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Travelling to Infinity: The True Story Behind the Theory of Everything Kindle Edition
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAlma Books
- Publication dateNovember 3, 2014
- File size4015 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Jane Hawking has written a book about what it was like to be pivotal to her husband's celebrated success . . . but it is much more a shout from the outer darkness." The Daily Telegraph
"A great read." The Daily Mail
"Jane Hawking’s harrowing and compelling account . . . rings very true." Irish Times
"Jane writes about her former husband with tenderness, respect and protectiveness." Sunday Express
About the Author
Jane Hawking, who was Stephen Hawking's wife for more than 25 years, is a writer, lecturer, and the author of At Home in France.
Product details
- ASIN : B00P6BCJ16
- Publisher : Alma Books; 1st edition (November 3, 2014)
- Publication date : November 3, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 4015 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 499 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,556,773 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,913 in Biographies of Scientists
- #2,678 in Biographies of Medical Professionals (Kindle Store)
- #6,946 in Scientist Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Jane Beryl Hawking (born 29 March 1944) is an English author and educator. She is the ex-wife of Stephen Hawking.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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From Jane’s descriptive writing, you will learn new terms such as “Physics Widows”, as coined by Einstein’s first wife, can be the experience of the relationship with a physicist who also happens to be a celebrity. As she explains, the “Goddess Physics” will demand more things be laid at the “Altar of Science” as the physicist is forced to employ every faculty to unravel the universe’s mysteries. Jane also introduces the “Celestial Mechanics” (coined by Jane’s neighbor Thelma Thatcher) which carries physicists away into another realm even when they are walking on that same cemented sidewalks like us. Jane describes the physics equations as “Dancing Hieroglyphic” signs, using their great acrobatic skills to codify postulates and theorems about the universe. The enigmatic theories continue to this day like an aporia in philosophy with not necessarily conclusive findings. This should be no surprise as what is being attempted was a comprehensive way to explain the universe, its beginnings, its inner workings and its majestic outer displays - in fact a “Theory of Everything” - which Stephen later reported as being “incorrect.”
You will also encounter the serious love between these two young Brits, that will be tested to its core with plenty of struggles, sufferings and disappointments. Jane also pens her own journey to complete her PhD thesis which will take you into the southern Iberian peninsula pondering Mozarabic Kharjas, exploring the tragicomedy La Celestina and trodding the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. These will be her own achievements in the arena of non-science higher education, albeit less glorious in today’s drive of scientific explanations. Jane also captures the “Cambridge's intellectual prejudice” and its stinging effects on her. These will also have an impact on their three children, sometimes expected to outperform their peers like their father, and sometimes just being overshadowed by their father’s success.
Jane will also take you along to her travels around the world helping her brilliant husband while she has her own journey pondering politics of the Tory government, racial justice in the UK and abroad, the rights of the handicapped and the unrealistic demands of a celebrity lifestyle, the latter two hitting closer to home. Jane will also meet her own redeeming people who bring all the Four Loves of C.S. Lewis spurring it back into her life - Bill Loveless (an oxymoronically named pastor), Jonathan (her future husband), Thelma Thatcher (a loving neighbor) and her own children (three precious friends). They will all breathe strength into her for the arduous journey. The little St. Mark's Church in the middle of Cambridge becomes her recovery center giving her much needed spiritual strength to combat all her challenges and struggles.
Now back to the contrasting themes in this book; there are plenty of incidents where you see the inner life of a celebrity physicist, as he jokes about the universe making bets, like the famous Thorne-Hawking-Preskill bet on the blackholes information paradox and the infamous dollar bet with Don Page on information loss from blackholes. Stephen ends up paying Don a dollar bill that did not have a picture of George Washington but rather of Marilyn Monroe, whom Stephen admired for being "a model of the universe!" You will also get an insight into a very human Stephen with his pride, assertion, demanding personality while having a Stoic posture that continually denied his own struggles and impediment due to ALS. The culmination of this paradox will be his Honoris Causa inauguration meeting with Queen Elizabeth. You see an almost deified Stephen could easily be jolted off his throne with simple inconveniences that can make his limelight less glorious.
The book is so real as it combines these comedies, philosophy, brilliance, romance, suffering and trials to portray a splendid yet real story. It will remain in my bookshelf, probably helping me ponder how to juggle family, ambition, research, spiritual life, social life with our tiny human frame clearly marked with its limitations most of all our own finite time on this earth.
Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, also known as ALS in 1963. He was 21 years old, and was told by the doctors that he likely had only two more years to live. After going through a period of depression, his spirit was revived by falling in love with Jane. He vowed that he would not be conquered by the disease. Indeed, he wanted to finish his PhD degree, pursued a career as a scientist and be ”a normal human being with the same desires, drives, dreams, and ambitions as the next person”.
