Einstein and Modern French Drama: An Anthology by Kenneth S. White (review)

Book Reviews KENNETH S. WHITE. Einstein and Modem French Drama: An Anthology. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America 1983. pp. xvi, 116. $19.00; $8.95 (PB). The title of Professor White's latest book cannot help but elicit curiosity mixed with a degree of incredulity. At least these were my feelings which, in all frankness, also included a sense of trepidation. This fear was compounded after reading the nine-page synopsis appended to the text by the author. In this summary, modestly entitled "Some of Einstein's Concepts," Mr. White has done an admirable job explaining several of Einstein's complex theories on space and time, light, and relativity, to mention just a few. In anticipation ofhis critics, Professor White is careful to disclaim the "bridging ... of two dissimilar forms of creativity...." He proposes, instead, the technique of "analogy [which] may touch upon affinity." How, one might ask, can such an affinity be persuasively established? Poets and scientists have, after all, entirely different approaches to truth: poets give us a qualitative interpretation of human events and experiences, whereas scientists rely on quantitative measurements and empirical evidence. Notwithstanding this fundamental difference, scientists and poets share one point of congruence: both rely on intuition. Our greatest scientists, mathematicians, poets, and other artists have always depended on intuition to reveal relationships which cannot be fathomed by sequential or linear reasoning. This fact has been known for centuries. And it is illustrated by a quotation from Hamlet in which the Prince says "time is out ofjoint." "Here," observes White, is an instance where "poetry intimates images which science helps to construct." The thrust of Professor White's book is to demonstrate how the elusive time-space relationship is reflected in the plays of modem French playwrights. White traces the origin of modem French theater to Alfred Jarry's Ubu the King (1896). In this iconoclastic work, Jarry rejects all absolutes, including God. His nihilistic conclusion foreshadows the emergence of science as the new divinity. The relativity of space and time is shown first in Paul Claudel's The Satin Slipper: the classical unity of time and action gives way to a dramatic spectacle which demands a new critical perspective. The completion of Claudel's manuscript coincides with Andre Breton's Manifesto (1924), in which he rejects rationalistic thought as the wellspring of literary creativity. Though the surrealist movement, at least in its most strident form, was short-lived and eventually modified, its insistence on the liberation of the subconscious and its defense of the irrational are incorporated in the plays of later critics. The interrelationship of time, space, and movement which is central to Einstein's theory ofrelativity is echoed in Exit the King by Eugene Ionesco. Einstein's insistence that "the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion" is echoed in a number of French plays, including Ionesco's The Lesson and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. What sets Beckett's play apart is that it has a profound theological dimension. Einstein was horrified by the prospect of a world cataclysm. This fear is shared by many French writers and by Professor White, who wrote this book for the advancement of peace. As evidence of this concern, Mr. White provides insightful critiques of Book Reviews Ionesco's short film Anger, Jean Giraudoux's Tiger at the Gates, and G. Cousin's Le drame du Fukuryu Maru. The latter is a scathing indictment of atomic-bomb testing by the United States in the Pacific which caused innocent Japanese fishermen to perish. As a prelude to this play, Einstein wrote: "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything, except for our modes of thought, and we are thus slipping toward an unprecedented catastrophe.... A new way of thinking is essential if humanity is to survive." Professor White's analogy is clearly and persuasively written. Nevertheless, there will be some, including this reviewer, who believe that some of the plays operate on more than one level and thus invite more than one interpretation. Jean Anouilh's Traveler without Luggage is cited by White as important because it "manipulates time...." Fine! But can one not also conclude that the hero...