Tea at Trianon: Antiphony

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Antiphony

Recently I had the pleasure of reading Chris Katsaropoulos' new novel, Antiphony. The following is a synopsis from the publisher's website:

Theodore Reveil is one of the leading lights in String Theory physics, on his way to present his latest research at a triumphant meeting of his colleagues from around the world, when he realizes he has lost the notes for his presentation. At the podium, in the midst of his distraction and confusion, he poses the question: “What if the universe, instead of being a giant machine, is really a giant thought?”

Then he crosses a line which he can never step back over again, saying, “The infinities and singularities in these equations may be telling us that what we are missing is unknowable in terms of physical science. These unsolvable terms in our equations may be roadsigns pointing to consciousness—to God—as the missing piece of the puzzle."

Antiphony traces the downward spiral of Theodore’s career in the wake of what he has said, and the remarkable transformation that leads him into the depths of madness . . . or the revelation of the Final Theory, the ultimate secret of the universe.

As in his previous novel Fragile, Mr. Katsaropoulos has crafted a work of literary fiction in which the poetry overflows into the prose. Unlike Fragile, which has a deliberately fractured structure, Antiphony is like a running stream of consciousness, drawing into itself the mysteries of the universe. After a lifetime of scientific study, fully absorbed in the created world, Theodore Reveil has a mysterious experience which makes him for the first time ponder the metaphysical. One is not quite certain if he is having a mild stroke or a psychotic break or a vision; whatever it is, it results in an epiphany which points to God as the source of all science, wisdom, and beauty. Theodore finds that to dare to mention the possibility of God to his colleagues is to bring his career to a screeching halt. He becomes an example of a man who loses his life but saves his soul. Combining the transcendent with the mundane, the author explores the metamorphosis which occurs when modern man is forced to acknowledge the Divine.

(*Note: This book was sent to me by the author in exchange for my honest opinion.)

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