Contemporary Physics Plays pp 39-60 | Cite as
Relativistic Intertextuality: Einstein as a Figure
Abstract
Albert Einstein is highlighted as an individual engaged in decision making about both his science and his friendships in Paul D’Andrea and Jon Klein’s The Einstein Project. The play moves variously from one scene to another, using memory, news reporting, and relativistic physics to produce a spatio-temporal field in which Einstein’s various decisions are interrogated together. The play’s judgment of Einstein proceeds on the basis of whether he has had time to understand how his science and his choices will affect those whom he loves. Ultimately, following the causal sequence of the play’s plot rather than reorganizing events into their historical order pulls apart cause and effect to undermine efforts to assign blame in the absence of adequate understanding.
Keywords
Manhattan project Albert Einstein RelativityBibliography
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