Mr g: A Novel About The Creation

This is an intriguing little book. It's a novel about how the universe was created and includes both playfulness and philosophy. It's the kind of a novel I think a physicist would enjoy, or at least they would understand the references to quantum mechanics and measuring time according to hydrogen atoms.Mr. G is never referred to as a god, but simply as an immortal being who was bored with the void. One day he woke up and decided to create a universe. He invents time, space and matter, and then l [...]

god lives in the Void with his Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva. One day he decides he wants to create a universe. So he does. It is all very boring.

I've always tried to imagine the outside of the universe since my teens. Imagine the possible nothingness that is outside of our universe. But my imagination has never satisfied me! Mr g is a story about the creation but not from religious view points. It's a charming story with theories, laws of nature and philosophies that we know about this universe. Things that we can imagine about the outside based on our current knowledge. This book was my companion to imagine the universe and nothingness. [...]

This is a novel about the Creation, but it's written by a theoretical physicist so don't expect the creator to be anything like the guy in Genesis. Much of the first half of the book deals with Mr g creating the laws of physics and witnessing the results as those laws play out in the universe. To say that it's not plot-heavy would be overstating it. This is a very intellectual, musing sort of book and it's going to bore a lot of people who aren't interested in reading about how gasses created st [...]

I'd previously read Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, an elegant little set of thought experiments-cum-vignettes about life in universes with physical constants other than those of our own. It's an intelligent, whimsical, thought-provoking little book.Mr g attempts to repeat the formula, and fails. This is a walk through Genesis using the most modern scientific explanations of the origins of the universe. Where it merely describes the origins of galaxies or cells, there's a certain elegance involved [...]

There are times when a handful of stars seems an imprecise way to judge a work. In many ways it's almost easier to cheat and say simply whether or not one likes something than to determine how much one enjoyed it. This is evidenced in the fact that I have now changed my rating twice since finishing the book last night.After the last page of Mr g I knew I had enjoyed it but was conflicted. In many ways I felt trapped in the Void that is the setting for the story. The science aspect was fun and se [...]

alan lightman's mr g is an imaginative and vivacious work of fiction. lightman, mit professor and theoretical physicist, has authored over a dozen books (including five previous novels). his most well-known work is 1993's einstein's dreams, a fantastic book exploring varying conceptions of time. mr g, lightman's first novel in nearly five years, features no less weighty a subject than the origins of the universee book's title character has existed for eons in the void, with little company save f [...]

In Alan Lightman's latest novel, the reader is once again played for a sucker. A turn of phrase I use completely without rancor - I wouldn't have it any other way.Einstein's Dreams introduced a voracious scientific mind whose gentle observations on the possibilities of the world are set forth with a disingenuous so delicate that it almost hurts. The narrator of Mr. G, an unnamed tinkering creator who lives in a void with his aunt and uncle, follows in a similarly rich and satisfying vein. There' [...]

เจ๋งดี แต่น่าเสียดายที่เจ๋งไม่เท่า Einstein's Dream - นิยายของ Alan Lightman ที่ชอบที่สุดอธิบายบิ๊กแบง กำเนิดพื้นที่ เวลา จักรวาล เนบิวลา เทหวัตถุ ไปจนถึงสสารต่างๆ และสิ่งมีชีวิต ในรูปของนิยาย ผ่า� [...]

Mr. g -God- creates the universe, then watches it. He sees life emerge on various planets, likes it, is bothered by suffering, and keeps watching. Occasionally he talks to a few other immortal beings about it. He walks around a lot doing nothing. He’s just keeps watching universe until it dies. It's an interesting concept, but what is the point of writing a book about the creation and death of the universe from God’s perspective if God merely observes and talks about science and mentions mor [...]

This is a very funny/odd little book. Put in your shaker:1 part mythology1 part cosmology1 part philosophy1 part science (other)Add some pink sparkly ice cubes into the void, shake vigorously while creating the song of your new universe, and pour carefully into your favorite glass.The thing I loved most was the conversations between Mr g and Bahomet. They reminded me so much of the TV show Lost, and conversations between Jacob and The Man in Black. I could also picture Locke hanging out in this [...]

The narrator of this novel put me in mind of Calvino's qwfwq, and perhaps that is what won me over. Upon closing the book I am immersed in a lingering warm fuzzy feeling. I want to smile and say hello to strangers on the street. I might even be microscopically less afraid of dying. Ah, if only I could make this feeling last!

“Such little lives,” said Belhor. “Wouldn’t you agree? But there is also something of grandeur in them. Not in the individual lives. The individuals are just tiny specks, nothing. But in the monstrous jellied masses of them, the crowds, the communes, and planets, there is something of grandeur. They have thoughts. And they strive.”“They strive for what they might attain,” I said. “And they also strive for what they cannot attain. Most of them yearn for immortality. They want to l [...]

I loved Mr. Lightman for his work in Einstein's Dream. That was one of the best books I've ever read. A true scientific poetry (I believe they exist!)This one here though, fails at what it's trying to achieve. God may not be a good subject to be infused with science. Ever! Even if the writer is Lightman. Science is fascinating, God on the other hand is boring.