In falling in love with Stephen and marrying him in 1965, Jane vowed to help Stephen to succeed in life and to building a loving family, while fully aware that the time they had to do this could be very short.
In the end, they both succeeded spectacularly. Stephen lived to the age of 76, 53 years beyond the two years predicted by his doctors. He was the best known physicist of his time, the recipient of numerous Medals and Honorary Degrees. His popular book “A Brief History of Time” was, in May 1996, in the London Sunday Times best-seller list for 237 weeks, longer than any other book, with the possible exceptions of the Bible and Shakespeare (which apparently were not counted). In his own assessment, he was indeed in many ways a normal human being with the same desires, drives, dreams, and ambitions. He travelled around the world multiple times. Indeed, he claimed that, although in a wheel-chair, ultimately losing the ability of speech and regularly suffering from severe coughing fits, with the aid of modern technology and the physical help from family members, students, and later 24 hour nurse care, there was nothing that his disability had prevented him from doing, including floating weightless in space. His capacity for enduring and overcoming physical pain and disability was beyond this world. Most people in such dire situation would seek comfort in religion but not Stephen. While he unequivocally answered the question: “Is there a God?” in his last popular book “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”, he was not dogmatic and stated that “We are each free to believe what we want..” The book was published in the year he died.
Jane was equally successful in her goal of providing the help Stephen needed and to building a loving family. They had three beautiful children, Robert, Lucy and Tim. The detailed lives of Stephen, Jane and the family are found in the 487 pages of this fascinating book. While most of the stories were uplifting and told the many good sides of human nature and spirit, they also showed that the constant and prolonged stress and strain as well as human imperfections did take its toll. It was sad to read what led to the separation of the Hawkings in 1990 and their divorce in 1995, after 30 years of marriage. However, it was gratifying to read in the last page of the book (written after Stephen’s second divorce), the Post-Script dated May 2007 that “It certainly moved me profoundly and made me reflect what a privilege it was to travel even a short distance with him on the way to infinity”. On the same page, "The Last Word", dated August 2014 stated: “Stephen, the world’s most famous scientist, remains at the center of the family as well as the center of physics. In fact, we are all just about to go on holiday together!”
Jane Hawking was awarded the PhD in Medieval Spanish Poetry in 1981, after many years of intermittent research and writing amidst the constant demands of Stephen and the family. She is also well versed in classical music. There are anecdotes related to classical music which this reader finds interesting. Among them: Stephen liked opera but disliked ballet. He worshipped Richard Wagner’s music, particularly the long opera “Ring of the Nibelung”. He had gone to the Bayreuth festival in Germany to watch the entire Ring Cycle, both in his student days and in later years. While working in his study, he played the opera full volume while his mind worked out the equations of black holes. This did not particularly please Jane. In her view, Wagner’s music “came to represent an evil genius, the philosopher of the master race….“
Her favorite composers were many: Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Chopin, to name just a few. Among the compositions mentioned in the book were Beethoven’s late string quartets, Schubert’s Lieders, Chopin’s E minor piano concerto, and Brahms double concerto, which she seemed to have particular affinity. There were accounts of her visit to Chopin’s home in Warsaw, and the interesting discovery that Newton’s favorite was Henry Purcell.
An added bonus was Jane’s visit to Leo Tolstoy’s home while visiting Russia, during which she collected some maple leaves in Tolstoy’s garden.
I will conclude with two inspiring quotes from this deeply touching and uniquely interesting book. The first was the advice given to Jane by her friend, Thelma Thatcher, when Jane was exhausted and depressed after a long day of serving and giving care to the family. The second was Jane’s reflection on the news when the Six Day War broke out in the Middle East in the week after Robert, their first son, was born:
Thelma Thatcher: “When things cannot be altered, count your blessings.”
Jane Hawking: “I was convinced that if the world were to be run by the mothers of newborn babies rather than hardened old men inciting brash youths to violence, wars would cease overnight.”
Top reviews from other countries
Jane does not come out of the book as a bitter person. She details her family life as it was, as it affected her and her nearest and dearest. It is a powerful book written with love and a dash of bewilderment that, no matter how hard she worked for everyone, her efforts were never fully appreciated. Except by her children, parents and friends who watched her struggle and gave her all the support they could. Read this book and remember: behind every "great" man there is a determined and loving woman.
One particularly significant deviation from reality in the film is that Jane started her relationship with Stephen already knowing he was ill, but in the film, they fell in love (at the same university, which was also not the case), and only later did the illness appear. In a way the film gives us more the sequence we would expect, and it is still more difficult to understand fully why Jane committed herself to the ailing young Stephen to the extent of marrying him and raising a family, surely knowing how difficult it might be. I am glad to have seen the film, and glad to have seen it first, since I would probably not otherwise have chosen the book, but the two experiences show typically how much deeper a book is likely to be than a film. The story of the Hawkings is so unique and amazing that it surpasses most works of fiction.