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The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance
by
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 ca
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Paperback, 352 pages
Published
January 15th 1996
by Orb Books
(first published 1985)
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Start your review of The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 ...more
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 d ...more
The Memory Of Whiteness is philosophical musings first, and story second. I d ...more
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 ...more
"The Memory of Whiteness" is the story ...more
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.
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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 bel
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Aug 31, 2009
Tiffany
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Tiffany by:
my childhood best friend
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 ab
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Jun 17, 2015
Edward
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
1980-2014
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 ...more
In terms of personal impact, then, this is a 5 star book. I am giving it ...more
Jun 04, 2021
Bron
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favourite-universes,
in-the-kindle
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 p
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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 impo
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“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 ...more
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 ...more
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 consid
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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 intelli ...more
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 intelli ...more
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 l
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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 co
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A new to me old masterpiece
I recently heard about this book on a Facebook group. When you discover an old book by your favourite author you are blessed. It didn't disappoint. Music, science, philosophy, space travel , intrigue, interesting characters, you name it. Very complex, dense and compelling. I enjoyed reading it. ...more
I recently heard about this book on a Facebook group. When you discover an old book by your favourite author you are blessed. It didn't disappoint. Music, science, philosophy, space travel , intrigue, interesting characters, you name it. Very complex, dense and compelling. I enjoyed reading it. ...more
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.
...more
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.
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.
Oct 05, 2017
Sebastian Sajda
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction
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.
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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.
Jul 23, 2019
Krista
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
did-not-finish
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.
The Memory of Whiteness was not one of the more accessible of Robinson's books that I have read, however the imagery and detail contained from beginning to end made it an interesting read. A smarter person than I might be able to get more out of this reach and intricate story.
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Sorry Kim, you are my favourite author but this is a big NONO! I won't force myself through this.
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A quite brilliant and unique science fiction novel for anyone who loves music.
I read a copy of this, borrowed from my wife.
Robinson is strong on ideas, but week on character and plot. My enthusiasm for the big ideas behind this book, physics and my sic, isn't quite enough to translate to enthusiasm for the book, personally.
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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 S ...more
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 S ...more
On page 146
Reading this instead of his most recent one. The combination of physics (much of it speculative) and musical composition is quite startling. It is difficult to imagine the Orchestra as anything more than a gigantic form of one man band and we see Holywelkin as a one man band at one point. There has been an undescribed event at some point which has spun chunks off the sun so there are small suns, "whitsuns", providing extra light to some planets and their moons and there are settlement ...more
Reading this instead of his most recent one. The combination of physics (much of it speculative) and musical composition is quite startling. It is difficult to imagine the Orchestra as anything more than a gigantic form of one man band and we see Holywelkin as a one man band at one point. There has been an undescribed event at some point which has spun chunks off the sun so there are small suns, "whitsuns", providing extra light to some planets and their moons and there are settlement ...more
4 stars. i liked this one quite a lot. quite different from Robinson's usual story. it's a far future sf, vividly set on a space opera stage. makes me think of stuff like Keith Roberts' Pavane, that kind of story, though it's easy enough to see Jack Vance in it too. the worlds are interesting, but the big deal is the main conceit: a galactic culture based on music, the nature of the interface between the audience and the work, and the nature and influence of artistic principles in engendering ch
...more
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Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer, probably best known for his award-winning Mars trilogy.
His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his ...more
His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the 15 years of research and lifelong fascination with Mars which culminated in his most famous work. He has, due to his ...more
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“So you attempt what De Bruik attempted, in her Free Radical Binds to Macromolecule.” “We all attempt what De Bruik attempted, in one way or another.” In Free Radical De Bruik had represented the macromolecule, an RNA strand, as a passacaglia, a ground base repeated again and again, in patterns of four that alternated regularly. This was a simple icon, a metaphor in which the repeated ground base stood for the repeated proteins in the RNA; fine. And the free radical’s part was a test for any trumpet player.”
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“But it is an orchestra,” I say. “It’s an imitation orchestra—an orchestrion, an orchestrina—whatever you call it, it does a terrible job! All you’ve done is turn a sublime group achievement, a human act, into an inferior egotistical solo—”
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