The Razor's Edge

I've just finished re-reading my favorite book, 'The Razor's Edge' by Somerset Maugham.

There are some books which leave an elusive, exotic fragrance behind ,after you regretfully turn over the last page. It is better not to discuss the enchanting secret that you were granted a glimpse of while reading that book with anyone.
It is much, much better to lie in a grassy meadow and dream instead trying to explain away the magic.

However, Somerset Maugham lies in a different class altogether. He tells you things that you've always known but never knew you knew. And the magic of his stories only increases as you think about and discuss them.
The gem of all his books is, 'The Razor's Edge'.

The book follows Larry Darrell's quest for Meaning.
Larry is a young American guy. There's nothing particularly extraordinary about him. He served in the war and it was then that he realized the futility of our lives as we jump from one goal to another, completely forgetting the larger scheme of things.

We study hard to get a job. We work to earn. We work to make our country progress and become prosperous. We work because it is the right thing to do.

But what is right? This life is so short. Eternity lies before us. Is it not better to try and understand, to try and think, instead of just doing because society deems something to be right and proper?
Is it not better to focus on ourselves and our relationship with that Eternity?

Maugham, without being pedantic at all, draws these questions to light.
The only problem is, he does not provide us with the answers.
We know that our lives would be peaceful and happy if we could actually pluck up the courage to give up our material position in the world and try to search for Meaning. But we also know that we'd be fools to do it.

Larry is the main character in the book, but there is another character who intrigues me. Her name is Sophie. Sophie is a young charming American friend of Larry's. She was happily married to a poor lawyer. They were very deeply in love. But Sophie's life falls apart when her husband and baby die in a car crash.

Sophie then wallows in drink and debauchery and drugs. She throws herself into sin to forget her grief. Her old friends cast her off.

I wonder. Suppose today, someone loses their family, we would all say how brave and stoic they are, as they shoulder their loss and gradually slip back into their old ways after the expected mourning period. They will start coming back for various luncheons and dinners and we will applaud their ability to bear hardship.

But Sophie's grief is so much more touching. Society condemns her, but perhaps she is closer to the Infinity than any of us. Her love scourges her of any true wickedness. No reader of the 'Razor's Edge', can ever call Sophie wicked. Weak, yes, but evil, no.

"The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard."

Reflections

The History of Science is strewn with revolutions, revelations and violent brain storms. Today it seems so intuitive that the earth rotates on it's own axis and revolves around the sun. But for hundreds of years the view that the sun revolves around the earth was upheld.

Why is it that people thought so?
Well, you might say because it looks as if the sun is revolving around the earth!
Oh? Well what would it have looked like had the earth rotated about it's own axis instead!?!

So, then why was this thought was introduced so late?

We humans tread in our 'middle sized' world. Our intuitions and faculties are developed so that we can navigate this 'middle earth' :P. Our brains are designed to process what we perceive in a certain way. Does that mean that however superior a brain is, there are certain ideas that it will never be able to grasp?

I have read that rocks, especially crystals, have a lot of tiny open spaces inside them. But to us, when we hold a crystal in our hand, it seems massive and 'solid'. But neutrinos would perceive these rocks differently. They see these same rocks as full of massive spaces filled with air molecules.

Thus, the scope of our perceptions and ideas seem to have a limit. Will this affect our understanding of topics like quantum physics? (As this is on a totally different scale)
Will concepts like wave and particle duality be forever beyond our understanding? Will we ever get the 'feel' of such topics? Are we limited by our perceptions?

I really wonder. . .

The points that I have mentioned above are crucial to understanding the point I am now about to make.

Many theories most notably 'string theory' are accepted and are being furthered because even if we do not have conclusive experimental evidence to support these theories. They seem 'aesthetically beautiful' and have a harmonious structure. 'Symmetry', 'Gauge invariance' etc. are at the heart of these theories.

We perceive symmetry to be beautiful. We perceive the symmetries in our surroundings and note their significance. But then again, this is 'our perception'. What if this root is wrong?
What if we live in a world where another quantity lies at the heart of all our physical laws. Will we ever find it out? Will it ever be intuitively obvious to anyone?

And if we find this quantity. How will we know if it really is the right one?