tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post2503375717517593097..comments2023-11-03T06:36:27.305-04:00Comments on Phronesisaical: Doctor Atomic - A Reviewhelmuthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09069600766378586919noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-12364775659248509442014-02-12T08:43:49.618-05:002014-02-12T08:43:49.618-05:00Hi Meredith -
Thanks for the extra background.
...Hi Meredith -<br /><br />Thanks for the extra background. <br /><br />I wish you had published your Los Alamos book! There is a book coming out called "Manhattan Project Wives," that, from the preliminary description, sounds not too good. I think it's out next month.<br /><br />Some things were difficult for the wives, some not. And many of the wives worked, which, in those days when the wife had to take care of the house too, added some difficulty but also brought them into the project to some degree. <br /><br />About Edward Teller, I have been thoroughly indoctrinated, having worked at Los Alamos for many years. Nemesis is as good as he's going to get in my mind. And that's not the worst. Last night I went to a history lecture by Los Alamos's official historian and was sort of surprised at how many Teller and Livermore jokes there were. and the audience laughed at every one. <br /><br />It is true, however, that in today's nuclear stockpile, the overwhelming majority of the weapons are from Los Alamos. And that might be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. Cheryl Roferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11082102629165547210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14072474.post-2935597150388294982014-02-11T15:53:52.288-05:002014-02-11T15:53:52.288-05:00Hi Cheryl
Thanks for posting this.
The opera was...Hi Cheryl<br /><br />Thanks for posting this.<br /><br />The opera was premiered in San Francisco, shortly after we left the Half Moon Bay region for Vermont. Since we had season tickets to the SF Opera (nosebleed seats, but season tickets) I found that very annoying. Just-missed-it!<br /><br />We finally caught up with the opera in a Met in HD Simulcast, shown at Dartmouth. That was a few years ago.<br /><br />I agree that the Trinity poem was the emotional center of the opera. I also think that the two women in the opera were almost stick figures. I could go on and on about this, because I did some fiction writing (never published) set in Los Alamos at that time. I took pains to round out the women and their concerns. Partially because I am a feminist in my way, and partially because it was a very hard life for women in those days at that site. "Bathtub row." Your husband had to be high-ranking, or...no bathtub. <br /><br />As far as I can tell, Oppenheimer had a huge ego, thinking of his actions as godlike. As a matter of fact, in my own writing, I ignored him as much as possible. My protagonist was an engineer, not a physicist. My protagonist had many issues, but thinking that he was God wasn't one of his issues. Actually, I had several protagonists, but that is another story. One was a local Mormon woman. <br /><br /> I wanted to show people who were just-people, facing huge problems and tiny ones (bathtubs). "In those days, there were gods-who-walked-the-earth"...that does not interest me as a storyteller. Though that view is definitely traditional for the German stream of opera (think The Ring versus Marriage of Figaro).<br /><br />Which led me to feel Teller was the most sympathetic character in this opera: placing bets, joking, being inconsistent, nagging people. His character in the opera was a real person, rather than a symbol of Man's Destructive Power, or of Native American One-Ness With Nature, or of Man's Conscience, etc etc etc.<br /><br />This opera is mixed bag, for sure.<br /><br />Your comment on Oppenheimer's Jewish background and the Trinity poem. Oppenheimer was German Jewish by background, very Reform, very Enlightenment. Teller was Hungarian Jewish, a very different background. I sometimes wonder how much this close-but-not-very-close background (both Jewish, but not the same sort of Jewish) led to some of their problems. As a woman of Ukrainian Jewish ancestry, I can contemplate this issue from a distance. I am not "in" either of their subcultures, but close enough to notice that problems could arise.Meredith Angwinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02737538041807740424noreply@blogger.com