A Beautiful Mind: There is just a fine line between genius and madness 美麗境界--天才與瘋狂一線之隔

A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
Book description

How could you, a mathematician, believe that extraterrestrials were sending you messages?" the visitor from Harvard asked the West Virginian with the movie-star looks and Olympian manner.

"Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way my mathematical ideas did," came the answer. "So I took them seriously."

Thus begins the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness.

(bookreview: wrote in 2004)

Tell me how can you not get attracted with the book? Other than the unique and intriguing beginning of the book, there are two more reasons for me to read the book. First of all, I like to read biography books. The name "John Nash" first came to my understanding is his epoch-making theory about Game Theory when I was a sophomore in university. Secondly, the Movie "A beautiful mind" was such a hit; I read the book before watching the movie though. Anyway, here is my take of the book.

The book is as much a biography as a non-fiction novel-- Mathematical genius make a remarkable discoveries by age 30, subsequently goes insane, and--after several lost decades--recovers (though tentatively) from his illness and wins a Nobel Prize.

Other than the twisted plots, this books also serves as a good source to understand more about the era in many perspectives-- the history of mathematical development, the life and community of mathematicians and etc.. This book is also very encouraging-- how to make the best of the worst timing, the WorldWar2 , how US took the advantage of it to attract intelligent people from European continent, particular the Hebrews, on which US built a strong higher education and diverse immigration foundation. This book also depicts vividly about how people respond to a person with schizophrenia when misunderstanding and miscommunication prevail the appreciation and how a schiz interact with the world where conformance and responsiveness are required.

此書共有三位議者, 摘要資料如下:

【前言，第 1─29 章】
謝良瑜，台北市人，美國威斯康辛大學麥迪遜校區數學博士。
傅士哲，台北市人，美國威斯康辛大學麥迪遜校區哲學博士候選人。
【第 30─50 章】
全映玉，師大翻譯研究所肄業，從事文字工作多年。
【第 30─50 章核譯】
傅士哲、謝良瑜

如果時間允許, 我盡量選擇原文版. 更何況是多位譯者的書往往使我打退堂鼓(除非不得已, 我個人的習慣是盡量少選多位譯者的書), 因此我選擇了英文本

事實上我是先看此書再看電影, 雖然電影轟動一時但是我個人對電影評價不佳, 或許是說 我對書的高評價使得我對電影的期望標準相對提高,最後卻頗失望

我認為此書遠超過其同名電影只少有下列原因:

1. 電影囿於時間的限制對John Nash的生平做了很多的刪減, 例如完全沒有提及 John 第一個'非婚姻 '的感情, 但不確定篩選的標準

2. 電影似乎過於神話及美化John Nash或說過於減化一個精神分裂者日常生活的辛苦, 也因此只看電影的人可能無法了解John Nash的妻子與數學社群等對他的包容或付出是無與倫比的 ( John Nash與其妻曾經離婚後又復合, 因為John Nash的病讓它無法扮演一個襯職的丈夫 ,父親....等角色, 這當中的艱辛,恐怕不是電影短短兩小時可以營造出來的, 或許如此因而導演選擇刪除吧 )

3.書提供了相當多關於美國當時代的背景, 這些在電影中完全沒有論及: 美國從第二次大戰'獲利 '許多, 包括吸納大量移民 因此美國的高等教育得以急起直追甚至超越歐陸, 國防工業及相關週邊產業之發展因而帶動經濟, ' 極少 '的損失特別是美國本土(因為戰場不在美國本土 )等等

沒有批評電影的意思只是我推薦書甚於電影

PS/ 如果你有注意到,這篇寫的日期是3年前的事情了.現在放上來,有兩個原因: 其一,外國朋友要我多放英文的,這樣他才看得懂, 另一個原因是有朋友最近寫了他對此電影的看法, 因此這篇寫了很久的簡短書評終於得見天日

順帶一提,朋友看中文版, 他說看了書才覺得Nash是大濫人,因為書提到Nash對於非婚姻的那段感情不願負責乃因對方又笨又醜之故(大意如此,希望我沒記錯),事實上是,如果我沒記錯,英文版只說,Nash根本不懂負責是什麼,話說,他是個不具社會功能,不懂打理日常生活的人所致. 我猜測這也許是譯者所加的價值判斷也有可能. 當然不具社會功能等未必比批評對方又笨又醜不具價值判斷, 不過譯本顯然和原文有出入是也.

看過書和電影的,歡迎分享看法!