Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony by Lewis Thomas

Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony Reviews

• 
  Jose Moa

  This book written in 1980 in a decisive moment of cold war reflects well the climate of fear of a nuclear holocaut that could wipe out the humankind.
  It is made of a series of essays mainly on the devasting effects of nuclear weapons as in the essay tittled The Unforgetable Fire on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,the absurdity of the strategic MAD doctrine,the investiment in investigating more precise and destructive weapons,a money desrving better use etc.
  But the book touchs in its essays many other subjects : as the utmost importance of our unique blue planet,the animal inteligence,the marvel of the olfatory sense, the essential contribution of the children to the creation or evolution of the languajes,the working of lie detector,the necessity of invest more money in fundamental research,the relation not ever understanding between science and humanities (this is my opinión : usually a person with knowledge in humanities but absolut ignorant in science is yet regarded as a educated person,but unfairly ,a person with scientific formation but poor in humanities is regarded as a poorly educated person),the limits of knowledge as for example a really deep understanding of consciousness and more.
  In the final essay that gives tittle to the book the autor makes a relation between Mahlers ninth synphony,a synphony covered by the death an the inminence of a nuclear armagedon.
  
  The book as a whole has not aged at all as the nuclear risk is as present as ever ,yet almost forgotten by the media and the people,the book only has aged in minor details as in the 1980s it was belived that the Creutfeld Jackob disease was caused by a slw virus infection,to day we know that it is caused by a deformed protein of a normal protein that is in the brain,when the deformed is put in contact with the normal the normal is deformed in a sort of autoreplicant pathologic protein resolving one of the misteries of medicine.
  A interesting and recomended book with a lot of wise meditations on a wide range of issues.
  
• 
  Anima

  “We are only now beginning to appreciate how strange and splendid it is, how it catches the breath, the loveliest object afloat around the sun, enclosed in its own blue bubble of atmosphere, manufacturing and breathing its own oxygen, fixing its own nitrogen from the air into its own soil, generating its own weather at the surface of its rain forests, constructing its own carapace from living parts: chalk cliffs, coral reefs, old fossils from earlier forms of life now covered by layers of new life meshed together around the globe, Troy upon Troy.
  Seen from the right distance, from the corner of the eye of an extraterrestrial visitor, it must surely seem a single creature, clinging to the round warm stone, turning in the sun.”
• 
  Jim

  An enjoyable read written by a man who likes to think. And better still, he thinks at an analog speed, if you know what I mean. A refreshing phenomenon in the midst of the nanosecond internet digi-world.
• 
  Shih-Ni

  "Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony" is the title and the last chapter of the book, which contains 24 short, non-fiction essays. Lewis Thomas, a scientist and a medical doctor, especially emphasizes the relationship between science and humanity as well as the destructive power of science in the invention of nuclear weapon. Throughout the book he discusses humanity from different angles, and a nuclear war, obviously linked to the Cold War because the book was published in 1980, was clearly on his mind. Time and time again he emphasizes the importance of basic science research; he also states the importance of some fields that might not be receiving so much attention, such as senile dementia and humanities. His writing is witty, clear, casual, and yet knowledgeable and inspiring.
• 
  Remo

  Por lo visto no aprendo. A pesar de que
  el anterior (y único hasta ahora) libro del autor no me gustó nada, como me compré dos en el VIPS tenía que leerlo.
  No es que el libro sea malo. Pero trata temas que no me interesan. No son grandes logros científicos, ni puntos de vista que hagan pensar, ni asuntos que conciernan a todo el mundo. Es como pedirle a un oficinista gris que escriba su opinión sobre la tecnología y publicarla. No sería interesante.
• 
  David Mitchell

  My eldest daughter, who knows me very, very well, gave me this book for my birthday this year. An extraordinary gift.
  
  The essays by eminent scientist and thinker, Lewis Thomas, represent a collective meditation on human life and knowledge from the perspective of 20th century learning. He explores our existential anxiety from an informed and enlightened perspective. Lewis wants to be an optimist, but we can’t ignore that he’s also a realist, which is ultimately very sobering. His elegant essays are a delight to read and to savour. Their timeliness will, I think, make them even more relevant in the century ahead.
  
