Richard Feynman's Extraordinary Letter to His Departed Wife

Richard Feynman's Extraordinary Letter to His Departed Wife(brainpickings.org)

235 points by ktr 7 years ago | 12 comments

Such a sweet read, thank you. It's strange how the story would be so different if just a few more years had passed since the work on the compounds from fungi and bacteria had begun. Feynman's hope was totally on the right track.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Crude-death-rates-for-tu...

I also found this interesting from the wiki for TB since it is thought Arline got TB from unpasteurized milk-

"Robert Koch identified and described the bacillus causing tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis, on 24 March 1882. He received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1905 for this discovery. Koch did not believe the cattle and human tuberculosis diseases were similar, which delayed the recognition of infected milk as a source of infection. During the first half of the 1900s the risk of transmission from this source was dramatically reduced after the application of the pasteurization process."

fredgrott 7 years ago | |

in fact we got the FDA and milk, food inspections via Upton Sinclair's expose on working in the Chicago stock yards and passing tb via untreated milk was one the things highlighted

menacingly 7 years ago |

This style of writing is becoming more common and it is frustrating. The author seems hell bent on making their words the focus rather than a window through which you view a story.

spectramax 7 years ago | |

I agree, just to be clear - you're talking about the author of the article, not Richard Feynman.

Clarity in writing reflects clarity of thoughts. I wish the same thing dies in the Business world. When I hear a CEO of Intel or Adobe or Google speak in polished, PR approved, Lawyer vetted tone as if they strung big words together and tried to make the sentence after the fact - it makes me cringe. This is one of the reasons why I like Elon or Steve Jobs - they are relatable and human.

plausibilities 7 years ago | |

Hem-hem.

Allow me to pontificate for your edification, as to why wanton use of esoteric terminology is in fact a paragon of lexical mastery and thus ideal for the optimization of literary accuracy...

mercer 7 years ago | |

While I do share your frustration most of the time, for some reason I've never felt it when reading a Brain Pickings post.

I'm not sure why, but I think it's because I know what to expect, and so when I do read one of these articles, my state of mind is to just kind of take in whatever idea is expressed, to click on the copious amount of links, and to write down the titles of any materials that seem interesting.

The style feels fitting for a blog/magazine that mostly seems to offer surface-level ideas, often interesting, with links and references to various source materials. It's a bit like the difference between actively using google/wikipedia/stanford encyclopedia of philosophy and passively clicking around on tvtropes.org.

ericsoderstrom 7 years ago | |

I enjoy Farnam Street Blog, in part because the author does such a good job of stepping out of the way for his subject. Here's the FSblog post on the same Feynman letter:

https://fs.blog/2013/08/richard-feynmans-love-letter-to-his-...

chubot 7 years ago | |

I've always been annoyed by this, but now that I know the term "classic style", it annoys me even more.

For those who haven't heard of it, "classic style" is explained in the recent book Sense of Style by Steven Pinker, and there's a nice diagram here:

https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2014/09/stev...

It's in opposition to academic style, legal style, self-conscious style, etc.

One distressing thing I've noticed is that some of my adult colleagues write in "high school book report style". They seem to want to fill up a certain number of words rather than getting straight to the point.

bitwize 7 years ago | | |

Similar advice from Olin Shivers: http://web.cs.ucla.edu/~palsberg/shivers.html

the_coding_crab 7 years ago |

Thanks for posting this. It was a super enjoyable, lil heart throb, lil sweet story about true love.

lenocinor 7 years ago |

A nice article and a lovely read. Maybe some folks would view the fact that he had two other wives later as sad, but it gives me hope that even when some of the worst kind of heartbreak happens to you, you can eventually get better.

rofo1 7 years ago |

> You, dead, are so much better than anyone else alive.

Look at Feynman! Who knew!

I wonder what happens to our bodies, physically/chemically when one is in love to that degree. I know only very superficially. Anyone to suggest a book on this topic? Preferably one that backs its statements.