A Glance At The Life Of A Genius
My fascination with Stephen Hawking started when I was quite young. My father would often be sitting in his rocking chair, reading his own beat up copy of Stephen’s book, A Brief History Of Time and I’d wonder why this man was such an influence in the world of science.
It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I started to understand Hawking’s genius. However, when I see people with such power and influence, I’m always curious to know how they became the person they are now. I wondered about this even more given Stephen’s obvious obstacles.
As I was browsing the local Chapters store, I came across Travelling to Infinity – The True Story Behind The Theory Of Everything by Jane Hawking. I purchased it without thinking twice.
In Travelling to Infinity, Jane puts her life with Stephen on paper, giving us a glance at the blessings and the curses of being married to a genius.
From the moment they met, it’s clear that Jane had the utmost respect and admiration for Stephen. And would obviously go to great lengths for him.
Reading this book not only led me to understand how Stephen came to be The Great Stephen Hawking, but also opened my eyes to the hardship and difficulties that not only he but also, his wife needed to overcome.
Throughout the book, I couldn’t believe how strong a woman Jane was. At one point, she was describing her day taking care of her three small children, one a baby still, working on her thesis and taking care of her husband . I was floored by how much this woman accomplished in a day. And if that wasn’t enough, she often took on the responsibility of throwing massive parties or social gatherings for Stephen’s accomplishments. With all of her hard work, she hardly received any help, partly because none was available and because her husband was against having strange people taking care of him.
The whole time i had my eyes glues to the pages, my heart went out to this brave woman. Though she was surrounded by people, she seemed so alone. I’m sure she’s proud of all if her accomplishments as well as helping Stephen become the man he is today,but being in her shoes, I probably would have broken down in the process.
Though I’m extremely happy to have picked up this book and was able to have a look into the life of a genius,
I believe this may be one of the rare moments where I would enjoy the movie more than the book (though I haven’t seen it yet). In my opinion, being told by Jane about the problems she faced, often time involving Stephen, to me, came across a bit as someone looking for pity from the readers. Whereas seeing the story unveil in form of film would have a different effect.
That said, this story is an eye opener as well as an inspiring one about people surmounting unbelievable odds and achieving amazing things in the process. It is definitely a great read for everyone.
-Athena
Yes, most of the information tends to concentrate on Stephen Hawking. It would be nice to hear about things from Jane’s p.o.v. TBRing on GoodReads.
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I believe Traveling to Infinity is an abridged version to Music to Move the Stars. I’d imagine that one would be a bit more descriptive.
The reason I read the book was because of my curiosity with Stephen’s life. However, I did feel that throughout the book Jane almost felt like an accessory to Stephen’s life and success. Her life revolved around him.
It might explain why there’s so much information on Stephen Hawking?
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Reblogged this on Milieunet.
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