A theoretical physicist at MIT, Lightman is an atheist who’s fascinated by the heavens and the profound philosophical questions that attract both theologians and scientists. If we’re to have any meaningful dialogue between people of faith and people without it, that dialogue will surely have to be based on the sort of mutual respect and appreciation that scientists like E.O. Wilson and Lightman demonstrate.In this quirky little novel, he attempts to dramatize how Creation may have unfolded. [...]

Now that I've recovered from this icky stomach flu, I can officially review this wonderful book!I would say this is a solid 4,at least ! If I were more scientifically minded, it probably would have been higher.The story starts out with Mr. g (God with a little "g" because the author intends to humanize Him) hanging out in the void with his aunt and uncle (no, this is not explained - just go with it) and he decides that he is going to create the universe. The first few chapters describe Mr. g con [...]

I grew up with the first line from Genesis hardwired into my brain: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. This became an issue for me once I started learning about science. Well, this book is the scientific bedtime story version of the creation myth.Mr. g (lowercase, and not once does the author use the word God), exists with his bumbling Uncle and crabby Aunt in the Void. What, you believe the Bible stories, but are going to questions this premise? Mr. g is bored, so decides to [...]

As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I deiced to create the universe. That is the first sentence of Mr g how it all begins.The author is a theoretical physicist as well as a novelist of five previous books. He’s served on the faculties of Harvard and MIT. Alan Lightman was the first person ever to receive a dual faculty appointment at MIT in science and in the humanities and he utilized that wisdom and talent in writing his latest work, Mr g.A young creator living with his aunt P [...]

This book has just become one of my all time favorite books. i really enjoyed reading this fable/novel. The author Alan Lightman delves just deep enough into the universe to hear the beauty and suffering poignancies, to properly consider the necessity of opposing qualities such as good vs evil (or the unity of good and evil and keeping both concepts as unneeded labels) dilemma, control issues over how much knowledge should an animate being (like us humans) have over the Void, immortality and the [...]

I just finished Mr g and I am quite astonished by it. It’s a whammo story, beautifully and elegantly told. Full of wit and invention and science and humor, it is a consummate performance, a true work of literary art. It is made of philosophy and science and religion and poetry and whimsy. One of the book’s finest pieces of myth-making prestidigitation is, through its first person narration by g(G)od, to make you see human life differently, to make us see our world anew. That is a wondrous t [...]

10/10

Mr g steps out of the Void to create the universe but it takes Him a bit more than 6 days and no rest. An interesting concept for a novel but in the main it is probably more of an interest to physicists who believe in the Big Bang Theory. There is a philosophical element as Mr g contemplates good and evil with a number of discussions with Belhor a Satan figure with no explanation as how he came into existence. Throughout Mr g debates with is Aunt and Uncle so we have to assume Mr g has parents b [...]

As a student of theoretical physics, I absolutely loved this book. I think all other humans would enjoy it as well. This take on the origins of the universe is fresh and exciting.

"Ne yanılmıştım! Bilerek canlı yaratsam mı, yaratmasam mı demiştim. Oysa gayet açıkça gördüğüm üzere canlı madde, enerji, madde ve uygun kurallar konmuş bir evrenin kaçınılmaz ürünüydü. İstesem yaşamı yok edebilirdim. Ama yaratılışına sadece seyirciydim."

Tedious.

More a novella than a novel, Lightman's Mr g: A Novel About the Creation is a brilliant antidote to the polarization of science and (or should I say vs.?) religion which is all too prevalent in popular culture. The premise here is that Mr g awoke one day bored from what had doubtless been an infinite number of eons worth of naps. Looking around with dissatisfaction at the Void, peopled only by himself, Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, he impetuously created time. In time (now that this was an optio [...]

Alan Lightman once again uses his talents as a writer and his knowledge as a scientist to create a book of wisdom and questions. Mr. g wakes one morning and decides to create the universe. Combining Kabbalistic, Buddhist, and biblical story with the physics behind the birth of the universe, Lightman offers a thought provoking view of creation. While the physics can at times clash with Lightman's often poetic writing, what becomes clear is that there are many parallels between science and the Gen [...]

So, I didn't like it. I felt like it was trying to give some sort of scientific explanation for God. It read like something along the lines of: "yeah, I know it's hard to take evolution and all, but if we step back far enough we can find God and the Devil playing in the Void before it all happened."I just wasn't impressed. Years ago, I read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (which is not very short) and felt like I had a somewhat better grasp on quantum physics. That was a good, [...]

Oh. My. Goodness. This book did me in. It is a novel, creationism, science, philosophyStop what you are doing and read it right now. Seriously. NOW!!

The narrator lives in the void with his aunt and uncle, and the void is without dimension or time until the narrator, Mr g, imagines these things. This sets off a series of events where the narrator creates a number of universes and experiments with their various properties. He eventually creates a universe with a simple but distinct set of rules that is able to exist for a while. Those rules lead to matter, to galaxies, and planets. Some of the planets bear autonomous life. Mr g and his aunt an [...]