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The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance
In 3229 A.D., human civilization is scattered among the planets, moons, and asteroids of the solar system. Billions of lives depend on the technology derived from the breakthroughs of the greatest physicist of the age, Arthur Holywelkin. But in the last years of his life, Holywelkin devoted himself to building a strange, beautiful, and complex musical instrument that he called The Orchestra.Johannes Wright has earned the honor of becoming the Ninth Master of Holywelkin's Orchestra. Follow him on his Grand Tour of the Solar System, as he journeys down the gravity well toward the sun, impelled by a destiny he can scarcely understand, and is pursued by mysterious foes who will tell him anything except the reason for their enmity, in The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1985
39 people are currently reading
835 people want to read
About the author
Kim Stanley Robinson
248 books7,424 followersKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 7, 2022
"Music. If you are at all alive to it, you will have heard passages that bring a chill to your spine and a flush of blood to your cheeks; a rush of blood through all your skin; and this is a physical response to beauty."
I think there are very few sci-fi authors who make art the center of their stories - I know just two, Al Reynolds and Liu Cixin, and now three, with KSR. This story reminded me of Ode to Joy, Liu Cixin' story from the To Hold Up the Sky collection, and also of Reynolds' Zima Blue and again Cixin' Sea of Dreams in scope. It's wonderful to discover how science fiction can be interwoven with all forms of art: music, poetry, painting, sculpture.
Present story is centered around music and physics, and mainly philosophical, however I'm sure I did not get all the nuances in it. As a narrative is not that exciting, but the language - oh, my! What can I say? Every word drills into you brain and soul: the descriptions, the musings, and most of all, the interaction between the narrator and the reader; it's like he tells the story for you and only you - there is no one else there, just the two of you and the story. I loved the concept! Here is what I'm talking about:
"And consider it, Reader: inside your skull is another bubble called the dura, a tough bag enwrapping your brain. Inside this shell is your consciousness; outside this shell is the world; methinks there is no discontinuity more radical or strange than that. Are we not all little terras, separated from the universe by bubble discontinuities?"
"Imagine it, Reader! The shuttle rocket drops like a dart, it hits the atmosphere and begins to vibrate madly, the windows burn fiery orange and there is a roar that drowns all other sound; your little cylindrical compartment is washed of color, the windows blaze, you shake and bounce under the onslaught of air; and in each accelerated heartbeat you drop thousands of feet closer to home, the root of every story you know. Imagine the fear of it, the steep exhilaration!"
"What you give to music, music gives back tenfold; while he listened time had curved to fit the rhythm, there had been intervals when duration had expanded to infinity, and in concentrating with all his being on the dense texture of sound he had fallen into seconds as long as years."
"Dear Reader - you who may live in a cave, or a closet, you who may have spent all your life on one planet - you may not have any immediate analogy for the sensation Dent felt at that moment. To be looking at the home you have never seen before.... But all of us have felt the sudden tension, the rush of adrenaline which comes when we know we must face the unknown; imagine such a situation from your own past fully enough, and your diaphragm will tighten, your pulse will accelerate, in a ghost of the original apprehension-and then you will know what Dent felt looking at the Earth."
It's very underrated, from my pov. From what I read so far by KSR, it's similar (but not quite there) to The Years of Rice and Salt, which I consider his masterpiece. But if you care only for the plot and action, than skip this story. It's a book solely for the mind and soul.
I think there are very few sci-fi authors who make art the center of their stories - I know just two, Al Reynolds and Liu Cixin, and now three, with KSR. This story reminded me of Ode to Joy, Liu Cixin' story from the To Hold Up the Sky collection, and also of Reynolds' Zima Blue and again Cixin' Sea of Dreams in scope. It's wonderful to discover how science fiction can be interwoven with all forms of art: music, poetry, painting, sculpture.
Present story is centered around music and physics, and mainly philosophical, however I'm sure I did not get all the nuances in it. As a narrative is not that exciting, but the language - oh, my! What can I say? Every word drills into you brain and soul: the descriptions, the musings, and most of all, the interaction between the narrator and the reader; it's like he tells the story for you and only you - there is no one else there, just the two of you and the story. I loved the concept! Here is what I'm talking about:
"And consider it, Reader: inside your skull is another bubble called the dura, a tough bag enwrapping your brain. Inside this shell is your consciousness; outside this shell is the world; methinks there is no discontinuity more radical or strange than that. Are we not all little terras, separated from the universe by bubble discontinuities?"
"Imagine it, Reader! The shuttle rocket drops like a dart, it hits the atmosphere and begins to vibrate madly, the windows burn fiery orange and there is a roar that drowns all other sound; your little cylindrical compartment is washed of color, the windows blaze, you shake and bounce under the onslaught of air; and in each accelerated heartbeat you drop thousands of feet closer to home, the root of every story you know. Imagine the fear of it, the steep exhilaration!"
"What you give to music, music gives back tenfold; while he listened time had curved to fit the rhythm, there had been intervals when duration had expanded to infinity, and in concentrating with all his being on the dense texture of sound he had fallen into seconds as long as years."
"Dear Reader - you who may live in a cave, or a closet, you who may have spent all your life on one planet - you may not have any immediate analogy for the sensation Dent felt at that moment. To be looking at the home you have never seen before.... But all of us have felt the sudden tension, the rush of adrenaline which comes when we know we must face the unknown; imagine such a situation from your own past fully enough, and your diaphragm will tighten, your pulse will accelerate, in a ghost of the original apprehension-and then you will know what Dent felt looking at the Earth."
It's very underrated, from my pov. From what I read so far by KSR, it's similar (but not quite there) to The Years of Rice and Salt, which I consider his masterpiece. But if you care only for the plot and action, than skip this story. It's a book solely for the mind and soul.
April 26, 2012
The grand theme of this book is music. I cannot think of much SF I've read where this was the case, or even a big factor: The three Crystal Singer books by Anne McCaffrey and a short story by James Blish, the latter being good and the former being OK.
