i find Egan’s characters to be extremely flat, the science often interesting, and the plots grossly underrated.
in the case of this story, the conflict between science and science communicators is expressly not the point. for example, though our main character confronts the pop sci author, she achieves no resolution. she declines to doggedly pursue the author—she does not care to prove him wrong.[1]
her argument after all is not with this author. it’s with her father.
her father made a certain claim: your suffering is outweighed by my relief; your fortitude will justify my weakness. our girl rejects that claim, but now must defend her position. if her father’s metaphysics are correct, then his actions can be justified. so it is this that she must overturn.
though proving the universe finite, still she is given no rest: what if there are many finite universes? she expresses anger at the masses here, but it’s easy to understand this as projection. she is angry at the part of herself that agrees with them. she is angry that she cannot dismiss the claim.
the hope the undergrad offers is not some trite hope of “the next generation will continue!”—it is rather this: she can condemn her father’s suicide without hesitation[2]. he is well and truly dead. her suffering was for nothing, and for everything.
i find Egan’s characters to be extremely flat, the science often interesting, and the plots grossly underrated.
in the case of this story, the conflict between science and science communicators is expressly not the point. for example, though our main character confronts the pop sci author, she achieves no resolution. she declines to doggedly pursue the author—she does not care to prove him wrong.[1]
her argument after all is not with this author. it’s with her father.
her father made a certain claim: your suffering is outweighed by my relief; your fortitude will justify my weakness. our girl rejects that claim, but now must defend her position. if her father’s metaphysics are correct, then his actions can be justified. so it is this that she must overturn.
though proving the universe finite, still she is given no rest: what if there are many finite universes? she expresses anger at the masses here, but it’s easy to understand this as projection. she is angry at the part of herself that agrees with them. she is angry that she cannot dismiss the claim.
the hope the undergrad offers is not some trite hope of “the next generation will continue!”—it is rather this: she can condemn her father’s suicide without hesitation[2]. he is well and truly dead. her suffering was for nothing, and for everything.
in the text, she claims that this is for pragmatic reasons. but we can read it also for emotional ones.
at least to a confidence of six sigma.