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From: ttp@kestrel.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.books,net.sci
Subject: Re: SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN
Message-ID: <7146@kestrel.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 21-Apr-86 18:24:31 EST
Article-I.D.: kestrel.7146
Posted: Mon Apr 21 18:24:31 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Apr-86 21:37:29 EST
References: <1811@mtgzz.UUCP> <13254@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Kestrel Institute, Palo Alto, CA
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Xref: watmath net.books:3431 net.sci:746
Summary: ??

In article <13254@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>, tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu (Tom Tedrick) writes:
> >	   SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN by Richard P. Feynman
> >			     Bantam, 1986, $4.50.
> Some find it extremely offensive.
> 
> I recommend it *HIGHLY* to anyone with the right mind-set: however
> I have no way of knowing who that would be. ...
> [if] you are very moralistic or committed to
> some political cause, I suggest not reading it, unless you
> want to get angry.

I don't understand why either of these things would matter very much
in one's reaction to the book.  There was a mention about a seemingly
disturbing philosophy of life he learned from Von Neumann, but as it
was not discussed (unfortunately) there's not much to go on.  

I liked the book immensely--especially his refreshing impersonal
iconoclasm, sort of an independent American type, never kow-towing to
tradition or class.  I also thought it remarkable that he recounted
the tricks he pulled behind the times when he appeared brilliant to
his colleagues.  What some people have perceived as vanity seems more
like to be a game, where he freely admitted that he lost occasionally.

One thing I heard someone say about the book was that when she got
part way through the book, she wondered, "What's the POINT?".  Perhaps
one would like to arrive at some grand catharsis in the author's life.
After awhile,  she said she stopped worrying about the endpoint and
enjoyed the ride.