Robinson, on typically ambitious form, takes us on a tour of the solar system alongside the protagonist, a composer who develops a grand vision of how music and physics relate to each other at a fundamental level and creates music that gives people transcendant visions in response to hearing it. Now, music is sound and sound is a wave and waves have been studied by physicists for centuries and, of course, music can have a powerful and pretty direct effect on our emotional state, so there is some reality behind the ideas presented. I think that's all Robinson really wants to say; music is powerful and that power is mysterious in that, fundamentally, it's just a superposition of waves. He drops some hints that the Baroque composers are his personal inspiration. This is no surprise as there is supposed to be a correlation between high mathematical talent and liking the Baroque period in general and J.S. Bach particularly.
It's an interesting book, with a thriller plot-thread running through it to drive the narrative along but, surprisingly, the characters seem quite thin. This is odd because usually Robinson's great strength is characterisation, so much so that he can make it a fault by spending too much effort on it at the expense of slow pacing. No slow pace here. There is also very little in the way of ecological protection as a theme, which is again unusual for Robinson. His obsessions with Mars in general and Olympus Mons (the solar-system's biggest volcano) specifically are all present and correct, however.
The protagonist's visions of the nature of reality reminded me of a similar thing in Galileo's Dream, where it is done better. It would be tempting to say Robinson has improved as a writer in the intervening time but my experience is that his books have been a pretty random hit-or-miss collection with no obvious trend. This one sits firmly in the middle, neither the most perfect nor the most ambitious and not the weakest by some distance, either.
If you are a Robinson fan already, I can recommend this one; if you have never read any, I would recommend starting elsewhere, e.g. Antarctica.
Robinson, on typically ambitious form, takes us on a tour of the solar system alongside the protagonist, a composer who develops a grand vision of how music and physics relate to each other at a fundamental level and creates music that gives people transcendant visions in response to hearing it. Now, music is sound and sound is a wave and waves have been studied by physicists for centuries and, of course, music can have a powerful and pretty direct effect on our emotional state, so there is some reality behind the ideas presented. I think that's all Robinson really wants to say; music is powerful and that power is mysterious in that, fundamentally, it's just a superposition of waves. He drops some hints that the Baroque composers are his personal inspiration. This is no surprise as there is supposed to be a correlation between high mathematical talent and liking the Baroque period in general and J.S. Bach particularly.
It's an interesting book, with a thriller plot-thread running through it to drive the narrative along but, surprisingly, the characters seem quite thin. This is odd because usually Robinson's great strength is characterisation, so much so that he can make it a fault by spending too much effort on it at the expense of slow pacing. No slow pace here. There is also very little in the way of ecological protection as a theme, which is again unusual for Robinson. His obsessions with Mars in general and Olympus Mons (the solar-system's biggest volcano) specifically are all present and correct, however.
The protagonist's visions of the nature of reality reminded me of a similar thing in Galileo's Dream, where it is done better. It would be tempting to say Robinson has improved as a writer in the intervening time but my experience is that his books have been a pretty random hit-or-miss collection with no obvious trend. This one sits firmly in the middle, neither the most perfect nor the most ambitious and not the weakest by some distance, either.
If you are a Robinson fan already, I can recommend this one; if you have never read any, I would recommend starting elsewhere, e.g. Antarctica.
September 28, 2008
The Memory of Whiteness remains one of my all-time favorite books. Beyond any moral, character, or idea, this book is the only novel that I've been able to see as a work of art.
It feels, to me, the same way that one of those full-wall Salvador Dali paintings feels. It's just beautiful, and you don't know why, and you keep looking to try and figure out why, and it just keeps getting more beautiful, but it never really makes any more sense.
That doesn't mean that this intricate world doesn't make sense, or doesn't seem powerfully real and exciting...that's not the case at all.
Let's just say this: I cry reading books all the time...but I never thought I would cry because of a symphony I couldn't hear...that just shouldn't be possible...
It feels, to me, the same way that one of those full-wall Salvador Dali paintings feels. It's just beautiful, and you don't know why, and you keep looking to try and figure out why, and it just keeps getting more beautiful, but it never really makes any more sense.
That doesn't mean that this intricate world doesn't make sense, or doesn't seem powerfully real and exciting...that's not the case at all.
Let's just say this: I cry reading books all the time...but I never thought I would cry because of a symphony I couldn't hear...that just shouldn't be possible...
August 29, 2016
The Memory Of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance, is Kim Stanley Robinson’s third book, and from what I can gather his most philosophical. In it, he tries to tie a few threads of thought together: how determinism ties in with quantum physics and free will; art as representation of reality; how human thinking corresponds with reality & direct and indirect kinds of knowledge. The device KSR uses to connect all this is music.
The Memory Of Whiteness is philosophical musings first, and story second. I don’t think it has aged particularly well, and I don’t think it has a lot to offer to people that are already familiar with the topics I listed above – and I don’t mean as familiar like a CERN scientist, but familiar in a Quantum Physics For Dummies kinda way. I’m not sure how well known the general outlines of quantum physics were back in the 1980ies, but today those outlines are pretty much common knowledge to people with a healthy interest in their reality and a library card.
The notion of indeterminacy on a subatomic level has been a veritable feast for some philosophers of the postmodern ilk: an electron’s speed can’t be measured at the same time as its spin! Nothing is certain!! What we feel has been proven by hard science!!! Praise Heisenberg!!!! It went so far that people thinking philosophically about truth and representation – and that means nearly everybody writing theory about the arts, as most (if of not all) art is grounded in representation, as also non-representative art stems from representative predecessors – needed to become familiar with the Quantum. Of course, all this was quite overblown. It’s not because some subatomic processes are strange and weird that our Newtonian world – still the only world we live in – all of a sudden becomes unknowable and undetermined. Still, serious writers and serious philosophers needed to opine about Schrödinger’s cat and the possible existence of the Higgs boson, and Einstein’s dictum that ‘God doesn’t play dice’ was made fun of, even in works of popular culture that needed a claim on depth.
Kim Stanley Robinson clearly wasn’t a fool, not even back in those days. He saw through this mirage of uncertainty, and envisioned a world that was beyond these debates.
Newtonian physics is deterministic. It is true that it fits into the larger framework of the probabilistic system of quantum mechanics. But quantum mechanics fits into the larger framework of Holywelkin physics; and Holywelkin physics is again deterministic.
Holywelkin is a fictional scientist, and The Memory Of Whiteness is set in 3229 AD – it chronicles a tour of humanity’s most important musician/composer throughout the solar system.
(...)
