the role of metaphor in scientific thought
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Frank and Congregation -
I finally checked my USPS mail today and discovered that the copy of your memoir on your NM legacy had arrived from Amazon. Uncharacteristically I sat down over a long lunch of Huevos Rancheros (Xmas, over easy, extra garnish in place of rice/beans) and quaffed the entire book in a single sitting (with about 4 ice-tea chasers). I gave up looking for metaphors in your very matter-of-fact chronicle. As predicted, the metaphors I did find were precisely the conceptual ones which I believe all language is built upon (as per Lakoff/Johnson, et al)... not a bit of figurative language discovered! I definitely enjoyed the romp through your memory and the eclectic mix of your West/East coast life with your earliest/latest years in Nuevomexico among communities and relatives of Spanish, Mexican, and Native ancestry. As you know from some of our conversations, I was born/raised among communities where Natives and Spanish speakers were significant and sometimes dominant. I do not have my own blood roots in the southwest as you do, and being about 15 years your junior, my experiences were a little different, but not entirely. I prowled my rurality with both a spring-BB gun and an air rifle but graduated to archery over high-powered rifles in my teens, having noticed that I didn't really want to kill animals (or people). I am probably the only member of my grade school who doesn't still own/shoot guns for fun. I appreciated your observation about how multilinguals often reserve one language for one mode of interaction vs another. I was so drawn in by your history that I wanted more details and anecdotes. I'm sure the audience is small enough for this book and that one chronicling more of your technical education/interests/background would have a smaller audience, but I for one wanted to let you know I appreciated it. I saw your sales rank is around 227,000 when I *think* it was 660,000 when I ordered. This is something like a divide-by-zero situation I suspect? I will pass your book on to a very good friend of mine who is your contemporary (also 1943) born/raised in NM/TX panhandle, visiting Los Alamos summers where an uncle worked. He worked the switch yards on the railroads as a college student, had a classmate who "commuted" from school to vacations home "out west" by jumping boxcars. Getting pulled by a big Eastern University (MIT) and joining the workforce in the 60's as an "analyst" on big mainframes with degrees in math/architecture. He will definitely appreciate a number of your early experiences. Thanks for the book, - Steve ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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Al contrario Steve. A usted gracias!
Once I said to Reuben Hersh that I was inhibited about writing to John Baez to ask questions about his book on mathematical physics (Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity). Reuben said that authors love to get comments and questions about their books. Now I understand. If you don't receive such communications you have a feeling that you have thrown a bottle containing a note into the ocean. Hence my feeling that I am the one who owes you thanks. As for metaphors, I did say that Norman Crider was like a fish out of water. But I guess that's a simile. I still do own firearms but I haven't fired them for decades except once when I shot a gopher with a .22 short from my study window. Anyone who has a garden around here will understand. It's interesting that you would have liked more anecdotes. I could have made the book twice as long but I thought that would make it boring and I was in a hurry for fear of becoming disabled before it was published. Irrational, I know. Thanks too for the plan to pass the book along to your friend. Frank Frank Wimberly Phone (505) 670-9918 On Aug 2, 2017 4:04 PM, "Steven A Smith" <[hidden email]> wrote: Frank and Congregation - ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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There can always be a second edition. I wonder what would happen if you approached a publisher with what you have already and asked them if they would be interested in guiding you to publishing a longer (and more lucrative) second edition. Publishers (in the old days, anyway) love a bird in hand. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Frank Wimberly Al contrario Steve. A usted gracias! Once I said to Reuben Hersh that I was inhibited about writing to John Baez to ask questions about his book on mathematical physics (Gauge Fields, Knots and Gravity). Reuben said that authors love to get comments and questions about their books. Now I understand. If you don't receive such communications you have a feeling that you have thrown a bottle containing a note into the ocean. Hence my feeling that I am the one who owes you thanks. As for metaphors, I did say that Norman Crider was like a fish out of water. But I guess that's a simile. I still do own firearms but I haven't fired them for decades except once when I shot a gopher with a .22 short from my study window. Anyone who has a garden around here will understand. It's interesting that you would have liked more anecdotes. I could have made the book twice as long but I thought that would make it boring and I was in a hurry for fear of becoming disabled before it was published. Irrational, I know. Thanks too for the plan to pass the book along to your friend. Frank Frank Wimberly On Aug 2, 2017 4:04 PM, "Steven A Smith" <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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Thanks for the advice, Nick. And fir the metaphor. I think I'll wait for more data about interest in my story. Feank Frank Wimberly Phone (505) 670-9918 On Aug 2, 2017 4:50 PM, "Nick Thompson" <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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In reply to this post by Frank Wimberly-2
Let's just say I was captivated, but I have a lot of natural resonance/affinity for your subject (general place-time). I admit that it WAS a treat to be able to take it all in one long gulp which was a close call.... I was done with my meal and on my 3rd ice-tea and ready to pack it in when I realized the remainder of the pages weren't all full (what with back-matter and all) and soldiered on to the end. I might even find this an excuse to make it to the weekly meeting of the congregation just to prise a few more anecdotes from you. I doubt it will inspire him to write his own but in it's own way is equally interesting (at least to me!). Your point about authors being interested in reader feedback reminds me of an open-ended conversation with our own Tim Taylor (aka Ramick) regarding the role of "audience" in poetry/writing. In my own experience the timesqew for regularly published writers seems to cause them some annoyance with fans. Unless they are on a riff of a 10 part Trilogy by the time I have read one of their works, it is likely they were done with it's creation years before... at best they were bouncing back and forth with Editor/Publisher for a year or more from their final draft and their final draft might have been a year or more past a "pretty good draft" and are NOW well into their next novel (or next dozenth short piece) so discussing the characters/setting/conceit of their LAST work (or something from a decade past) seems to be at least a mild annoyance to them. I have always been fascinated with Scientific/Technical people who became fiction authors, whether they write tech/sci fiction or not. One of my favorites is Robert Forward, and LANL has it's own contemporary Ian Tregellis to offer up in that category. - Steve ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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I might even find this an excuse to make it to the weekly meeting of the congregation just to prise a few more anecdotes from you. Here's one that I could have put in the chapter "Summer of 1962". I may have mentioned this at the weekly meeting but you haven't been there for a long time. When my sister, her boyfriend and I were staying with my childless aunt and uncle for the summer, my aunt said, "Frank, can you go to the store and pick up a fifth of milk?". They bought much more liquor than milk. Frank Frank Wimberly Phone (505) 670-9918 On Aug 2, 2017 5:53 PM, "Steven A Smith" <[hidden email]> wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove |
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