medieval versions of European languages that are supposed to sound deep.
I found the story in the book unsatisfying. This creator answers no big questions. He exists eternally, and doesn't question that existence, which removes the single best reason to speculate about creation--why isn't there nothing? He lives in the "Void" a place that is described as totally empty, yet it seems filled with "wisps of nothingness" than can be used to comb hair, make dresses, stairs and even fully-furnished castles. Perhaps the author is trying to communicate something subtle, but it seemed to me like his creator lived in a place much like our universe, with the words "void" and "empty" being redefined.
The creator makes time and space before creating our universe, removing two more mysteries that you would expect to be at the center of a creation story. Time and space are the same in and out of our universe, which would seem to pose some relativistic paradoxes. Time is qualitatively different from spacial dimensions and there are three spacial dimensions and four elementary forces. So no grand unification theories, or any progress beyond Standard Model physics. The universe of Mr g is the universe of contemporary physics, presumably all the anomalies are explained without additional dimensions or symmetries and no further simplifications are possible.
The creator starts with a big bang, then much later intervenes to make matter, and again to explore the evolution of consciousness. I find theories more satisfying that posit either a single intervention or constant intervention. Consciousness is described as complexity only, which has some well-known philosophic problems. A minor complaint is that there is a single named universe (Aalam-104729) which unexpectedly self-destructs when the creator posits contradictory physical laws. The next attempt to make a universe is more successful, and is our current universe. It is referred to throughout the book at Aalam-104729. The author may be suggesting some deep thought here, but I suspect he merely forgot that he had destroyed his universe.
I did not find the book enjoyable to read or thought-provoking. To the extent it has point, I am reminded of the line Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote for George Sanders to deliver to Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve, "You have a point, my dear, an idiotic one but a point." The best I can say is that it lays out most of the basic issues of creation, both physical and moral, in an orderly way. A reader with imagination can fill in his or her own thoughts chapter by chapter without being distracted by the author's views.
Mr g is a very very long short story. It is not so much dark as empty, the universe is created by a bored and shallow creator, and has no meaning. It is one of a very large number of universes. It is experimental, and illustrates Arthur C. Clarke's famous line, "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." The creator is surprised by the emergence of consciousness and begins to get a dim sense of morality from watching his creations. He likes to hum tunes the creatures invent and bask in the beauty of their architecture.
This is a pale imitation of the best works in the genre. Four characters are introduced to provide humor, all fall flat. This is a humorless account and throwing in a few zany meaningless incidents doesn't change that. Instead of references to serious works on the subject, Mr g tosses in a few words from Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Medieval versions of European languages that are supposed to sound deep.
I found the story in the book unsatisfying. This creator answers no big questions. He exists eternally, and doesn't question that existence, which removes the single best reason to speculate about creation--why isn't there nothing? He lives in the "Void" a place that is described as totally empty, yet it seems filled with "wisps of nothingness" than can be used to comb hair, make dresses, stairs and even fully-furnished castles. Perhaps the author is trying to communicate something subtle, but it seemed to me like his creator lived in a place much like our universe, with the words "void" and "empty" being redefined.
The creator makes time and space before creating our universe, removing two more mysteries that you would expect to be at the center of a creation story. Time and space are the same in and out of our universe, which would seem to pose some relativistic paradoxes. Time is qualitatively different from spacial dimensions and there are three spacial dimensions and four elementary forces. So no grand unification theories, or any progress beyond Standard Model physics. The universe of Mr g is the universe of contemporary physics, presumably all the anomalies are explained without additional dimensions or symmetries and no further simplifications are possible.
The creator starts with a big bang, then much later intervenes to make matter, and again to explore the evolution of consciousness. I find theories more satisfying that posit either a single intervention or constant intervention. Consciousness is described as complexity only, which has some well-known philosophic problems. A minor complaint is that there is a single named universe (Aalam-104729) which unexpectedly self-destructs when the creator posits contradictory physical laws. The next attempt to make a universe is more successful, and is our current universe. It is referred to throughout the book at Aalam-104729. The author may be suggesting some deep thought here, but I suspect he merely forgot that he had destroyed his universe.
I did not find the book enjoyable to read or thought-provoking. To the extent it has point, I am reminded of the line Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote for George Sanders to deliver to Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve, "You have a point, my dear, an idiotic one but a point." The best I can say is that it lays out most of the basic issues of creation, both physical and moral, in an orderly way. A reader with imagination can fill in his or her own thoughts chapter by chapter without being distracted by the author's views.
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3.7 out of 5 stars
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