Please read the rest of the analysis on Weighing A Pig
The Memory Of Whiteness is philosophical musings first, and story second. I don’t think it has aged particularly well, and I don’t think it has a lot to offer to people that are already familiar with the topics I listed above – and I don’t mean as familiar like a CERN scientist, but familiar in a Quantum Physics For Dummies kinda way. I’m not sure how well known the general outlines of quantum physics were back in the 1980ies, but today those outlines are pretty much common knowledge to people with a healthy interest in their reality and a library card.
The notion of indeterminacy on a subatomic level has been a veritable feast for some philosophers of the postmodern ilk: an electron’s speed can’t be measured at the same time as its spin! Nothing is certain!! What we feel has been proven by hard science!!! Praise Heisenberg!!!! It went so far that people thinking philosophically about truth and representation – and that means nearly everybody writing theory about the arts, as most (if of not all) art is grounded in representation, as also non-representative art stems from representative predecessors – needed to become familiar with the Quantum. Of course, all this was quite overblown. It’s not because some subatomic processes are strange and weird that our Newtonian world – still the only world we live in – all of a sudden becomes unknowable and undetermined. Still, serious writers and serious philosophers needed to opine about Schrödinger’s cat and the possible existence of the Higgs boson, and Einstein’s dictum that ‘God doesn’t play dice’ was made fun of, even in works of popular culture that needed a claim on depth.
Kim Stanley Robinson clearly wasn’t a fool, not even back in those days. He saw through this mirage of uncertainty, and envisioned a world that was beyond these debates.
Newtonian physics is deterministic. It is true that it fits into the larger framework of the probabilistic system of quantum mechanics. But quantum mechanics fits into the larger framework of Holywelkin physics; and Holywelkin physics is again deterministic.
Holywelkin is a fictional scientist, and The Memory Of Whiteness is set in 3229 AD – it chronicles a tour of humanity’s most important musician/composer throughout the solar system.
(...)
Please read the rest of the analysis on Weighing A Pig
May 10, 2017
When I stumbled upon this book in the bookstore and read the description I was immediately intrigued. Being a musician, what could be a more interesting read than blending music in with my Sci-Fi, which I also love. I have scarcely heard of such books in sci-fi, so I imagine there aren't too many with a musical theme, so I immediately purchased the book. I began reading shortly after and was immediately drawn into the book and the world created by Robinson.
"The Memory of Whiteness" is the story of composer Johannes Wright as he seeks to find a way to represent physics and mathematics into a musical score that transcends all musical scores. Based on that I thought this would wind up having a bit more of a hard sci-fi bent where Robinson would try to incorporate reality more into his novel. I think he did a splendid job incorporating the musical aspects, but the actual physics was a bit more lacking. I liked some of the ideas he came up with, but then we get to a part of the book with flying gurus and religious people that believe in a deterministic universe and basically, I felt like Robinson concluded that it was so, but then back peddled a bit and had some of his characters believe in an indeterminate universe for good measure...
The main story brings us on a tour of the solar system and this was probably way too ambitious for a book like this. I found the tour idea very interesting, but the main issue was that you kept leaving places too fast. The main characters are obviously the musician and his tour group, but Robinson tried to throw in some political intrigue here and there, but you were never anywhere long enough for it to really matter. The flavors of the different human settlements are barely tasted before we are off to the next meal. In the end we never really get a good sense of a place or its people and it makes it even harder to get a good vision of the greater solar system, and I think Robinson was trying to convey something greater, but just didn't have all the pages he wanted. Or he did and just couldn't think of anything else.
Robinson also tried to include a bit of a mystery/thriller vibe throughout the novel as the reader tries to unravel all that is being shown to them and this worked really well early on. However, this book really stalled out for me about half way through. As we take the music on a tour of the solar system the book gets into a bit of a routine, which isn't bad, but the mystery aspect felt like it stalled out too. At one point, I just didn't care about the mystery and it doesn't seem like Robinson did much either, because towards the end that thread ended in a very unsatisfying manner, and by that it didn't really answer much... not that I really want answers at this point.
In the end I thought this was a really excellent premise and cool idea, but wound up being poorly executed in the end. Aspects of the book got a bit too pulpy for me and maybe this doesn't hold up in 2017 considering it was first published in 1985. Sometimes I enjoy that pulpy stuff, but in this case it wasn't really a feature. Maybe I will try a different Robinson novel in the future.
"The Memory of Whiteness" is the story of composer Johannes Wright as he seeks to find a way to represent physics and mathematics into a musical score that transcends all musical scores. Based on that I thought this would wind up having a bit more of a hard sci-fi bent where Robinson would try to incorporate reality more into his novel. I think he did a splendid job incorporating the musical aspects, but the actual physics was a bit more lacking. I liked some of the ideas he came up with, but then we get to a part of the book with flying gurus and religious people that believe in a deterministic universe and basically, I felt like Robinson concluded that it was so, but then back peddled a bit and had some of his characters believe in an indeterminate universe for good measure...
The main story brings us on a tour of the solar system and this was probably way too ambitious for a book like this. I found the tour idea very interesting, but the main issue was that you kept leaving places too fast. The main characters are obviously the musician and his tour group, but Robinson tried to throw in some political intrigue here and there, but you were never anywhere long enough for it to really matter. The flavors of the different human settlements are barely tasted before we are off to the next meal. In the end we never really get a good sense of a place or its people and it makes it even harder to get a good vision of the greater solar system, and I think Robinson was trying to convey something greater, but just didn't have all the pages he wanted. Or he did and just couldn't think of anything else.
Robinson also tried to include a bit of a mystery/thriller vibe throughout the novel as the reader tries to unravel all that is being shown to them and this worked really well early on. However, this book really stalled out for me about half way through. As we take the music on a tour of the solar system the book gets into a bit of a routine, which isn't bad, but the mystery aspect felt like it stalled out too. At one point, I just didn't care about the mystery and it doesn't seem like Robinson did much either, because towards the end that thread ended in a very unsatisfying manner, and by that it didn't really answer much... not that I really want answers at this point.
In the end I thought this was a really excellent premise and cool idea, but wound up being poorly executed in the end. Aspects of the book got a bit too pulpy for me and maybe this doesn't hold up in 2017 considering it was first published in 1985. Sometimes I enjoy that pulpy stuff, but in this case it wasn't really a feature. Maybe I will try a different Robinson novel in the future.
April 1, 2018
I somehow missed this when it was first published in 1985. Kim Stanley Robinson spins a future tale of music and physics that should have grabbed me more than it ended up doing. I enjoyed it, but it didn't pull me in a deeply as I was hoping it would.
October 27, 2008
Autant le dire tout de suite, j’ai rarement lu de livre aussi puissant par sa construction et par les réflexions dans lesquelles il plonge le lecteur. Et du coup, pour tout dire, j’ai rarement lu de livre aussi bien.
Un petit résumé
Je rerésume, parce que la quatrième de couverture est encore une fois odieusement mauvaise, fausse et dénuée d’intérêt (pourtant, j’ai acheté ce bouquin sur la foi de cette susdite quatrième de couverture). Donc, ce roman nous raconte la grande tournée que fait, après le XXIème siècle, le Maître de l’Orchestre à travers tout le système solaire, partant de Pluton pour aller jusqu’à Prométhée (une station solaire orbitant à ras du Soleil). Mais cet Orchestre n’est pas, comme on pourrait s’y attendre, un ensemble d’instruments, ou plutôt pas tout à fait. En fait, il s’agit tout simplement d’un orchestre symphonique accroché dans une espèce de sculpture en verre, et utilisable grâce à tout un système de claviers, de tirettes et autres gadgets typiquement présents dans un orgue d’Eglise. Il faut donc imaginer une énorme sculpture en forme d’arbre, portant les instruments comme des fruits, et issue du génie d’un spécialiste en physique fondamentale, mort depuis des siècles, et inventeur d’une théorie analogue à celle des cordes (avec des dimensions supplémentaires enroulées dans un espace minuscule). Et le maître de l’Orchestre se retrouve alors à composer une musique décrivant cette théorie.
Des pistes de réflexion
C’est un ouvrage étonnant à bien des aspects. D’abord grâce à la discussion ayant lieu lors de la première rencontre entre le Maître, et un critique qui deviendra rapidement son ami, sur l’intérêt de la critique. En effet, lors de cette discussion, mon esprit critique a été flatté au-dela des mots par la distinction établie par les deux interlocuteurs entre la connaissance expérimentale (celle qu’à le lecteur d’un roman, l’expérimentateur) et la connaissance discursive, obtenue par le compte-rendu, critique ou non, d’une expérience. Cette distinction est d’ailleurs une des bases conceptuelles de ce roman, qui reviendra à intervalles réguliers, qu’il s’agisse de la connaissance de la musique, de celle de la "théorie des reflets"(1), ou de celle du secret des gris. Mais cette distinction entre connaissance livresque et expérimentation n’est pas la seule qui porte ce roman. On trouve aussi la quête de la vérité, ou plutôt de la lumière, qui hante les différents acteurs de ce roman. Cette quête qu’on retrouve également dans le choix des noms de lieux, au premier lieu desquels il faut placer cette station Prométhée, qui apporte la lumière et l’énergie à toute l’humanité, et dans laquelle le Maître comprendra finallement la vérité sur son destin. En fait, ces deux aspects ne sont peut-être même que des conséquences d’autres clés de ce récit, que sont le déterminisme de l’existence, mis en valeur par le Maître, qui se sait complètement déterminé, et auquel s’oppose le libre-arbitre qu’incarnent les différentes personnes l’entourant. Libre-arbitre que croit également incarner Ekern, lequel a monté, autour du Maïtre de l’orchestre un "métadrame"(2). Voilà peut-être la clé de lecture la plus profonde, et ddonc la plus importante, de cette oeuvre. Et pourtant, je ne peux m’empêcher de penser que tout cela n’est peut-être qu’une mise en abyme que met en place Robinson. En effet, ce roman qui décrit la construction d’une oeuvre d’art, visible à plusieurs niveaux, en est lui-même une. Dans quelle mesure ce qu’il décrit est-il transposable à l’échelle de l’auteur pour décrire les affres de sa création. M’enfin, ça n’est peut-être que mon imaginaire qui se projette dans cette oeuvre. D’un point de vue plus anecdotique, je trouve formidable cette idée de donner à la civilisation occupant tout le système solaire la musique comme principal moyen d’expression, en donnant par ailleurs une raison on ne peut plus crédible à cette préséance.
Conclusion
J’ai rarement lu d’aussi bons romans. Bien sûr, il y a quelques défaut, au premier lieu desquels les personnages, jouets dans les mains d’un démiurge(3). Mais tout cela n’est rien, face à la puissance que dégage cette oeuvre, et aux réflexions qu’elle suscite. J’ai finallement trouvé amusant de terminer ce magnifique roman le jour du 250ème anniversaire de la naissance de Mozart …
(1) Cette fameuse théorie décrivant l’univers de manière absolue, et qui présente la particularité de rendre l’univers déterministe, sous le vernis probabiliste de la physique quantique.
(2) dont l’équivalent contemporain serait la performance artistique ou le théatre de rue, mettant à profit le spectateur pour en faire un acteur.
(3) Mais n’est-ce pas précisément le but de ce roman que de nous faire comprendre que nous ne sommes que les jouets d’un Dieu énoncant l’univers ?
Un petit résumé
Je rerésume, parce que la quatrième de couverture est encore une fois odieusement mauvaise, fausse et dénuée d’intérêt (pourtant, j’ai acheté ce bouquin sur la foi de cette susdite quatrième de couverture). Donc, ce roman nous raconte la grande tournée que fait, après le XXIème siècle, le Maître de l’Orchestre à travers tout le système solaire, partant de Pluton pour aller jusqu’à Prométhée (une station solaire orbitant à ras du Soleil). Mais cet Orchestre n’est pas, comme on pourrait s’y attendre, un ensemble d’instruments, ou plutôt pas tout à fait. En fait, il s’agit tout simplement d’un orchestre symphonique accroché dans une espèce de sculpture en verre, et utilisable grâce à tout un système de claviers, de tirettes et autres gadgets typiquement présents dans un orgue d’Eglise. Il faut donc imaginer une énorme sculpture en forme d’arbre, portant les instruments comme des fruits, et issue du génie d’un spécialiste en physique fondamentale, mort depuis des siècles, et inventeur d’une théorie analogue à celle des cordes (avec des dimensions supplémentaires enroulées dans un espace minuscule). Et le maître de l’Orchestre se retrouve alors à composer une musique décrivant cette théorie.
Des pistes de réflexion
C’est un ouvrage étonnant à bien des aspects. D’abord grâce à la discussion ayant lieu lors de la première rencontre entre le Maître, et un critique qui deviendra rapidement son ami, sur l’intérêt de la critique. En effet, lors de cette discussion, mon esprit critique a été flatté au-dela des mots par la distinction établie par les deux interlocuteurs entre la connaissance expérimentale (celle qu’à le lecteur d’un roman, l’expérimentateur) et la connaissance discursive, obtenue par le compte-rendu, critique ou non, d’une expérience. Cette distinction est d’ailleurs une des bases conceptuelles de ce roman, qui reviendra à intervalles réguliers, qu’il s’agisse de la connaissance de la musique, de celle de la "théorie des reflets"(1), ou de celle du secret des gris. Mais cette distinction entre connaissance livresque et expérimentation n’est pas la seule qui porte ce roman. On trouve aussi la quête de la vérité, ou plutôt de la lumière, qui hante les différents acteurs de ce roman. Cette quête qu’on retrouve également dans le choix des noms de lieux, au premier lieu desquels il faut placer cette station Prométhée, qui apporte la lumière et l’énergie à toute l’humanité, et dans laquelle le Maître comprendra finallement la vérité sur son destin. En fait, ces deux aspects ne sont peut-être même que des conséquences d’autres clés de ce récit, que sont le déterminisme de l’existence, mis en valeur par le Maître, qui se sait complètement déterminé, et auquel s’oppose le libre-arbitre qu’incarnent les différentes personnes l’entourant. Libre-arbitre que croit également incarner Ekern, lequel a monté, autour du Maïtre de l’orchestre un "métadrame"(2). Voilà peut-être la clé de lecture la plus profonde, et ddonc la plus importante, de cette oeuvre. Et pourtant, je ne peux m’empêcher de penser que tout cela n’est peut-être qu’une mise en abyme que met en place Robinson. En effet, ce roman qui décrit la construction d’une oeuvre d’art, visible à plusieurs niveaux, en est lui-même une. Dans quelle mesure ce qu’il décrit est-il transposable à l’échelle de l’auteur pour décrire les affres de sa création. M’enfin, ça n’est peut-être que mon imaginaire qui se projette dans cette oeuvre. D’un point de vue plus anecdotique, je trouve formidable cette idée de donner à la civilisation occupant tout le système solaire la musique comme principal moyen d’expression, en donnant par ailleurs une raison on ne peut plus crédible à cette préséance.
Conclusion
J’ai rarement lu d’aussi bons romans. Bien sûr, il y a quelques défaut, au premier lieu desquels les personnages, jouets dans les mains d’un démiurge(3). Mais tout cela n’est rien, face à la puissance que dégage cette oeuvre, et aux réflexions qu’elle suscite. J’ai finallement trouvé amusant de terminer ce magnifique roman le jour du 250ème anniversaire de la naissance de Mozart …
(1) Cette fameuse théorie décrivant l’univers de manière absolue, et qui présente la particularité de rendre l’univers déterministe, sous le vernis probabiliste de la physique quantique.
(2) dont l’équivalent contemporain serait la performance artistique ou le théatre de rue, mettant à profit le spectateur pour en faire un acteur.
(3) Mais n’est-ce pas précisément le but de ce roman que de nous faire comprendre que nous ne sommes que les jouets d’un Dieu énoncant l’univers ?
February 7, 2024
Music, philosophy, drama, performance, science, and a masterpiece tapestry of free will and creativity is the result. Robinson's novel is thought provoking and intense, and I will be reading more.
June 20, 2015
He saw that they were all working together at the first step of the species' break from the home world, and he understood that if the first step were taken successfully, with balance, they could run from star to star all across the night.
A great space opera but a second tier KSR novel.
Holywelkin was a brilliant physicist whose Ten Forms of Change unified relativity and quantum mechanics and allowed humankind to bring sunlight and 1g gravity -- and thus civilization -- to the far reaches of the Solar System. He also invented a strange musical instrument, the Holywelkin Orchestra, a one-man orchestra seen by many as nothing but a gimmick.
Johannes Wright is the ninth master of the Holywelkin Orchestra. He is the musical genius who will create the new paradigm of the age, one that doesn't just explain Holywelkin's new model of reality, but actually suggests there is a connection between our structure of thinking and the structure of reality itself. Because Wright has discovered the Holywelkin's ten equations map a little too neatly to the ten ways a composer can alter a piece of music for it to be a coincidence.
But Johannes Wright has enemies. As he travels downsystem on his great tour, he is attacked by a shadowy troupe of metadramatists, Actors whose theatre is real life. The troupe is composed of a member of the Orchestra's board of directors, a clan of Mercurian Mithraists and a former music school rival. They believe that their metaplay can determine Wright's destiny, and Wright's destiny will determine his music, and his music may very well determine reality...
And then there's Dent Ios, a rustic plutonian tapir farmer who reluctantly accepts his farming cooperative's request that he follow the tour and cover it for their literary music journal, Thistledown. If he'd just shown up for the co-op meeting he could've stayed home.
From anyone else, it would be an instant sci-fi masterpiece. But it's a little bit too neat. There's a bit too much of Arthur C Clarke's-sufficiently-advanced-science-looking-like-magic. I mean, the terras are cool, but they look like cheap Jack Kirby knock-offs when you compare them to KSR's terraformation of Mars, or his asteroid terrariums. The characters aren't much: one's a villain, one's Bilbo Baggins, and one's the next Bach. But then, this was his first novel (second to be published), and his writing about music (and his justification of writing about music) is interesting. The author hasn't quite found his voice, but you can see all of the elements for it are there.
A great space opera but a second tier KSR novel.
Holywelkin was a brilliant physicist whose Ten Forms of Change unified relativity and quantum mechanics and allowed humankind to bring sunlight and 1g gravity -- and thus civilization -- to the far reaches of the Solar System. He also invented a strange musical instrument, the Holywelkin Orchestra, a one-man orchestra seen by many as nothing but a gimmick.
Johannes Wright is the ninth master of the Holywelkin Orchestra. He is the musical genius who will create the new paradigm of the age, one that doesn't just explain Holywelkin's new model of reality, but actually suggests there is a connection between our structure of thinking and the structure of reality itself. Because Wright has discovered the Holywelkin's ten equations map a little too neatly to the ten ways a composer can alter a piece of music for it to be a coincidence.
But Johannes Wright has enemies. As he travels downsystem on his great tour, he is attacked by a shadowy troupe of metadramatists, Actors whose theatre is real life. The troupe is composed of a member of the Orchestra's board of directors, a clan of Mercurian Mithraists and a former music school rival. They believe that their metaplay can determine Wright's destiny, and Wright's destiny will determine his music, and his music may very well determine reality...
And then there's Dent Ios, a rustic plutonian tapir farmer who reluctantly accepts his farming cooperative's request that he follow the tour and cover it for their literary music journal, Thistledown. If he'd just shown up for the co-op meeting he could've stayed home.
From anyone else, it would be an instant sci-fi masterpiece. But it's a little bit too neat. There's a bit too much of Arthur C Clarke's-sufficiently-advanced-science-looking-like-magic. I mean, the terras are cool, but they look like cheap Jack Kirby knock-offs when you compare them to KSR's terraformation of Mars, or his asteroid terrariums. The characters aren't much: one's a villain, one's Bilbo Baggins, and one's the next Bach. But then, this was his first novel (second to be published), and his writing about music (and his justification of writing about music) is interesting. The author hasn't quite found his voice, but you can see all of the elements for it are there.
June 4, 2021
I have read this book probably four or five times over the decades and each time it seems to mean something different. I suppose that's because I've also learned a bit more about the topics it covers each time - physics, philosophy, music and most recently, just how important music seems to be as far as our brains are concerned. I do emphasise the 'a bit more 'because I'm no expert in any of them! The story seems to revolve around the question is everything predetermined, or does chance play a part? Must the universe unfold in a set pattern? Do humans have free will? Who is pulling who's strings? Each section seems to be leading to an answer, which is then thrown into doubt by a subsequent event or disclosure.
The story is set in the third millennium, advanced in the understanding of physics means humans have colonised the entire solar system from artificial habitats orbiting near Pluto to a city on Mercury that is constantly moving to avoid a deadly sunrise. I'm this new world, music has immense importance, everyone can play an instrument or three. People travel interplanetary distances to attend concerts. The pinnacle of achievement concerning the production of music is The Orchestra - a monumental instrument. The master of The Orchestra is Johannes, a young, gifted composer who .must take his work on a grand tour from Pluto to Mercury.
Each concert seems to be a new exploration of meaning, and as the master, with his troop of friends, technicians and security people descends into the gravity well of our solar system, puzzles increase but choices get pared away. The end is inevitable - or is it? Was Johannes murdered or did he make a free choice?
I was surprised to see that this was only the author's second published novel because it's written with so much confidence and authority. I do admire those of his later novels that I've read, but I'm not sure if any of them had the intensity and passion of this one. You will see seeds of the Mars trilogy here but they are a little overshadowed by the music.
The story is set in the third millennium, advanced in the understanding of physics means humans have colonised the entire solar system from artificial habitats orbiting near Pluto to a city on Mercury that is constantly moving to avoid a deadly sunrise. I'm this new world, music has immense importance, everyone can play an instrument or three. People travel interplanetary distances to attend concerts. The pinnacle of achievement concerning the production of music is The Orchestra - a monumental instrument. The master of The Orchestra is Johannes, a young, gifted composer who .must take his work on a grand tour from Pluto to Mercury.
Each concert seems to be a new exploration of meaning, and as the master, with his troop of friends, technicians and security people descends into the gravity well of our solar system, puzzles increase but choices get pared away. The end is inevitable - or is it? Was Johannes murdered or did he make a free choice?
I was surprised to see that this was only the author's second published novel because it's written with so much confidence and authority. I do admire those of his later novels that I've read, but I'm not sure if any of them had the intensity and passion of this one. You will see seeds of the Mars trilogy here but they are a little overshadowed by the music.
July 30, 2010
The Memory of Whiteness is Robinson's third novel, after
The Wild Shore
and
Icehenge
. It's a very unusual book, to me, it really stands out in Robinson's oeuvre. Much of his work deals with science and many of the characters are scientists. In this novel science plays a large role in this novel as well but this time it is not so much the process and the ways it can change the world but rather the world view that is influence by a scientific theory. The first time I read it, in 2006 I believe, I was very impressed with this somewhat surreal trip though the solar system. A feeling that has not been diminished by this reread...
Full Random Comments review
Full Random Comments review
September 1, 2009
I debated whether to put three or four stars. I read this book as a (weird) young person, and it was lent to me by my equally weird friend, who had a year on me. And when we read it, we couldn't stop talking about it. It was huge for us, because, like us, it was, well, weird. It was very surreal. We talked about it and talked about it, and one day her books disappeared, we think her mother sold it in a yard sale. So, about three years ago, she found a copy, and we were both shot right back to about 20 years prior. And last month, I found a copy of this book on Ebay, and now I will have to re-read it to see if it is still as surreal and odd and mystical and vast and cosmic and musical and not-quite-tangible as I remember it being... Stay tuned
April 15, 2019
There is a story, buried as it is. Groundbreaking musician Johannes Wright goes on tour through our solar system’s many artificial worlds with his single-instrument Orchestra, while interferences misfire all around him.
But the book is more about Wright’s attempt to create music that communicates perfectly with every person. The attempt is way too esoteric for me. Maybe having a thorough understanding of both physics and musical theory would make the foundations of THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS intelligible – or maybe it wouldn’t.
I was determined to finish it, so for the first half and more, I read a section a day. Eventually events began to dominate theory, enough so that I built up momentum and read the last half in one day.
But the book is more about Wright’s attempt to create music that communicates perfectly with every person. The attempt is way too esoteric for me. Maybe having a thorough understanding of both physics and musical theory would make the foundations of THE MEMORY OF WHITENESS intelligible – or maybe it wouldn’t.
I was determined to finish it, so for the first half and more, I read a section a day. Eventually events began to dominate theory, enough so that I built up momentum and read the last half in one day.
