Standard candles

Häftad, Engelska, 2015

329 kr

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Like the ever-widening universe, Standard candles expands on Alice Major’s earlier themes of family, mythology, and cosmology, teasing out subtle wonders in form and subject. Her voice resonates through experiments with old and new poetic forms as she imbues observed and imagined phenomena—from the centres of galaxies to the mysteries of her own backyard—with the most grounded and grounding moments of human experience. In Standard candles, readers will find an emotional dimension that seamlessly intersects with the dimensions of space and time. Fans of Alice Major will enjoy seeing her work through familiar themes, while readers new to her poetry will discover unexplored universes.Alice Major emigrated from Scotland at the age of eight, and grew up in Toronto before coming west to work as a weekly newspaper reporter. She served as Edmonton’s first poet laureate and has been inducted into the city’s cultural hall of fame. A widely-published author, she has won many distinctions. Her most recent book is Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science, which received the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction as well as a National Magazine Award gold medal. Her website is www.alicemajor.com.Let us compare cosmologiesThere is a beginning and a middle.There is an arc of narrative.There is a word, a large engraved initial.There is imperative—a cause, a god. Or not.There is an end. A purpose.Or maybe none. There is a plotwith reasons, reason. There is a circus,a theatre stage of space and time.There are equations at the bottomor the top. There is a pantheonof matter, motion, scattered photons.And the questions every universe expects:what came before? What happens next?

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2015-07-21
Mått133 x 229 x 10 mm
Vikt250 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieRobert Kroetsch Series
Antal sidor176
FörlagUniversity of Alberta Press
ISBN9781772120912
UtmärkelserShort-listed for League of Canadian Poets / Raymond Souster Award 2016 (Canada)

Tillhör följande kategorier

Poesi inom Skonlitteratur
Astronomi inom Naturvetenskap och teknik
Filosofiska discipliner inom Filosofi och religion
Naturvetenskapens filosofi inom Naturvetenskap och teknik

Alice Major emigrated from Scotland at the age of eight, and grew up in Toronto before coming west to work as a weekly newspaper reporter. She served as the City of Edmonton’s first poet laureate from 2005–2007. A widely-published author, she has won many distinctions. Her most recent book, Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science, received the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for non-fiction as well as a National Magazine Award gold medal. Her website is www.alicemajor.com.

xi Sonnet for Valentine’sThe set of all gods2 The god of prime numbers3 The god of infinities4 The god of symmetry5 The god of gravity6 The god of salt7 The god of kites and darts8 The god of quantum uncertainty9 The god of probabilities10 The baker god11 The god of automata12 The god of teapots14 The god of cats16 The god of sparrows17 The god of hearts18 The jeweller god19 The god of dark20 The god of memory21 The muse of universesOrdinary matter24 Ordinary matter26 Vacuum fluctuations27 The helium thoughts28 Advice to the lovelorn30 Three-body problem31 Love in three dimensions32 Heavy elements33 Local bubble34 CatechismStandard candles40 1 Address | 195942 2 Clouds of glory | 190845 3 Pythagorean theorem | 196546 4 Triangulation | 180849 5 The end of greatness | 200051 6 In the Castle of Stars | 157654 7 Supernova Type 1A | 199757 8 Then death returns59 9 In all that void60 10 Looking out to the dark | December 192862 11 d = (X- x)2 + (Y- y)2 + (Z- z)2 - c(T-t)2 | now64 A prayer to bring you homeMuscle of difficulty68 Muscle of difficulty70 Yet another crack in the foundation72 Day’s eye74 Expanding space76 The movers’ dilemma78 Rectangularization of the morbidity curve80 Now, that amphibious moment81 To the generations that will live a thousand years82 Last scattering surfaceLet us compare cosmologies86 1 Let us compare cosmologies87 2 The Orphic follower88 3 A pope89 4 The evangelist90 5 The philosophical skeptic91 6 The nihilist92 7 The totalitarian93 8 The survivalist94 9 The optimist95 10 The magician96 11 The baker97 12 The consumer98 13 The funeral director99 14 The Manichean100 15 The artistSins and virtues102 Avarice104 Lust105 Gluttony107 Envy108 Pride110 Anger111 Sloth113 Mercy115 HopeShifting wavelengths118 Tortoise and fern120 Fingers of God121 The barber’s paradox122 Zeno’s paradox123 Twin paradox124 Sand reckonings: Eubulides’ paradox125 Honeycomb conjectures127 Bee violet128 Optical molasses129 Life adapts to inhospitable environments130 How to tell a Martian my heart is on the leftUnderworlds132 Persephone and I are underground135 The outer dark138 Cocytus142 Niflheim145 The man with no hands147 Each of us the centre of a circlePostscript150 God submits a grant application to the Canada Council153 Notes163 Acknowledgements

"Alice Major’s 10th poetry collection, Standard candles, covers a huge distance in its slim text, racing through a dozen different poetic forms and countless cosmologies. It references everything from Greek mythology to quantum uncertainty to Henrietta Swan Leavitt, the inventor of the standard candle itself. The book is like an ultra-dense kernel containing all things—history, theology, astronomy, geometry, an infinite list. It’s the universe right before the Big Bang, titanic forces contained within a few thousand tightly packed words, almost ready to explode and race endlessly out." [Full review at http://bit.ly/1W6w7s5]