Dance for Two: Essays

By Alan Lightman

Book Overview

For the last twenty years, Alan Lightman has been writing essays that display his genius for bringing literary and scientific concerns into harmony. Dance for Two gathers the best of Lightman's work.

Here are pieces that touch on both the ethereal and the corporeal; the dependence of a ballerina on the laws of physics, the choice of every scientist makes between tinkering and theorizing, the unscientific nature of discovery, the impulse behind an unprompted smile. Dance for Two is an intimate and fascinating look into the creative compulsions shared by the artist and the scientist.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679758771
• ISBN13: 9780679758778
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Simple Beauty

Alan Lightman beautifully expresses his deep passion for science and art, and all the magic that the chaos in between can bring. Only someone who has thought deeply about science, life, art, uncertainty could evoke it so beautifully, and so simply. Highly recommended!

reality of science

many, if not most, scientists beleive in evolution and that science is the leading force of this universe. Alan Lightman so simply proves it not so. Through everyday circumstances he displays a larger force at work, a demonstration rarely seen, heard, or read. My career is in the science field and the internal battle between science and religion is constant in my life. Now I read 'Smile' and 'In His Image' when I question that. All of these essays are brilliant and insightful. I recommend this book not only to my friends, but my librarian as well.

Relates Science, History, Art and Life. Makes you think.

Brilliantly written stories whose themes revolve around science and scientists and their interactions with art, society, history and life in general. Gives science a human touch, makes it more personal and approachable to anyone. Makes us think about the universe around us and the lives we lead and how everything untimately ties together. I liked it even more the second time I read it.

Inspiring...

This book made me dream and think about my life and me. Thought me the magic of writng and the reasons behind it..." For one's delight, to give the same pleasure to others, to go back and find meaning in what we wrote or simply dismiss it..." The essay format made it a simple and enjoyable reading and made me look for more of his work. I read Einstein's Dreams, although I was dissapointed his writing style pull me to look for this book, this one is a great one. Einstein's Dreams left me waiting for a conclusion or a dialog with "The Great One"

Luminous!

Few things are good enough to make me cry. This book did, and after reading the intro and first chapter. Some people are born with 'old souls': Lightman is one. A scientist explains how the universe works lyrically, and with passion. Some of finest prose on cosmology since Chaucer. Completely accessible. Damned near perfection. A keeper. Great material for bedtime stories, for all ages.