English 187R Reading List

English 187R “Thinking through Writing: Science Themes” is a one year old open enrollment creative writing/creative non-fiction course that aims to bring physics and literature into closer conversation. We will consider a variety of writing genres and ways to engage with science concepts: non-fiction, journalism, fiction, poetry, etc. Broadly aimed at anyone keen to explore creative writing in an open and experimental way, it is intended equally for science students keen to approach their work in a new way, ie thinking about science through writing, and for humanities students who would like a non-mathematical introduction to physics concepts. While equations will occasionally be part of the course, no mathematical calculation is required, nor are there problem sets. Rather, through a combination of sciencebased and literary prompts, as well as through experiential and thought experiments, students will explore the course’s themes in words.

Reading List

Peter Galison
  • “Synchrony,” Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time  
Bertrand Russell
  • “Touch and Sight: The Earth and The Heavens,” “What Happens and What Is Observed,” and “The Velocity of Light,” The ABC of Relativity
Virginia Woolf
  • “Time Passes,” To The Lighthouse
Richard Feynman
  • “The Value of Science”
Percy Bridgman
  • “The Concept of Time”
Ted Chiang
  • “Story of Your Life”
Luis Borges
  • “The Garden of Forking Paths,” “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” Ficciones
W.G. Sebald
  • Chapters 1-3, The Rings of Saturn
Italo Calvino
  • “The Distance of the Moon,” “A Sign in Space,” “The Light Years,” Cosmicomics
Robert MacFarlane
  • “Dark Matter,” Underland: A Deep Time Journey
Tracy K. Smith
  • “My God, It’s Full of Stars”
Maggie Nelson
  • Bluets, 1-45
Jenny Erpenbeck
  • “The Girl,” The Visitation
Mary Somerville
  • “Section IX,” On the Connection of the Physical Sciences
Fanny Howe
  • “To Be Buried Where,” Night Philosophy
William Egginton
  • “Introduction: Where Did It Go?” “Heisenberg” (pp. 180-188), “Forking Paths,” The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Stephen Kern
  • “Introduction,” “The Nature of Time,” The Culture of Time and Space 1880-1918
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
  • “22.5 Minutes,” “song for dealers,” This Accident of Being Lost
Piero Martin
  • “The Second,” The Seven Measurements of the World
Marcel Proust
  • “Combray,” Swann’s Way
Sean Carroll
  • “Time,” The Biggest Ideas in the Universe
Ken Liu
  • “Timekeepers’ Symphony”

 

 

Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology (LPPC), Harvard University.       18 Hammond Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA