My
favorite D.C. attorney, Christopher Meldrum, is a student of classical
mythological reception. It’s great to see what one can do after graduating with
honors in Classics from BYU! He shares the following observations on an
interesting usage of the Icarus myth. Thanks, Chris!
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| Goltzius' Icarus is one of his etchings of the Four Disgracers (Icarus, Phaethon, Ixion, and Tantalus), 1588. |
A performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
is a symphonic work entitled “Icarus At The Edge of Time”
[OGCMA0593NOTIcarus_GreeneGlass] (http://www.bsomusic.org/calendar/events/2015-2016-events/midweek-concert-icarus-at-the-edge-of-time/).
The piece was originally commissioned and produced by World Science Festival
(New York) with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Southbank Centre (London)
with the Royal Society. The Festival has the following blurb on the piece
"What if Icarus traveled not to the sun but to a black hole? This
40-minute full orchestral work is a mesmerizing adaptation of Icarus at the
Edge of Time, Brian Greene’s book for children. A re-imagining of the Greek
myth, which brings Einstein’s concepts of relativity to visceral, emotional
life, it features an original score by Philip Glass, script adapted by Greene
and David Henry Hwang, and film created and directed by AL + AL."
The performance intermeshes music by Philip
Glass, narration by astrophysicist Mario Livio, and a film into a
STEAM-activated concert. STEAM activation equates to highly participatory
opportunities for audiences of all ages, creative brainchildren of Annemarie
Guzy of the BSO (cf. blog, Americans for
the Arts.)
As the BSO blurb states
, the multimedia piece itself is
an adaptation of Icarus at the Edge of Time, a children’s book by
Cambridge physicist Brian Greene (a proponent of Sting Theory who you might
remember from the NOVA special An Elegant
Universe). Wikipedia says that it is "a science fiction
retelling of Icarus' tale. It is about a young man who runs away from his
traveling, deep-space home to explore a black hole." You can read
additional information about the book, as well as an interview with Green about
the book, on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Icarus-Edge-Time-Brian-Greene/dp/0307268888/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443652434&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=Icarus+at+the+Edge+of+Tome).
 |
| cover of B. Greene's Icarus at the Edge of Time |
In the Q& A, two of the following are of
particular relevance to the myth
"Q: Where did the idea to re-imagine the
Icarus legend (set in outer space and involving black holes!) come from?
A: I recently told my two and a half year old son
a bedtime story that involved space travelers moving near the speed of light.
Within days he was telling his own animated stories of dinosaurs and monsters
outrunning a new and wonderful concept--"the speed of dark." Which
got me thinking. Storytelling is our most basic and powerful means of
communication. We listen with a different kind of intensity--and open ourselves
most fully--to a gripping tale. So why not allow some of science’s greatest
wonders to be experienced not through pedagogy but through the force of narrative?
Science in fiction, as opposed to science fiction. Scientific insights that are
absorbed rather than studied. Icarus At The Edge Of Time is my first
attempt to explore this terrain. Instead of a journey near the sun--a
"light" star--Icarus heads to a black hole--a "dark" star.
And then the wonders of Einstein's relativity kick in, warping the more
familiar ending into a painful conclusion, to be sure, but perhaps one that's
more hopeful than the original.
Q: The story of Icarus is a cautionary tale, what
do you think it has to say when applied (as it is here) to the nature of
scientific exploration of the universe?
A: Great scientists are great adventurers, boldly
exploring unknown terrain--"anxiously searching" as Einstein once put
it "for a truth one feels but cannot find, until final emergence into the
light." Icarus's fearlessness fits this profile to a "T". But
there's another side to scientific exploration. Scientific research has the
capacity to reveal realms that turn the status quo on its head. And when this
happens, we're often not prepared--as a society we're often not sufficiently
mature--to take on the responsibility that such new realms can require.
From nuclear knowledge to stem cells, from global
climate change to cloning, science not only opens up new vistas but confronts
us with profound challenges. In this new version of the Icarus tale, Icarus's
unrestrained explorations take him, literally, to a startling new realm--one in
which the universe as he knew it becomes forever beyond his reach. We can
imagine him maturing into his new life and experience, but we also feel the
wrenching pain of his being torn from his familiar reality--and from his
family--and entering a completely new world--the very process of maturation we
collectively navigate as science rewrites the rules of what's possible."
— submitted by Christopher Meldrum
OGCMA0593NOTIcarusDaedalus_GreeneGlass
OGCMA0593NOTIcarusDaedalus_Gree
