Feynman a new comic biography of donald
with @estuan about #Feynman #Ottaviani #Myrick #comics #physics
Italian version written with Maria-Angela Silleni.Feynman by Ottaviani and Myrick, reported by Maria Popova as one of the top 11 scientific popular books of 2012, is a splendid example of how to make interesting science. Even with the comics.
Telling a man’s life is always an arduous and difficult task. So it is necessary to make choices, often focusing on successes and leaving aside failures, especially if you talk about a physicist who has been interested in the most disparate fields within his specialization.This is the some idea that Lawrence Krausshas dealt with the life of Richard Feynmanin Quantum Manand the same spirit seems to animate Feynman, the graphic novel by Jim Ottavianiand Leland Myrick.
Introducing Feynman?
After the series of Introducing, a hybrid of illustrated and comic books about science, one of the most effective comics dedicated to science, brings the signature of Ottaviani, which, on the pages of Suspended In Language, with the contribution of the comic artist Leland Purvis, told the life of Niels Bohr, the master of the Copenhagen School, whose interpretation of quantum mechanicsdominated during the first steps of this new approach of physics to nature.Ottaviani knows very well the risks in comic book science genre: in particular, falling into teaching and slamming the reader into boredom is always around the corner; so thanks to an episode narrative (which is also a limit, as we shall see below), accompanied by synthetic drawings, the volume reaches the disclosure purpose without betraying the aspect of entertainment.
A great role in the success of the graphic novel is dued by the subject: Feynman, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, was an eccentric character with a strong sense of humor and impatient with social conventions. Thanks to these features he often found himself in embarrassing situations with unexpected consequen
I have a confession: I didn't actually know a whole lot about Richard Feynman. Well, okay, I knew a bit about his role at Los Alamos from a history class, and I knew a little about his outsized personality and love for playing pranks, but I hadn't actually read or watched any of his lectures, or read any biographies until just recently.
Last month, First Second Books published Feynman, a comic book biography of the "world's smartest man" written by Jim Ottaviani and illustrated by Leland Myrick. Ottaviani is no stranger to this type of nonfiction comics. He's penned a few other science-based comics such as T-Minus: The Race to the Moon; a comics biography of Niels Bohr; and Fallout, a book I read years ago about the making of the atomic bomb.
Feynman is a mostly chronological biography, following both Feynman's professional and personal life. It does skip back and forth a little bit, but most of it is presented in order, from his time in college to working on the bomb to winning the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED). There are stories about his younger sister, Joan, who was discouraged by their parents from going into science but ended up a scientist anyway. When we follow Feynman to Los Alamos, the story doesn't focus on the actual work he did, but also relates his safecracking exploits and his frustrations dealing with the Army's particular type of problem-solving.
The book is brilliantly written. Ottaviani makes Feynman himself the narrator, sometimes with the comics equivalent of a voiceover and sometimes conveying information through conversations Feynman is having with other people. Because it's comics, Myrick is able to take liberties with the visuals, at times overlaying Feynman's inner thoughts on top of reality, reminiscent of the visual effects in A Beautiful Mind. There are even some sections about QED which show, briefly and in layman's terms, what Feyn
Review & Roundtable: Feynman
I grew up with a variety of heroes. Writers like Roald Dahl, Tamora Pierce, Andre Norton, Ray Bradbury, and Susan Cooper led me deep into the world of stories, speculative and wondrous. Itzhak Perlman, a virtuoso violinist, amazed me by playing so brilliantly with enormous hands. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly astounded me with their dancing and choreography. Carl Sagan glued me to the TV explaining the wonders of the universe in his landmark miniseries Cosmos.
Some people might think that one of these is not like the other — that science doesn’t mix too well with the arts. As a natural writer and artist raised by two physicists, I was never aware of any contradiction.
Feynman
Jim Ottaviani, Leland Myrick
Ages 12+; Grades 7-Adult
First Second, August 2011, ISBN 978-1-59643-259-8
272 pages, $29.99
My mother, Joan Brenner, is a physics and astronomy professor at Bunker Hill Community College near Boston and impresses me with her quick grasp of all things mathematical as often as she shares her love of art and music. My father, John Francis Brenner, loves sharing the tiny world of particle physics with his two inquisitive daughters and is a talented writer. Both are outstanding teachers and love to both ask and answer questions. Our dinner conversations leap from the latest book I’ve been reading to a nearby art exhibit to just why my Dad thinks the Big Bang theory has some major flaws. It’d all just part of considering the world at large.
Jim Ottaviani’s latest work, Feynman, is a graphic biograhpy of the Nobel-prize winning Richard Feynman: physicist, prankster, bongo-drum afficianado, and a man bursting with curiosity about all things. He did a great deal to popularize physics through his lectures available as audio recordings and in book form. Feynman also related his own adventures in the scientific community and beyond in Surely You’re Joking, My Feynman? and What Do You Care What Other P Last week, we swooned over a brilliant mashup of words on beauty, honor, and curiosity by legendary iconoclastic physicist Richard Feynman. Today, we turn to Feynman -- a charming, affectionate, and inspiring graphic novel biography from librarian by day, comic nonfictionist by night Jim Ottoviani and illustrator Leland Myrick, and a fine addition to our 10 favorite masterpieces of graphic nonfiction. From Feynman's childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project to the infamous Challenger disaster, by way of quantum electrodynamics and bongo drums, the graphic narrative unfolds with equal parts humor and respect as it tells the story of one of the founding fathers of popular physics. Colorful, vivid, and obsessive, the pages of Feynman exude the famous personality of the man himself, full of immense brilliance, genuine excitement for science, and a healthy dose of snark. H/T @DarSolo. This post also appears on Brain Pickings.