  Thank you dear daughter!
• 
  Aubrianna

  As a whole, I think Medusa and the Snail is a stronger book, but his final few essays in this book and his ones on lying and the brain’s “attic” are, in my opinion, some of his most interesting across the collection.
• 
  Janice Dimock

  Lewis Thomas' essays are always good, although some of these are a bit dated. On the other hand, some still hit the mark (the fear that new medical discoveries will be overused or abused, for example). The overall theme, though is thermonuclear war.
  We've come a long way from 1980, so some essays aged well, while others did not. Still- you have to love the way his mind works.
• 
  Marty Mangold

  I enjoy these essays. The generation of the language, liberal arts versus science, the urge to be useful: companionable writing and thinking.
  
• 
  Kate

  "This magnificent third collection of essays by Lewis Thomas will both reassure and surprise his many devoted readers. Among its luminous and witty pieces, enthusiasts will applaud 'The Attic of the Brain,' 'Falsity and Failure,' 'On Smell,' a three-page masterpiece on 'Altruism,' as well as many other 'notes of a biology watcher.'
  
  "In further, even more provocative essays, Dr. Thomas explores the federal government's virtual abandonment of support for basic scientific research, and suggests the effects this will have on medicine and science in years to come. Then, in an unanswerable argument, he notes that unimaginably expensive research and development in nuclear weapons continues unchecked, using money, brains, and planning that we need much more urgently for the basic science we have abandoned. 'The dreamy, heavy-lidded, ivory-tower scientists at work on the weapons are also at work on nuclear defense, with all sorts of possibilities on their minds ... well, I claim this is basic research and it should be stopped. Or if it is to be continued, I want in. As a citizen and a sometime scientist, I claim rights to a grant, part of the $200 billion or whatever it is.'
  
  "Dr. Thomas's urgency about the profound folly of nuclear weaponry does not stop there. He considers what the medical profession can and can't do about nuclear warfare -- even its most advanced procedures would be utterly useless or insufficient in the face of the smallest nuclear detonation -- and what we have to learn from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the title essay of this unforgettable book, he addresses himself with terrifying poignancy to the question of what it is like to be young in the nuclear age."
  ~~front & back flaps
  
  I always feel so deficient what a book seems as if it will fit right in my world view. I share all those sentiments the author apparently illuminated so wittily that not to read this book was to deprive myself of meeting a kindred spirit, learning in depth why the arms race was and is such a detriment to the human condition, etc.
  
  I got through the first two essays, albeit not joyfully. I couldn't stick the third -- I abandoned the book somewhere in its midst. Why? I'm not sure. Well, I was sure and then I read the above and wondered at myself: did I miss all the wittiness and illumination? Evidently I did.
  
  The book was written in 1980, and before I looked that fact up, I could have told you it was outdated, outmoded. It didn't feel cogent, it didn't feel as though it was saying something fresh, saying anything I didn't already know or needed to know. Perhaps his time and mine have simply missed each other -- too soon, too late.
  
  For whatever reason, I simply couldn't finish this book. Life is too short at my age to force myself to death march through a book I don't enjoy.
• 
  Tiffany

  Equal parts hopeful and dreadfully sad. Sad because the state of the world has largely remained the same or gotten markedly worse since this was written in the 80's. Hopeful because, if these topics were pondered before - before the internet, before cell phones, before social media - they will be (and are) pondered again and amplified (I hope) to a newer generation of people who give a shit.
• 
  David Spanagel

  I have owned this book for two decades, and its essays certainly touch upon several of the key insights that I have championed through most of my professional life. 1) Thomas argues strenuously and earnestly that nuclear weapons research and development was/is a fool's errand - with every dollar thus invested in enhancing "national security," our actual state of insecurity is the only thing that increases. 2) He rails against the hegemony of quantification as the too-fashionable signifier of "understanding." 3) He calls for an end to the false debate between the two cultures (science and humanities), and instead demands that scientists and humanists once again collectively embrace the central truth of human ignorance - we have barely scratched the surfaces of what there is to know, and that reality should be far more celebrated as an inducement to the adventure of inquiry than anyone's standard training in any of the disciplines tends to emphasize.
  Despite all the consonance between my personal convictions about politics, history, science, technology, and the views that Lewis Thomas promotes, I find the experience of reading his essays now (all of them were composed in the early years of the Reagan presidency) to be a little dispiriting. These mostly timeless insights feel somehow "dated," and even come across as clumsy when delivered through his righteous tone and didactic prose style.
• 
  Tom