June 8, 2016
I read this when I was seventeen. At the time, it was a perfect mix of music, drugs and science, all of which were interests of mine. What blew my mind was the way that it shook my ideas about free will - something I had always taken for granted and never really questioned. Since then, my views have evolved, but I still find the ideas presented here compelling, and I can credit this book with opening my mind on the subject.
In terms of personal impact, then, this is a 5 star book. I am giving it only 4 stars now, as I am older and ostensibly wiser. Without the shock of that one insight, at that particular time in my life, I don't think the book would have been nearly so impactful.
In terms of personal impact, then, this is a 5 star book. I am giving it only 4 stars now, as I am older and ostensibly wiser. Without the shock of that one insight, at that particular time in my life, I don't think the book would have been nearly so impactful.
October 17, 2017
This had such an unusual and interesting premise that I had to pick it up. I am a fan of Robinson's "Mars" trilogy, but hadn't read much else of his novels. In this case, I was fascinated by much of it, but kept being dragged out of the story by two things. One was a cutesy tendency of the narrator to break the fourth wall at awkward moments, addressing the reader directly. The other was that I never once found the giant musical instrument to be believable. Yes, I could believe six kinds of impossible in the science and the philosophy, but the mechanical device got in the way.
Worse, since the reader isn't actually let in on the secret of whether some of the scenes in the book were "true" in the context of the story, it became a story with what MAY be an unreliable narrator, which is very frustrating.
So, the book is an excellent piece for provoking thought, but unfortunately the story suffered by comparison.
Here is one of the thoughts that the book provoked, in me:
Does it matter if the universe is deterministic? I mean, if there is no such thing as free will in the long run, but you act as if you had it, then what's the difference? From your viewpoint, you have free will. From the viewpoint of an extra-universal observer, your actions may be totally predictable and pre-ordained, but to you, they're not.That is, unless you deliberately try to predict your own actions and follow that path, in which case you spiral down the same rabbit hole as some of the characters in the book...
Worse, since the reader isn't actually let in on the secret of whether some of the scenes in the book were "true" in the context of the story, it became a story with what MAY be an unreliable narrator, which is very frustrating.
So, the book is an excellent piece for provoking thought, but unfortunately the story suffered by comparison.
Here is one of the thoughts that the book provoked, in me:
Does it matter if the universe is deterministic? I mean, if there is no such thing as free will in the long run, but you act as if you had it, then what's the difference? From your viewpoint, you have free will. From the viewpoint of an extra-universal observer, your actions may be totally predictable and pre-ordained, but to you, they're not.That is, unless you deliberately try to predict your own actions and follow that path, in which case you spiral down the same rabbit hole as some of the characters in the book...
August 5, 2020
“The Memory of Whiteness” is a science fiction novel about music. For it to capture the reader, that reader must know a little music theory and share musical sympathy with the writer.
I don’t know much music theory. I don’t share musical sympathy with the writer. With few exceptions, music simply doesn’t speak to me. I prefer to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. Consequently, I couldn’t join the author on his musicological flights of fancy. I couldn’t share his characters’ love of listening and performing music. I didn’t really understand what was happening half the time.
Narratively, the story is weak. The author spends nearly the whole novel shrouding the antagonist’s ends and means, which are supposed to be mysterious or something. The result is that the story has no clear stakes, giving me no real reason to root for Team Good to prevail over Team Evil, other than that Team Evil appears to be a bunch of jerks. When the antagonist’s evil plan is finally revealed, it turns out to be so rudimentary and simplistic that I almost thought I was watching a below-average episode of a children’s sci-fi shoe rather than reading a respected novel.
Ah, well. That’s the thing about books. You make your best guess when you pull a volume off the shelf, but you never really know what you’re going to get.
I don’t know much music theory. I don’t share musical sympathy with the writer. With few exceptions, music simply doesn’t speak to me. I prefer to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. Consequently, I couldn’t join the author on his musicological flights of fancy. I couldn’t share his characters’ love of listening and performing music. I didn’t really understand what was happening half the time.
Narratively, the story is weak. The author spends nearly the whole novel shrouding the antagonist’s ends and means, which are supposed to be mysterious or something. The result is that the story has no clear stakes, giving me no real reason to root for Team Good to prevail over Team Evil, other than that Team Evil appears to be a bunch of jerks. When the antagonist’s evil plan is finally revealed, it turns out to be so rudimentary and simplistic that I almost thought I was watching a below-average episode of a children’s sci-fi shoe rather than reading a respected novel.
Ah, well. That’s the thing about books. You make your best guess when you pull a volume off the shelf, but you never really know what you’re going to get.
July 30, 2024
Despite being a major fan of Kim Stanley Robinson, I do have to admit that this is one of his lesser novels. Actually, probably the very least of his novels. I you are a completist, and want to read every single one of KSR's novels, as well as all of his shorter fiction - then you will want to track this book down. Otherwise - you might want to give it a miss.
As a rabid KSR fan, I was fascinated to see references to scenes from his other works, including "a city on the terminator of Mercury that moves on tracks" (re 2312), and notes that relate to key passages in future novels.
It is a very very odd novel, and I would say not entirely successful. It does provide an interesting insight into his development.
There is relatively little musical science fiction! One of the few other stories that comes to mind is Stardance (by Spider and Jeanne Robinson). Always Coming Home (Ursula K. Le Guin), as well as some of her short stories (e.g., The Kerastion) are also musically-oriented. I know there are a few others, but titles and authors escape me at the moment.
My rating system:
Since Goodreads only allows 1 to 5 stars (no half-stars), you have no option but to be ruthless. I reserve one star for a book that is a BOMB - or poor (equivalent to a letter grade of F, E, or at most D). Progressing upwards, 2 stars is equivalent to C (C -, C or C+), 3 stars (equals to B - or B), 4 stars (equals B+ or A -), and 5 stars (equals A or A+). As a result, I maximize my rating space for good books, and don't waste half or more of that rating space on books that are of marginal quality.
I hesitate to give KSR a mere one star (if there were half-stars, it would sting a bit less) but there is no way I can justify a Goodreads score of 2 stars.
As a rabid KSR fan, I was fascinated to see references to scenes from his other works, including "a city on the terminator of Mercury that moves on tracks" (re 2312), and notes that relate to key passages in future novels.
It is a very very odd novel, and I would say not entirely successful. It does provide an interesting insight into his development.
