Character Analysis Of Jonathan Lethem's As She Climbed Across The Table?

The universe is a barren, dark, mysterious backdrop on which the planet Earth is merely a speck of blue dust. Why are physicists attracted to the study and detailing of such a vast, empty place? In general, physicists are an overlooked group of workers, but nonetheless, they are a special breed of people. In Jonathan Lethem’s As She Climbed Across the Table, physicists are described in their workplace, and the personal life of a particular physicist is focused upon. Glenn D. Wilson, and Chris Jackson, are psychologists who researched the personalities of physicists and recorded their results in their paper, “The Personality of Physicists”. Finally, CNN reporter Ashley Strickland’s “Discovering the ‘final frontier’ of our Universe” cites an
Certainly, any one person’s personality traits influence their career choice. In the case of physicists, their personalities seem to fit their line of work. Jonathan Lethem’s novel, Wilson and Jackson’s report, and Strickland’s article agree: physicists are inherently cautious, careful, and responsible people. Lethem’s writes, “I had never seen the computer center empty, without even a doleful supersymmetrist poring over high-resolution subatomic events…” (Lethem 2). Lethem’s reflection on the methodical care of physicists is a point the psychologists, Wilson and Jackson, affirm in their research, which claims both female and male physicists are more cautious than the average person (Wilson and Jackson). Strickland’s interview of an astrophysicist, Koekemoer, reveals the care and responsibility he puts into his line of work, writing, “...Dr. Anton Koekemoer, an astronomer who leads the team that produces all the Hubble image mosaics for the Frontier Fields project,” as well as, “Last week, a research team comprised of hundreds of scientists from Japan, France, Germany, England, and the United States released the largest 3-D map of the universe so far…” (Strickland). Strickland’s article and interview corroborates the idea of scientists and physicists as extremely hard-working, responsible people, who are careful in their endeavours. Naturally, as
As She Climbed Across the Table states, “‘Physics is the universal tongue, the language the aliens will speak when they appear,’” (Lethem 44). Physicists are interested in furthering the human species, and know their work will be relevant in the future for those who will take advantage of its benefits and descriptions. Coupled with Koekemoer’s statement, “‘We're always happy to share these discoveries with the world. That's why we do it. It's not just for science, but for all of humanity really,’” (Strickland), the goal of human improvement is apparently a major personal interest of physicists who go on to detail the