David Topper

By Press of Circumstances, by Lewis Pyenson (2014) This small book is seven pleasureful chapters of erudite essays on aspects of scholarship in the 21st century. Several were previously published, the last three were book reviews. The first chapter on the relationship between science and technology discards the traditional sequence: pure science – applied science – technology – engineering. Disclosing instead that technology generates its own imaginative endeavors, without relying on creativity from pure science. Although this essay appears to support Postmodern theory, I detected some of the remarks as tongue-in-cheek. This allusion was confirmed in the second chapter; it also shattered the upbeat tempo of the first. It is a heart-rendering elegy on his late wife that bears rereading, which I did several times. It is, in part, a sober essay on the deplorable treatment of her by petty bureaucratic university administrators. It moreover is critical of Postmodernism; indeed, a critical dialogue with the Theory haunts all chapters in this book, along with critical analyses of the state of contemporary scholarship from universities to foundations, such as the Institute for Advanced Study (sixth chapter). The remainder of the book also mainly comprises learned arguments on aspect of the interrelationship between art and science: common threads, issues of style and taste in both; in short, similarities and differences formally, intellectually, and socially. An example: Feynman diagrams. Can they be read as works of art, too? Although short, there is much to learn, much to think about, and much to savor in Pyenson’s compact book. One complaint (about the frontispiece): I wish it were a better photo of the bronze sculpture Fleur-de-lye.