There is relatively little musical science fiction! One of the few other stories that comes to mind is Stardance (by Spider and Jeanne Robinson). Always Coming Home (Ursula K. Le Guin), as well as some of her short stories (e.g., The Kerastion) are also musically-oriented. I know there are a few others, but titles and authors escape me at the moment.
My rating system:
Since Goodreads only allows 1 to 5 stars (no half-stars), you have no option but to be ruthless. I reserve one star for a book that is a BOMB - or poor (equivalent to a letter grade of F, E, or at most D). Progressing upwards, 2 stars is equivalent to C (C -, C or C+), 3 stars (equals to B - or B), 4 stars (equals B+ or A -), and 5 stars (equals A or A+). As a result, I maximize my rating space for good books, and don't waste half or more of that rating space on books that are of marginal quality.
I hesitate to give KSR a mere one star (if there were half-stars, it would sting a bit less) but there is no way I can justify a Goodreads score of 2 stars.
April 9, 2018
For musicians this is a small gem of SF. It has the Holywelkin Orchestra. And there are planet-to-planet hops to & fro like a touring troupe, with some occult sabotage & plotting, and a savant who plays the most amazing of musical instruments. We follow him through clarity and madness, fugues and bouts of wonderment. I liked the sense of teacher-student at the beginning, and the brevity of the novel, Robinson does well with easing the reader smoothly along the arc of his story with enough consideration for setting & character. Only the plot itself wasn’t all that dazzling: the bad guy was an oddball and the (good) main guy was, well, an oddball too, whose thinkings and actions were inscrutable sometimes.
July 21, 2020
Fascinating early work by KSR, containing not a few ideas developed more fully in later novels. Easy structure: a grand tour of the solar system. Compelling characters, if not as well developed as in later work. The most interesting part of all this is KSR's utopian vision of a human race of musicians, whose expansion into the outer reaches of the solar system necessitated years or decades of forced isolation in underground bunkers or sealed habitats, time in which the visual arts suffered for lack of inspiration, and music grew to be inextricable from culture. The early chapters posit this as a kind of idyll - space colonized by musicians! - but the bottleneck makes it a tragedy with a silver lining.
July 30, 2024
With the entire solar system as a stage, Robinson's grand Space Opera is a heady mix of technological wonders (harnessed singularities turn asteroids into lush oases) and philosophical musings which attempt to draw links between music, quantum arcana, and human consciousness (sometimes a melody is not just a melody!) But it all gets muddled down by conspiracy paranoia and pseudo-religious tangents involving robed cultists and a mad playwright while the novel's central gimmick, a towering structure of musical instruments controlled by a single player, had me picturing something straight out of Dr. Seuss' Whoville. Robinson has a beautiful way with words however, if only he hadn't used so many.
June 28, 2019
I greatly admire KSR's fiction, and even with this one, I am impressed by the extraordinary vision and knowledge of science that went in to informing every aspect of both the front and back stories. But for the life of me, despite the echoes of Herman Hesse's _Glass Bead Game_, I could not wait for the novel to be done. I even though I finished it a week ago, I cannot really recall how or why it ended as it did, confirming my feeling as I was reading it, why does any of this matter? I left my copy in Japan where I was traveling so that another soul on the planet could be as mesmerized and/or confused as I was.
March 4, 2023
Kim Stanley Robinson’s third novel, from 1985, a fun weirdo book about music, physics, free will, determinism, and some sort of sinister cult of performance artists. More specifically: the year is 3229, we have an 11-meter tall instrument called the Orchestra that allows one musician to play whole symphonies, and this musician goes on a grand tour of the solar system, from Pluto to Mercury, playing experimental pieces that mess with everyone’s head. And maybe that cult is trying to sabotage him?
It’s far from his best work, but I had a good time. It’s also distinctly Robinson, and cool to see first iterations of the multiplanetary civilizations he would build in future books.
It’s far from his best work, but I had a good time. It’s also distinctly Robinson, and cool to see first iterations of the multiplanetary civilizations he would build in future books.
January 5, 2018
"The Memory of Whiteness" е сред първите книги на КСР (1985г.) и е по-лирична и философска в сравнение с по-късните му, знакови творби. История за Смисъла, детерминизма и свободната воля, но и история за връзката между изкуството и науката. XXXIII век, човечеството се е разпръснало из Слънчевата система, а от Плутон към "дъното" на гравитационния кладенец, Йоханес Райт се отправя на турне със своя Оркестър (инструмент- конгломерат от инструменти).
April 7, 2020
What a trip ... physics, beyond-physics, music theory, philosophy, and a mystery never quite solved for us. If you love music, and enjoy having your brain stretched, this is a treat. It's early KSR, so the genius ideas are exploding like giant popcorn from cannons, but you can see his love of Mars and terraforming and the universe in general. Read it, and tell me what you think.
December 27, 2021
Not often that I bail on a book, but I was simply not enjoying this. Not that it is poorly written, Kim Stanley Robertson is a skilled author, I just didn’t like the story and direction that much, so about a third way through, I put it away - and it’s a long book... there were others I wanted to get to before slogging through this one.
July 8, 2017
A very beautiful book, especially for those who love music enough to learn some music theory. Robinson employs the language of music in the service of science fiction, and the blend is excitingly fresh and lyrical, merging the boundaries of these seemingly separate experiences.
July 20, 2017
Lots of this book was way above my head - musical theory not being a strong point - and sometimes I found myself scanning the dense, monotonous descriptive parts, but I found the general concept, dialogue and unfolding travel through the Solar System interesting enough to keep me going to the end.
October 6, 2017
KSR is one of my favorite authors and I really wanted to like this. I can't even excuse it as being an early work, given how good The Gold Coast wast. The mysticism was boring and inscrutable. Perhaps it is interesting if you are really into music? I don't know.
October 25, 2018
Love KSR but bought this because I wanted a small paperback not a trade pb to read on a plane. Wildly exceeded my expectations with terrific plot involving music and determinism and the solar system of the far future.
July 23, 2019
I tried. I really did. Unfortunately, I found that the book focused much too closely on two subjects I have never show much talent for: music and math. Had the characters seemed even a quarter as important, perhaps I would have toughed it out. Unfortunately, this is my first DNF of 2019.
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