  This collection of essays by a deceased scientist-philosopher (former head of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute) is not only charming but at the same time terrifying. The threat of a "tactical" nuclear war that becomes global is still with us, perhaps more so than in 1983, when the late Lewis Thomas first sounded this warning. He sums up the doomsday scenario most vividly in his opening essay, "The Unforgettable Fire" and in the closing chapter. Some 30 years after his death, the warmongers are still at it. It's anyone's guess as to which generals in the U.S. or Russia or elsewhere may still be lobbying for a first strike, and against whom. Calls for disarmament or arms limitation have all but disappeared.
  Some may say why worry if we are powerless to control suicidal nationalism. Others may still nurse hope of saving the planet for future generations. Those put off by Thomas's overriding pessimism about war can find respite in some of his gentler essays. They deal with such topics as altruism, dementia, ecology, organ transplants, computers, and the history of language. Those of a religious bent may console themselves with prayers that a merciful Creator will save us from ourselves.
• 
  Steve

  This is an insightful series of essays ranging from the deadly serious opener, "The Unforgettable Fire", to the tongue-in-cheek "On Smell", to the exhortative "The Problem of Dementia". Thomas discusses biomedical science, thermonuclear weapons, the evolution of language, and much in between. While some of his essays feel dated, the issues and ideas are still largely relevant in 2014.
• 
  Penney Kolb

  This book of essays published in 1983 is a series of meditations on science, philosophy, and art and is surprisingly prescient. so much of what he discussed is relevant to today. I was very happy to have read this. Actually I picked it out of my shelves because the 9th is special to me (The Resurrection Symphony).
• 
  Texasmochi

  I read this book in my early 20's, and it created quite an impression, because I'm almost 50 and still it comes to mind when I list, in my head, books I've read. I'd like to find a copy and re read it.
• 
  Alice Sather

  I read this first in the early 80's and just re-read it. While a few essays are out-dated, others have one wondering how he could read the future as clearly as he did, and seem more urgent now than ever.
• 
  Dottie

  Well -- that didn't work -- read this one as it was a reading list selection for CR -- as usual a good experience.
• 
  Jerrilynn Lilyblade

  I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
  
  http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10488589
• 
  Terry Bonner

  The essay on "Altruism" was my first real introduction to sociobiology. It was a personal moment of epiphany for which I will always be grateful.
• 
  Peter

  This collection is notable for its repeated laments of the insanity of nuclear arsenals--and the Cold War, though I agree with the book's cover that Thomas's essays remain relevant now. This adds a note of righteous rage. But the overall emphasis is still on embracing ambiguity, accepting bewilderment, and even on starting the teaching of science by showing what we are most ignorant of. But still, there is also the defense of the scientific method, or at least the quest for good answers, and new questions. Although in fact he questions the wisdom and utility of separating humanism from science and social science, and laments the tendency of any and all subjects to find the (in some areas) settled quantitative ground of physics.
• 
  Whippet Woman

  What a book! The only thing slightly outdated is the immediacy of Cold War nuclear annihilation in 1980, but his concerns with nuclear arms are still relevant today... as are all his wonder-filled musings on music, consciousness, altruism, collective collaboration, and the interconnectedness of nature.
  
  He is well aware of the shortcomings of science to explain any of it completely and warns against the hubris that often accompanies scientific discovery... Which in his view is only supplanted a year or decade later by something totally new (quantum physics, for one). Delightful and ever so readable. He reinforces that science is about the quest instead of conquest!
• 
  Bibliobites Veronica

  Some of these essays felt outdated (which is to be expected from a book discussing “contemporary issues” published 40 years ago). But some things are timeless and there was some good food for thought nevertheless. I loved when, admitting what biology doesn’t know, Lewis inadvertently lent strength to the creationist perspective. And though he sometimes seems a little contradictory (“Science doesn’t know everything,...but probably will soon enough”), I appreciated his willingness to even admit there’s more to learn, which to me often seems lacking in the scientific community. Overall, I’m glad I took the time/put forth the effort to read these essays.
• 
  Ed Terrell

  “Late Night Thoughts” is a flash back to the past. Written, during Regan year’s when mutual self destruction with the Soviet Union was an everyday dinner conversation, there can not help but be some ‘doom and gloom’ flash across the pages. Thomas's “Lives of Cell” was a celebration of life and enough of that writing style seeps through making a read of this 1980’s master piece more than worthwhile.
• 
  Madelynp

  This series of essays is like a time capsule, looking back at science, technology, and more importantly, the fear of thermonuclear warfare that defined his time. Thomas is an easy-to-read science essayist, and does a great job writing about the culture of science, even thirty-ish years later. I highly recommend if you can find this!