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The Night is Large
by Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner is best known to me via his articles in Skeptical Inquirer and his books and skeptism and mathematical wonders. The book, The Night is Large, gives me an opportunity to see the other sides of Gardner.

The Night is Large is a collection of essays and articles Gardner had written between 1938 to 1995 and number nearly fifty in total. They range from reviews of books to mathematical diversions to thoughts on God and philosophy. Some parts of the book may leave your head spinning in wonder while other parts may leave you puzzled. But, as Gardner implies in his introduction, if you have a sense of wonder, the book is for you.

Each essay or article in the book comes with a forward by the author that explains the background of the essay. Some articles come with postscripts that includes events or letters that came about after the article's publication.

The articles are divided into seven sections which cover physical science, social science, pseudoscience, mathematics, the arts, philosophy and religion. I especially enjoyed the sections on physical science, pseudoscience and mathematics as they are articles which I would expect from Gardner and which I would have the least trouble understanding.

The section of pseudoscience includes articles that show how mine-readers or people who claim to be able to talk to spirits can fool observers. This, he says, is also partially due to the observers not being trained to observe properly and to accept things at face value. His article on Arthur Conan Doyle brings out clearly what he means; here is a man who wrote about an intensely logical person who examines evidence closely (Sherlock Holmes), yet he himself was easily fooled by purported pictures of fairies.

The social science articles are no less fascinating but cover arguments about economics and political science, topics with which I am less familiar. But it appears to me that Gardner makes his points clear; that the best economic model for the world is somewhere between a free market and a managed economy and that simple economic models (or mathematical curves) only serve to mislead economic policy.

The section on arts covers authors and their books. He covers authors like L. Frank Baum (author of the Oz books), Shakespeare and Lewis Carrol as well as looking at the word play in Ulysses.

The final two sections, on philosophy and religion, are the hardest to read and raises the most questions. He considers what is free will, what does it mean what something is considered 'real', why he considers himself a theist and why arguments for/against god cannot be logically done (yes, plenty of 'whys' raised here).

Whether you agree or disagree with what Gardner says in this book, especially the last two or three parts, one thing you can say is that Gardner knows how to write and present his articles in a manner that is easy to read, yet leaves the reader asking for more or to wonder about what he has said.

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The Night is Large by Martin Gardner

The Night is Large
by Martin Gardner