CONNECTICUT LIBRARIES
January 2002, Vol. 44, No. 1
Once upon a time Western civilization presumed that humanity was the center of the universe. The artists of classical Greece portrayed the ideal man. Greek gods were essentially men with super powers and longevity. When Christianity held sway in the West, it recognized the not-so-ideal nature of humanity. Still, it placed man in a world especially created for him by a loving God. It defined the purpose of this life as the struggle to achieve perfection in the next. The Renaissance restored the here and now, validating human achievement on earth. However, the era of scientific discovery inaugurated by the Renaissance has demonstrated repeatedly over the last five centuries that the universe does not revolve around humankind. Our smallish planet circles an average-size star near the rim of a galaxy that is indistinguishable from millions of similar pinwheels fleeing the point of origin of the universe. Mankind is the result of evolution, a hit-or-miss process by which genetic accidents either thrive and reproduce, or perish to make way for the next random experiment.Marie Brown, the protagonist of Jenny McPhee's novel, The Center of Things, knows all of that and more. She understands physics. She comprehends quantum mechanics. She labors on a philosophy of science paper, a study of the relationship between physics and human reality. Marie spends hour upon hour, week upon week researching and writing in the reading room of the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library. However, Marie is a graduate school drop-out who has been working on the same essay for fifteen years!
"What is life?...Who am I?" -George Harrison Marie Brown's paying job is with the Gotham City Star, a New York City tabloid. Uninspired by "inquiring minds" journalism, she has not earned the status of reporter. Rather, she checks facts, does re-writes, and updates material for the "advancer file," a compendium of information on living celebrities which will be put to use when needed for obituaries. The advancer file gives Marie the chance to do something more challenging than simply collecting and checking facts.
"The more I get to know people, the better I like myself." -Nora Mars Nora Mars, aging glamour queen of B-movies and a long-time favorite of Marie, has fallen into a coma following a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Marie successfully lobbies for the job of researching Nora Mars' life and writing the star's obituary. Marie flirts with Nora's ex-husband Rex Mars, befriends Nora's sister Maud Blake, and uncovers a tale of mistaken identities, bitter memories, celebrity marriages, divorce, incest, and sensationalism worthy of New York's only evening tabloid. Along the way, we are treated to the wit and wisdom of Nora Mars. Years before, as teenage fans of the glamorous Miss Mars, Marie and brother Michael had memorized lines from the actress' films. The lines were used in an ongoing game of Nora Mars trivia. Marie now quotes from her repertoire of screen dialog, fitting memorized lines to the occasion.
"It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied." -Nora Mars Marie, of course, lacks Nora's wit, charm, glamour, and beauty. She has been unlucky with men, even destroying her relationship with her once beloved brother. Her recent affair with another tabloid journalist has gone nowhere. Her flirtation with Rex Mars is merely Hollywood-inspired fantasy.
"Jealousy is a superb motivator." -Nora Mars Then, there is Marco Trentadue, Marie's library companion. His business card identifies him as a "freelance intellectual." Marco irritates Marie. He challenges her theories, reads randomly-selected magazines while she speaks to him, and wears a beard. Their improbable conversations intersect and inter-connect Marie's social life, her Nora Mars research, and her fascination with quantum mechanics.
"Coincidence is an extraordinary thing because it is so natural." -Nora Mars Quantum mechanics!? In the world with which we are familiar, things operate by cause and effect, but not so in the sub-atomic world of quantum mechanics. There, chance reigns. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle reminds physicists that they operate with incomplete and unknowable data. They often cannot tell whether the phenomena they study are particles of matter or waves of energy. Obligingly, these "things" act like particles when researchers need to observe particles, and like waves when they need waves. Niels Bohr postulated that these "fundamental particles" exist in many places and in many states of being simultaneously, becoming "real" only when an observer enters the picture. Marie's long overdue philosophy of science paper investigates what Bohr's theory on fundamental particles means to the way in which humans view reality.
It may mean that the universe has no meaning, unless humans observe it. Or, that mankind has reclaimed his old place at the center of things. Or, that each of us has meaning only when another finds meaning in us.
"You're nobody until somebody loves you..." -Dean Martin
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