Written by Jim Ottaviani; Art by Leland Myrick; Coloring by Aaron Polk
As I continue to peruse both the children’s section and the adult section of graphic novels and comics at our local library, I’m checking out pretty much anything that strikes my fancy. I’ve given up on a few selections for their shameless glorification of sin or their liberal preachiness, but many others I’ve really enjoyed.
I chose Hawking because I love biographies, and I’ve always wanted to know more about my generation’s most celebrated physicist. Now I do, and I feel I’m slightly smarter for it.
Is it weird to read a biography in the style of a graphic novel? Not really, especially in this case! It’s actually a very powerful way not only to illustrate some anecdotes of the man’s early life and career, but also to convey some of his more complicated concepts through visualizations. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed reading other visual biographies (i.e. James Audubon), but I’ve especially loved reading graphic travelogues (i.e. those by Guy De Lisle), so a biography like this one isn’t too far outside the norm. I think it’s a perfect medium for communicating a story and for carrying readers along for the ride, and I’m sure I’ll be seeking out more just like this in the future.
There’s no easy way to summarize this book without also summarizing the life of Stephen Hawking, so I guess I’ll start there—briefly. The book gives the impression that Hawking was always a nerdy, incredibly smart boy. Teased by friends and annoying even to his professors, Hawking’s peculiarities, curiosity, and mathematic capabilities closed him off to the popular world yet also led him eventually led him into circles of physicists just like himself. He married, raised 2 children, and became a professor and author in scholarly journals, but all the while his mind raged over the mysteries of the universe, particularly those regarding time, black holes, and the origins of the universe. His contemplations and equations took him far, and he began writing and speaking more, but all the while his health continued to decline. Hawking’s ALS resigned him to a wheelchair, and as the neuromuscular disease continued to degenerate, soon even his mouth didn’t work right. He became most popular with his book, A Brief History of Time, divorced and remarried, enjoyed international travel and acclaim, and also shared his sense of humor on The Simpsons.
All the while, Hawking continued in his search for “the God particle,” which he’d hoped we’d never find, and prided himself on his theoretical discoveries that precluded any need for God or even a beginning. Time, space, and everything within or outside is relative, existing inside a bounded eternity that needs no beginning and will have no end. It certainly needs no Creator, and its very fickleness allows for this blip of a universe to have produced our galaxies and realities, fit with thinking bundles of matter like us.
This was a fascinating overview of Hawking’s life, beliefs, and theories, and I truly enjoyed reading it. Of course, theoretical physics is not field of expertise (or even interest), but it certainly got my apologetic juices flowing! Theories will do that. But I fear that sometimes people forget that ideas from atheists such as Hawking really are just that: theories, unproven ideas, unobservable concepts, and attempted explanations of the inexplicable. That Hawking needed but didn’t want “the God particle” is quite telling. There exists that one essential, unknown Thing out there (and in here) that allows everything else to exist and to make sense. Every equation he wrote (I assume) required the presence of and a respect for the Unknown, and yet the man died still searching for any plausible explanation besides God. It’s amazing how hard people work and how famous they can get in their pursuit of futility! Ecclesiasts and Romans 1 are wonderful descriptions of this very thing.
I’m definitely going to look out for more graphic-novel biographies like this. I’ve learned a ton and was entertained throughout. I’m no more a Stephen Hawking fan now than I was before I began reading, but at least I know him a touch better. Great book.
©2023 E.T.