Night is Large: Collected Essays, 1938-1995

by Martin Gardner

Book Overview

In "The Night Is Large, "Martin Gardner has assembled forty-seven challenging and inquisitive essays into a work that places him at the heart of twentieth-century American intellectual culture.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031214380X
• ISBN13: 9780312143800
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 586 Pages
• Weight: 4.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A renaissance man in the third millennium

I thoroughly enjoyed this, the definitive collection of Gardner's essays, and recommend it highly. My recommendation, however pales beside those that appear on the book jacket, including praise from Noam Chomsky, Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Raymond Smullyan, Arthur C. Clarke, and Stefan Kanfer. Little more need be said about the value of this splendid book; but I would like to offer some observations.The first chapter, a review of four books on symmetry is easily the most informative and insightful ten pages I have ever read on the subject. Gardner's rare talent for making things clear is shown to such advantage here that I would recommend it as a must read for anyone wanting a career in science writing. It's almost magic, the way he evaporates the fog.The next nine chapters are on the physical sciences including chapters on relativity, quantum mechanics, time, superstrings, cosmology, etc., all good reads. The next five are on the social sciences, and it is here that I was introduced to a side of Gardner that I had not found in the other three collections of his that I have read. Chapter 11, "Why I Am Not a Smithian," is on economics and is primarily a dissection of the supply-siders who held forth during the Reagan years. It makes for lively reading even though, curiously it turns into a tribute to Norman Thomas as "the only notable American" to vigorously oppose the Japanese internment camps during WW II. In the next essay, "The Laffer Curve," Gardner continues his assault on the "voodoo economics" of the Reagan years as he presents his own satirical "neo-Laffer curve." Gardner is a sharp eyed and sharp-penned social critic, and, as he demonstrates in Chapter 21, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," a pretty good movie critic as well. (Although here I think he underrated the magic of Spielberg's movie in order to better concentrate on zapping the usual Spielberg schmaltz and pseudoscience.) Politically speaking, Gardner reveals himself as a "social democrat."The chapter on "Newcomb's Paradox," which Gardner interprets as "related to the question of whether humans possess a genuine power to make free, unpredictable choices," has the effect of revealing Gardner's personality. You'll have to read it to see what I mean, but the choices he makes are psychological choices and reveal him as a man who is not afraid to stand by his beliefs. Herein and in the next chapter we encounter the question of whether we can have free will in the view of an omniscient God. Gardner's solution (with C. S. Lewis and others) is to put God outside time and avoid the contradictions. Incidentally, Gardner makes the very salient point that any language that allows sets to be members of themselves or evaluates the truth or falsity of its statements will run into contradictions (p. 419).It is here in the chapters on philosophy and religion that Gardner is at his most intriguing. He is a theist and a believer in free will, although he admits that "disti

Versatile, Lucid, Entertaining!

This diverse collection of forty-six essays written from 1938 to 1995 is a real eye-opener. Gardner is best-known for his mathematical columns in the Scientific American. But science and mathematics are the subject of fewer than half of the essays in this progidious collection. The bulk of them are in the area of the social sciences, the arts, philosophy, and religion. In these Gardner displays a depth and authority that is surprising.All essays are spiced up with introductory paragraphs and postscipts which reveal the author's changing (or unchanging) attitudes on the subject.The first ten essays on the physical sciences alone are worh the price of admission, covering such subjects as symmetry, the twin paradox, quantum mechanics and superstrings. He cannot help taking a swipe at the Anthropic Principles(s) in an essay titled "WAP, SAP, PAP, and FAP. He adds a fifth in the last line of this essay which did not get listed in the title, namely, the Completely Ridiculous Anthropic Principle.In the section on philosophy he discusses provocative people like Allan Bloom, Isaiah Berlin, Mortimer Adler, and Robert Maynard Hutchins. Did you know that Hutchins' think tank in Santa Barbara was funded by the profits of Alex Comfort's book, "The Joy of Sex"? This questionable arrangement started out amicably enough, providing income for the Institute and a tax haven for Comfort's profits, but it eventually ended in unfriendly counter lawsuits.Particular fun is provided by a critical review Gardner wrote under the pseudonym George Groth, debunking his own book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener." Only in the last line does he disclose his identity.You do not have to agree with everything Gardner says, but you cannot help but be intellectually informed and entertained by this remarkable modern intellect.

Skeptic to the core

Gardner is one of the leaders of the American Skeptic movement. (Skeptics (with the capital "S") are those who seriously consider but doubt paranormal phenomenon like UFO's, ESP, and religious faith healers. They want to see if there is good evidence for the stuff and never find it.)He makes the reader think. He considers the breath and width of human knowledge to all be worth talking and writing about. He is never unforthcoming with his opinions. Naturally, this makes for some controversal opinions coming out. But he lets you know when he blunders as well. This collection certainly lives up to a testiment that he has had a long life writing and making folks think about the world they live in.His greatest flaw, in my opinion, is his belief in a god. But then, nobody is ever perfect.

Fascinating book on an astonishing variety of topics.

Charming, with chapters such as "The Significance of 'Nothing'" and "The Mystery of Free Will" and "Wilhelm Reich and the Orgone." On philosophical topics, the book is accessible and fascinating. On science on math, it is mind-bending. On historical personalities, Gardner either takes no prisoners and is hilarious, or is admiring and gracious. Puts new spins a lot of ideas you take for granted (such as the meaning of 2 + 2 = 4), and introduces a whole bunch of things you never thought about. Really neat.

Facinating discussions of a wide variety of subjects.

One reviewer suggested that Gardner is often wrong. Among those who think he is right are Dr. Stephen Gould and the late Carl Sagen. Whether or not you agree with Gardner's opinions on Freud's early theories, William James' adventures with spiritualists, the existance of God (he is a believer incidentally), you will learn new facts and expand your intellectual horizons--a great book for the intellectually curious.