TUVA OR BUST! by Ralph Leighton
(a book review by Mark R. Leeper)
One of the great scientists of the 20th century was Richard
Feynman. Feynman got a doctorate in physics from Princeton and
went to work at the Manhattan Project. There his whimsical
nature and his ability to think "outside the box" made a real
reputation for himself. He taught himself to crack safes in
order to demonstrate security holes at America's most secret
project. By 1951 he was a professor at Caltech which he remained
until his death in 1988. His lectures on physics have become
classics in book and film form. Feynman Diagrams are a visual
way to describe subatomic particles he invented in 1948 and
remain in heavy use to the present. He also was considered a
great bongo player. He had a wild sense of humor and loved
telling stories about his exploits. The stories were collected
by a Ralph Leighton and published in two delicious volumes,
SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN and WHAT DO YOU CARE WHAT OTHER
PEOPLE THINK? He was appointed to the Rogers Commission to
investigate the Challenger Disaster. He traced the cause of the
disaster to the rubber O-ring seals which failed to function in
the wintry temperatures of the Challenger launch. These are just
highlights of a great career. Any books about Feynman should be
fascinating and most are. TUVA OR BUST! would seem on the
surface to be one such book, but it is a serious disappointment.
The book is by Ralph Leighton, the close friend of Feynman who
collected stories for the above two books. Leighton was
something of a traveler and thought he knew geography until
Feynman asked him whatever happened to Tannu Tuva. Feynman
remembered from his youthful days of stamp collecting that there
were triangular and diamond-shaped stamps supposedly from a place
called Tannu Tuva. [See comments at the end of the review.]
Leighton was stumped and the two began researching the place.
When they found out that the capitol was Kyzyl they decided they
had to visit any place that has such a strange spelling. It
seems to have become an obsession with the two (or at least
Leighton). The book TUVA OR BUST! is Leighton's memoir of his
search and plans to visit Tannu Tuva with Feynman. Most of the
book's illustrations are photographs featuring Richard Feynman.
Leighton lets us know over and over what good friends the two of
them were. He drops stories of going to parties with Feynman,
playing bongos with him, having Feynman as the best man at his
wedding, etc. However, little of Feynman's wit comes through in
the writing.
Instead, we have a longish account of Leighton's travails in
trying to arrange a trip to Tannu Tuva in Outer Mongolia, part of
the Soviet Union, during the Cold War. The account is highly
detailed and much of it leaves one wondering why we are being
told much of what is in the book. The same story made an
entertaining hour do***entary for the BBC, "Horizon--The Quest
for Tannu Tuva" (a.k.a. "The Last Journey of a Genius"). However
that same charm spread over two hundred pages, even with wide
margins, is a little thin. Much of it is about Leighton butting
heads with bureaucracy heightened by international tensions.
Contending with the bureaucracies is a major effort. The story
is a race against time as early on Richard Feynman is diagnosed
with cancer. The book does not focus closely enough on Feynman
to track his failing health, but is puts some pressure on
Leighton to solve the problems necessary to arrange a visit. It
is hard to feel a lot of concern in spite of this because
Leighton repeats over and over that one of the chief attractions
for the two is the spelling of Kyzyl.
The path to arranging the trip is arduous and requires more than
ten years. During this time we observe form an arm's length what
is happening in the international competition between the United
States and the USSR. We here about the Challenger crash. The
pair makes discoveries like finding pieces of the throat-singing
music that can be found only in Tannu Tuva. Incidentally, the
book comes with a plastic record of with a sample of the music.
Samples can be found at
<http://www.ubu.com/ethno/soundings/tuva.html>.
The book is mostly about Leighton, many of whose journeys were
made alone, yet it repeatedly keeps mentioning that there is a
connection to Feynman, lest we forget. Leighton bets on the
mentioning of Feynman keeping the book interesting and loses that
bet. If the traveling partner were some unknown Joe Smith the
account would probably have a very much smaller reader****p.
Other stories include how the two go on bongo playing forays. We
read about Russian restaurants and how bad the service is. We
are introduced to various Eastern Europeans, some of whom are
helpful and some are not.
I would recommend this book really only to people who have
already read SURELY YOU'RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN and WHAT DO YOU
CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK? They are more entertaining and
give the reader much more of a feel for Richard Feynman.
Incidentally, I am informed by a stamp collector that the Tannu
Tuva stamps that started the whole proceedings probably never saw
Tannu Tuva and were never used for postage. Apparently the
future Nobel Prize winner was taken in by some fraudulent stamps.
My friend showed me a few. Though cancelled, they have full gum
on the back, indicating that they served no postal purpose. The
postmarks carefully never obscure the pictures on the stamps, so
that they can be sold to unwary collectors. Perhaps some
government official gave permission in return for a cut of the
take.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright 2008 Mark R. Leeper
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